Why Sleep Matters?
“Scientists have discovered a revolutionary new treatment that makes you live longer. It enhances your memory and makes you more creative. It makes you look more attractive. It keeps you slim and lowers food cravings. It protects you from cancer and dementia. It wards off colds and the flu. It lowers your risk of heart attacks and stroke, not to mention diabetes. You’ll even feel happier, less depressed, and less anxious. Are you interested?”
-Dr. Matthew Walker
Sleep encompasses one-third of every person’s life and has a tremendous impact on how we live, function, and perform during the other two-thirds. Sleep provides our brains and our bodies the time they need to recover from the stresses of the day. It’s an essential function that regulates your mood, helps you concentrate, enables you to think clearly, helps you process memories, strengthens your body’s ability to fight off disease, and more.
Negative Impacts of Poor Sleep
Poor sleepers are at greater risk for heart disease and stroke.
Poor sleep negatively affects your sugar metabolism and has been shown to increase the risk of getting type 2 diabetes.
Poor sleep has been linked to increased inflammation which over time can be linked to cancer.
Sleep deprivation can lead to attention lapses, reduced cognition, and delayed reactions. (Every year, up to 100,000 car accidents are caused by exhausted drivers.)
Even a small decrease in sleep impairs your immune function —something you don’t want to do especially as we head into cold and flu season.
Poor sleep has been linked to a number of mental health issues, such as increased depression, anxiety, the risk for suicide, and risk-taking behaviors.
Short sleep duration is one of the strongest risk factors for obesity. Lack of sleep has been shown to increase your appetite by disrupting the daily fluctuations in appetite hormones.
Poor sleep decreases memory performance and problem-solving skills.
An analysis of data from multiple studies suggests that sleeping five or fewer hours per night may increase mortality risk by as much as 15%.
America’s Sleep Woes
Despite the importance of sleep, too many of us “shun the nightly invitation to receive our full dose of this all-natural remedy—with terrible consequences.” Be it a lack of understanding of sleep’s importance, busy schedules, or poor nighttime habits, we as Americans don’t take sleep as seriously as we should. The Centers for Disease Control has gone as far as to call insufficient sleep a public health epidemic:
Efficient Sleep is Necessary
As you can see, sleep is not something to take lightly. It’s the foundation to a healthy, long, and productive life, and the argument can be readily made that it’s just as important to your health as are a healthy diet and exercise.
