 When
looking at how our bodies work, we tend to try to discover connections between
all aspects of life and our health and weight. One facet of life that has
been shown to affect weight loss is sleep. A vast majority of the population
admits to being sleep deprived, and it comes as no surprise at all. With the
busy lives we lead in today's world, it becomes harder and harder to get a
full night's sleep on a regular basis. With this decline in rest, most people
remain unaware of the effect that this shortage of shut-eye can have on their
health and body performance. Not to say that people don't realize that being
tired makes you slow, but the effects can reach many more aspects of daily
life and can greatly affect your health and even your weight.
Our bodies are very sensitive, and the wide array of tasks it needs to perform
constantly requires a large amount of energy and awareness. The concept of
calorie balance applies strongly here, as the amount of calories we consume
directly feeds our body functions and our brain functions. If our brains are
not fed, they won't function optimally. Likewise, if they are not rested,
they will not function properly.
Sleep is defined as a state of the body which involves several aspects of
body activities. These include, but are not limited to, increased cellular
repairing and renewal, decreased deterioration of cells, a major reduction
in physical movement and minor reactions to stimuli such as noise and such.
Most of us already know how sleep feels and how we are (we're sleeping). Yet
the importance of sleep and its effects are not quite fully understood by
many.
Most people have heard that the best length for sleep is eight hours per day.
This has been stated by several expert organizations and health departments.
Tests have shown that with 8 hours of sleep people perform higher on tests,
physical activities, and have a stronger immune system which makes them less
likely to get sick. The state of sleep is split into two forms, REM and NREM.
REM, or rapid eye movement, is a state of sleep that differs from non-rapid
eye movement sleep on a level that concerns nervous system activity. The body
alternates between these two modes, and studies have shown that the body can
be deprived of one for a period of time, and if this happens, it will compensate
and increase the length of the suppressed mode during the next opportunity the
body has to sleep.
There are countless aspects to sleep, with almost all of them being studied
by scientists as you read this. The information we obtain about how our bodies
relate to sleep helps us to maximize the benefits we obtain from it and minimize
the damage we can do through not respecting the ways our bodies extract the
benefits of proper sleep.
Going over the various effects of sleep on our bodies, we see countless effects
that can be derived from proper and dysfunctional sleep patterns. Good sleep
habits have been proven to have restorative effects on the entire body. This
is to say that the activities that take place in the body during sleep include
several which work to replace older or damaged cells with new or healthy cells
at an accelerated pace. Since multiple body functions are reduced or stopped
during sleep, the body can focus on specific tasks such as regeneration. With
good sleep, the body is able to rejuvenate a vast number of areas within the
body. Hormone production, brain ability, neuron production, nervous system communication
and health, muscular strength and health, and bone strength and health are all
affected by sleep habits.
The body responds to sleep habits on a micro level, as staying up all night
one day will decrease your functioning drastically the next day. This is due
to the deficiency of hormones, etc from lack of sleep. The body can stay awake
with the release of various substances that provoke a waking of functions, but
it is by no means full capacity. Meanwhile, the body can be harmed greatly from
disrupted sleep patterns, especially when they occur in early stages of development.
In order to alter your sleep patterns, it is recommended to try a gradual method,
involving going to bed about an hour before your usual time. Gradually, continue
to reduce the time by small increments until you reach a more suitable hour.
Your body's internal clock can only respond to either gradual shifts or through
a "shock" method. You may attempt shocking your body into a new pattern.
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