Strange as it may seem, scientists have only recently begun paying more attention to the implications lack of sleep can have on our overall health and well-being. Ultimately, even though they've started investigating the benefits as of late, it hasn’t taken them long to start analyzing sleep as the famously coined "fountain of youth".
In this article, we’ll talk about some of the more notable benefits of sleep that researchers have discovered over the past decade. You’ll learn how sleep can help boost productivity, lessen symptoms of anxiety, help to maintain a healthy weight, and even play an important role in fighting cancer. Lastly, in case you have trouble sleeping, I'll be sharing some of my favourite sleep hacks and tools that you can leverage for a good night's zzz's.
If you could bottle up the effects of sleep into a pill and sell it, you would literally be selling a miracle cure. The things that sleep does for us are so broad and deep it’ll blow your mind. So there are 7 big health benefits of sleep.
7 Benefits of Sleep
1. Sleep helps you process information and learn
In a 2019 TED talk, Matt Walker talked about a study where they split participants into 2 groups. One group got a full 8 hours of sleep, and another was forced to do an all nighter, with no caffeine or naps. The next day, they asked each group to learn a new set of facts, and took MRI scans of their brains to see how effective the learning was. And guess what? The group that got no sleep had a 40% deficiency in their ability to make new memories and learn. 40%! That’s huge.
And we all know it’s common for your memory to go as you age; but thanks to research, we now know that the memory loss can be directly linked to a loss of deep sleep. Folks older than 60 tend to get 70% less deep sleep than those aged 18-25. It’s so interesting.
2. Sleep lessens anxiety, stress, and depression symptoms
There is a lot of research showing the link between sleep and mental health. Take anxiety for example. Anxiety happens when you anticipate potentially threatening events. Turns out, sleep loss amplifies your brain’s anticipatory mechanisms, making your anxiety worse. For depression, studies have shown that insomnia increases the severity of depression episodes and increases relapse rates. There is also mounting evidence linking sleep disturbances to suicidal thoughts and behaviours. Last thing I'll mention on this point: your brain only produces the feel good hormone serotonin during REM sleep. So not getting that sleep can lower serotonin production and impair your ability to handle stress.
3. Sleep can help with allergies
This one I find super cool. In our world where nut allergy rates keep increasing, there’s evidence showing that sleep can help. In one study done in the UK, researchers gave peanut challenges to people with peanut allergies, both with and without sleep deprivation. And amazingly, those who weren’t sleep deprived could take 45% more peanuts before getting allergic responses than those who got enough sleep. Nice huh?
4. Sleep strengthens the immune system
A study conducted in 1996 found that losing even one hour of sleep each night over a prolonged period of time can lower your immune system substantially. Poor sleep makes you more susceptible to colds and viruses, and regular sleep can even help your immune system produce antibodies after a vaccination. In 2012, a team of scientists studied the response of healthy adults to the hepatitis B vaccine. They discovered that effectiveness of the vaccine varied depending on the hours of sleep people got in the weeks after receiving the vaccine.
5. Sleep lowers the risk of weight gain
During sleep, our bodies produce hormones. One hormone is leptin, which is an appetite suppressant hormone. Leptin works with ghrelin, the commonly known "hunger hormone". Ghrelin ultimately elevates your appetite, whereas leptin reduces it. But lack of sleep can create an imbalance where leptin is lowered and ghrelin is increased, which can lead to sudden weight gain.
But there’s more. According to research, a lack of sleep can lower your motivation to exercise. I know I never feel like exercising when I’m tired. This lack of movement coupled with hormonal irregularities is the primary reason why sleep deprivation is a major risk factor for obesity.
Another important thing to note, is that scientists have found a link between sleep deprivation and enhanced risk of diabetes, both type 1 and 2. A 2010 study found that sleep restricted to 5 hours per night over 1 week significantly reduces insulin sensitivity.
6. Sleep gets you moving, AND improves athletic performance
Christopher Kline from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburg has noted a “bidirectional” relationship between sleep and exercise. The less you sleep, the less you move, but the less you move, the less you sleep. It’s a downward spiral. And if you don’t get enough sleep, you don’t just lose motivation to exercise. Your physical performance may take a hit as well. A study published in the journal Sleep took a look at how a lack of sleep can impair physical performance, specifically in women. According to the findings, sleep loss makes it much harder to keep up the pace while working out. In a separate study, researchers also found that basketball players who get more sleep are able to run faster AND have quicker reaction times.
7. Sleep can help fight the development of chronic diseases
Now I’ve saved the best for last. Sleep can actually do a lot for your health in terms of disease prevention. I’ve already talked about how sleep deprivation and diabetes have been linked. Research has also shown that if you don’t get more than 6 hours of sleep a night, your risk of developing many other chronic diseases such as stroke and cancer can increase. There's also research that suggests that adequate sleep can lower the risk of getting Alzheimer's and dementia.
In terms of cancer specifically, one study has shown that not getting enough sleep may be linked to higher risk of breast cancer recurrence. In another study, mild sleep problems have also been shown to increase the risk of prostate cancer twofold, and men with critical sleep problems are three times more likely to develop cancer when compared to men who get sufficient sleep. The difficulty most cancer patients face is that the treatment and anxiety that come with cancer exacerbates poor sleep, which can develop into more serious sleeping problems like insomnia. That's why it's important to try to maintain a good sleep schedule when you're unwell or undergoing chemotherapy.
That link between chronic diseases and sleep is big! When you think of all the cures or supplements we pay for to get healthy - just think, sleep can bring many benefits too, but for free!
Ok, that’s the end of our list, but as usual, I encourage you to get the details on the research yourself. I’m posting all the links to the scientific papers referenced here at the end of the blog. Sleep may be generally accepted as a healthy thing, but as with everything, there’s always a need to understand correlation vs causation, and a need to understand nuances. According to Dr. Polotsky, a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine, if you need more than 8 or 9 hours a night to feel rested, that may be a sign of an underlying problem. Oversleeping is actually associated with many of the diseases we were just discussing, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and depression. I’ve also come across studies that indicate women with longer sleep durations (9 hours or more a night) have higher breast cancer risk than women with normal sleep duration. Of course, that’s a correlation. It’s not to say that too much sleep causes problems so much as when you’re sick you end up sleeping more. So again, I encourage you to dig into the information yourself to learn more.
Everybody’s hunting for that magic cure-all-pill or complex hack that will improve their health and well-being on every level. Meanwhile, the secret to being happier, and healthier has been staring us in the face all along.
Lack of sleep causes a cascade of negative effects on your system as a whole, but specifically over time your body gives in to stress, conforms to higher blood pressure, and raises inflammation levels. All these factors can heighten vulnerability to various diseases, including chronic illnesses. But the solution to all the above is simple, just get some zzz's!
So, if you’re reading this article late at night, and you’re tempted to "keep scrolling” for a little bit longer before bed - stop. Shut the lid of your computer or put down your phone, and go get some replenishing, revitalizing, and rejuvenating quality sleep.
Everyone deserves a good night’s sleep! At Amidira, we want to help give you or your loved one a deep and relaxing sleep and that is exactly why we decided to include a “sweet dreams eye cover” in our Mind Care and Chemo Care Boxes. Chemo treatments can be long, and we are happy to help patients get a better sleep despite those bright settings at the hospital!
As usual, I encourage you to get the details on the research yourself. I’m posting all the links to the scientific papers referenced in the blog below. Sleep may be generally accepted as a healthy thing, but as with everything, there’s always a need to understand correlation vs causation, and a need to understand nuances. According to Dr. Polotsky, a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine, if you need more than 8 or 9 hours a night to feel rested, that may be a sign of an underlying problem. Oversleeping is actually associated with many of the diseases we were just discussing, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and depression. I’ve also come across studies that indicate women with longer sleep durations (9 hours or more a night) have higher breast cancer risk than women with normal sleep duration. Of course, that’s a correlation. It’s not to say that too much sleep causes problems so much as when you’re sick you end up sleeping more. So again, I encourage you to dig into the information yourself to learn more!
The Importance of Sleep
The 7 Main Health Benefits of Sleep
Reduces the Risk of Inflammatory Diseases
Enhances Brain Capacity
Lowers the Risk of Weight Gain
Minimizes Anxiety, Stress and Depression Symptoms
Benefits for Specific Illnesses