6 Reasons Why Sleep Is So Important - Extreme Health Zone

We all need our sleep. It has been proven that those who get between 7 and 8 hours sleep each night have 30% less chance of developing life threatening conditions such as heart disease and cancer. Sleep is good for our mind, body and soul and we all need it as much as possible. Unfortunately, in today?s world of hectic lifestyles and rushing around, we often cut hours of our sleep so that we have the time to do other things. Here are 10 reasons as to why you should never do that and value your time to sleep above everything else.

1 ? Survival

Sleep is essential to our survival. The record for most sleep deprived people stands at 11 days, at which point the test subjects were starting to hallucinate and have other significant problems. This was a controlled experiment that showed the world just how important sleep actually is. As explained by BodyBuilding.com

Sleep is important because it affects our mental, physical, and emotional well-being. The benefits of good sleep can affect every moment of our day and every part of our life. Achieving good sleep is essential to both our activities and to our health.

Essentially, without sleep, we would no longer be able to function properly.

2 ? Unnecessary Memories

During sleep, we experience a period of REM ? Rapid Eye Movement. It is at this stage that we unlearn all the memories from a day that we no longer need to hold on to. Psychology Today has written that

Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, the stage of sleep when the most vivid dreams are dreamt, is important for the ?unlearning? of superfluous memories.

Our brains are exposed to millions and millions of events and images each and every day, and there is no way ? nor any need ? for us to retain them all. It is through REM that our brain can make the distinction between what we need to remember and what we need to forget.

3 ? Weight Loss

Sleep and weight loss go hand in hand, just as lack of sleep and weight gain do. If you want to have a healthy body weight, you need to get sufficient sleep each night. Coco Mat has researched this extensively and found that

People who sleep for less than seven hours per night are more likely to be overweight or obese. Lack of sleep affects the levels of ghrelin and leptin, the hormones responsible for regulating our appetite.

4 ? Recovery

It is through sleep that we recover. You must compare your body to a car: if you go on a long journey, would you do so on an empty gas tank? This is exactly what our bodies are like: each day is a long journey, and sleep is what makes sure that we have sufficient gas in our tanks. The Better Sleep Council presented the following findings:

[Sleep] is [...] the most powerful of the circadian rhythms. Some 50 studies have shown that mental performance: reaction time, concentration, memory and logical/analytical reasoning?all decline steadily as sleep decreases.

5 ? Mood Disorders

A lack of sleep is believed to be directly responsible for a range of mood disorders. This is why it is also so important to make sure children get sufficient sleep, as they may otherwise develop such disorders as ADHD and/or ADD. Following research by The Harvard Medical School

With insufficient sleep during the night, many people become agitated or moody the following day. Yet, when limited sleep becomes a chronic issue, studies have shown it can lead to long-term mood disorders such as depression or anxiety.

6 ? Immune System Boost

Our immune system gets a real boost from regular sleep. Cre8 Fitness recently reported

One correlation that we probably have all experienced is that our immune systems don?t function optimally when we haven?t had enough sleep and we become more susceptible to the bacteria and viruses in our environment.

As such, sleep is truly vital to our health and well being.

How to Get Sufficient Sleep

Now that you know how important it is to get a good night sleep, how do you actually achieve it? The Mayo Clinic recently wrote:

Think about all the factors that can interfere with a good night?s sleep ? from pressure at work and family responsibilities to unexpected challenges, such as layoffs, relationship issues or illnesses. It?s no wonder that quality sleep is sometimes elusive.

They provided us with seven tips to ensure we all get a good night sleep, every night. The first is to have a sleep schedule and actually stick to it. Secondly, you need to look at what you consume in terms of food and drink, so that you do not consume anything that may make sleeping more difficult just before bedtime. Next, make sure you have a true bedtime ritual and stick to it, so your body becomes used to certain actions and associates that with going to sleep. Make sure you have a comfortable bed with a good mattress as well. Try not to have too many daytime naps. If you must sleep during the day, try to have power naps, which last around 10 minutes or so. Do this by holding a set of keys on your hands when you go to sleep. You will wake up when your muscles relax and you drop your keys, which is the exact right time for a power nap. Make sure you engage in plenty of physical activity during the day and lastly learn how to manage your stress.

With these seven tips, as well as the knowledge of why sleep is so important to us, you should be able to finally have the good night?s sleep you so long for. Remember that sleeping is as important to us as eating, drinking and breathing and you should never give up on sleep just to have some more time to do something else. If you find yourself in that situation, you know you have taken on too much to do.

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