Sleep As Medicine – The Many Health Benefits Of A Good Night’s Sleep

There are few things as refreshing and energizing as a good night’s sleep. Unfortunately, not everyone gets the recommended 7 to 9 hours of sleep on a daily basis. This leads to a variety of health problems, including an inability to concentrate and heightened stress levels. As doctors have spent more time analyzing sleep and its affect on health, however, they have discovered that serious medical problems can be address by using sleep as medicine.

 

One way that sleep acts a medicine is by relieving stress levels that can lead to life threatening health problems. This is mostly due to the fact that stress can bring on high blood pressure which makes a person susceptible to heart attack and stroke. Body inflammation is also commonly experience by people who are sleep deprived, a condition that also puts a person at a high risk for heart attack or stroke. Depression, which has also been correlated with heart attack and stroke, is frequently observed in individuals who sleep little.

 

Sleep studies have also shown that people who get at least 7 hours of sleep each night have a stronger, healthier immune system that is more able to resist infections and viruses such as the common cold. What many people may simply consider a coincidence is true; you are more likely to become ill and will have a harder time overcoming illness if you do not sleep well. 

 

Not sleeping enough each night has a notable effect on the body’s hormone levels related to the appetite, specifically the hormones leptin and ghrelin. A disruption in the healthy balance of these hormones puts a person at a higher risk for becoming overweight or obese. Obesity can lead to a host of health problems, so sleep can actually be considered a type of medicine that aids health weight loss.