Sleep is much more important than a lot of people realise

By having a healthy sleeping schedule and getting enough sleep each night, you can improve not only your mental health but your physical health too. You can also improve the quality of your life.

How you feel during the day is dependent on how you slept the night before. While you sleep, your body continues to work to ensure that your brain is functioning properly and that your physical health is kept intact. If you’re not sleeping as you should be, your body can’t do this effectively.
When it comes to children and teenagers, sleep plays a vital role in supporting their growth and maintain their health.
If you don’t get enough sleep, you will be at a greater risk of suffering from a range of chronic health issues. On top of that, a lack of sleep can affect your ability to learn and work, and your social skills.

Did you know that your genes may be responsible for sleep disorder as well? If you are having sleep problems its a time to check your genetic variation of Serotonin, Oxytocin, Cortisol and MTHFR gene, which is responsible for the normal metabolism of folic acid. Malfunction of the metabolism of folic acid very often leads to insomnia.

Some information regarding sleep you should know about it

Sleep and Your Brain

Sleep is important to make sure that your brain continues to work as it should. During the time that you are asleep, your brain is working to prepare itself and the rest of your body for when you wake up.
Research has shown that a lack of sleep can alter the activity in certain parts of your brain. If you have a sleep deficiency, you will be worse at decision making, problem-solving, emotional and behavioural control, and you may notice that your mental health worsens.

Sleep and Your Body

Not only does sleep influence your mental health, but it can also significantly impact your physical health. It’s commonly known that if you injure yourself, most of your bodily repairs take place during the time that you’re asleep.
Studies have shown that sleep deficiencies are linked with heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity. One particular study focused on a group of teenagers and concluded that for every hour of sleep that they lost, the chances of them putting on weight increased. However, this doesn’t only apply to teenagers – adults too.

Hormone Production

While you sleep, your body produces hormones. The two main hormones which are produced are called ghrelin (this hormone makes you feel hungry, prompting you to eat) and leptin (this hormone tells you when you are full so that you stop eating). If you have a sleep deficiency, then your ghrelin levels will increase, and your leptin levels will decrease, making you hungrier than you would otherwise be – thus making you eat more and put on more weight.
Another hormone which is affected is insulin. This is the hormone which maintains your blood glucose levels. Without enough sleep, your body will have a higher blood glucose level which can increase your risk of diabetes.

Youth

It’s essential especially for children and teenagers to get enough sleep each night as sleep strongly influences healthy growth and development. Following on from the last section, when children and teens are sleeping, their body releases a hormone which affects their growth, their muscle mass, and cell and tissue repair. Sleep is also essential for fertility and puberty.

Immune System

Our immune systems also rely on a healthy sleep schedule, and without enough sleep, your immune system may not be as efficient. This can result in your body struggling to fight off common viruses and infections, and you being ill more often.

Work, School, and Focusing

This goes without saying, if you don’t get enough sleep then you will struggle to focus throughout the day. Those who have a sleep deficiency aren’t as productive while they are at school or work. They have slower reaction times, frequently make mistakes, and take much longer to complete their assignments.
To add to this, even just taking a few hours of sleep away can result in your body functioning as if you haven’t had enough sleep for several days – further impacting your capability to work at an optimal level.

Risks

Some people don’t realise there are risks to having a sleep deficiency or who don’t even know that they have one. Even if they aren’t sleeping properly, they still believe that they’re functioning as well as they could be.
However, if you have a sleep deficiency, then it can impact activities that you’ve been doing for a long time, such as driving. Studies have shown that having a sleep deficiency is more harmful to your driving than being drunk. For example, there are roughly 100,000 car accidents each year because of sleep deficiencies (reaching approximately 1,500 deaths).