How Poor Sleep Could Be Ruining Your Health

Do you feel as though you are consistently cutting your sleep short? If so, then you may be seriously disrupting your brain, gut and heart health. Most people want to sleep well at night. After all, if you sleep well, then you may find that you have way more energy and that you are able to focus more too. You may also find that you are able to maintain your long-term health more as well. The body can usually cope with staying up late on the occasional basis, but if you feel as though you are depriving yourself consistently then there will be a price to pay. If you want to find out more, then simply look below.

Depression and Anxiety

Research has shown that people who have some kind of chronic insomnia are often at higher risk of conditions such as depression and even anxiety. Of course, you don’t need to have chronic insomnia for your mental health to be impacted. In fact, sometimes a few days without sleep can disrupt your mental health far more than you realise, so it is very important that you take the time to look after yourself. If you are a new mother, then not sleeping well can wreak havoc on your mind and your body. You may find that you become stressed much easier than normal and that this affects your ability to cope during the day. If you want to try and combat this, then you need to sleep when your baby sleeps, and make sleep a priority. If you can do this, then you will soon find that everything becomes easier, because you are more alert, and able to handle whatever comes your way as the day goes on. If you are having a hard time sleeping, even though you are constantly exhausted then it may be worth trying to contact a reliable online pharmacy. When you do, they can then advise you on the steps that you need to take in order to start taking better care of yourself. They can also prescribe you with something, which may help you to get that much-needed shut-eye.

Weight Gain

Laboratory research has shown time and time again that if you don’t get enough sleep then this can lead to major metabolic changes. If you don’t get enough sleep then you may find that your body tries to compensate this in other ways. You may overeat to try and get more energy, or you may find that you end up simply not being able to resist night-time snacking. If this sounds like you then you need to try and go to bed at the same time every day. You also need to try and avoid caffeinated beverages later in the day. If you can do this, then you will soon find that you are able to curb your weight gain while dealing with the issue at the source. The link between weight gain and lack of sleep is particularly strong in younger children. The Nurse Health Study surveyed 68,183 women who were all over the age of 16. Those who slept less than 5 hours a night, were 15% more likely to become obese.

Heart Disease and Stroke

Studies have also found that there is a connection between lack of sleep and heart problems. Those who have heart problems often don’t get enough sleep. Sleep fragmentation, which is repeated awakenings throughout the night, can lead to inflammation in the arteries and the heart. This especially affects the white blood cells in the body, neutrophils and monocytes. This then leads to more plaque building up. All of this can be avoided though if you simply take the right steps to focus more on sleep, so you can boost your physical health.

Cognitive Issues

The consequences of not getting enough sleep, or having a poor night’s sleep might not show up right away. Sometimes it takes a long time for issues like this to appear.  Researchers have found that the changes that happen later on in life look like Alzheimer’s disease. This is because the hippocampus is the part of the brain that is dedicated to learning, as well as memory. Older people who have less deep sleep when compared to others had far more tau protein in their body. This is strongly associated with the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. The same impact can sometimes be seen in younger individuals if the sleep deprivation is severe. There is also a lot of research that shows that sleep deprivation is linked with the increased production of the protein beta-amyloid. This has been linked time and time again to Alzheimer’s disease.

Sleep helps to Boost Immunity

If you feel as though you catch every single cold or flu virus going then your bedtime routine could easily be to blame. If you have prolonged lack of sleep then this can really impact your immune system, meaning that you will be able to fend off bugs less. This can appear in other ways though, such as you feeling like you are constantly low on energy and plagued by brain fog. If this is the case then it’s because your cognitive ability is slowing down because your brain is not firing off signals fast enough. If you want to stop this from affecting you in your day to day life, then you need to do what you can to try and get to bed at a reasonable hour every night. If you are going to bed early, but you are having a hard time actually sleeping, then it may be helpful for you to reduce screen time. If you are constantly staring at your phone while in bed, then this can trick your brain into thinking that it is not time for you to sleep yet. The blue light that is emitted by your phone stops melatonin from being produced. This is the hormone that controls your sleep and wake cycle, and it makes it much harder for you to get a good night’s sleep.