Despite the enormous benefits of getting sufficient sleep, most people often don’t care about the amount of sleep they get on an average night. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that about 70 million adults in the United States don’t get sufficient sleep. This translates to 1 in 3 people sleeping for less than 7 hours per night.    

The value of getting sufficient sleep cannot be overlooked. Adequate sleep is an essential part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle and can significantly be beneficial to your weight, skin, mind, heart, and more. Insufficient sleep can be detrimental to your health, causing everything from compromised immune function, poor memory, metabolism disorders, among other health issues. Below are five health benefits of getting more sleep you may not be aware of. You could also check  Vitabright’s lists of food and nutrients that are most important to get a good sleep.

Enhances Your Immune System 

Getting more sleep strengthens your immune system enabling your body to fight off infection. Research published in JAMA Internal Medicine established that people who slept more than 5 hours in a night were more likely to contract an upper respiratory infection compared to individuals who slept for 7 or 8 hours a night. This is because sleep deprivation hinders the body’s T cells’ ability to fight off infections. 

Therefore, the more you sleep, the better your body is positioned to fight organisms causing illnesses.

Healthy Heart 

Sufficient sleep keeps your heart healthy, preventing the likelihood of strokes and heart attacks. Lack of sufficient sleep has been linked to high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and coronary heart disease. Besides, insufficient sleep can cause an increase in blood pressure levels, increase heart rates, and stress hormones. Sufficient sleep of between 7 and 9 hours each night makes your heart healthier and more robust. This is because sleep causes a drop in your blood pressures allowing your heart and blood vessels a bit of time to rest. 

Enhances Concentration and Productivity 

A sufficient night’s sleep makes you alert the next day, thus enhances productivity. When you’re sleep-deprived, you are likely to make mistakes when doing tasks due to decreased concentration. A lack of sufficient sleep harms our brain coordination and blunts our reactions at times. This is because insufficient sleep impairs an entire gamut of brain function, from simple memory to more complex problem-solving. 

Sleep helps learning and memory by consolidating our memory and registering information in our minds. By getting more sleep, we will better be able to concentrate on the tasks at hand and become more productive. Insufficient sleep results in difficulty concentrating, memory problems, and slower social processing and cognition. 

Boosts Your Mood 

When you have sufficient sleep, you’ll wake up feeling refreshed with a much better mood.  Better sleep is equal to a better mood plus gives you a better outlook on the day with much more energy to face the day. 

Insufficient sleep can make you cranky, anxious, and stressed. Research published in the Reference Model in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Psychology established that insufficient sleep causes an increase in cortisol- a stress hormone as well as an increase in heart rate and blood pressures. Besides, being sleep-deprived causes one to appear more irritable towards other people. When we don’t get sufficient sleep, we display fewer signs of emotion, appear angry, speak in low voices, and display drowsiness signs. 

Prevents Weight Gain and Helps You Lose Fat 

According to the Center for Disease and Control, individuals who sleep for less than 7 hours a night are more likely to become obese and physically inactive. This is partly because people who don’t get sufficient sleep tend to eat more calories resulting in weight gain. Also, men who tend to sleep for fewer hours tend to experience an increase in the hunger hormone ghrelin. In contrast, women experience a reduction in glucagon-like peptide 1-a satiety-boosting hormone. The result is overheating, leading to immense weight gain. 

Getting sufficient sleep doesn’t not only prevent weight gain but also helps you lose fat. This is because you’ll have the right balance of hormones that control food intake. Research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine evidenced that individuals sleeping for only 5.5 hours a night lost less body fat and more lean body mass than when they slept for 8.5 hours a night. Therefore, sufficient sleep prevents weight gain and makes you more physically active to lose fat. 

Closing Words 

With the fast-paced world, it may not be easy to get sufficient. However, considering that sufficient is vital for our physical, mental, and emotional health, it’s necessary to get sufficient sleep. However, getting a good night’s sleep isn’t just about how long you sleep; it also has to do with how comfortable you sleep. The key to good comfortable sleep is having the best mattress for adjustable beds. A good night’s sleep will ensure you’re both healthy and productive.