important benefits of sleep for your mind and body, along with ways to improve your sleep habits.
If you suffer from sleep deprivation, you're not alone as about 50 to 70 million Americans struggle with this issue. When you fail to get a good night's sleep, your body and mind can have difficulty with focus and carrying out daily task. Here are five important benefits of sleep for your mind and body, along with ways to improve your sleep habits.
- Helps Your Brain to Function Properly
One of the main benefits of sleep is that it's essential for brain health. When you get a good night's sleep, your brain is able to remove harmful toxins as well as restore order to your mind. Moreover, sleeping through the night helps in making memories. On the other hand, not getting enough sleep can result in making poor choices since your cognitive abilities may be impaired.
- Enhances Your Mood
Another perk of getting adequate sleep is it helps your well-being and frame of mind. When sleep is cut short, it's more likely you'll react uncertain or negatively to situations rather than positively. A lack of sleep, which is known as insomnia, can make prone to be more anxious, depressed or have panic disorders.
- Helps Your Heart
One of the main advantages of sleep is that it benefits your heart. Think about how during sleep your blood pressure decreases, which gives your heart and blood vessels an opportunity to not work as hard as when you're awake. When you are sleep deprived it can hurt your body’s ability to regulate stress hormones. Overtime this can lead to high blood pressure (hypertension) possibly in stroke and other types of heart disease.
- Improves Your Immune System
Sleep helps the immune system to recognize destructive viruses and bacteria and helps combat infectious symptoms and disease. However, chronic sleep deprivation can affect immune cells, causing a slower response recovering from an illness. As a result of having a compromised immune system, you can get sick more often.
- Increases Your Endurance
If you're an athlete or enjoy playing sports requiring quick bursts of energy, such as weightlifting, not getting enough sleep can deplete your energy level. In addition, it impacts your muscles recovery time if you’re get injured. Sleep deprivation can also affect your motivation, which is needed when you compete in sports. Additionally, poor sleep can slow down reaction times.
What Is REM and Why Is It Important?
REM (Rapid Eye Movement) also known as paradoxical sleep, is something that happens from three to five times during what's consider a good night's sleep.
REM helps in stimulating the area of your brain that involves memory retention, besides learning. It typically begins about 90 minutes after falling asleep, which is the stage when a person enters the REM cycle.
5 Tips for Better Sleep
- Maintain a sleep schedule—This entails getting to bed at the same time every night, along with getting up at the same time. Consider having a consistent bedtime helps in reinforcing the sleep-wake cycle of your body.
- Exercise each day—Although it's important get enough daily exercise, try not to be physically active just before bedtime. Thirty minutes a day can include a brisk walk and weight bearing exercises.
- Limit caffeine and alcohol consumption—If you suffer from a lack of sleep, it's best to cut out caffeine. But if this isn't an option, limit your consummation of caffeine after mid-day. As for alcohol consumption, it's been shown that drinking alcohol beverages may be the cause for chronic insomnia by as much as 10 percent. Drink in moderation.
- Establish a relaxing routine before bedtime—For example, turn off all electronic devices, listen to calming music or curl up with a good book.
- Consider your bedroom has ideal sleeping conditions.
- Maintain a consistent temperature, try not to have it too cool or too warm.
- Limit light exposure since this can make it harder to fall and stay asleep.
Other Considerations
- Your daily routine is the first step to improving your sleep.
- How much sleep you need depends on several factors, such as your age, in addition to your specific needs.
- Getting enough sleep is essential for all ages and as you age it can help improve memory.
- Limit daytime naps.
A good night’s rest is a mood booster. Adequate sleep is key to a healthy lifestyle and provides benefits for your heart, weight, mind and performance with day to day activities