Sleep is health. Sleeping the necessary hours and ensuring that these are of quality, that is, achieving restful sleep, not only makes us not be tired the next day, but also prevents the development of mental and physical illnesses, enhances memory, stimulates the immune system and even helps lose weight.
But the most worrying of all is that, according to estimates, more than 50% of the world's population suffers from temporary insomnia with greater or lesser frequency . In other words, 1 in 2 people do not sleep well. And considering that we spend a third of our lives sleeping, it is clear that there is a problem here.
Therefore, with the aim of raising awareness about the importance of sleeping the necessary hours, in today's article we will analyze all (or almost all) the benefits that a restful sleep has on our physical and emotional health, as well as detailing what we understand by healthy sleep and what are the best strategies to achieve it.
How many hours do we have to sleep?
A healthy sleep is a state of absolute rest in which the necessary hours are slept and, in addition, these are of quality. Healthy sleep is restful sleep. And, as we will see later, working to achieve it is just as important for our physical and emotional health as taking care of our diet or playing sports.
When it comes to hours of sleep needed, there are no exact figures. This depends not only on age, but on each person. As a general rule, adults should sleep between 7 and 9 hours a day. Young people between ten and seventeen years old, between 8 hours and a half and 9 hours and a half. Children between five and ten years old need between 10 and 11 hours of sleep. Preschool children should sleep between 11 and 12 hours a day. And finally, newborns, between 16 and 18 hours.
Respecting these schedules is essential to allow a correct regeneration of the body, both physically and mentally, because it is while we sleep that our body (each and every one of the tissues and organs) is repaired.
And although there are people, especially adults, who feel good sleeping fewer hours than those set by the World Health Organization (WHO), these are exceptional cases. In virtually all circumstances, sleeping less than 6 hours a day has a huge impact on our health. If these schedules are respected, we will enjoy the benefits for our body of a healthy and restful sleep.
How can I get restful sleep?
As we have said, a healthy sleep does not only imply getting into bed at the time that allows us to have these 7-9 hours of sleep. In addition to respecting the schedules, we must do everything in our power to guarantee that the hours we sleep are really quality, that is, that we achieve a deep sleep.
And to achieve this, it is important to acquire healthy sleep habits. These strategies must be applied daily, because if they are done well, they will not only help to get the necessary hours of sleep, but will also increase the chances that we will get a truly restful sleep.
Both to fall asleep quickly and to make it quality, it is important that you follow the following tips: always go to sleep and wake up at the same time, play sports in moderation (and avoid doing it after 7 in the afternoon), monitor naps (not too late in the afternoon and never longer than half an hour), do not eat or drink much before going to sleep, sunbathe during the day, do not use mobile phones (or computers or tablets) before going to sleep , moderate caffeine consumption, avoid alcohol, don't smoke, block out noises in the room, keep the bedroom temperature between 15 and 22 °C, try to wake up with natural light, relax before bed...
Top health benefits of restful sleep
Now that we know the two factors (hours and quality) that we need to achieve restful sleep and that we have presented the best tips to achieve it, we can go on to analyze all the benefits that healthy sleep has on our physical and emotional health.
1. Improves mood
Few things have more influence on our mood than sleeping well (or poorly). And it is that due to the increase in energy that we experience when we have slept well, positive feelings are stimulated that have a direct impact on our emotional state. In the same way, when we have slept well, the synthesis of hormones such as serotonin is stimulated, which induce relaxation, happiness, joy, self-esteem, well-being...
2. Prevents anxiety and depression
As a result of this improvement in mood and emotional health, sleeping well helps prevent mood disorders such as anxiety and even depression. And it is that when we sleep badly, our ability to respond adequately to problems is affected, which leads us to suffer more stress, which opens the door to anxiety. And the same thing happens with depression, because having less energy stimulates negative feelings that, in serious cases, can lead to serious disorders.
3. Boost memory
We have long known that it is during the night, that is, when we sleep, that memories and learning are fixed in our minds. Thanks to the improvement in neurological health stimulated by sleeping well, we are able to memorize everything better, something with many benefits in our work, academic and personal life.
4. Stimulates muscle synthesis
Sleeping is part of the training of any athlete. And it is that the muscle develops especially when we sleep, because they grow when the injuries in the muscle fibers are repaired, which happens during the night. Therefore, sleeping well is essential to maintain healthy and strong muscles.
5. Boosts the repair of organs and tissues
But it's not just muscles that regenerate at night. Absolutely all other organs and tissues in the body have a higher rate of repair at night, since the body, not having to attend to physical or mental demands, can focus on regenerating cells and correcting damage. This explains why sleeping well improves the health of the entire body.
6. Improves mental abilities
In relation to what we mentioned before about the memory, sleeping well stimulates all the other mental abilities. When we rest properly, our neurological health improves, the brain is more active and we are more mentally ready to face the challenges of the day. Increases attention span, concentration, imagination, efficiency to solve problems...
7. Increases physical and mental performance
All this means that sleeping well makes us increase our physical and mental performance. And it is that we will feel with more energy in the body, which leads to stimulating mental energy, which, in turn, makes us be more physically active. And so in a totally positive energy cycle. People who sleep well are much more active at all levels, with all the benefits that this has at work, academic, personal (with friends, family, partner...) and sports.
8. Reduces fatigue
And that performance increases obviously implies that fatigue decreases. And we continue to talk on both a physical and mental level. People who sleep well are almost never tired, because they have the energy (and positivity) necessary to face everything that is thrown their way.
9. Reduces irritability
When we sleep well, being less tired and in a better mood, we are also less irritable. Problems affect us less and we do not "jump" at the minimum. This is essential to create a good atmosphere not only at work, but with your partner, friends, family...
10. Helps lose weight
Although it may seem unbelievable, sleeping well is just as important for maintaining our body weight as eating healthy or exercising. All studies show that people who sleep well, in addition to stimulating the correct functioning of the metabolism (the balance of calories is more effective, which reduces the risk of being overweight), are more likely to eat less during the day (since they have more energy, they don't need to eat as much) and, in addition, they choose healthier foods than those who sleep poorly. Therefore, getting a good night's sleep is one of the best strategies to prevent obesity.
11. Increase creativity
In relation to the improvement in mental abilities, it has been shown that people who sleep well are more creative than the rest. And it is that when we take care of our brain by sleeping the necessary hours, it "rewards" us by creating new and unusual neural connections, which leads us to have ideas that can help us in any area of our lives.
12. Lowers blood pressure
Sleeping well has also been shown to have beneficial effects on blood circulation, reducing blood pressure. In other words, getting healthy sleep also gets blood flowing at the right speed through our blood vessels, thus preventing the development of hypertension.
13. Prevents cardiovascular diseases
Thanks to this prevention of hypertension and the repair of organs that it stimulates (including the heart), sleeping well is one of the best strategies to reduce the risk of suffering from cardiovascular diseases, which are the main cause of death in the world. Circulatory diseases, heart attacks, heart failure, strokes... All these pathologies kill more than 15 million people each year and can be prevented by sleeping well, in addition to, of course, eating healthy and exercising.
14. Reduces the risk of cancer
Although it seems incredible, it is so. Especially in the case of breast and colorectal cancer, getting a good night's sleep is a good prevention strategy. Obviously, the quality of sleep is not one of the factors that most determines whether we will suffer from these diseases, but it has been seen to be important. Sleep well, eat healthy, do not expose yourself to carcinogens and play sports. This is the best way to prevent cancer.
15. Decreases the risk of type II diabetes
Sleep also has an influence on our endocrine health, that is, it has an impact on the system that synthesizes the hormones in our body. When we sleep well, we stimulate an improvement in the hormonal balance of the body, which explains why it is a good way to prevent the appearance of endocrine disorders, such as type 2 diabetes. It is a deadly chronic pathology that requires treatment of for life to avoid this death.
16. Improves kidney function
Kidney health also benefits from healthy sleep. And it is that the kidneys also regenerate when we sleep and, in addition, the positive effect on blood circulation also keeps them in a correct state. These organs are essential as they filter the blood and discard the toxic substances present in it, eliminating them from the body through urine. Therefore, sleeping well also prevents the development of kidney diseases, pathologies that endanger the person's life.
17. Protects bone health
Bones are more organs of our body. They are made up of living cells, so their health also depends on getting a good night's sleep. People who get a healthy sleep protect their bone structures more, thus preventing the development of diseases such as osteoporosis, a pathology in which the bones (precisely due to the difficulty of their cells to repair themselves) lose density, which makes more prone to fractures.
18. Boosts the immune system
The immune system is our main defense against pathogens in the environment. At all times, there are bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites with the sole purpose of colonizing one of our organs or tissues. And if they do so infrequently, it is precisely thanks to our body's immune cells, which detect and attack germs to prevent them from making us sick. When we sleep well, these cells also increase their performance, so we can say that healthy sleep also helps us fight infections, both by preventing them from happening and by making them disappear faster.
About the Creator
Faraz
I am psychology writer and researcher.
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