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#### Health Benefits of Sleep

If there’s something we can all agree on, it is that we love our bedtime. Amazing concept from nature right there! Sleep often comes naturally, when we are tired and stressed or feeling a lot of emotions. But do you know that there are many benefits of sleep? It boosts our mood, makes us refreshed and feeling relieved.

Good sleep is necessary for a healthy lifestyle. However, sometimes work and busy schedules do not let is get enough of this amazing natural remedy.Over thinking can also give us restless nights and insomnia. Many times the immense importance of sleep is overlooked. Amazingly, sleep has a lot of health benefits and can do a whole lot of great things to our body.

## The health benefits of sleep

From mind to the body, it does some wonders. Health practitioners would always advise you to get enough shuteye. This is because a lot of body repairs and replenishing occurs while you are slumbering.

1. Improves Memory

While you’re you’re asleep, your mind is awake. Surprisingly, some skills are practiced in the mind as you sleep. During the day we learn and practice different activities, while we sleep something happens that increases our cognitive ability. If you want to learn something new, chances are you’ll assimilate better after you wake up from a very good sleep.

1. Reduces Inflammation: Study shows that people who get few hours of sleep daily stand higher chances of getting a heart attack, stroke diabetes and other serious illnesses. Inflammation causes these diseases and people who have few hours of sleep have higher blood levels of inflammatory proteins.
2. Decreases Stress Level: This is very easy to deduce sleep certainly relies us of stress and stress related problems. Stress affects our cardiovascular system and sleep helps to restore things to how they are supposed to be.
3. Relieve Depression: A good night rest can help a person with anxiety and a very bad mood feel much better. It resuscitates emotional balance and stability. You however should strike an even balance. Try to get enough rest throughout the week. Going sleepless during the week and then try to make up fir it with long sleep time during the weekend, doesn’t cut it.
4. Lower Risk of Injury: Good sleep prevents us from running into everyday accidents because our minds are alert. The National Academy of Medicine has estimated that one out of five car accidents in the United States of America are caused by sleepy drivers. Exhaustion can lead you to walk into avoidable accidents.
5. Weight Control: Sleep loss makes you gain weight. People who are tired tend to crave high calorie meals to compensate for their feeling of tiredness. Good Sleep is usually mentioned in every weight loss plan, because it helps you achieve better results.
6. Improved Immunity: study shoes that getting ample hours of sleep, preferably eight hours or more reduces your likelihood of contracting some viruses like common cold. Although this study is not quite concrete yet, it is believed that people who get seven hours of sleep are three times more likely to fall sick than those who sleep for eight hours or more.

## How to get Good Sleep

Having known the benefits of sleep, it is important to know how to get it. Our modern lives that have been so fused with technology had made it difficult for us to stay asleep for long. However, we can imbibe this good habit by avoiding some unnecessary things and focusing on what can foster good long sleep.

1. Adopt the Natural Sleep-Wake Cycle: our body has a time when it naturally wants to go to bed and wake up called the circadian rhythm. We can stay true to this by getting to bed and wake up at scheduled times. Choose the best time to sleep and wake up, which should last for a period of eight hours or more.
2. Control your Exposure to Light: Your sleep-wake cycle is controlled by melatonin a naturally occurring hormone controlled by exposure to light. When it’s dark your brain secretes more melatonin, making you feel sleepier. It is best to expose yourself to light during day. Take walks during the day than at night. Avoid bright screen about 2 hours before bedtime. Stay off your phone, television and other light-emitting devices.
3. Exercise During the Day: Exercise helps your body’s metabolic rate and stimulates cortisol. Frequent exercise helps you want to rest more. Even light exercises like walking in the evening can make you sleep better and longer.
4. Choose Your Food Carefully: What you eat during the day plays a vital role in how well you sleep at night. Drink less caffeinated drinks. It makes you feel less sleepy for a long time, up to 10hours. Eat light at night and try to make it early. Avoid taking alcohol before bedtime. Avoid drinking too much liquid before bed, it might cause you to take frequent bathroom trips at night which interferes with your natural sleeping pattern.
5. Relax: Try to read a book or listen to soft music before bedtime. This will calm your nerves and make you sleep better. Make sure the light is dim in your bedroom to encourage you to fall asleep afterwards.

Sleep hours should not be taken for granted. A good sleeping habit is essential for an overall healthy lifestyle. Sleep is a natural remedy to a lot of things and can make you feel so good about yourself. When you get enough sleep, your mind would work better, your skin would be glowing and you will generally be a happy person.

By SignatureCare ER | Feb 18th, 2018| Categories: Health & Wellness, Safety Tips
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