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Getting a good night’s rest is an essential aspect of achieving overall wellness. We need quality sleep for optimal health because it serves as the time when the body can heal and repair itself. It also impacts many of your bodily functions—including your mood, mental clarity, immune system, weight, and overall health.
The Science of Sleep
While you sleep, your body cycles through four stages known as non-REM and REM sleep. REM stands for rapid eye movement. During REM sleep, your eyes move around quickly yet don’t send any visual information to the brain. During non-REM sleep, your muscles relax, your blood pressure and breathing lower, and you have the deepest sleep. Non-REM is the period in which your body will repair itself, your immune system will be strengthened, and your tissue, bones, and muscle are strengthened.
About 90 minutes after falling asleep, you should enter REM sleep, when your brain will become more active, your breathing and heart rate will peak, and you will experience more intense dreams. REM is vital to stimulating your brain to help with learning and retaining information. The ability of the body to cycle through the stages of non-REM and REM sleep is vital for a restful night and overall health.
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Sleep Quality vs. Quantity
Sleep is the foundation of nearly every aspect of your health, from your focus, your mood, your energy levels, and your correlation to diseases. So not only is it essential to get enough sleep, but it is also important to get quality rest.
If you have a hard time falling asleep, you regularly wake up during the night, or you feel tired and restless throughout the day, you are likely not getting the high-quality sleep that your body needs for optimal health and wellness. Quality sleep is achieved when your body cycles through the four stages of non-REM and REM sleep, as detailed above. The cycling through these stages allows your body to repair itself and fully achieve a good night’s rest.
Even if you get a solid 8 hours of sleep, if you still wake up feeling restless, your body is likely not reaching the deep sleep you need. Fortunately, getting better quality sleep may be as easy as improving your night-time habits that we will detail in next week’s blog.
Sleep for Optimal Health
Individuals who suffer from sleep deprivation can experience adverse side effects related to their health over time. When we talk about being sleep deprived, we refer to not going through enough REM and non-REM sleep cycles. As mentioned above, this ultimately affects your ability to function at your optimal point throughout the day.
When you do not get enough sleep each night, your risk of developing diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, arthritis, an overactive thyroid, and obesity increases significantly. Many studies have shown sleep deprivation increases risk of heart disease by nearly 50 percent and triples the risk of type 2 diabetes.
