How Important is Sleep?
Sleep has an important role in your physical health especially in healing and repair of vital organs like your heart and blood vessels. Ongoing sleep deprivation is linked to an increase in Heart and Kidney diseases. It has the potential to increase Blood Pressure as well as being more susceptible to diabetes and strokes. We need 7-8 hours of sleep per night.
SLEEP AND THE BRAIN – Sleep restores brain chemicals as well as rests the body. The brain is directly responsible for organizing and storing memories while we sleep. Daytime function is also affected through lack of sleep as well as hormonal balancing, appetite and keeping your immune system strong and healthy.
SLEEP AND MENTAL HEALTH – Sleep is as important to our health as eating, drinking and breathing. During deep sleep our body repairs and slows our brain to process information. Poor sleep or light sleep is linked to many physical problems in the body such as a weak immune system and various mental issues such as anxiety and depression. After good sleep we tend to perform better on memory tasks and physical challenges. So long periods of sleep is required to restore, rejuvenate, grow muscle and repair tissue which is very important for physical exercise.
SLEEP AND MUSCLE – Sleep increases protein synthesis which helps in muscle growth. During deep sleep our blood pressure drops, breathing slows and blood flow moves to the muscles and repairs tissue. Human growth hormones are also secreted which aid in muscle health and growth. Your body is primed to build muscle two times a day – right after your workout and during deep sleep. It is important to get REM or deep sleep as growth hormone has its biggest surge during this time.
SLEEP AND WEIGHT LOSS – We have two chemicals in our body (ghrelin and leptin) that stimulate hunger and also help in burning fat and calories. Sleep deprivation makes this almost impossible as these two chemicals are only produced by the body when we are in REM.
As a gym person who works out weekly it is so important to get good deep sleep so all the right processes can take place within the brain and muscle tissue aiding in a strong immune system and healthy body…
Graham
