How Good Sleep Habits Improve Your Health and Well-Being
“Sleep is for the weak,” said no doctor ever. Because the opposite is true. If you want to be fit, healthy and strong — both emotionally and physically — you have to get plenty of shut-eye. The National Sleep Foundation recommends seven to nine hours of sleep per night for adults age between 26 and 64 years. However, more than a third of American adults don’t get as much sleep as they need.

“Multiple studies on health outcomes and sleep have made it clear that good quality sleep on a regular basis improves health and leads to a longer life,” said physician Dr. Kyle Varner.

When you start digging into the research, there’s no aspect of your health and well-being that isn’t affected by your sleep habits. From weight management to mental health to, of course, your work life, here are some reasons you really should go to sleep — and expert tips on how to do it.

Sleep Can Improve Your Heart Health

If you don’t get enough sleep, you might be putting your heart at risk. According to a study by the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, middle-aged men who sleep five hours or less per night have twice the risk of developing a major cardiovascular event during the following two decades than men who sleep between seven and eight hours.

However, too much sleep could lead to heart problems, too. Research led by McMaster University in Ontario, Canada found that people who slept a total of eight to nine hours a night had a 5-percent greater risk of suffering a major cardiovascular event than those who slept six to eight hours.

Expert sleep tip: Caffeine late in the day can have a negative effect on nighttime sleep, so don’t have coffee, soda or other caffeinated drinks after 3 p.m., says sleep specialist Whitney Roban, Ph.D.

Sleep Can Improve Weight Management

Sleep is crucial for weight management, and some studies even link inadequate sleep to obesity. By impacting appetite regulation, impairing glucose metabolism and increasing blood pressure, getting fewer than six hours sleep per night can lead to increased body mass index (BMI).

In one extensive review, children and adults with short sleep duration were respectively 89 percent and 55 percent more likely to become obese. Sleep disruption is believed to cause poor appetite regulation by interfering with the patterns of appetite hormones, such as ghrelin, the hormone that stimulates appetite, and leptin, the hormone that suppresses appetite.

Expert sleep tip: The blue light emitted from electronics tricks your brain into thinking it is day time. This leads to lower secretions of melatonin (the hormone that helps control your daily sleep-wake cycles) in the body, which makes it more difficult to fall asleep. Roban advises switching all electronics off at least one hour before bed.