As humans, we need sleep to survive.

The crazy thing is that although we all know this to be true, scientists are yet to discover exactly why it is that we need sleep!

Sleep has huge effects on our immunity, mood, and productivity! It’s easy to see the relationship between sleep and all of these factors when you’ve gone to bed late or been woken up several times in the night. It’s also easily noticeable when you’ve had a little too much to drink and you feel terrible the next day, which is at least partly due to alcohol’s effect on REM sleep (the most restorative part of sleep). Sleep just makes us feel so much more energized and ready to tackle the day, plus it will help to keep us healthier!

But How Much Sleep Do We Need?

How much sleep we need mostly depends on our age. If you’re unsure about how much sleep you should be getting, have a look at the following data taken from ‘Help Guide’.

It’s clear from the chart that most of us will require at least 7 hours of sleep per night even as we age.

This alone shows just how important sleep is, especially when we’re younger!

But let’s now take an in depth look at why sleep is so important for our well being…

How Often You Get Sick

Sleep and immunity are known to be closely related, but what’s the scientific reason that a good night of sleep can reduce health risks and sickness?

When we sleep, our immune system releases cytokines – a protein that both promotes sleep.

These proteins need to increase when we are unwell or stressed, meaning that a lack of sleep can lead to a reduction in the production of cytokines. Sleep helps us to fight infection, whilst feeling incredibly stressed and missing out on all-important sleep can make our bodies more susceptible to sickness.

Maintaining A Healthy Weight

If you’re unhappy with your weight, have you considered what the quality of your sleep might be contributing?

Leptin – a hormone released by fat cells – signals our brains to let us know that we are full and have had enough to eat.

When we don’t sleep enough our bodies make less leptin, which results in hunger and an increase in appetite. This doesn’t mean that sleep is the ultimate factor in weight loss but it’s definitely a piece of the puzzle and a good weight loss habit to follow.

What it does mean is that by getting enough quality sleep your appetite will reflect your actual hunger and need to eat, as opposed to experiencing cravings when you’re not actually hungry.

Your Stress Levels

The connection between sleep and stress is probably something that you’ve experienced at some point. When we’re tired, we’re irritable and easily feel stressed.

Getting enough sleep is crucial to feeling calm, rested, and not as easily ignited by stressful situations.

We’re not saying that a good night of sleep will prevent stressful situations – unfortunately, there’s very little we can do about those! But having had a good night of sleep will improve your reaction to these situations and help you to maintain clarity and a positive mindset.

Thinking Clearly

Research shows that we need good-quality sleep in order to be better problem solvers. When we sleep, the connections between different areas of our brain are strengthened, helping us to think clearly throughout the day.

We are all familiar with the fogginess that follows a bad or a short night of sleep. What’s important to understand is that not only is this detrimental to our working lives, but not thinking clearly can also be dangerous.

Think driving, using tools, or looking after our children – we can put ourselves in unsafe situations when we’re feeling tired and foggy.

The Quality Of Our Relationships

Studies have shown that those who experience a good night of sleep are noticeably more empathetic towards other people experiencing distress.

Feeling tired leaves us feeling unrested, irritable, and much more likely to overreact to situations that otherwise might not affect us as much.

It goes without saying that reacting negatively and being snappy towards our friends, family, loved ones, and even strangers, will have a drastic effect on our relationships with these people.

Get a good night of sleep every night, and watch your relationships flourish!

Your Attention And Concentration

Here’s another aspect of our lives that is directly impacted by the ‘brain fog’ that we experience when we wake up feeling groggy and unrested!

Sleep enables us to stay focused at school or work, and even better, it leaves us feeling energized to concentrate fully on whatever tasks we are undertaking during the day.

There are even studies to suggest that a good night of sleep increases our creativity. So whether you’re creating something with your children or trying to get a promotion at work, you might want to start paying attention to getting enough sleep every night.

Our Ability To Recall And Make Memories

Do you struggle to remember where you put your keys? Are you always forgetting about the lunch plans that you made with your colleague? Or maybe keeping reminders for every minute of your day is the only way that you can remember things…

Have you considered whether you’re getting enough sleep?

Sleep is necessary to cement our memories into our brains. To the point that sleeping directly after receiving new information has been found to solidify the memory even more so than getting a good night of sleep! Sleep makes changes in the brain that strengthen our memories.

Give it a try next time you’re about to forget your Dad’s birthday.

Keep Your Heart Healthy

Getting enough sleep can reduce your risk of heart disease. This is regardless of other factors that might contribute to heart conditions such as your age, weight, and whether or not you smoke.

Sleeping for less time means that our blood pressure is increased for longer; sleep allows our hearts to take a rest! High blood pressure is one of the leading causes of both heart disease and strokes.

So make sure you’re getting enough sleep every night, and napping if you need to.

Maximizing Our Athletic Performance

Sleep affects our athletic performance in several ways. Firstly, sleep affects us psychologically. In regards to sport, this will impact our reaction times, ability to learn new information, and how motivated we are. Secondly, sleep affects us physiologically.

A full sleep cycle is necessary to promote the growth of the growth hormone (or HGH). This hormone is critical for muscle reparation and muscle building, as well as bone growth.

Lastly, sleep affects us physically. Studies reveal that the less we sleep, the more likely we are to become injured – likely to be due to a decrease in reaction times and our cognitive abilities when we are tired.

A lack of sleep also makes us more susceptible to sickness, and when we’re sick, we can’t take part in our favorite athletic activities!

The Likelihood Of Developing Type 2 Diabetes

When we don’t get enough sleep, we can experience a decrease in sensitivity to both insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance. These are both measurements that dictate how effectively our bodies are able to remove glucose from our bloodstreams.

Ultimately, this results in high blood sugar levels, and in some cases, diabetes.

Feelings Of Depression

People with insomnia are 10 times more likely to suffer from depression than those who get a good night of sleep every night…10 times! That’s a huge figure and definitely something worth paying attention to if you’re noticing that you’ve been feeling down recently.

Sleep and mood have a complex relationship, and with both having the ability to affect the other, it can be hard to know where the problem originated from. If you are suffering from feelings of depression, contact your doctor to see if they can help you to discover the cause and whether it’s related to your sleeping pattern.

Inflammation Of The Body

Sleeping is one of the ways that we can help to protect our bodies against inflammation.

Circadian rhythms control our sleep-wake cycle – this is the reason that we feel tired when it reaches the time when we usually go to bed at night, and why we wake up at around the same time every morning.

These rhythms also regulate our immune system, which has a direct effect on inflammation. When our circadian rhythms are disrupted – so when we sleep badly – our immune systems do not function as effectively as they should.

Productivity

It’s undeniable that we feel significantly more productive after a good night of sleep than when we’ve been out late drinking and have had to wake up early to drag ourselves to work the next day.

The proof that sleep affects our productivity levels can be seen in the relationship sleep has with concentration, clarity of the mind, and our moods. After all, it’s hard to be productive when we’re feeling particularly angry or upset!

Final Thoughts

So there you go. Here are all of the reasons that you will ever need as a reminder of why it is so important to get a good night of sleep, every night! Now stop scrolling through your phone and get to bed.

But before you do, let’s just quickly summarize the main benefits of a good night’s sleep!

• Sleep improves our immune system
• Sleep helps us maintain a healthy weight
• Sleep can help reduce stress
• Sleep can improve clarity of thought
• Sleep can help improve our relationships
• Sleep can improve our concentration
• Sleep can improve our memory
• Sleep is great for cardiovascular health
• Sleep is great for working out and sports
• Sleep can reduce our risk of getting diabetes
• Sleep can improve our mood and prevent depression
• Sleep can reduce inflammation

About the author

Catherine holds a bachelor of science degree and is a registered mental health nurse. She is the Author of the blog “The Wealth Flower”