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Why do we need to sleep?

Sleep isn’t limited to recharging your body, there’s a whole lot more that goes on when you’re whisked away into dreamland.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, one of the vital roles of sleep is to help us solidify and consolidate memories. As you go about your day, your brain takes in a huge amount of information. Rather than being directly logged and recorded; facts and experiences need to first be processed and stored. Many of these processes happen while you sleep.

The neuroscience of sleep

According to Russell Foster, a professor of Circadian Neuroscience at the University of Oxford, your brain doesn’t shut down when you’re asleep. In fact, some parts are more active during the sleep stage. Sleep arises from different interactions of the brain and not just one part of it. It’s turned on and off as a result of a range of interactions.

Do we have to sleep?

Most certainly; sleep is an active period in which a lot of important processing, restoration, and strengthening happens. Critical functions take place while you’re asleep. How your body is programmed for long periods while asleep is still somewhat a mystery; but you need sleep for optimal health and wellbeing.

Sleeping at night enhances our creativity. Important neural connections are linked and strengthened.

How much sleep do we really need?

Healthy sleep is important for everyone because it helps us retain information and learning skills. While adults need seven to nine hours of sleep per night, one-year-olds roughly need 11 to 14 hours, school-age children between nine and 11, and teenagers between eight and 10. During periods of growth and learning, younger children need a heavy dose of slumber for development and alertness.

Don’t abandon sleep

Sleep deprivation leads to overall poor judgement in your daily life. A tired brain will crave stimulants like drugs, caffeine and nicotine because it will try to fuel the waking state. While drinking alcohol may seem to be the way to “help” with the transition to sleep, it doesn’t necessarily provide sleep, it actually sedates you. This is harmful to the neural process during memory consolidation and memory recall. This is the reason why you don’t remember much from the previous night of drinking.

Loss of sleep is also linked to weight gain. If you sleep for five hours or less every night, you have a 50% chance of being obese. Sleep loss gives a rise to the release of the hormone ghrelin (the hunger hormone). When it’s released, your brain thinks it needs carbs and sugars. So, being tired and having a pre-dispositioned metabolic cycle could increase your chance of weight gain. Poor sleeping patterns are also strongly linked to depression, especially for those with a sleeping disorder.

Be the healthiest you can be by taking care of your sleep. You need some good quality shut-eye along with nutrition and exercise to ensure good health.

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