Why Is Sleep Important?
Sleep is an essential function that enables your mind and body to recharge. The importance of sleeping should never be overlooked, as without good quality sleep, your brain cannot function properly, impairing your ability to concentrate, think clearly, make decisions, and even process memories.
Over time, poor quality sleep can also have a negative impact on your health and wellbeing, affecting things like your immune response or how your body is able to regulate your blood sugars.
But how do you know if you’re getting enough sleep? In this guide, we explore the benefits of sleeping, discuss how much sleep you need, and share some top tips to help improve your sleep and wellbeing.
Why is getting enough sleep important?
Sleep is an essential function that serves multiple purposes, from allowing your mind and body to recharge to helping you stay healthy. When you get enough quality sleep you wake up feeling well-rested, refreshed, and ready for the day ahead.
But the benefits go beyond this as getting enough sleep can also help your body to remain healthy and stave off diseases and illnesses. It is also important for your hormonal health, which is covered in our guide on how hormones affect sleep.
Poor quality sleep or not getting enough sleep, on the other hand, can impact your brain function, impairing your ability to concentrate, regulate emotions, make decisions, and process memories. If this happens for a prolonged period, it can impact your immune function and your body’s ability to repair damage, as sleep is important for the release of the growth hormone.
How much sleep do I need?
It is generally recommended that adults get at least seven hours of sleep per night. However, individuals have very different sleep needs, so the exact amount you need will depend on numerous factors, including your individual sleep needs, age, activity levels, and health.
Below is a a rough guide to the recommended amount of sleep for various age ranges:
Age range and recommended amount of sleep:
- 4-12 months: 12-16 hours
- 1-2 years: 11-14 hours
- 3-5 years: 10-13 hours
- 6-12 years: 9-12 hours
- 13-18 years: 8-10 hours
- 18 or older: 7 hours or more
What are the benefits of getting enough sleep?
The benefits of sleeping the right amount for your needs include:
Improved concentration
Getting plenty of sleep can help your brain recharge so you can stay focused and improve your concentration throughout the day. This helps you make better decisions and makes you less likely to make mistakes.
Improved ability to learn
As you sleep, your brain has the chance to process the information you’ve received during the day, and this is how you learn. People often recognise this in babies and small children, but our bodies continue to need sleep to make sense of our days even as adults.
Help you maintain a healthy weight
There is a link between sleep deprivation and weight gain. Poor quality sleep can affect your weight in multiple ways, including:
- Increasing your appetite, as a lack of sleep increases the levels of ghrelin, the hormone that makes you feel hungry, the body produces and decreases the amount of leptin, the hormone that signals feeling full. As a result, you may overeat.
- Reducing your energy levels can make it harder for you to motivate yourself to get some exercise.
- Increasing your desire for high-carb, high-sugar foods as they are higher in calories can lead to weight gain.
By aiming to get enough sleep every night you can reduce the likelihood of unnecessary weight gain.
Support a healthy immune system
Sleep supports the proteins and cells of your immune system to detect and destroy foreign bodies your body may encounter, like the flu virus. In addition, it helps cells in your immune system remember the invaders so that if your body encounters them again, it is prepared to fight them off. As a result, it’s essential you take the necessary time to rest when you feel unwell.
Reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes
Not getting enough sleep can cause physiological changes in your body, like decreased insulin sensitivity, increased inflammation, and hunger hormone changes, which can all increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
By ensuring you get at least seven hours of sleep per night, you can reduce the likelihood of these changes, which can help to stabilise your blood sugar and decrease your risk of type 2 diabetes.
Improves mental health and wellbeing
Although there are physical benefits to getting enough sleep, there are psychological benefits too. Getting enough sleep can help to boost your mood and reduce feelings of confusion and anxiety. It can also improve your ability to interact with others and show empathy.
What effect can poor sleep have on my body?
If you’re wondering, ‘How essential is sleep?’, you may want to consider some of the negative effects poor sleep can have on your body.
Not getting enough sleep can have serious consequences. Just one night of poor sleep can lead to feelings of sluggishness and a lack of concentration the following day, and this can increase your risk of making a mistake. It can also impact your mood, making you feel more irritable and unable to make decisions.
Long-term though poor-quality sleep can:
- Suppress your immune system, leading to increased periods of illness
- Increase your risk of chronic health conditions, like heart problems and type 2 diabetes
- Affect your metabolism and lead to weight gain
- Affect relationships at work and home
- Lead to feelings of depression or anxiety
The effects of poor sleep quickly compound, so it is hard to overestimate the benefits of getting enough sleep every night.
Tips to improve your sleep
The good news is that taking a proactive approach to improving your sleep quality is straightforward. It involves implementing some basic healthy sleep hygiene practices at home, including:
- Getting outside for at least 20 minutes in the morning, as exposure to natural light when you wake up can help set your circadian rhythm (your 24-hour day-night cycle)
- Having a regular sleep schedule with a set waking and bedtime every day
- Adopting a relaxing bedtime routine, you could include mindful activities like journalling or having a relaxing bath
- Making sure your bedroom is cool, dark, quiet, and comfortable
- Avoiding blue light, the light emitted by screens like your phone or TV for at least an hour before bed
- Exercising regularly, as early in the day as possible
- Avoiding caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine in the hours before bed
Take a proactive approach to monitoring your health with Bluecrest Wellness
Getting enough sleep is just one way to help promote your overall health and wellbeing. If you’re keen to take a proactive approach to understanding more about your general health, our private health checks are ideal.
Our full body health MOTs are designed to provide comprehensive insights into your health by including a range of private blood checks, such as a full blood count, liver and kidney tests and cholesterol and diabetes checks as well as insights into your risk of certain health conditions. You can book private health MOTs across the UK, so it is easy to find a convenient location for you.
Plus, you can be confident that we will deliver fast, efficient and accurate results as we have established links with leading UK laboratories and are fully accredited for a wide range of private blood checks.
