July 12, 2023 BY
IN Cursemuscle

 sleep is as important for good health as diet and exercise. Good sleep improves your brain performance, mood, and health.

Not getting enough quality sleep regularly raises the risk of many diseases and disorders. These range from heart disease and stroke to obesity and dementia.

A good night’s sleep is just as important as regular exercise and a healthy diet.

Research shows that poor sleep has immediate negative effects on your hormones Trusted Source, exercise performance Trusted Source, and brain function Trusted Source.

It can also cause weight gain and increase disease risk in both adults and children.

In contrast, good sleep can help you eat less, exercise better, and be healthier.

Over the past few decades, both sleep quality and quantity has declined. In fact, many people regularly get poor sleep.

If you want to optimize your health or lose weight, getting a good night’s sleep is one of the most important things you can do.

 

16 Proven Tips to Sleep Better at Night

1. Increase bright light exposure during the day

2. Reduce blue light exposure in the evening

3. Reduce blue light exposure in the evening

4.Reduce irregular or long daytime naps

5.Try to sleep and wake at consistent times

6.Take a melatonin supplement

7.Don’t drink alcohol

8.Optimize your bedroom environment

9.Set your bedroom temperature

10. Don’t eat late in the evening

11. Relax and clear your mind in the evening

12.Take a relaxing bath or shower

13.Rule out a sleep

14. Get a comfortable bed, mattress, and pillow disorder

15.Exercise regularly — but not before bed

16.Don’t drink any liquids before bed

Why Is Sleep Important?

Sleep plays a vital role in good health and well-being throughout your life. The way you feel while you are awake depends in part on what happens while you are sleeping. During sleep, your body is working to support healthy brain function and maintain your physical health.

In children and teens, sleep also helps support growth and development. Getting inadequate sleep over time can raise your risk for chronic (long-term) health problems. It can also affect how well you think, react, work, learn, and get along with others. Learn how sleep affects your heart and circulatory system, metabolism, respiratory system, and immune system and how much sleep is enough.

Heart and circulatory system

When you fall asleep and enter non-REM sleep, your blood pressure and heart rate fall. During sleep, your parasympathetic system controls your body, and your heart does not work as hard as it does when you are awake. During REM sleep and when waking, your sympathetic system is activated, increasing your heart rate and blood pressure to the usual levels when you are awake and relaxed. A sharp increase in blood pressure and heart rate upon waking has been linked to angina, or chest pain, and heart attacks.

People who do not sleep enough or wake up often during the night may have a higher risk of:

  • Coronary heart disease
  • High blood pressure
  • Obesity
  • Stroke

Hormones and sleep

Your body makes different hormones at different times of day. This may be related to your sleep pattern or your circadian clocks. In the morning, your body releases hormones that promote alertness, such as cortisol, which helps you wake up. Other hormones have 24-hour patterns that vary throughout your life; for example, in children, the hormones that tell the glands to release testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone are made in pulses at night, and the pulses get bigger as puberty approaches.

Metabolism and sleep

The way your body handles fat varies according to various circadian clocks, including those in the liver, fat, and muscle. For example, the circadian clocks make sure that your liver is prepared to help digest fats at appropriate times. Your body may handle fat differently if you eat at unusual times.

Studies have shown that not getting enough quality sleep can lead to:

  • Higher levels of the hormones that control hunger, including leptin and ghrelin, inside your body
  • Decreased ability to respond to insulin
  • Increased consumption of food, especially fatty, sweet, and salty foods
  • Decreased physical activity
  • Metabolic syndrome

Respiratory and immune systems

During sleep, you breathe less often and less deeply and take in less oxygen. These changes can cause problems in people who have health problems such as asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Asthma symptoms are usually worse during early morning sleep. Likewise, breathing problems in people who have lung diseases such as COPD can become worse during sleep.

Sleep also affects different parts of your immune system, which become more active at different times of day. For example, when you sleep, a particular type of immune cell works harder. That is why people who do not sleep enough may be more likely to get colds and other infections.