The Role of Sleep in Overall Health and Well-being

In our society which tends to overemphasize hard work and deadlines, sleep is something that has become a luxury. However, this is the wrong attitude as sleep is one of the fundamental necessities in our life. Discussing its importance, relevance, sleep deprivation in conjunction with the different spheres of life, as well as simple do's and don’ts for enhancing your sleep will be the core focus of this paper.

What Muscle Recovery During Sleep Is Supported Medically

Sleep serves a purpose and like all other biological functions is essential for survival. We go through various phases in sleep, the basic and most important two are REM and Non REM. NREM has three stages and each stage has a specific purpose of focus and it varies from light to deep sleep. During sleep, there are certain stages which have more significance than the rest as the body recuperates.

• Stage 1: In stage one a person finds it relatively easy to wake up. This stage forms the first step towards sleep but is still fundamentally considered light.
• Stage 2: Once in this stage, sleep becomes more profound across stages starting with this. During stage two, one’s body temperature begins to decrease while the heart rate starts to fall as well.
• Stages 3 and 4: This stage is where muscle recovery starts to reach its peak while this is still expansion and growth phase respectively. This forms a huge part of the immune system’s functioning.
• REM Sleep: This stage of sleep is remarkable for its rapid eye movements, occurrence of dreams, and brain activity that is almost at the same level as that in waking. Relative to other functions, it is a stage most useful for memory processes as well as emotional processes.

Effects of Sleep on the Body

• Immune Defense: Sleep is said to be an important factor which improves the immune system such that the body has the capacity to prevent further infections. Long term lack of sleep is said to greatly inhibit the overall immune response further making one prone to diseases.
• Cardiovascular System: Poor sleep during the period of night is seen to have a correlation with heart diseases as well as life threatening hypertension. It is prominent that insufficient sleep will throw the normal functioning of blood pressure and heart rate off balance which can lead to severe conditions such as a stroke.
• Weight Control: Sleep deficiency may lead to imbalance in hormones that manage appetite and hunger, activating overeating of calorie-dense foods. This results in the increase of obesity in addition to unnecessary weight gain.
• Muscle Restoration and Development: Growth hormones necessary for muscle healing and growth are produced during slow sleep stages. For optimal performance and recovery and muscle healing growth, The active sportsman’s or physically active person’s sleep hours should be enough.

Effects of Sleep on the Mind

• Memory: Sleep is irreplaceable in the mentally directed tasks of remembering, learning, or even all types of solving problems. Interestingly, this is noted that REM sleep occurs so that dendrites' connections are strengthened which in turn aids new information acquisition and memory retention.
• Emotional Regulation: Stress and a bad mood may be the most mild consequences of not sleeping for long enough. This is because the body requires a minimum of 7 hours of sleep. In addition, emotional disorders like anxiety and depression have been discovered to be caused by sleep deprivation and chronic sleep problems so to cure this, the body needs to maintain emotional stability. 
• Decision Making and Risk assessment or Tolerance: People end up making poor decisions due to a lack of sleep because it inhibits the functions of the prefrontal cortex. Because of this loss of function, any patient suffering from this would find himself or herself engaged in poor decision making and high risk behaviors. 

Practical Tips for Better Sleep

• Keep a Sleep Schedule: To help your internal biological clock, consider waking up and going to bed at the same time every day so you don’t end up sleeping for longer than you should. Ideally, the sleep duration should be between 7-9 hours. 
• Develop a Relaxing Pre-sleep Routine: Calm down by reading, meditating or taking a shower and refrain from stimulating activities and screen time before bedtime. 
• Set up a Proper Sleeping Environment: A dark, quiet, and cooler bedroom are some fundamental requirements to promote sleep, along with a high-quality and comfortable mattress and pillows. 
• Cut Back on Caffeine and Alcohol: Both of them have the ability to disrupt the quality of sleep one experiences and therefore should be avoided at least 3 hours before going to bed. 
• Work Out More: Medical evidence suggests that vigorous physical activity should be avoided near the time of sleep as doing so would affect the quality of sleep.
• Relieve anxiety: Use yoga, deep breathing, or mindfulness techniques in order to decrease anxiety and aid sleep.

To summarize the information

Along with proper nutrition and regular exercise, sufficient sleep is also vital for health. Doing so definitely helps to improve endurance in terms of mental and emotional health. If you appreciate the importance of good sleep and learn how to have it more efficiently, you will feel better in general as well as lead a healthier life. In any case, let’s promise ourselves to recognize the importance of sleep and make it part of our everyday life.

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