Sleep performs a vital role in your well-being and health during your lifetime. Having good quality sleep contribute necessary health benefits including mental strength and physical health and increase the quality of life.

Important Features

Table of Contents

During sleep important mental and physical activity continue to happen.
Regular quality sleep helps brains important functions such as physical health, emotions, personal safety, and daytime performance.
According to research, and adults require at least 7 to 8 hours sleep every night.
Not getting proper sleep will hugely impact on health and create a serious health problem.
You need at least two nights quality sleep without restrictions to restore the sleep balance.

What happens in sleep?

During sleep, all muscles, organs and entire body rest. As you enter in sleep, your body begins to conserve the energy by reducing blood pressure, breath, heart rate, and body temperature. But, the brain remains active in regulating memory and restore mental functions of daytime for physical growth.

There are different stages of the sleep cycle

Light sleep
Light deep sleep
Deep sleep
Rapid eye movement sleep.

These sleep stages are equally responsible for the following functions.

Regulate metabolism, temperature, and energy.
Good sleep let your immune system working.
Restore memory and balance brain functions.
Make your blood vessels and heart healthy.
Stimulate tissues growth by repairing it.
Manage appetite and control blood glucose levels.
Therefore, good quality sleep is necessary for the above processes to prevent interruption which can develop long-term diseases.

Good sleep benefits weight loss

Good sleep is as important as healthy food. Poor sleep causes weight gain. When you are trying for weight loss and skipping your sleep or you have reduced the sleep hours, then it may hugely impact on your health, and you will gain more weight.

It is a fact that short duration sleep is one of the risk factors for obesity.

According to extensive research, adults and children with insufficient sleep duration were got 89 % to 55% more chances of developing obesity.

Sleep disturbance effect on weight gain which also triggered by many factors such as hormones. Therefore, good quality sleep helps to maintain a good weight.

Good sleep and calories

According to research sleep-deprived people develop a large appetite and feel to eat a lot of calories.

Sleep deprivation causes to disturb the daily appetite hormones and make it fluctuate which disrupt the appetite regulation.

It causes to raise ghrelin hormones which stimulate appetite and lower the leptin levels which suppress the appetite.

Therefore, having enough sleep helps to manage the appetite and reduce the calorie intake.

Good Sleep Can Improve Productivity and Concentration.

Many of the brain functions depend on the good sleep which includes concentration, cognition, performance, and productivity. These aspects get impact due to not completing enough sleep.

Generally, if you don’t sleep enough, then you will awake tired and yawn during the conversation. Even you can fall asleep in the daytime. If you are too tired without sleep, then your brain functions get slow which includes memory and concentration.

National-Institutes-of-Health said that various factor plays a vital role which linked to good sleep. An infant requires 16 hours of sleep each day whereas teens need nine hours of sleep. The adult people require seven to eight hours of sleep to stay normal and concentrated in the daytime. The need for sleep also depends on recent sleep loss.

According to the medical intern study, the interns on old schedule to work on extended hours of longer than 24 hours performed 36% of serious medical errors then the interns who were allowed to take enough sleep.

According to another study, short sleep causes to effect on brain functions negatively which are similar to alcohol intoxication.

Good sleep also helps in enhancing memory power and problem-solving. This improvement found in children and adults.

Good Sleep Increases Athletic Performance

Good night sleep has shown an increased level of performances in Athletes.

Enough quality sleep helps to enhance athletic performance. Poor sleep impact on athletic performance and physical functions.

According to the basketball players, the good night sleep helps to improve mental wellbeing, accuracy, reaction times and speed levels.

A study of 2,800 women discovered that poor sleep causes slow walking, limited grip strength, and less capacity to perform independent activities.

According to some research, reduced sleep raises the cortisol level which is a stress hormone. Less sleep also causes reduced glycogen production and carbohydrates which are essential for physical activity.

Good night sleep prevents low energy, fatigue, and increases focus on a game.

Good night sleep prevents heart problem

Reduced sleep can increase the more chances of the risk of stroke and heart disease.

Your sleep quality has a major impact on heart health risk factors. Some chronic health problems such as heart disease get trigger by less sleep.

According to the review of 15 studies discovered that individuals with reduced sleep develop more chances of heart problems than the individuals who sleep for seven to eight hours every night.

According to the study of 2008 from Chicago University, the short sleep has a link with raised coronary artery calcification which is a calcium deposit said by Diane Lauderdale – a researcher from Pritzker-School-Of-Medicine.

They also found that reduced sleep can cause to worsen high blood pressure (hypertension). Normally blood pressure slows down at night during sleep, but short sleep keeps running same as daytime.

Sleep benefits glucose metabolism

Reduced sleep can affect blood sugar levels and disrupt insulin sensitivity.

According to a study of healthy young individuals, decreasing four hours of sleep every night for continues six nights can cause prediabetes symptoms. You can relieve these symptoms in one week by taking enough sleep.

Generally, poor sleep strongly linked to the conflicting effect on glucose levels. People with shorter sleep develop more chances of type 2 diabetes early.

According to multiple studies, good night sleep plays a vital role in managing glucose metabolism and endocrine functions. Wake and sleep transition are responsible for the reproducible changes for pituitary hormones release. The reduced sleep effect on the glucose hormone secretion which is scheduled to release in different sleep phases. At that time if the individual is awake, then the release of glucose hormone gets delayed.

Good night reduce depression

Mental health such as poor sleep, sleep disorder, and depression linked with a sleep problem. Poor sleep quality may also increase the risk of suicidal thoughts.

Individuals with sleep disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea, insomnia are more prone to develop depression than normal people.

However good night sleep is important to prevent depression. Taking enough rest save more energy and make your mind to focus better.

When you sleep, the entire body goes in rest mode which recharges the immune systems and promotes metabolism to fight with germs and bacteria. When you have enough deep sleep with dreams, it helps to increase memory power. Good night sleep also helps in emotional well-being.

Medicine and cognitive therapy cannot help depression if you don’t get quality sleep. Therefore, good night sleep provides benefits for overcoming depression.

Good sleep reduces Inflammation

Reduced sleep can impact on any inflammation in the body, which causes to increase it. Reduced sleep causes cell damage and creates undesirable inflammation.

Not getting enough sleep has linked to long-term inflammation in the digestive system. It may also create inflammatory bowel diseases.

According to one study found that reduced sleep with Crohn’s disease in two times more prone to relapse than the people who had enough sleep.

Research suggests sleep evaluation to find the result of long-term problems.

According to new research, inflammation can regulate sleep, but more inflammation can cause to disturb the sleep. It is the reason for getting better sleep is difficult during infection and ailments.

People with a serious ailment such as cardiac disease, diabetes, and autoimmune disorder also get reduced sleep because these diseases develop inflammation. If an elder individual has any disease, then he needs more time for good sleep.

However, inflammation is necessary for good sleep. Inflammation happens when cytokines (proteins) come in contact with cells. Some cytokines are pro-inflammatory which helps to regulate the sleep, performance, fatigue, and cognition.

Therefore, taking enough good night sleep can benefit to reduce inflammation.

Good sleep benefits social interactions and emotions

When you have less sleep, then you will find a drop in the ability to interact socially. It is confirmed by several studies who used emotion facial recognition tests.

According to one study, the individuals who had less sleep found a reduction in the ability to identify happiness and anger expressions.

The researcher concludes that less sleep influences the ability to process emotional information and significant social cues.

Good sleep help the brain eliminate waste

The glymphatic system helps to eliminate metabolic waste from the midbrain. Whereas, the surrounding fluid of the spinal cord tissues and the brain helps to remove the beta-amyloid metabolites from the brain.

Good sleep helps to stimulate the cerebrospinal fluid and glymphatic system to remove the metabolic waste from the adult brain.

When you sleep properly without disturbance, the lymphatic system can efficiently eliminate the cellular waste and buildup it outside brain cells.

Sleep Promotes Immune Function

A sleepless night can cause to impair your immune functions. Reduced sleep associated with physical and mental health problems including immune system impairs function. The immune system is responsible for protecting from flu, cold and diseases but when immune functions are not working properly, it will cause sickness.

A comprehensive study of two weeks found the progress of common cold in people with a cold virus and who took nasal drops. They discovered that the people who had less than seven hours of sleep were developed cold three times more than the people who had completely sleep of eight to nine hours.

If you are getting more colds every year, then make sure you are getting good eight hours sleep every night which can help to prevent cold flue.

The link between the immune system and reduced sleep is not a simple topic, but it is complex. The immune system is a set of various types of proteins and cells which are responsible for protecting us from external attacks of the virus and bacteria.

Many studies show that less sleep causes to drop T-cells and raise inflammatory cytokines which result in an increased risk of getting cold flu.

However, getting enough good night sleep helps to make the immune system more active and respond better to a cold virus and boost immune function.

Goodnight sleep make you live longer

Continued reduction in sleep quality has a link with a shorter lifespan. According to research, people who sleep less than six hours every night develop a high risk of dying sooner than the individuals who get enough sleep of seven to eight hours every night.

Sleep benefits for Your Skin

The miracle of beauty sleep is essential for younger skin. During the sleep stage of three and four, the body produces human growth hormone. These hormones are a natural anti-aging hormone. Beauty comes from good quality sleep with a better routine. Sleep is one of the closest things relates to youth. To repair damaged skin, your body needs 7 to 9 hours of complete sleep.

When you enter in good sleep mode without any disturbance, skin cell gets repaired and replace the new cells by removing dead cells. Whenever you reduce your sleep hours, it means you are reducing your aging hormone which can appear on the face.

It will reduce the wrinkles by producing new collagen during sleep as it is a restoration process. When your body produces more collagen, then it means less wrinkle. Reducing your sleep can cause fine lines and dry skin.

Good night sleep boosts the blood flow to every skin cell which makes the skin glow and brings a bright complexion.

Good sleep and testosterone.

Cholesterol helps to build the testosterone blocks for sex hormones. The more saturated fat you eat, the more your body produce cholesterol.

According to research, athletes who eat a low-fat diet produce low testosterone than athletes who consume a high intake of saturated fats and produce more testosterone.

When you have enough sleep, you will produce more testosterone whereas cortisol formed from cholesterol benefit from saturated fat produced in the daytime.

Poor Sleep and Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

The liver is a powerful organ which performs more than 500 functions to remove the toxins, fat breakdown, hormone metabolizing and storing glycogen.

Reduced sleep can cause liver diseases such as fatty liver and cirrhosis.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver ailment (NAFLD) is a sickness described by individuals who have a more fat cell in the liver and who doesn’t drink liquor which can provoke cirrhosis of the liver.

Poor and short quality sleep connected with an extended risk of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.

Dongfeng-Tongji review demonstrated that long evening time sleep length linked to risk of the liver problem.

Sleep patterns can affect liver functions. For example, if you are stress sensitive, then your blood levels of cortisol raise and increase the liver work to deactivate the particular hormone.

During prolonged stress, the liver may get mistaken and release more cortisol (stress hormone).

Good sleep maintains high blood pressure

Short sleep of fewer than five hours every night increases the risk of high blood pressure in the people with ages of 32 to 59 years.

The developed risk of high blood pressure and sensitive nervous system occur due to the lack of proper sleep which may later effect on coronary heart disease.

Good sleep prevents autoimmune disease

Reduced sleep or short sleep phases influence regulatory T-cell activity. Regulatory T-cells encounter with abnormal immune responses and stop the immune system from beating its own cells. The self-tolerance process breakdown leads to autoimmune disease.

Getting enough sleep of 7 to 8 hours without night disturbance helps to prevent autoimmune diseases.

Sleep loss Affect hormones

HPA – hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis is an activated stress response to emotional and physiological stress.

Sleep, specifically slow-wave sleep reduces stress hormone such as cortisol and hypothalamic pituitary adrenal.

Sleep disruption and sleep loss caused to activate the stress response which raises (CRH)corticotropin-releasing-hormone and (R, R2) cortisol levels and leads to the following problems.

Cardiovascular Disease
Osteoporosis
Sexual Dysfunction
Difficulty in building muscle
Healing problem
Increase Depression and Anxiety
Brain function impairment
Weight gain

Good sleep helps to build healthy estrogen levels

Estradiol is a hormone which produced by ovaries. These hormones are important for balancing woman’s healthy reproductive tissues.

During the reproductive age of women partial sleep reduction and different sleep schedule cause to increase the estradiol levels by nearly 60% than the woman who had enough sleep.

However, during the premenopausal woman phase, poor sleep develops the link with reduced estradiol levels.

Additionally, a woman with reduced sleep experiences lows estradiol in both pre and postmenopausal as compared to a woman without a sleep disorder breathing problem.

Good sleep prevent infertility

Reduced sleep effect on various pituitary hormones which interact with woman’s natural reproductive functions.

During the reproductive age of women, hypothyroidism raises because of less sleep which creates problems in the reproductive system such as ovulation, menstruation delays, recurrent miscarriage, and abnormal menstrual cycles.

Additionally, raised TSH levels causes to raise prolactin which can lead to infertility. Raised level of prolactin develops a link with polycystic ovary syndrome, anovulation, and endometriosis.

LH- high luteinizing hormone generally increases in a polycystic ovarian syndrome which results in infertility. Healthy good night sleep helps luteinizing hormones to stay normal even in fluctuating levels. Even less sleep can cause to fluctuate the hormone in normal days. Therefore, sleeping enough time is important.

Sleep helps the digestive system

Sleep loss causes to worsen digestive disorder symptoms. To prevent colon contract with smooth muscles sleep is important.

Gut health is important for overall body well-being and health. The intestine is the place where microorganism develop which play a vital role in digestion.

The link between microbiome and sleep frequently develop as a two-way street. How you sleep impact on your microbiota. In turn, circadian rhythms and sleep found to affect the diversity of essential bacteria in guts and health.

Sleep prevent stomach ulcers

When you sleep, protective mechanisms work against stomach ulcers by raising stomach acid secretion. Healthy good night sleep prevents ulcer formation. People who sleep more are less likely to develop peptic ulcer disease.

Good sleep prevents bowel diseases

Sleep loss is common in IBS – irritable bowel syndrome. IBS linked with raised CRH levels which decreases deep sleep and raises REM sleep. When you sleep better, your symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome get reduce. Sleep loss also affects bowel functions.

Good sleep prevents cancer risks

Sleep difficulties such as getting sleep, managing sleep schedule, poor sleep, early awakening, more daytime sleep are common in cancer patients.

According to meta-analysis studies found a link between colorectal cancer and long sleep duration. Both long sleep and extreme short sleep duration slightly raise the risk of colorectal cancer in women postmenopausal phase.
According to cohort analysis in women says that more sleep can increase the chance of estrogen-mediated cancers.
Reduced sleep of six hours causes to develop the chances of prostate cancer.
Short sleep and long sleep phases also have a link with developing more chances of breast cancer.

With the above details, you might have got the idea of how sleep link to many parts and functions of the body. Better sleep provides good benefits to prevent you from various diseases, impair functions. Even it increases your life expectancy with a younger look. Therefore, make sure you are getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep every night. You can create a comfortable sleep environment to get better sleep for the following ways.

Maintain your room temperature
Get comfortable and soft bed and pillows
Avoid harsh light while sleeping
Create a sleep schedule
Avoid alcohol
Avoid long hours daytime sleep
Relax your mind
Do regular exercise
Drink enough water

25 Vital Benefits of a Good Night Sleep