Sleep has many benefits for your health and appearance.  It is a powerful tool to prevent aging and diseases.  Although the experts do not agree on exactly how much sleep we need, they all agree on the many benefits.  In fact, there are probably more than you even realize. 

 
1.  Sleep Slim- Researchers at the Columbia University Medical Center found that those who slept 5 hours per night were 60% more likely to be significantly overweight than those who slept 7-9 hours.  It seems the lack of sleep impacts the balance of hormones that affect appetite.  Ghrelin and Leptin, which are important of the regulation of appetite, appear to be disrupted by the lack of sleep.  The journal Obesity Reviews states that the more hours you are awake, the more you will eat.  It is suggested that you can cut 6% of your daily calorie intake by sleeping 8 hours a night instead of 7.

2.  Reduce Diabetes Risk- According to the Archives of Internal Medicine, women who slept only 5 hours a night were 2.5 times more likely to get diabetes than those who slept 7-8 hours.  One thought is that sleep depravation interferes with key hormones.  Insulin is the hormone that regulates blood glucose.  When you are not getting enough sleep, stress hormones, like cortisol and adrenaline, reduce the effectiveness of insulin. 

3.  Boost Your Memory-  Through a process called memory consolidation, your brain processes your day.  It makes connections between events, feeling, sensory input, etc.  Deep sleep in an important time for the brain and getting more quality sleep will help you remember and process things better.

4.  Look Better- When you don’t get enough sleep, it is written all over your face.  There is a chain of physical events that negatively affect your skin.  When you start feeling tired, your body prepares for sleep.  One thing it does is lower blood pressure and pulse.  This reduces the blood flow to your skin.  If you are fighting to stay awake, the body increases it stress response which produces hormones that can set off breakouts.  So sleep is a great anti-aging tool.

5.  Depression Risk Reduced-  Another hormone that is disrupted by lack of sleep is serotonin.  It has been shown that people who are deficient in serotonin are more likely to suffer from depression. 

6.  Repair Your Body- Protein molecules form the building blocks for your cells.  These building blocks allow your body to repair damage accumulated during the day-caused by stress, UV, and other pollutants.

7.  Reduce Inflammation-  Inflammation has been linked to many major diseases as well as aging.  If you are sleep deprived, stress hormones increase which also increases inflammation.  Your stressed-out immune system goes into overdrive, which floods the body with white blood cells.  This can damage healthy tissues as well.

8.  Heart Health-  Studies have shown that women who slept less than 6 hours a night have a 70% increased risk for developing high blood pressure compared to those who slept 7-8 hours a night.  Research done at the University of California, Los Angeles found that after just one night of 4 hours sleep, patients had increased levels of blood proteins.  These proteins are linked to a greater risk of heart attack and stroke. 

9.  Reduce Cancer Risk-  Melatonin is a hormone produced as it gets dark signaling our body to get ready for sleep.  It also appears to suppress the growth of tumors and it thought to protect against cancer.  It has been shown that people working the late shift have a higher risk for breast and colon cancer.  It is believed to be caused by differing levels of melatonin in those who are exposed to light at night.  This exposure reduces the level of melatonin.

10:  Be Safer-  Over 100,000 automobile accidents occur each year because of sleep depravation.  Studies in the journal Sleep showed that people were more likely to be distracted from simple, monotonous tasks after they got only 5 hours of sleep vs. the full 8 hours.  Sleeplessness slows reaction times as much as alcohol.  In another study, ½ of sleep deprived subjects were given caffeine equal to 2 cups of coffee.  The caffeinated subjects reacted more quickly than those who had no caffeine, but they both made the same amount of risky decisions.  So you may feel you are making sound decisions but that isn’t necessarily the case.

It is obvious that getting adequate amounts of sleep provide numerous benefits.  If you have trouble getting enough sleep, click here to learn how to improve the quality and quantity of sleep you are getting.