Snooze Your Way to Health
Just how bad can it be to miss a few hours of snooze? Perhaps you’re a night owl or only get your “me” time after the kids go to sleep. You may be ready for bed but find it difficult to fall asleep when you get there. There may be several reasons why you can’t sleep but one thing is certain: this lack of sleep is doing a lot of harm to the health of your body.
Everyone knows how it feels to be tired. Afternoon snoozes, feelings of irritability, and inability to concentrate definitely aren’t fun for anyone. Scientists call this “sleep debt,” which is a strange new way of calling your insomnia. Whimsical or not, “sleep debt” can cause very serious effects on your body, brain, and mind.
Sleep deprivation literally may be killing you. Studies about sleep loss done on animals led to the death of the animals. This definitely bodes ill to humans with this problem. Humans suffering from sleep debt have more mortality and morbidity than persons who are able to have adequate (8) hours of sleep each night. People who are only able to sleep 6 hours or less each night on the other hand, have more disease, get sick more often, and die earlier. And to add to their woes, they are more often late for work, get easily irritated, and generally just don’t seem to have fun in their lives!
Definitely not a pretty scenario but why does sleep loss actually cause so much damage?
The biochemicals your brain uses to function well changes with sleep loss. Your body’s immune system is one of the first body systems that stop working normally. This system begins to fight-but what it’s actually fighting is your own body!
A rise in pro-inflammatory cytokines levels indicates that you’re starting to experience inflammation all over. As your biochemicals go haywire your healthy immune functions start to shut down.
A weakened immune system is just the beginning of your problem. You start feeling hungry but somehow eating just can’t satisfy the hunger (more ghrelin/less leptin). You also become anxious and hyperactive until you get ‘too tired to sleep’ (more cortisol and norepinephrine, among others). Glucose isn’t well metabolized by the body neither are carbohydrates, and pretty soon the fat starts to gather in your waistline.
Even sleeping an hour or so shorter, for many nights a week will cause the biochemical markers in your body to start looking look like those of an individual suffering from anxiety, depression, stress, coronary heart disease, or diabetes.
And it won’t be long that you wake up to find out you indeed ARE suffering from depression, heart disease, or diabetes. You’ve gained weight and snore which means you have sleep apnea.
Of course, you don’t need to suffer from all these unpleasant consequences. Just get adequate sleep and your weight around your middle will start to disappear. Your body will have enough energy and the damage to your body and mind can be repaired. Your concentration and mood will get better and you can enjoy your life once again.
But what if you simply just can’t sleep? Is there any hope at all?
Of course, there’s always hope even if you really can’t go to sleep. First thing to do is to follow a healthy diet and exercise regularly. Also, try to remove anything that will distract you from falling and staying asleep in your bedroom. This way, you can start to fall asleep and get 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. The negative consequences of sleep debt can be reversed and in no time at all, your concentration and mood will improve and you begin to get happier and healthier.
Specific behavioral changes termed sleep hygiene techniques in the form of sleep mediations and exercise, to name a few, can help you to enjoy a deep and satisfying snooze.
So there you have it. Sleep matters. Face the problem, create a new plan, and snooze your way to health.
