Natural Health Share Tweet Pin Share Sleep is an important factor for good health and life. Sleep deprivation causes a lot of harmful effects in your body. Even though you may not realize it, sleep deprivation may be limiting your effectiveness as far reaching your goals in life is concerned. For instance: You might be struggling to lose weight but lack of sleep is not allow ing you to achieve it. Or you might have severe cravings for sugar at night, which is caused by sleep deprivation. IIn spite of having all the right foods in the right quantities, you might still have health related issues due to lack of sleep. It is imperative that you understand the importance of sleep and so take the necessary precautions to ensure better sleeping patterns. 9 Untold Health Tips for Kids The Science Behind Sleep The Concern About Light Light While Sleeping Having the Right Amount of Sleep The Science behind Sleep As surprising as it may sound, sleep actually has lots of science behind it. Researchers have found out that lack of sleep impacts negatively on a person’s health and wellbeing. Sleep is needed for your body to regulate the internal organs and hormones. Hormones and internal organs are interrelated and need to work together to help achieve wellness in the body. Sleep deprivation effects include several factors such as heart risks, and even diseases like cancer. Experts have established that women who are blind tend to be at lesser risks of breast cancer, than those who aren’t blind. Similarly, blind men are at lesser risks of lung, prostate or any other cancer than those who can see naturally. It can therefore be accurately inferred that exposure to light is directly related to sickness and disease. Research has further found out that blue and green light adversely affects night workers. Exposure to those lights affects the health of individuals, also causing sleep deprivation effects. Try to avoid those lights at night and if you can’t, get something and cover your eyes. That helps. The Concern about Light So why is light so important in explaining the effects of lack of sleep? Well, for starters, light is known to interfere with the secretion of melatonin, a very important hormone in our bodies. This hormone is generated more at night as we sleep and its key function is helping to maintain the proper functioning of your brain. Since the brain is a very important part of the body, you need to sleep better to allow for the secretion of this important hormone. Whenever you are exposed to light at night, the light disrupts the sleep cycle and so leads to sleep deprivation. As a result, there is less melatonin secreted and that eventually leads to lots of complications related to sleep deprivation e.g. reproductive cancers. Insulin levels are also affected whenever you sleep late and that explains why you often get cravings for sweet things at night. This can be a great setback to your dieting, especially if you are trying to lose weight. Light While Sleeping It is advisable to sleep in total darkness at night. Even a dim light in the room can lead to sleep deprivation. This notwithstanding, there are quite a number of people that can’t just fall asleep in a dark room for a number of reasons. If that is the case, these natural ways to light your room will help you sleep better. Having the Right Amount of Sleep Realizing the importance of adequate sleep might be easy but getting the much needed adequate sleep is another thing altogether. A good motivation is to remember you do not want to be a victim of the sleep deprivation effects. The following are some practical steps you can take to avoid sleeplessness at night: Make it a habit to sleep early and sleep for 8-9 hours every day Make the room as dark as possible. Use thick curtains on the windows and use a night lamp as well Take a relaxing drink like milk or green tea just before you go to bed Keep the room temperature of the bedroom less than 70 Degree Celsius. This is ideal for effective melatonin secretion Try getting to bed at 10 pm, or a little after. Avoid drinking coffee or any other caffeinated drinks later than 2.00pm Try and have a relaxing drink before going to bed. It could be milk, or green tea, or any other drink that you prefer. Here are some more tips to get better sleep at night. As you can see from the list above, it is not that hard to take steps towards better quality sleep. Even though there are some radical changes you might need to make to your lifestyle, just think of all the benefits you will get from a good night’s sleep every night.Sleep deprivation leads to health complications, and negatively affects your mind and overall life. Start sleeping better for a healthier, wealthier you!