Sleep plays an important role in your physical health. For example, sleep is involved in healing and repair of your heart and blood vessels. Ongoing sleep deficiency is linked to an increased risk of heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and stroke. Here are 3 ways on how to improve your sleeping quality.
First of all, sleep is important for various aspects of brain function.This includes cognition, concentration, productivity, and performance
All of these are negatively affected by sleep deprivation. A study on medical interns provides a good example.
Interns on a traditional schedule with extended work hours of more than 24 hours made 36% more serious medical errors than interns on a schedule that allowed more sleep. Another study found that short sleep can negatively impact some aspects of brain function to a similar degree as alcohol intoxication. On the other hand, good sleep has been shown to improve problem-solving skills and enhance memory performance of both children and adults.
The second reason to have a better quality sleep is that mental health issues, such as depression, are strongly linked to poor sleep quality and sleeping disorders. It’s been estimated that 90% of people with depression complain about sleep quality. Poor sleep is even associated with an increased risk of death by suicide.
Those with sleeping disorders like insomnia or obstructive sleep apnea also report significantly higher rates of depression than those without.
The last reason on why you should have a better sleeping schedule is that even a small loss of sleep has been shown to impair immune function. One large 2-week study monitored the development of the common cold after giving people nasal drops with the cold virus. They found that those who slept less than 7 hours were almost 3 times more likely to develop a cold than those who slept 8 hours or more. If you often get colds, ensuring that you get at least 8 hours of sleep per night could be very helpful. Eating more garlic can help as well.
In conclusion, along with nutrition and exercise, good sleep is one of the pillars of health. You simply cannot achieve optimal health without taking care of your sleep. You can simply ask yourself : am i sleeping less than 7 hours a night? Do I wake up a lot during the night? If the answer is yes, maybe you should start prioritizing your sleep.
Word count: 429
Error count: 2
Error density: 1%