Do you know there are several health problems associated to not getting enough sleep?
Sleep plays a vital role in our lives. It helps us decide on our health and well-being as chronic sleep deprivation leaves long-term impacts on our overall health. Cutting down on sleep worsen the heart health, mental state, gut health, etc.
Majority among us prefers going for sleep early as this helps in spending the next day better with energy. Getting enough sleep helps in making one feel better for the next day. Recent researches have also confirmed that getting good night sleep is even effective for maintaining good long-term health.
If one chooses to stay up late, the body is able to cope up. But when this happens frequently, one may need to pay for their health. One of the strongest evidence could be the fact when humans have not evolved sleeping outdoors any less even with risk of being attacked by wild animals anytime.
If going for sleep was never essential, one can theorize that every human would have evolved to sleep less. When taking it from the evolutionary perspective, sleeping is still important in every sense.
Related: 10 ways to sleep without medication
Poor quality sleep can be a result of our personal choices. These may include, extra caffeine intake, spending more time in bed, depression, insomnia, or any medication side effects. No matter what, poor sleep is just not good for health.
“Adults should sleep at least 7 or more hours per night for a healthy living”- American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society.
Health problems associated to not getting enough sleep
- Anxiety
When you do not sleep enough, depression and anxiety is something very common to have. As per the researches, people sleeping less do have higher rate of depression and anxiety. Around 15-20% of the population today have major depression.
Do you know that there is a major relationship between mood and sleep and is complex? This means that depression and anxiety can worsen sleep and not getting enough sleep negatively affects the mood. In a Journal of cellular and molecular medicine, Insomnia adds risk of getting depression in every age group.
Most of the time there are several treatments needed to assist with sleeping issues. Getting insomnia treated has a lot of positive effect on the mood.
- Risk of type 2 diabetes
Not getting enough sleep is also associated to poorer blood sugar control in people either with or without diabetes. When one do not sleep much, there is a risk of developing diabetes. Studies have confirmed that insomnia may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes and the current percentage is 17%.
- Obesity
When you don’t take enough sleep, this may also be lead to metabolic changes linked with obesity. According to the latest observational studies, it is found that there is a link between chronic metabolic disorder and sleep. This has also been confirmed via CDC. This is a much stronger link in children.
The Nurses’ Health Study shows that women over 16 years of age who take an average 5 hour of sleep are likely to develop obesity in comparison to others. And women who slept less than 5 hours have 30% likely to gain 30 pounds, compared to those who slept longer.
- Heart disease, stroke, and hypertension
Lack of sleep is associated with heart functioning as well. Researches have found that stroke is a common thing for people who do not take proper sleep. Even the study published in June 2020 showed that worse sleep can be harmful to the heart. This has reflected that sleep fragmentation is linked with buildup of inflammation in the arteries that may lead to atherosclerosis. Furthermore, there is also a risk of hypertension and heart attack.
- Kidney problems
Such a relationship is not so common. But a preliminary studies have shown the relationship between kidney and sleep needs to be explored more.
One of the researches published in Mayo clinic have shown that chronic insomnia was linked with the buildup and progression of chronic kidney disease. But this isn’t the end-stage renal disease or death from any cause.
There are many other health troubles linked to proper sleep, including, alzhiemer’s disease, gut health, etc.! Sleep on time for maintaining a healthy lifestyle!
