Of course, in a less busy world, we would all grab extra shut-eye. But it could have more effect on your health than you think.
1. It could make you thinner
Research in the USA has found that the less sleep you get, the higher your body mass index tends to be. An English study may have the explanation: People who sleep five hour a night were found to have 15% more ghrelin (a hormone that boosts hunger) in their bodies and 15% less leptin (which suppresses it) than those sleeping eight hours.
2. It could boost your memory
Sleep plays a key role in making new memories stick in the brain. A Harvard experiment showed that subjects taught complex finger movements like a piano scale recalled them much better after 12 hours’ sleep than 12 hours’ wakefulness. Another study showed that working into the night slowed thinking skills, both at the time and during the next day.
3. It can fight colds, ulcers, even cancer
Good sleep boosts the immune system. A study of elderly people suffering depression found that those with disturbed sleep had fewer disease-fighting cells in their blood. Moreover, melatonin, produced when you sleep, is a cancer-fighting antioxidant. Night-shift workers, whose wake/sleep rhythms are disturbed, may have up to 70 times greater risk of breast cancer. It also seems the chemical your body makes to repair damage to the stomach lining is secreted during sleep: going without could raise your risk of ulcers.
4. It can slow down aging
Persistent sleep debt has been shown to affect carbohydrate metabolism and hormone function in a way that may increase the severity of age-related chronic disorders. In fact a large-scale study concluded that people who sleep 6-7 hours a night lived longer than those sleeping less than 4-5 hours.
5. It could keep you on the straight and narrow
If you are a child, that is. The depression and low self-esteem often associated with just being a teenager actually correlate with sleep shortage. And young kids who sleep poorly are more than twice as likely to take to drink and drugs in adolescence.
Courtesy: RD Health, Reader’s Digest, January 2006, p.162
1. It could make you thinner
Research in the USA has found that the less sleep you get, the higher your body mass index tends to be. An English study may have the explanation: People who sleep five hour a night were found to have 15% more ghrelin (a hormone that boosts hunger) in their bodies and 15% less leptin (which suppresses it) than those sleeping eight hours.
2. It could boost your memory
Sleep plays a key role in making new memories stick in the brain. A Harvard experiment showed that subjects taught complex finger movements like a piano scale recalled them much better after 12 hours’ sleep than 12 hours’ wakefulness. Another study showed that working into the night slowed thinking skills, both at the time and during the next day.
3. It can fight colds, ulcers, even cancer
Good sleep boosts the immune system. A study of elderly people suffering depression found that those with disturbed sleep had fewer disease-fighting cells in their blood. Moreover, melatonin, produced when you sleep, is a cancer-fighting antioxidant. Night-shift workers, whose wake/sleep rhythms are disturbed, may have up to 70 times greater risk of breast cancer. It also seems the chemical your body makes to repair damage to the stomach lining is secreted during sleep: going without could raise your risk of ulcers.
4. It can slow down aging
Persistent sleep debt has been shown to affect carbohydrate metabolism and hormone function in a way that may increase the severity of age-related chronic disorders. In fact a large-scale study concluded that people who sleep 6-7 hours a night lived longer than those sleeping less than 4-5 hours.
5. It could keep you on the straight and narrow
If you are a child, that is. The depression and low self-esteem often associated with just being a teenager actually correlate with sleep shortage. And young kids who sleep poorly are more than twice as likely to take to drink and drugs in adolescence.
Courtesy: RD Health, Reader’s Digest, January 2006, p.162
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