Sleep is a crucial part of our health, and it can influence various facets of our lives and daily functioning. This article will specifically focus on how sleep can influence mental health, memory, sex life, immunity, physical training, and even on the food choices we make.
There are still some uncertainties on whether a lack of sleep will eventually result in a mental illness, but it has been seen that people with mental illnesses do experience sleeping problems which could worsen symptoms. A lack of sleep can also result in stronger or at times negative emotional responses and this was proven through a study that was done to determine your emotional brain, the amygdala’s activity. The study consisted of 2 groups of people, a well-rested group and a group of people who were sleep deprived. It was found that the sleep-deprived group had hyperactive amygdala activity. This group’s amygdala activity was 60% more responsive than the well-rested group..1
Memory is impacted by sleep in three different ways. The first step towards learning new things is to get enough sleep so that your brain can absorb it. The second reason is that your brain needs a good night’s sleep after learning in order to transfer short-term memories from the hippocampus to the cortex, where long-term memories are stored. Finally, you need to sleep on a problem after experiencing it. During deep sleep, your brain starts to integrate memories and create associations which will allow you to wake up with a creative, open-minded thought process for problem-solving.2
A good night’s sleep can do a lot for the intimacy of your relationship. It has been seen that a lack of sleep can age a man’s testosterone levels by a decade, which means men will have a significant decrease in their testosterone levels and the same effect applies to females. Insufficient sleep impairs estrogen, Luteinizing Hormone and Follicle stimulating hormone production. All these reproductive hormones are critical for a healthy sex life. It has also been found that if a female gets in one extra hour of sleep, her sex drive will increase by 14%.3
It has been found that individuals who sleep less than 7 hours are 3 times more likely to get a cold and women who get in less than 5 hours of sleep at night are 70% more likely to develop pneumonia. Thus, sleep plays a vital role in producing immune factors to strengthen your immune system.4
Your training might also be affected if you are sleep deprived. Sleep debt decreases protein synthesis and increases the degeneration of muscle mass. This will slow down the muscle recovery process after a training session.5
A lack of sleep can also result in weight gain because it can cause an imbalance between your leptin and ghrelin hormones. Insufficient sleep causes a decrease in leptin production which will make you feel less satiated after you have eaten a meal and to make it worse, a lack of sleep increases ghrelin hormone production which will make you feel hungrier more often. Insufficient sleep will also change your food preferences to more high-calorie, sugar, and carbohydrate types of food.6
Sleep is thus a major contributor to performance, and prevents illnesses, enhances memory, and overall health.
