We all know sleep is important for living a long, healthy life. But many of us struggle to get a good night’s rest regularly.
During the hectic holiday season, it can be easy to forgo sleep hygiene and your sleep health. Maybe you stay up later than you should to do some last-minute online shopping. Or maybe you lie awake in your bed, scrolling through Facebook for an hour before finally turning off the lights.
It’s not uncommon to struggle to get the recommended amount of sleep. In fact, one-third of adults sleep less than 7 hours a night on average. However, sleep deprivation can negatively impact your health—both in the short term and the long term.
In this blog, we explore the role sleep plays in your overall well-being, the risks of not getting enough rest, and how to improve your quality of sleep, year round.
Why Is Sleep So Important To Your Health?
How you feel when you’re awake is directly related to how well you slept the night before. In fact, sleep impacts how well you think, react, work, learn, and get along with others.
When you enter non-REM sleep, your blood pressure and heart rate fall as your parasympathetic system activates. As a result, your heart doesn’t have to work as hard. Your hormones regulate, your metabolism kicks into overdrive, and your immune system activates.
There’s a reason problems feel much easier to deal with after you sleep on them. Sleep plays a key role in your mental health. When you’re well-rested, you can better handle stress and solve complex problems quickly. Emotions are easier to regulate, challenges feel easier to tackle, and you’re more likely to make better decisions throughout the day.
How Much Sleep Do You Need For A Healthy Life?
How much sleep your body needs can depend on several factors, from your genetics to your lifestyle. While most doctors agree 7 hours minimum is the right place to start, these are the ideal guidelines to follow based on your age:
- 65+ years: 7 to 8 hours
- 26 to 64 years: 7 to 9 hours
- 18 to 25 years: 7 to 9 hours
Being well-rested is about more than just how many hours you sleep. It’s about the quality of sleep you have. If you sleep a full 8 hours but spend the night tossing and turning, or waking up every hour, you’ll likely feel worse than you might on 6 hours of high-quality sleep. As a result, sleep deprivation refers to either not getting enough sleep or having poor quality of sleep caused by sleep fragmentation or disruptions.
Acute sleep deprivation refers to a short period, typically a few days or less, when a person experiences a significant reduction in their sleep time or quality. Chronic sleep deprivation occurs when a lack of quality sleep persists for three months or longer.
Multiple factors can contribute to a bad night’s sleep, from poor sleep hygiene and lifestyle choices to medical problems and sleep disorders. If you struggle to sleep throughout the night or wake up frequently, it’s always a good idea to discuss your sleep with your doctor.
The Short-Term Health Risks Of Not Getting Enough Quality Sleep
The most noticeable result of sleep deprivation is excessive daytime sleepiness, but its impact can go beyond that. Some of your symptoms can be masked by caffeine, but others will reduce your work performance and quality of life regardless of how many cups of coffee you drink.
These can include:
- Reduced alertness
- Slowed thinking
- Shortened attention span
- Worsened short-term memory
- Poor or risky decision-making
- Lack of energy
- Mood changes
Exhaustion isn’t something to take lightly. A study found insomnia is linked to $31.1 billion worth of workplace errors and accidents. Additionally, drowsy driving is responsible for more than 6,000 fatal car crashes each year.
Long-Term Health Risks Of Not Getting Enough Quality Sleep
Acute sleep deprivation can take a toll on your day-to-day life, but when your sleep problems last longer than a few months, you’re at risk for more serious issues. Here are a few of the most common problems directly related to lack of quality sleep:
1. Diabetes
One long-term consequence of a lack of high-quality sleep involves your body’s natural ability to regulate blood sugar. Studies have shown that sleep deprivation can result in decreased insulin sensitivity, reduced glucose effectiveness, and increased cortisol (or stress hormone) levels. These can all increase your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
2. Alzheimer’s
We tend to associate a good night’s rest with a sharp, clear mind. And that belief is backed by science. Both insufficient sleep and sleeping longer than needed have been linked to a greater likelihood of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s. This is because how you sleep directly impacts the structure and health of your brain.
Recent studies have shown poor sleep contributes to abnormal levels of a specific protein in the brain called beta-amyloid. Beta-amyloid is known to cause the amyloid plaques found in the Alzheimer’s brain.
3. Hormonal Imbalances
Sleep helps the body release and regulate levels of various hormones, so it’s no surprise those struggling with sleep deprivation are at a higher risk of hormonal imbalance. During sleep, your growth hormone, melatonin, cortisol, leptin, and ghrelin levels are balanced. This helps regulate your blood sugar, appetite, weight, and more.
Existing hormonal imbalances can also cause you to experience insomnia and sleep problems. If you experience sleep problems regularly, it’s a good idea to have your hormones evaluated to determine whether you may be experiencing a hormonal imbalance.
4. Immune System Problems
A healthy immune system is key to a healthy life, keeping us strong and on our feet even after a round of the flu or upper respiratory infection. Unfortunately, if you aren’t getting enough quality sleep, your immune system isn’t able to work its hardest.
Studies have found sleep deprivation induces changes to your immune system and is linked to worsened immune function. A damaged immune system can:
- Increase your risk of chronic diseases
- Lower your ability to fight off viruses and bacterial infections
- Lower your response to vaccines
5. Depression, Anxiety, & Other Mental Health Problems
As we touched on earlier, sleep and mental health are closely intertwined. While conditions like anxiety and depression can cause insomnia, new research has found sleep problems also contribute to developing these mental health problems.
Research has found healthy people experience increased anxiety and mood swings following poor sleep. These effects are more exacerbated in patients who already experience psychiatric symptoms, and poor sleep quality can even increase the risk of suicide.
The good news is addressing sleep problems can have a significant impact on your mental health, alleviating the severity of mental health disorders and improving your overall quality of life.
6. Premature Aging
We’ve all heard the term “beauty sleep.” Well, there may be some science behind it. Research shows chronic sleep deprivation can, in fact, affect your appearance. Over time, it can lead to premature wrinkling and dark circles under your eyes.
The excess cortisol found in people who don’t get enough sleep also can cause signs of aging. Cortisol breaks down collagen in the skin, which is responsible for keeping skin supple and wrinkle-free. The more cortisol in your body, the more likely you are to show signs of aging earlier.
7. Increased Cancer Risk
Sleep’s impact on your stress levels, inflammation, weight, and immune system can influence your risk of cancer.
One study found that disruptions in the circadian sleep cycle can accelerate malignant cell growth. Another found women who worked rotating night shifts and struggled to have regular, high-quality sleep had an increased risk of colorectal cancer.
Moreover, men who suffered from severe problems of falling and staying asleep were about twice as likely to develop prostate cancer as those who do not, and insomnia is linked to an increase in breast cancer risk in both men and women. There was also a higher risk of nasal cancer and prostate cancer in patients with obstructive sleep apnea compared with those without sleep disruptions.
8. Cardiovascular Disease
As you sleep, your blood pressure decreases. So when you have sleep problems, your blood pressure stays higher for a longer period of time.
High blood pressure is one of the leading causes of heart disease. This makes it no surprise that studies have found strong associations between sleep deficiency and cardiovascular problems like coronary heart disease, heart attacks, and strokes.
9. Pain
Sleep (or lack of it) can directly affect how much you hurt, both from new injuries and existing injuries or chronic conditions like arthritis. It does this in three ways:
- Poor sleep lowers your pain tolerance.
- Poor sleep boosts the intensity of your pain.
- Poor sleep increases your risk of developing painful chronic health problems.
The body’s healing processes are most active while you’re asleep, so if you’re recovering from a minor injury or procedure, lack of sleep may mean you need a longer time to recover. Additionally, lack of sleep can cause inflammation throughout the body. This results in muscle aches and exacerbates inflammatory conditions like arthritis and Crohn’s.
To make matters worse, pain can wake you up during the night, creating a vicious cycle of worsening pain and sleep.
3 Tips To Get Enough Sleep Every Night
1. Take Your Sleep Seriously
One of the most common reasons people get insufficient sleep is because sleep just isn’t a priority. They treat sleep deprivation like it’s normal because they experience it so frequently. Instead of getting more sleep, they manage sleepiness by drinking caffeine, napping, or simply trying to “power through.”
While sleep deprivation is something all of us will experience on occasion, it’s not an issue you should ignore. It’s critical to make sleep a priority for your health and your quality of life. You can do this by:
- Going to sleep and waking up around the same time every day (even on the weekends)
- Following a night-time routine to help your body prepare for sleep, like ending the night with quiet reading, a hot bath, or gentle stretches
- Avoiding snoozing and instead setting an alarm for the time when you need to wake up
- Using light therapy to help your body wake up in the mornings, especially during days when you’re tempted to snooze
2. Make Your Bedroom Sleep-Friendly
Your bedroom should be a calm retreat where you can unwind at the end of a long day. That starts with a comfortable mattress, supportive pillow, and cooling bedding. To minimize potential sleep disruptions, try to make sure your bedroom is as quiet and dark as possible. Don’t use your bedroom for activities other than sleep or intimacy, as this can keep your brain “wired” when you curl up in bed rather than preparing it for sleep.
3. Follow Good Sleep Hygiene Habits
Some things that contribute to poor quality sleep, like pain or stress, are unavoidable. But there are many steps you can take to actively improve the quality of your sleep. This starts with good sleep hygiene.
- Avoid drinking alcohol at night, as it disrupts your natural sleep cycle.
- If you take naps, keep them under 30 minutes and never take them in the late afternoon or evening.
- Don’t consume caffeine within 6 hours of your bedtime.
- Avoid electronics an hour or more before bedtime, as they keep your mind stimulated and their blue light interferes with your circadian rhythm.
- Try to exercise every day, even if it’s just a 30-minute walk around the block.
- Soak up the sun daily to help keep you alert during the daytime and sleepy at night.
Improve Your Sleep To Improve Your Quality Of Life
High-quality sleep doesn’t just make you feel well-rested. It helps you manage your weight, boost your mood, improve your immune system, and better manage existing health problems. If you’re wanting to live your best life, getting more sleep is a great place to start.
If you feel like you could be doing more for your health, schedule an appointment with our team today. From bio-identical hormone replacement therapy to weight loss management, The Resurge Clinic offers a variety of age management programs designed to help you optimize your health and your quality of life.
