Why sleeping is good for you

Sleep is one of the least appreciated human activities today. One of the most fundamental functions of life, it lets the body rest and restores its energy level.While sleep is still a mysterious phenomenon, scientists and doctors are one in saying that sleep is good for people.

What happens when we go to dreamland? Our body clock, also called circadian clock, is our inner time-keeping, temperature-fluctuating, enzyme-controlling device that sends us messages that it’s time to rest and turns off many of the bodily processes that keep us awake. We go through a sleep cycle that lets us drift in and out of consciousness and triggers changes in our bodily functions such as metabolism, hormone levels and blood pressure.

First, sleep helps us grow. Important hormone production is regulated during sleep while among children, the human growth hormone (HGH) is released during deep sleep. The skin also benefits from good sleeping habits because tissue repair occurs during snoozing, including repair to the daily skin damage caused by UV light. Studies show that people who sleep less than seven hours a night are more likely to be overweight or obese, because hormones that affect appetite are disrupted by lack of sleep.

Research also shows that immune functions increase during deep sleep. Healthy sleep helps prevent diseases plaguing our fast-paced, sleepless society. Worsening of blood pressure and cholesterol levels is attributed to lack of sleep, increasing the likelihood of heart disease and stroke. By producing melatonin that makes us heavy-eyed, the body can suppress the growth of tumors.

Lack of sleep also affects the production of serotonin, which is believed to play an important role in the inhibition of anger, aggression, body temperature, mood, sleep, vomiting, sexuality and appetite. Serotonin-deficient people are more likely to suffer from depression.

For some people, however, good sleep is hard to come by. Sleep deprivation is mostly triggered by medical conditions such as insomnia, stressful events like loss of a job or a transatlantic flight, or side effects of medications. Most of the time, loss of sleep is dictated by one’s lifestyle habits. People who can’t seem to put down the remote, log off the internet during the wee hours or cut down on their caffeine intake are likely to be sluggish, moody, irritable and unfocused.