An essential component to a healthy body and mind
Sleep not only rewards and rejuvenates you after a long day; it is an essential Habit of Health. Sleep helps restore the function of your body’s organs, stabilizes balance, and refreshes the part of your brain that governs mood and behavior, as well as the circuitry you need for functioning at work and at play.
Sleep matters
If you chronically feel tired or irritable, find it hard to focus on work and other tasks, or depend on caffeine to function, you may be one of the 50 to 70 million people in the United States who are suffering from an accumulation of lost sleep.
Chronic sleep loss can leave you at risk for :
- reduced productivity and performance
- poor concentration
- psychological stress
- depression and hostility
- a weakened immune system
- a higher risk of heart disease due to increased inflammation and other factors.
Weight matters
Inadequate sleep—less than seven hours a night—can also contribute to weight gain.
When you’re sleep-deprived, your body secretes more ghrelin, a hormone that increases appetite, and less leptin, a substance that signals you to stop eating when you’re full.
Sleep loss can also result in a deficit of the feel-good hormones dopamine and serotonin, causing an increased hunger for sugary, calorie-laden foods.
1. Gangswisch, JE, Malaspina, D, Boden-Albala B, Heymsfield SB. Inadequate sleep as a risk factor for obesity: Analysis of the NHANES 1. Sleep. 2005; 28:1289-96.
