What Is A Lack of Sleep Really Costing You?

Sleep is important. That’s a no-brainer. But why is it so important, and what exactly does it do for our bodies and minds?

Well, this is something that has interested me for most of my life, and even more so with the severe and brutal sleep deprivation that comes with having a new-born (it's a form of torture for a reason!)

Why is it that I get ill as soon as I have a couple of nights of 4-5 hours sleep?

Why am I snappy, bordering on vile, first thing in the morning when I’m still sleepy?

Why do I feel horrible all day, lacking in energy and craving sugar when I’m tired?

Does sleep, or a lack of, really cause all these behaviours, and, if so, why?

So this week I wanted to share some of the surprising discoveries I made about sleep.

Let’s get going:

1) Helps to prevent inflammation
I’m sure you’ve heard of inflammation and the detrimental effect it has on the body.

Inflammation is linked to a multitude of health problems and diseases including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, and premature aging. Yikes!

And recent research shows that people who get 6 or less hours sleep per night have higher levels of inflammatory proteins in their blood than those who manage to sleep more than this.

2) Helps you lose weight
Studies show that chronic sleep deprivation can cause weight gain by affecting the way our bodies process and store carbohydrates, and by altering levels of hormones that affect our appetite.

Research shows that when we are tired we have higher levels of the hunger hormone ghrelin in our system.

In other studies dieters who had had more sleep lost more fat than those who were sleep deprived, these dieters lost more muscle mass.

3) Keeps your immune system healthy
Studies into sleep deprivation have found that those who don’t get enough sleep have an impaired immune system, meaning they find it harder to fight off diseases and are more likely to get ill.

In fact, some doctors argue that getting lots of sleep may help patients to fight cancer.

4) Helps you ‘unlearn’ useless information
Unlearn?? Yes, unlearn. The stage of sleep called Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, is when this ‘unlearning’ happens. Unlearning is important to help us forget memories and experiences that are no longer useful to us.

All we need to remember is the correct way of doing something. So, REM sleeps helps us to forget the unhelpful ‘how to’ memories like all those mispronunciations or falling off scooter experiences so that we automatically remember the right way to do things.

5) Helps you fight off mental illness
A lack of sleep is linked to many mental illnesses like depression, anxiety and moodiness (ahem, that doesn’t relate to me at all…)

Studies show that serious sleep disorders are linked to hypertension, increased stress hormone levels and an irregular heart beat. Nice!

6) Helps you learn and remember
During the phase of sleep called Slow Wave sleep, memory consolidation occurs. This is where all the things that we have learned and experienced that day come together and are stored in our knowledge banks.

Studies show that those who sleep after learning a new task do better on tests days later compared to those who go on to do something else directly afterwards.

So, sleep is vital for living our healthiest and happiest life, but how much sleep is really enough?

For adults it is recommended that you sleep for between 7 and 8 hours each night. However, as with everything, we are all unique and have our own unique sleep needs.

Listen to your body. You know when you've had enough sleep and when you haven't.

Getting the right amount of sleep for you is vital to your health and happiness. Sleep is not something to be sacrificed for a ridiculously exciting episode of Scandal.

Quality of sleep is also important and studies show that 6 hours of good quality sleep is more beneficial than 8 hours poor quality sleep.

Sleep is just one of the areas you will learn about in my life changing online program T.H.R.I.V.E. I teach you proven methods for improving the quality of your sleep so you wake up feeling refreshed, energised and ready to have the best day possible.

Click here to find out how you too can T.H.R.I.V.E. with me.

Happy sleeping,

Bex xx