Sleep is what our body needs to relax at the end of a very long day.

It actually involves a very complex process with benefits that extend to our long-term health and wellness, including:

1. Important for Brain Function

Lack of sleep affects memory, learning abilities, mental clarity, and emotional intelligence. Sleep deprivation has been linked to numerous neurological and psychiatric conditions including Alzheimer’s disease, anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, suicide, stroke, and chronic pain.

 2. Helps Reduce Your Risk of Type 2 Diabetes

The less you sleep, the more you are likely to eat. Your body also becomes unable to manage calories effectively, especially the build-up of sugar in your bloodstream. This is because in a sleep-deprived state, the cells of the body become far less receptive to insulin. The cells begin to repel rather than absorb the dangerously high levels of glucose.

 3. Helps Regulate Your Appetite

Lack of sleep mutes the chemical message that tells us to stop eating and increases the urge to keep eating. Less sleep can also set you up for metabolic syndrome and obesity.

️ 4. Reduces Your Risk of Cardiovascular Issues

In a 2004 Japanese study of 2,282 male workers, those sleeping less than six hours over a 14-year period were 300 to 400% more likely to suffer one or more cardiac arrests than those sleeping between 7-8 hours. Another study has shown that even just one night of losing 1 to 2 hours of sleep will quicken the contracting rate of a person’s heart and significantly increase their systolic blood pressure.

5. Balances Your Hormones

Sleep also supports the optimal functioning of your reproductive system and hormones.

In one study, a group of young males was allowed to sleep for only five hours for one week. The researchers found a significant drop in their testosterone compared to when they were fully rested. In fact, the researchers concluded that the hormonal blunting effect is so large that it effectively “ages” a man by 10 to 15 years!

Inadequate sleep also affects the reproductive system of women. In a report that brought together findings from studies over the past forty years of more than 100,000 employed women, those working irregular night-time hours and had poor-quality sleep had a 33% higher rate of abnormal menstrual cycles than those working regular daytime hours.

🦠 6. Supports Your Immune System

Poor quality sleep can also suppress your immune function, negatively affecting the balance of bacteria in the gut and increasing inflammation. In fact, studies have shown that not enough sleep and poor sleep quality can leave your immune system more susceptible to infectious illnesses like the common cold.

 7. Reduces Your Cancer Risk

A study done at the University of California showed just how rapidly and comprehensively a brief dose of short sleep can affect your cancer-fighting immune cells. The researchers found that a single night of four hours sleep in a cohort of healthy young men swept away 70% of the natural killer cells circulating in the immune system, relative to full eight-hour sleep.

 8. Helps You Live Longer

A 2014 study published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience concluded that getting routine good quality sleep is a significant factor in achieving longer life spans. The researchers found that human longevity is associated with regular sleep patterns, maintenance of slow-wave sleep, and favourable lipid profile which was also impacted by sleep.

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