How does your body and mind start to act when you feel tired? You become sluggish, slow to respond, and irritable. You can feel these changes take over like a light switch if you work too hard or stay up too late. But what happens when you fail to get enough sleep, night after night? Sleep is one of the most important elements of your health, so it’s important to understand the influence of your sleep schedule on your wellness.
Sleep is the Key to Youthfulness
Consistently good sleep is connected to a number of metabolic processes that all generate youth-related benefits. Not only does sleep promote lipolysis, which helps the body lose fat, but it also increases muscle mass through the creation of new muscle cells and increases protein synthesis to maintain optimal operations of all internal organs. When all of these processes can occur, the body will look and feel younger and healthier over time.
Sleep to Improve Your Mood
We all know that many sleepless nights will never improve mood, but do you realize just how much your lack of sleep is harming your attitude and mental wellness? Without quality sleep, you are less able to constructively handle stressful events and will even end up with “negative affective reactivity,” a habit that creates constant negativity to life events.
If that wasn’t bad enough, poor sleep reduces the amount of serotonin your brain can produce, and altered serotonin activity is linked to aggressive, angry behavior, clinical depression, fibromyalgia, and anxiety disorders.
Sleep to Ward off Illness
Since sleep is your body’s chance to repair itself from the day, poor sleep will likely lead to a weak immune system. Studies show that the body’s glucose tolerance suffers significantly during periods of long-term sleep loss, meaning that chronic sleep loss can contribute to the onset of diabetes. The immune system itself also can’t perform its job effectively without quality sleep every night, which means you’re more prone to cancer with irregular sleep.
To learn more about the most natural ways to improve your health, call (727) 351-8304 to make an appointment at Rubin Chiropractic Health Center in St. Petersburg, Florida.