The 12 benefits of getting a good night's sleep

Sleep, in addition to being a great pleasure for most, is a fundamental physiological need.

Sleep has a positive impact on our health, causing the body to initiate a series of biochemical processes that make, when we wake up, we perform physically and mentally.

On the other hand, not having good sleep hygiene is synonymous with cognitive problems and illness. That is why here we are going to see the main benefits of sleeping well, in addition to understanding why it is a priority in our lives.

• Related article: "10 basic principles for good sleep hygiene"

The importance of taking advantage of the hours of sleep

Many people try to make big changes in their life, joining a gym, doing yoga and eating healthy, but forgetting that good sleep hygiene is almost as or more important than all they. Sleeping well has become very strange.

According to health institutions, such as the Center for Disease Control, not being able to sleep well has become a veritable public health epidemic. Almost half of the population does not get enough sleep, less than 7 hours (40%).

This is no surprise. Work, family, worries of all kinds and colors make time go by, and when we have finished all the tasks we see that we have run very late. We want to go to sleep, but instead of doing it at a healthy time, as it would be to go at 10 p.m. or 11 p.m., we do it at 1 a.m. What's more, The next day we have to get up early, so we are not guaranteed to sleep the 6 to 8 hours recommended by the experts.

Going to sleep late and, above all, sleeping little has serious repercussions on our health, especially affecting the cognitive and physical. We cannot concentrate, affecting our academic and work performance, in addition to making us more vulnerable to diseases and psychological disorders. All of this contributes to the formation of a vicious cycle: ** the less we sleep, the less healthy we are and the less healthy we are, the less we sleep **.

It is for all this that acquiring good sleep hygiene should be prioritized, since it will improve our health and our mental state. Next we will see the main benefits of sleeping well.

The benefits of a good night's sleep, summarized

There are several health benefits, both physical and mental, that sleep well has, in addition to helping us in our academic, professional and social performance

1. Improves physical endurance

Related to the previous point, a restful sleep makes us regenerate at night. This translates into having a better aerobic endurance when waking up, something that is essential for everyone who plays sports.

This has been seen by Stanford University, whose studies confirmed that athletes who slept ten hours in competition periods, such as marathons, Olympics or other sporting events, improved their times as well as their physical endurance.

2. Build muscle mass

Every good athlete knows that he must sleep well not only because it improves physical endurance itself, but also contributes to the generation of the much desired muscle mass.

Our body uses most of the night to heal the damage that has been done to cells and tissues. This makes the muscle fibers tested during exercises such as lifting weights or "body pump" recover and tighten.

Not sleeping well does not allow muscle to develop and, in fact, lack of sleep is linked to muscle atrophy.

3. Protect memory

Sleeping heals neural connections. During REM sleep (“rapid eye movements”), the hippocampus, known to be basically a kind of memory store, is restored. Thanks to this, our memory capacity, both in the short and long term, is improved. Allows memories to settle correctly.

On the other hand, it has been seen that not getting enough sleep makes our working memory look significantly impaired in the short term, although getting enough rest causes these effects are reversed.

• You may be interested: "Types of memory: how does the human brain store memories?"

4. Improves academic performance

In relation to the previous benefit, it has been seen that sleeping well is related to having better grades. Children ages 10 to 16 who suffer from respiratory problems, such as snoring or sleep apnea, are more likely to suffer from learning disabilities.

But this does not only happen to adolescents. University adults who sleep poorly have a worse academic performance, closely related to an inadequate functioning of the hippocampus at night.

If you want to perform correctly in the university exams, it is best to make sure you get all the sleep you need, organizing yourself to avoid ending up studying at night.

5. Improves attention

One of the great recommendations from the education sector is to make sure that children get as much sleep as they should.

According to an article in the journal Pediatrics, children ages 7 to 8 who sleep less than 8 hours are more likely to show attention problems, in addition to being distracted and impulsive. Lack of sleep in children has been associated with a greater chance of being diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder).

6. Makes us more attractive

According to a study in the journal British Medical, people who get a good night's sleep appear more attractive, in addition to looking healthier.

On the contrary, sleeping badly makes the unwanted dark circles appear, which makes us look bad and old.

7. Makes you healthier

The immune system needs sleep to be able to regenerate itself, which allows it to defend itself against the pathogenic action of toxins and microorganisms. In short, it makes you healthier.

In fact, an investigation carried out by Carnegie Mellon University (USA) concluded that people who sleep less than six hours a day are three times more likely to catch colds, compared to those who do sleep between six and eight hours.

• You may be interested: "The 5 phases of sleep: from slow waves to REM"

8. Avoid getting fat

Lack of sleep causes adipocytes, the fat cells, to release less leptin, the appetite-suppressing hormone.

The less you sleep, as it happens to people who suffer from insomnia, in addition to a lower release of leptin, the stomach releases the counterpart: ghrelin, the appetite-inducing hormone.

Both actions cause little sleep to be associated with eating more and, consequently, with a greater risk of gaining weight. In fact, lack of sleep has been associated with being obese.

9. Protects from diabetes

Type 2 diabetes is a medical condition that has serious repercussions on health, increasing the chances of having strokes, amputations, blindness and damage to the organs.

By not getting enough sleep, the body begins to lose the ability to control blood glucose, contributing to diabetes. In fact, it has been seen that sleeping less than five hours increases this possibility 2.5 times more than in comparison with those who get the recommended sleep.

10. Protect the heart

According to the European Heart Journal, people who get little or no sleep are almost three times more likely to have heart problems, such as heart failure.

Insomnia affects cardiovascular health by increasing blood levels of stress hormones (adrenaline and cortisol), increasing, in turn, blood pressure and heart rate. In addition to this, poor sleep has been linked to higher cholesterol levels, which is a great risk for cardiovascular health.

11. Protect the skin

Getting more sleep helps you have healthier skin. It has been seen that poor sleep hygiene, in addition to contributing to the aggravation of mental disorders such as depression or anxiety, negatively affects the skin.

This is especially serious considering that these two psychological conditions also have an impact on both sleep hygiene and skin health., creating a vicious circle that is getting worse and worse.

Not getting enough sleep makes the skin much more susceptible to ultraviolet rays, putting you at risk for melanomas. Considering that sunbathing is considered a treatment for depression, combined with psychotherapy, not being able to take it due to unhealthy skin can aggravate the condition.

12. Reduce stress

It's no secret that sleeping less puts us in a bad mood. Not getting enough sleep makes us feel more irritable, causing us to argue with our partner, family or friends for things that are, essentially, trifles.

This has a hormonal explanation. When you sleep, the body produces melanin and serotonin, hormones that counteract the effects of stress hormones, adrenaline and cortisol, reducing stress.

If you don't get enough sleep, the production of anxiety hormones increases, which causes us to find ourselves in such a bad mood the next day.

Bibliographic references:

• Taheri, S., Lin, L., Austin, D., Young, T., & Mignot, E. (2004). Short sleep duration is associated with reduced leptin, elevated ghrelin, and increased body mass index. PLoS medicine, 1 (3), e62. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0010062
• Fan, M., Sun, D, Zhou, T., Heianza, Y., Lv, J., Li. L., Qi, L. (2020). Sleep patterns, genetic susceptibility, and incident cardiovascular disease: a prospective study of 385 292 UK biobank participants. European Heart Journal, 41 (11), 1182–1189.
• Paavonen, E. J, Räikkönen, K., Lahti, J., Komsi, N., Heinonen, K., Pesonen, A-K., Järvenpää, A-L., Strandberg, L., Kajantie, E., Porkka-Heiskanen, T. (2009). Short Sleep Duration and Behavioral Symptoms of Attention-Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder in Healthy 7- to 8-Year-Old Children. Pediatrics 123 (5) e857-e864; DOI: 10.1542 / peds.2008-2164
• Axelsson, J., Sundelin, T., Ingre, M., Van-Someren, E. Olsson, A. (2010). Beauty sleep: experimental study on the perceived health and attractiveness of sleep deprived people. BMJ, 341.
• Mah, C. D., Mah, K. E., Kezirian, E. J., & Dement, W. C. (2011). The effects of sleep extension on the athletic performance of collegiate basketball players. Sleep, 34 (7), 943–950. https://doi.org/10.5665/SLEEP.1132