Monday, August 17, 2009

Health Benefits of a Good Sleep

Do you still think that sleep is just a way to get rid of your physical tiredness. Well, think again. There are benefits that we can get from a good sleep. Here they are:


It can keep your heart healthy. Heart disease can happen because of blood pressure and cholesterol. Both of them are often getting worsed if we lack of sleep. One way to improve it is by having good sleep everyday at least 7 hours a day.


It helps to prevent cancer. This happens only if we sleep in a bedroom which is dark enough.Why? Because too much exposure to light can reduce the level of melatonin, a hormone that is thought to protect against cancer. This hormone can also make us sleepy. Now, you know why it’s easier for us to be sleepy in a dark place.


It can help to reduce stress. Remember the time when we didn’t have time to go to sleep because of the overwhelming task? What did you feel at that time? Stress? Well, it’s completely normal to feel that for when we lack of sleep, a production of stress hormones increase. This also goes vice versa. When you are in a state of stress, it’s harder for you to sleep.


It can reduce inflammation. This point is closely related to the prevous point. When the stress hormones increase, at the same time the level of inflammation in our body increases too. This is not good as inflammation is thought to one of some causes of the deterioration of our body as we age. What’s worse is inflammation creates more risk for heart related-conditions, as well as cancer and diabetes.


It can improve our memory. When we sleep,our brain is busy processing things, making connections between events, sensory input, feelings and memories. This helps us to have better memories.


It may help us to lose weight. When we lack of sleep, hormones in our body become unbalanced. This affects appetite. To be more specific, ghrelin and leptin, hormones which are important for the regulation of appetite, are disrupted by lack of sleep. So, we tend to eat more.


At last but not least, a good sleep can make us more energized and alert. After having a good night’s sleep, no doubt, we’ll feel more energized and alert. This will help us to do all the things we have to do in our everyday activities.

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Article Health Benefits of a Good Sleep is written by womensfiles.