Importance of Sleep

We need sleep to function

I have seen an increase in my wellbeing practice that people saying they are not getting enough of, or having poor sleep quality and random sleep patterns.

We often forget how important sleep is for our overall wellbeing and it plays a huge part in our mental and physical health and how sleep affects us.

We need sleep to function – both physically and mentally. Sleep can affect any aspects of our health, wellbeing and even our lifestyles:

1. Repair & Rebuild

2. Stress Levels

3. Mood, Concentration, Memory & Learning Recall

4. Maintain Healthy Body Weight

5. Prevent Illness & Diseases

6. Mental Health

When we sleep, we allow our body to repair and rebuild. Sleep regulates our mood, improves our memory but also maintains our health, weight and energy levels. During this time, our body can clear waste and toxins from our lymphatic system, which boosts our immune system, which in turn helps to protect us from disease. When we sleep, our body produces proteins called cytokines that have immune-boosting effects and serve as fuel for our white blood cells. Lack of sleep decreases the production of cytokines and makes us more susceptible to bacteria and viruses.

While we sleep, there are many important processes that happen in our body systems, including:

· Muscle repair

· Protein synthesis

· Tissue growth

· Hormone release

Sleep Reduces Stress

Sleep is a powerful stress-reliever, and it improves:

· Concentration

· Regulates mood

· Sharpens judgment and decision-making

A lack of sleep not only reduces mental clarity but our ability to cope with stressful situations. This is due to the impact of chronically high levels of cortisol, which is due to poor quality or lack of sleep. High cortisol levels are important for us in the short term, stimulating alertness and vigilance, raising heart rate and blood pressure, but over time it can cause systemic inflammation and disrupt our hormonal balance.

Naturally, our cortisol levels fall in the evening, as part of our body’s natural preparation for sleep. When we put off sleep, cortisol levels remain high and interfere with the release of melatonin, a hormone that is essential for the regulation of sleep-wake cycles.

Not enough sleep impacts our rapid eye movement stage of sleep (REM) which governs our processing of emotions and memories. In turn we miss out on the restorative benefits of REM sleep, which directly impacts our mood, making us more irritable and more stressed out.

Sleep Improves Our Memory

Sleep serves as an opportunity for our mind to process all the stimuli that we have taken in while we are awake; and triggers changes in the brain that strengthen neural connections helping us to form memories. These memories can be accessed later through a process called recall. We have all experienced the impact that a lack of sleep can have on our concentration and ability to learn efficiently so it's important to get a good quality of sleep not only to maximise our ability to obtain new information but also to recall the information later and share it with others.

Memory consolidation is important for learning new information, sleep supports this process via a series of electrophysiological, neurochemical, and genetic mechanisms that take place during the slow-wave sleep stage of sleep. We enter slow wave sleep quickly after falling asleep, even a quick nap can help with our memory.

Sleep Helps You Maintain a Healthy Body Weight

When we are sleep deprived our body alters the hormones that regulate hunger and appetite. These hormones include:

Ghrelin: This hormone triggers feelings of hunger.

Leptin: This hormone suppresses appetite and encourages the body to consume energy.

These hormones are thrown off when we are short on sleep—leptin goes down and ghrelin goes up and we get hungry and want to eat too much and crave junk food, sugar and salty foods, because our endocannabinoid system in our brain activates and starts sending signals to activate our hormones and our body and brain respond.

When we are tired, we also make unhealthy lifestyle choices. We tend to crave junk food and grab sugary drinks to stay awake, get takeaway instead of cooking, or skip out on exercise. Consuming these empty calories or putting off exercise may be ok from time to time, but if chronic fatigue sets in, this can lead to weight gain or the development of obesity or diabetes over time.

Sleep May Prevent Illnesses

Sleep deprivation can have very detrimental health impacts and has been linked to chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease and can even lead to obesity. Lack of sleep makes we are more prone to illness because our immune system isn’t performing at its peak. The subtle part about sleep deprivation is that we don't often feel its negative effects until it’s too late. As we miss larger and larger amounts of sleep and go farther and farther through the stages of sleep deprivation, the damage increases. Organs need time to replenish and clear waste, as does our brain, and they do it when the rest of our body is resting.

Sleep Is Important for Our Mental Health

Lack of sleep may also contribute to the formation of new mental health problems and to the maintenance of existing ones. Lack of sleep is commonly seen as both a symptom and consequence of mental health disorders, although sleep deprivation is rarely treated as the cause of mental health conditions. The most common sleep problem associated with poor mental health is Insomnia which is sustained difficulty falling or staying asleep or only sleeping for a short period of time.

Symptoms of insomnia include:

· Not feeling well-rested after a night's sleep

· Daytime tiredness or sleepiness

· Irritability, low mood, depression, or anxiety

· Difficulty paying attention, focusing on tasks, or remembering and recalling

· Increased errors or accidents

· Ongoing worries about sleep

You may experience insomnia for several reasons, but the most common causes are:

· Stress

· Work schedule

· Poor sleep habits

· Excessive alcohol or caffeine use at night

· Habitual night-time screen use

We tend to have trouble sleeping if we are agonising over work, school, health, finances, or family. Stressful life events or trauma—such as the death or illness of a loved one, divorce, or a job loss—may also increase our chances of experiencing insomnia.

How to Improve Our Sleep

Given the importance of sleep to our health and wellbeing, there is no time better than now to make some lifestyle changes that will get us the 7 or more hours we need. Small changes to our night-time routine can result in a huge health and wellbeing benefit.

These include the following:

· Establish a realistic bed time and stick to it every night, even on the weekends.

· Maintain comfortable temperature settings and low light levels in our bedroom.

· Our beds and pillows are comfortable and supportive.

· Consider a “screen ban” on televisions, computers and tablets, cell phones, and other electronic devices in our bedrooms.

· Avoid foods and drinks that can hinder sleep.

· Refrain from caffeine, alcohol, and large meals in the hours leading up to bedtime.

· Refrain from using tobacco at any time of day or night.

· Exercise during the day; this can help us to wind down in the evening and prepare for sleep.

Getting just one bad night’s sleep can impact how we feel the following day. Immediate effects including:

· Poor memory (brain fog)

· Difficulty concentrating

· Slower reaction times

· Afternoon energy slump

· Relying on caffeine, alcohol, sugar and tobacco as an energy boost to function

· Gaining weight over a prolonged period of poor sleep

· Experiencing low moods

· Experience fatigue

· Inflammation is linked to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, and premature aging

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