The Benefits of Sleep for Long-Term Health


Have you ever gone for 24 hours without sleep? How did you feel the next day? Tired, lacking concentration, irritable and with mood changes? Years of research indicates that regular sleep deprivation can increase the risk of having chronic diseases including diabetes, depression, obesity, and cardiovascular diseases.Sleep helps the body to rejuvenate. You are more attentive and productive after a good night's sleep. If anything is disturbing your sleep, then you better deal with it if you want to get more sleep and of good quality.  For instance, you can get sleep earplugs from Listening Stack to block noises that may be interfering with your sleep. On that note, here are the benefits of sleep for long term health.

1. Reduces the Risk of Heart Disease
In most cases, high blood pressure increases the chances of getting cardiovascular diseases such as stroke and heart attacks. Research has shown that when you get enough sleep, the blood pressure regulates itself since you are relaxed, therefore reducing the risk of getting heart disease.

2. Prevents Depression
Research has shown that lack of sleep and depression are linked. People who tend to have sleeping disorders and get poor quality sleep are likely to have mental health problems such as depression.It is a common fact that people who are depressed tend to commit suicide. A study that examined suicide in a period of 10 years found out that lack of sleep contributed to most of these deaths.When you get enough sleep, you prevent getting mental health problems such as depression. As you know, depression can affect your long term health.

3. Reduces Inflammation
When you get enough sleep, you reduce the chances of your body getting inflammation such as inflammatory bowel diseases. Studies have shown that lack of adequate sleep contributes to getting of inflammation diseases. Therefore, if you want to reduce inflammation and improve your long term health, make sure you get enough good quality sleep.

4. Helps To Fight Off Infection
Research has shown that sleep helps to fight infection. How is that possible?
When you sleep, the body regenerates, recovers and repairs. The body produces additional protein molecules that gives it more strength to fight infections. In the process, the immune system also becomes stronger and your body can fight off infections. Did you know that getting enough sleep can save you from developing a cold or make you recover faster? It is because when you sleep, your immune system becomes stronger. That is why if you have a cold or any other illness, you are advised to take more rest and get at least 8 hours of sleep.If your body can fight infections, it means that you remain healthy in the long term.

5. Prevents type 2 diabetes
Type 2 diabetes is a chronic disease that can affect your long term health. In an experiment, the lack of enough sleep has been shown to affect glucose metabolism and reducing insulin sensitivity. It has also been discovered that those who sleep for less than 6 hours a night have a higher risk of getting type 2 diabetes. A study was done where healthy adults slept only 4 hours a night for six consecutive days. They were found to have developed symptoms of prediabetes. These symptoms disappeared after a week of sleeping for more hours.Therefore, if you want to reduce the chances of developing type 2 diabetes, it's worth making sure you sleep for the recommended hours, which is at least 8 hours per night for an adult.