[Health] Sleep, And Why You Need More Of It
Getting up early for clinicals has got me thinking about sleep, and why getting enough hours of it every night is so important. So here are a few links:
- Sleep: Understanding the Basics. (WebMD)
- Why sleep is important and what happens when you don't get enough. (American Psychological Association)
- Losing Weight While You Sleep. (WebMD)
What it comes down to is this: when you sleep, you heal. Sleep deprivation decreases your ability to regulate body temperature, so you're cold all the time. It decreases your ability to fight sickness and infection by lowering your white blood cell count. It keeps you from healing and repairing your body. It impairs your judgment, your memory, affects your mood and destroys your concentration.
What's more, sleep deprivation increases your levels of the hormone ghrelin, which stimulates hunger, and decreases your levels of the hormone leptin, which makes you feel full. As strange as it might sound, getting more sleep can actually help you lose weight, because when you're exhausted, your body wants you to eat more to help it keep running.
So, how much sleep is enough? Well, it varies from one person to another, but the average adult should get at least 8 hours of sleep a night. Getting only 7 hours per night has been shown to impair concentration, especially in situations where attention is divided between different tasks. The effects of sleep deprivation on judgment have even been compared to being drunk.
Sleep is important to your mental and your physical health, in the same way that eating right and getting exercise are. And the only way to get enough sleep is to make time for it, the same way you make time for regular exercise. Figure out when you need to be up, then count back eight hours to work out when you should be in bed. And don't forget to factor in the time it will take you to get ready for bed and to fall asleep.
I take a long time to fall asleep, and usually sleep better in the morning than at night. Because of that, I shower before going to bed, both to help me relax and so that I can get up a little later. (The drawback is that going to bed with wet hair makes my morning bedhead truly spectacular.) I'm actually pretty anal about getting enough sleep, just because I do not function well when I haven't had enough sleep, and because being an anxious person and ingesting a lot of caffeine, uh, it just is not a good mix. I get irritable and jumpy and even more shaky than I am naturally. At the same time, though, it's often a challenge to pull myself away from whatever I'm doing and get to bed, and I have trouble getting to sleep when I'm nervous about the day ahead (which is often).
But if you want to improve your health, one of the easiest and most satisfying things you can do is to get more sleep. It's a matter of making time for it and planning it out. The rewards include better health, more energy, and improved mood. Is whatever you're doing while awake at 2 am really more important than that?
The National Sleep Foundation has some excellent Sleep Tips on their website. What are your tips and tricks for getting a good night's sleep?
- Sleep: Understanding the Basics. (WebMD)
- Why sleep is important and what happens when you don't get enough. (American Psychological Association)
- Losing Weight While You Sleep. (WebMD)
What it comes down to is this: when you sleep, you heal. Sleep deprivation decreases your ability to regulate body temperature, so you're cold all the time. It decreases your ability to fight sickness and infection by lowering your white blood cell count. It keeps you from healing and repairing your body. It impairs your judgment, your memory, affects your mood and destroys your concentration.
What's more, sleep deprivation increases your levels of the hormone ghrelin, which stimulates hunger, and decreases your levels of the hormone leptin, which makes you feel full. As strange as it might sound, getting more sleep can actually help you lose weight, because when you're exhausted, your body wants you to eat more to help it keep running.
So, how much sleep is enough? Well, it varies from one person to another, but the average adult should get at least 8 hours of sleep a night. Getting only 7 hours per night has been shown to impair concentration, especially in situations where attention is divided between different tasks. The effects of sleep deprivation on judgment have even been compared to being drunk.
Sleep is important to your mental and your physical health, in the same way that eating right and getting exercise are. And the only way to get enough sleep is to make time for it, the same way you make time for regular exercise. Figure out when you need to be up, then count back eight hours to work out when you should be in bed. And don't forget to factor in the time it will take you to get ready for bed and to fall asleep.
I take a long time to fall asleep, and usually sleep better in the morning than at night. Because of that, I shower before going to bed, both to help me relax and so that I can get up a little later. (The drawback is that going to bed with wet hair makes my morning bedhead truly spectacular.) I'm actually pretty anal about getting enough sleep, just because I do not function well when I haven't had enough sleep, and because being an anxious person and ingesting a lot of caffeine, uh, it just is not a good mix. I get irritable and jumpy and even more shaky than I am naturally. At the same time, though, it's often a challenge to pull myself away from whatever I'm doing and get to bed, and I have trouble getting to sleep when I'm nervous about the day ahead (which is often).
But if you want to improve your health, one of the easiest and most satisfying things you can do is to get more sleep. It's a matter of making time for it and planning it out. The rewards include better health, more energy, and improved mood. Is whatever you're doing while awake at 2 am really more important than that?
The National Sleep Foundation has some excellent Sleep Tips on their website. What are your tips and tricks for getting a good night's sleep?