Getting enough sleep is one of the most important and often underrated parts of accomplishing good health. Good sleep gives us benefits just like exercising, eating well, and maintaining relationships. Having a solid sleeping routine can positively impact the immune system along with many more health benefits.
Unfortunately, it is a worldwide struggle to get a proper amount of sleep regularly. This is due to reasons like longer work hours, busy schedules, and the increase of digital usage are a few factors depleting the average sleep a person needs daily.
If you are one of those looking to improve your health, sleep should always be a top priority and not something you should sacrifice. After all, a healthy and refreshed mind will lead to effective results.
How Much Sleep Is Enough?
For an average adult, experts recommend around 7 to 9 hours of sleep daily, varying based on the individual. Sleeping for less than 6 hours of sleep regularly increases the risk of developing serious health issues, such as diabetes, stroke, and heart disease.
For children, the recommended hours of sleep are high depending on their age. A healthy enough rest is crucial for proper brain development for infants and youngsters. Here are the hours that are recommended for different age groups:
| 0-3 Months | 14-17 Hours |
| 4-12 Months | 12-16 Hours |
| 1-2 Years | 11-14 Hours |
| 3-5 Years | 10-13 Hours |
| 6-12 Years | 9-12 Hours |
| 13-18 Years | 8-10 Hours |
| 18-60 Years | 7 or more hours |
| 61-64 Years | 7-9 Hours |
| 65 years or older | 7-8 Hours |
Benefits Of A Healthy Sleeping Routine
Attention And Concentration
Getting a good night’s sleep helps to keep your energy levels high. It also helps in keeping your mind from wandering and maintaining your attention throughout the day.
Less sleep leads to both your body and brain, not functioning at the optimum level the next day. This affects your attention span, strategic thinking, concentration, assessment of risk, and reaction times. This is important if you have a big decision to make, during driving, or while operating heavy machinery because sleep deprivation leads to you being more likely to make a mistake. If you feel Attention disorder then you should just do ADHD Treatment.
Better Memory
Not only does sleep give your body the time to repair, rest, and rebuild, but it benefits your mind even more. While you are asleep, your brain organizes and processes all the information you’ve taken on throughout the day. This converts short-term memories into long-term memories.
Maintain Weight
Not sleeping properly leads to your body needing more energy because it’s awake for longer. This makes it more likely that you will overeat and choose foods that are high in calories. According to studies, sleep deprivation increases a person’s appetite as it changes the level of hormones that signal hunger in your body. Furthermore, if you feel tired, it might also mean you have less energy remaining for exercise.
Healthy Heart
A lack of sleep increases your risk of developing diabetes, high blood pressure, and stroke. While sleeping, the body’s heart rate and blood pressure drop naturally, this gives your heart time to rest and recover.
According to research, if you don’t sleep properly, the sympathetic nervous system remains stimulated at night. This system is responsible for how your body reacts when there’s danger. In this case, your heart rate and blood pressure don’t go down at night as you’re awake, making your body release stress hormones keeping you alert.
Not enough sleep leads to inflammation, which leads to fatty deposits building up in the arteries, which leads to coronary heart disease. Poor sleep can also disrupt your body’s ability to control blood sugar.
Increasing Immunity
Sleep also benefits your immune system. This system of your body is responsible for fighting off germs and keeping diseases away. Sleep gives your body the important time it needs to rest while you’re sick. It supports the proteins of the immune system to detect and eliminate any invaders your body might interact with, like a common cold.
Emotional Health
In the case of a mental health condition, like depression, It is much more difficult to get a good and healthy sleep. Not getting enough sleep increases the risk of developing poor mental health.
In some cases, you sometimes have a lot on your mind, feel anxious and upset, or are worried. However, not enough sleep adds to your worries the following day.
Reduction In Stress
Feeling stressed, from work, finances, relationships, or health concerns, is often due to a single key factor, which is that you’re struggling to sleep at night. While feeling stressed, the body releases stress hormones, like cortisol, which keeps you awake. On the other hand, a good night’s sleep has an ‘anti-stress’ effect and relaxes the systems in your body responsible for the stress response. If you feel stressed then you should get proper PTSD Stress Treatment.
Tips To Improve Sleeping Hours
Avoid Caffeine Intake At Night
Consumption of caffeine six hours before bedtime reduces sleep quality and time. To reduce the effects of caffeine try avoiding it later in the day.
Preparation
A consistent sleeping routine helps signal your brain that bedtime is here! Activities like reading a book, dimming lights, or changing into comfortable pajamas can help in this cause. Furthermore, sleeping and waking up at the same time consistently leads to our bodies falling into a scheduled time of rest.
Early Exercise
Since exercise triggers the stress hormone cortisol, it’s more effective to work out at least three hours before you go to bed. Cortisol production leads to a more alert brain, which can make it harder for you to fall asleep.
Conclusion
Paying attention to sleeping habits pays off big time and improves overall health.
You should focus on improving both your quantity and quality of sleep to avoid chronic diseases and improve the body’s overall function. If you are someone who has children, make sure they sleep even longer than you for proper brain development. Sleeping well is a luxury for health. If you want to get healthy and fresh you should sleep well at night. Also, avoid to stress, anxiety and depression to get well sleeping. Because if can ruin your sleeping which is not good for health. Popular posting is a good platform for bloggers to show their informative articles to readers.
