Sleep is paramount for maintaining health and wellness at every stage of your life. Although it may seem like nothing important is happening while you snooze, your body is working hard on important tasks, which are vital to your wellbeing.
4 Benefits of a Good Night’s Sleep
- Healing. White blood cells are being made as you rest, and these are your first line of defense against disease. If you want to reduce your chances of flu this season, rest up! Your immune system is being fortified as you catch your 40 winks.
- Heart Health. Your heart works hard all day and, believe it or not, it needs a break at the end of the day. Studies have proven that adults who get less than optimal sleep regularly are at a higher risk of heart attack. When you grab some zzz’s your heart is getting valuable and necessary rest.
- Brain Power. This is especially important for children and college students who are learning new things. When you sleep, your brain is filing away all that new information for easy retrieval. Without sleep, your brain doesn’t get a chance to file those things properly. This is why sleep deprivation can cause issues with memory retention. Sleep also improves decision quality and problem solving. Just another reason to take that afternoon nap? We think so.
- Weight Management. People who get more sleep tend to eat less. When you’re tired, you are less likely to make good choices about what to eat. Also, your body makes more hunger hormones when you don’t sleep. Sleeping lets your body make the hormones that give you cues to stop eating.
So, rest up! Your body needs it. Heal your body, rest your heart, power your brain and mind your weight as you have sweet dreams.
(A version of this article originally appeared in TOC’s Winter 2018-19 newsletter.)