By – Mg. Han Tin
SLEEPING is a basic human need, like eating, drinking, and breathing. Sleep is the third pillar of good health, diet, and exercise. Sleeping is vital for good health and well-being throughout our lifetime. Sleep has an influence on metabolism and hormone production (including hormones that regulate appetite and satiety). Sleep allows both the body and brain to recover during the night. A good night’s rest ensures that we’ll feel refreshed and alert when we wake up in the morning. Sleep plays a vital role in our mental and physical well-being. Different processes that occur during sleep help to promote healthy brain activity and maintain good overall health. Sleep is also a key for proper growth and development for children and teenagers.
Sleep deprivation is a condition that occurs if we don’t get enough sleep and sleep sessions are irregular or short. It is strongly linked to developing diseases and an overall increase in premature death (like smoking, a terrible diet, and not exercising enough.)
Sleep deficiency is a broader concept. It occurs if we have one or more of the following:
We don’t get enough sleep (sleep deprivation).
We sleep at the wrong time of day.
We don’t sleep well or get all the different types of sleep our body needs.
We have a sleep disorder that prevents us from getting enough sleep or causes poor-quality sleep.
Sleep deficiency will not only leave us feeling tired but can increase our risk for a wide range of diseases and health problems. Sleep deficiency is linked to many chronic physical and mental health problems, including heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, obesity, depression, bipolar disorder and even schizophrenia. Sleep deficiency can interfere with work, school, driving, and social functioning. We might have trouble learning, focusing, and reacting. Also, we might find it hard to judge other people’s emotions and reactions. Sleep deficiency also can make us feel frustrated, quick-tempered, or worried in social situations.
Poor sleep may have damaging effects on the brain, increasing the risk of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, and mood disorders like depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder characterized by an acute emotional response to a traumatic event or situation involving severe environmental stress, such as a natural disaster, aeroplane crash, serious automobile accident, military combat, or physical torture.
In the right conditions, the brain produces a signal that essentially tells the body’s major systems – the heart, the lungs, the digestive system, the nervous system, even the muscles - that it’s time to call for the day and quit. (In some people with chronic sleep problems, that critical signal isn’t firing.) The brain and body need downtime to recuperate after the day’s activity. Therefore, sleep is the single most effective thing we can do to reset our brain and body for health. While the body appears to rest during sleep, a whole lot is happening inside the brain. Neurons pulse with electrical signals that wash over the brain in a rhythmic flow. During the day, the brain uses energy resources to fire neurons. Our brain is made up of billions of cells called neurons (Electrical cells within the nervous system specialized in sending and receiving signals.) Our neurons carry information in the form of electrical pulses. Neurons communicate with each other and the rest of our body at particular meeting points called synapses (Neuron communication junctions where vesicle (blister) fusion releases chemical signals.)
Neurons send and receive electrical signals to communicate with each other in the nervous system and with other types of cells in the body, particularly muscles. At one end, neurons have branch-like projections called dendrites that allow them to receive signals. One neuron sends the signal (the sender neuron), and the other receives it (the receiver neuron). The long “trunk” of the neuron is called the axon, down which the long-distance electrical signal travels. At the end of the axon is a special communication junction called a synapse. The synapse links the end of the axon in one neuron to a dendrite in a second neuron. There is a very narrow space between the neurons through which a communication signal passes from the sender neuron to the receiver neuron.
At night, a switch turns on so the sleeping brain can take advantage of the metabolic downtime to do some cleaning up. All the while, brain cells contract, opening up the spaces between them so that fluid can wash out to clean out the brain, quite literally, of the toxic detritus (accumulating debris) that can cause all kinds of problems if it builds up. Without that nightly wash cycle, dangerous toxins can damage healthy cells and interfere with their ability to communicate with one another. In the short term, that can impede memory formation and the ability to coherently compose our thoughts and regulate our emotions. Over time, the consequences can be catastrophic. Lack of sleep can lead to faster ageing of brain cells, contributing to diseases like Alzheimer’s.
If we regularly lose sleep or choose to sleep less than needed, the sleep loss adds up. The total sleep lost is called our sleep debt. For example, if we lose 2 hours of sleep each night, we’ll have a sleep debt of 14 hours after a week. Some people nap to deal with sleepiness. Naps may give a short-term boost in alertness and per formance. However, napping doesn’t supply all the other benefits of nighttime sleep, so we can’t really make up for lost sleep. Some people sleep more on their days off than on workdays. They also may go to bed and wake up later on days off. Sleeping more on days off might be a sign that we aren’t getting enough sleep. Although extra sleep on days off might help us feel better, it can upset our body’s sleep-wake rhythm. Napping during the day may boost our alertness and performance. However, if we have trouble falling asleep at night, limit naps or take them earlier in the afternoon. Adults should nap for no more than 20 minutes.
High-quality sleep (the deep, restorative kind of rest) can have a direct bearing (connection) on the health of those with mental illness. Sleep has some real biological benefits. We sleep to remember, and we sleep to forget. It is called overnight therapy. This type of processing takes time. It likely happens only during deep, quality sleep and over consistent nights of such sleep. Getting enough quality sleep at the right times can help protect our mental health, physical health, quality of life, and safety. The amount of sleep we need each day will change over the course of our life. Although sleep needs vary from person to person, the chart below shows general recommendations for different age groups.
Getting a good night’s sleep is incredibly important for our health. Indeed, it’s just as important as eating a balanced, nutritious diet and exercising. Sleep deprivation can put our health and safety at risk, which is why it’s essential for us to prioritize and protect our sleep on a daily basis. Sleep plays an important role in our physical health. Good-quality sleep:
1. May help maintain or lose weight: Prioritizing sleep may support healthy body weight. Short sleep duration is associated with an increased risk of developing obesity and weight gain. Sleep deprivation may increase our appetite and cause us to eat more calories. In particular, we’re more likely to eat foods high in sugar and fat.
2. Can improve concentration and productivity: Sleep is vital for various aspects of brain function. Cognition, concentration, productivity, and performance are all negatively affected by sleep deprivation. Good sleep can maximize problem-solving skills and enhance memory. In contrast, poor sleep has been shown to impair brain function and decision making skills.
3. Can maximize athletic performance: Getting enough sleep has been shown to improve many aspects of athletic and physical performance.
4. May strengthen our heart: Sleep heals and repairs our heart and blood vessels. Sleeping fewer than seven hours per night is linked to an increased risk of heart disease and high blood pressure.
5. Affects sugar metabolism (how our body reacts to insulin) and type2 diabetes risks: Short sleep is associated with a greater risk of developing type2 diabetes and insulin resistance – which is when our body cannot use the hormone insulin properly. Sleep deficiency results in a higher-than-normal blood sugar level that may raise our risk of diabetes. Many studies show a strong association between chronic sleep deprivation and the risk of developing type2 diabetes.
6. Helps support a healthy balance of the hormones that make us feel hungry (ghrelin) or full (leptin): When we don’t get enough sleep, our level of ghrelin goes up, and your level of leptin goes down. This makes us feel hungrier than when we’re well-rested.
7. Poor sleep is linked to depression: Mental health concerns, such as depression, are strongly linked to poor sleep quality and sleeping disorders. Poor sleeping patterns are strongly linked to depression, particularly among those with a sleeping disorder.
8. Supports a healthy immune system: Ongoing sleep deficiency can change the way our body’s natural defence against germs and sickness responds. For example, if we’re sleep-deficient, we may have trouble fighting common infections. Getting at least 7 hours of sleep can improve our immune function and help fight the common cold.
9. Poor sleep is linked to increased inflammation: Poor sleep can have a major effect on inflammation in the body. Inflammation is the body’s natural defence system against injury or invading microbes like bacteria and viruses. But inflammation can also become chronic, and that’s when the real trouble starts. Chronic inflammation is a leading driver of many developing chronic conditions diseases, including some cancers, cognitive decline, heart disease, Type2 diabetes, depression, Alzheimer’s disease and chronic pain. One of the main drivers of chronic inflammation is not sleeping enough. Sleep disturbance is linked to higher levels of inflammation.
10. Supports healthy growth and development: Deep sleep triggers the body to release the hormone that promotes average growth in children and teens. This hormone also boosts muscle mass and helps repair cells and tissues in children, teens and adults. Sleep also plays a role in puberty and fertility
Making time to sleep will help you protect your health and well-being now and in the future. To improve our sleep habits:-
• Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. Try to keep the same sleep schedule on weeknights and weekends. Stick to a sleep schedule. Set aside no more than eight hours for sleep.
• Keep our bedroom quiet, cool, and dark.
• Limit daytime naps.
• Avoid nicotine (for example, cigarettes) and caffeine (including caffeinated soda, coffee, tea, and chocolate).
• Take a hot bath or use relaxation techniques before bed.
• Pay attention to what we eat and drink. Avoid heavy or oversized meals within a few hours of bedtime. But don’t go to bed hungry or stuffed.
• Include physical activity in your daily routine.
• Manage worries.
There’s still much about sleep that causes to feel puzzled scientists, particularly about what goes wrong for so many of us, night after night. We all - Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night. Sleep is that golden chain that ties health and our bodies together. Every one of us had heard about the Benjamin Franklin’s early bedtime quote, “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise”. The mechanism for rising early is to have been well-rested by going to bed early. The saying emphasizes that someone who gets enough sleep and starts work early in the day will have a successful life.
