The importance of your sleep
30th December 2015
Slumber Centre
We are all always making promises to look after ourselves better. Along with improving your diet and doing more exercise, you should not overlook the importance of your sleep. The quality of sleep we get is directly linked to our mental and physical health, as well as our quality of life, but so many of us do not give it a second thought.
There have been numerous studies carried out which investigates the link between a lack of sleep, and serious health issues including diabetes, heart attacks and heart disease, as well as obesity. Sleep even plays a role in weight control, and those that experience a reduction in sleep have been found to have an increased risk of weight gain. Studies have found this can be attributed to the behavioural choices you make when you are over-tired – i.e. when you are tired, you are more likely to eat convenience food rather than cooking from scratch. As well the impact this has on your behavioural choices, sleep loss can also have an impact on your hormones. The hormone leptin plays a role in how full you feel, so if you aren’t getting enough sleep and the level of leptin drops, you will be hungrier.
Sleep also has a strong link to your memory. When we are asleep, we consolidate all the information that we have learnt throughout the day, whether that be the new memories we have created, or the new skills that we have learnt. Ensuring we get enough, good quality sleep can aid our memory. Plus, we all know how irritable we can be when we are tired.
These are just some of the reasons why you should focus on the importance of your sleep, for your mental and physical well-being. The quality of our sleep directly affects how we feel when we are awake, so make sleep your health priority by investing in a quality mattress that perfectly supports your spine as you sleep.
