Self Health Pages

The Importance of Sleep

Many people consider sleep as a waste of time, as they occupy their time doing daily schedule of activities and social engagements with peers and business partners, as they fall sleep only when stress takes it toll on them. While to others, overcoming night after night of flipping and turning until the in the early hours hours of the morning, would provide anything for a good night’s sleep.

Why some people find it so difficult to sleep, while others are frantic to stay wide awake? How important sleep is? To meet this question, we need to know what is going on while we are on the state of being asleep.

What makes a person lose consciousness and fall into a slumber, these remains a mystery? However, researchers have recognized that sleep is a complex process synchronized by the brain and that it comply with a 24-hour biological clock.

Our sleeping habits change as we grow older. An infant sleeps for repeated short periods that sum to about 18 hours a day. According to sleep specialists, some adults appear to need only three hours of sleep a day, on the other hand some spend up to ten hours sleeping.

Variations in our biological clock also give explanation why some youngsters need great effort to get out of bed in the morning according to studies. The biological clock appears to shift forward during puberty, making teenagers want to go to sleep later and wake up later. This sleep delay is usual and will likely vanish in the mid-to-late teens.

Our biological clock is controlled by chemical substances, many of which have already been recognized. Melatonin is one of them, a hormone thought to cause sleepiness. Melatonin is formed in the brain, and some scientists consider that it is responsible for the slowdown of the body’s metabolism that takes place prior to falling asleep. When melatonin is released, the temperature of the body and blood flow to the brain is reduced, and our muscles progressively lose their tone and become loose. What transpire as soon as a person tumbles down into the strange world of sleep?

Just about two hours after we fall asleep, our eyes start to shudder swiftly back and forth. The observation of this occurrence led scientists to segregate sleep into two basic phases: REM (rapid eye movement) sleep and non-REM sleep. Non-REM sleep can be subdivided into four stages of progressively deeper sleep. Throughout a healthy night’s sleep, REM sleep takes place a number of times, alternating with non-REM sleep.

Most dreaming happens during REM sleep. The body also goes through maximum muscle relaxation, which permits the sleeper to wake up feeling physically rejuvenated. Moreover, some researchers consider that newly attained information is combined as part of our long-term memory during this sleep period.

During deep sleep (stages 3 and 4 of non-REM sleep), our blood pressure and heart rate get to lower ranges, giving rest for the circulatory system and aiding to ward off cardiovascular disease. In addition, the production of growth hormone peaks throughout non-REM sleep, with some adolescents yielding about 50 times more growth hormone at night than during the day.

Sleep also appears to have an effect on our appetite. Scientists have revealed that sleep as to quote Shakespeare, “Chief nourisher in life’s feast.” Our brain infers a lack of sleep as a lack of food. During asleep, our organism produces leptin, the hormone that usually lets our body identify that we have eaten enough. When we stay wide awake longer than we should, our body generates fewer leptin, and we feel a desire for additional carbohydrates. So sleep deficiency can lead to increased carbohydrate intake, which in turn can lead to being obese.

Sleep makes it relatively easy for our body to metabolize free radicals, molecules that is known to have an effect on the aging of cells and even initiate cancer. In a recent study made by the University of Chicago, 11 fit young men were permitted only four hours of sleep a day in a span for six days. Their body cells were performing like that of a 60 year old individual, and their blood insulin level was similar to that of people who suffer from diabetes. Sleep deficiency even influences the fabrication of white blood cells and the hormone cortisol, making a person more vulnerable to infections and circulatory diseases.

Sleep is indeed vital for a healthy body and mind. According to William Dement, founder of the first sleep study center, at Stanford University, U.S.A., “sleep seems to be the most important indicator of how long you’ll live.” Moreover Deborah Suchecki, researcher at a sleep study center that is based in São Paulo, Brazil, quotes: “If people knew what is going on in a sleep-deprived body, they would think twice about concluding that sleep is a waste of time or just for the lazy.”

Why do some people fall asleep all night long but feels not energized. The following information below will assist you recognize some of the principal sleep disorders and will explain how you can get quality sleep.

THE EFFECTS OF SLEEP DEPRIVATION

SHORT-TERM EFFECTS

• Drowsiness
• Sudden mood swings
• Loss of short-term memory
• Loss of capacity to make, plan, and do various activities
• Loss of the ability to concentrate

LONG-TERM EFFECTS

▪ Obesity

▪ Premature aging

▪ Fatigue

▪ Increased risk of infections, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and gastrointestinal disease

▪ Chronic memory loss

Have you experience getting drowsy after taking lunch? This is not essentially a sign that you are experiencing from sleep deprivation. It is normal to feel drowsy in the early afternoon since there is a natural drop in body temperature. Moreover, scientists have lately revealed a protein called hypocretin, or orexin, that is created in the brain and assists us to stay awake.

Every time we consume foods, the body yields leptin to provide us the feeling that we are filled. Leptin hinders the production of hypocretin. The more leptin present in the brain, the less hypocretin and the greater the feeling of sleepiness. Maybe that is why in several countries people take a siesta or an afternoon nap, which is a break in the workday that permits people to get a modest sleep right after lunch.