According to the National Sleep Foundation, which updated its sleep recommendations in early 2015, young adults (ages 18 to 25) and adults (ages 26 to 64) should get 7 to 9 hours of sleep, but not less than 6 hours or more. 10 hours (for adults) or 11 hours (for young adults). Older adults (65 years and older) should receive 7 to 8 hours of sleep, but not less than 5 hours and not more than 9 hours.
With all the responsibilities we face as professionals, academics, and family members, getting the recommended amount of sleep can be difficult. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that lack of sleep is a public health problem.
Many studies have shown that getting enough sleep is important for our health. According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, people with sleep deficiency are at increased risk of many health complicationssuch as heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, and obesity.
Research over the last decade has documented that sleep disturbance has a powerful influence on the risk of infectious diseases, the onset and progression of several major medical illnessesincluding cardiovascular disease and cancer, and the incidence of depression.
sleep cycles
Sleep is first and foremost a behavior, which is characterized by changes in body posture and the state of the eyes. Sleep architecture measures categorically divide sleep in two main phases, non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and REM sleepwith an additional subdivision of sleep NREM in stages 1, 2, 3 and 4.
In humans, the transition from wakefulness to sleep occurs upon entering NREM sleep and a subsequent transition to REM sleep. After a period of REM sleep, a brief awakening may occur before re-entering NREM sleep. Over the course of the night, four to six cycles of NREM to REM sleep typically occur, with each cycle lasting between 80 and 110 minutes.
Benefits of a good sleep
Improves inflammation levels
The sympathetic nervous system activation and β-adrenergic signaling they activate the inflammatory cascade to induce increases in NF-κB, expression of inflammatory genes, and production of proinflammatory cytokines.
Since normal nocturnal sleep is associated with a drop in sympathetic outflowa biological mechanism to explain the associations between sleep disturbance, short sleep duration, and increased markers of inflammation is the activation of sympathetic effector pathways.
Sleep and sleep depth regulate sympathetic output. In the transition from wakefulness to sleep, there is a switch from sympathetic to parasympathetic outflow, which depends on the stage of sleep and the depth of sleep.
Reduces the chances of suffering from cardiovascular diseases
Inflammation has been found to play a critical role in mediating all stages of atherosclerosis, from its onset to the progression of cardiovascular disease.
Those who report sleep problems and/or get little sleep appear to be at increased risk of cardiovascular disease. For example, a recent meta-analysis found that short sleep duration, as well as complaints about maintaining sleep and waking up early in the morning, but not difficulty falling asleep, predicted an increased risk of hypertension.
A bad sleep also generates an increase in insulin resistance, which would also exacerbate hypertensiongreatly increasing the chances of suffering from a disease related to the blood vessels or the heart itself.
Lowers insulin resistance and chances of type 2 diabetes
As mentioned above, a bad sleep is capable of generating an increase in insulin resistance. In addition, sleeping worse also means that our prefrontal cortex is not able to efficiently inhibit impulses from the brain, and that It can cause us to eat more calories throughout the day and also eat worse.
This is a cocktail so that in the future, we will not only have a great resistance to insulin, but also type 2 diabetes. As you can see, not only diet and sport influence some disordersbut sleep also plays a great role in reducing the chances of suffering from it.
Reduces the chances and aggressiveness of cancer
Inflammation is increasingly thought to play a prominent role in cancer incidence and recurrence. Elevated levels of CRP and other markers of inflammation are prospectively associated with increases in mortality and morbidity from cancer at specific sites in the lung, colorectal, liver, and prostate, especially in men. Furthermore, lack of sleep appears to be a prognostic factor predicting breast cancer recurrence.
Circadian rhythm disturbances (i.e. shift work) and concurrent sleep disturbances are implicated in cancer risk. Shift work and circadian disruption contribute to a modification of circadian genes, which serve as regulators that affect the expression of many cancer-related genes and are involved in the regulation of cell division and DNA repair.
Therefore, it is well documented that a lack of sleep It also affects the chances of getting cancer, a group of terrible diseases that kills millions of people every year.
Reduces depressive symptoms and the chances of suffering from it
There are multiple links between lack of sleep and depression. First, in patients with a sleep disorder, depressive comorbidity is high. Secondly, inflammatory markers from sleep deprivation are elevated in depressed individuals compared to the non-depressed. Third, the experimental activation of inflammation induces an increase in depressive symptomss along with the activation of brain sites that regulate positive and negative affect. Finally, have a good dream allows the person to have a higher executive function in his life, which provides an increase in emotional well-being.
Insomnia symptoms, including difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep, often coincide with depression. Nevertheless, insomnia is not simply a symptom of depressionbut may play a role in predicting the incidence of depression.
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