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Importance of Sleep Essay | Essay on Importance of Sleep for Students and Children in English

February 13, 2024 by Prasanna

Importance of Sleep Essay:  Sleep is one of the most important things you need to do for your body because it is your body’s way of recharging its batteries. When you begin to feel sleepy at night, it means that you have reached the limit that your body has, and you should sleep so that you do not over-exert yourself.

Many people don’t get enough sleep at night, mostly because so many of us have turned into night owls who love to do so many things at night instead of the daytime. These are terrible habits, and we must learn to get rid of them by paying attention to the importance of sleep. For example, a bad habit like this would be watching TV shows late at night despite knowing that we have to wake up early the next morning.

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Long and Short Essays on Importance of Sleep for Students and Kids in English

Let’s look at some essays of different, increasing word lengths to know and understand the importance of sleep. These ‘Importance of Sleep’ Essays can also be like your inspiration to write your essay about the same.

Short Essay on Importance of Sleep 150 Words in English

Short Essay on Importance of Computer is usually given to classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

When we sleep, the brain recharges itself and heals our bodies in whichever parts we need healing. When we sleep, our blood vessels and circulatory system heal themselves. If you have a bruise, you will notice that it has healed a little bit when you go to sleep and wake up in the morning. Sleep does the same thing for the rest of the body as well, and it is essential to allow your batteries to charge while you heal yourself.

Many of us struggle with our sleep because of the prevalence of mobile phones and other addictive screens in our lives. Some severe problems can enter our lives when we do not get enough sleep. This can range from mental health problems like depression and anxiety to even physical ailments and issues like diabetes, cardiac arrest, obesity, high blood pressure, etc. We must be careful and get a good 6-8 hours of sleep every night.

The average hours that one adult should be sleeping every night is 8 hours, or you can give or take one or two hours. The problem with all the generations in the world is that there are so many disturbances around us that can easily distract us from what is essential. One such example of this is mobile phones – it is easy to get addicted to mobile phones that contain an entire world and keep scrolling through it instead of going to sleep.

It is essential to understand the reason why sleep is vital. Getting enough sleep helps heal your bodies from any pain or injuries; it betters your immune system, cognitive memory, and thinking capacity. Furthermore, getting adequate sleep is vital for keeping our hearts and other systems clean and with a good bill of health. Without getting a good number of hours worth of sleep at night, we are putting ourselves at the risk of mental health disruptions as well as physical disorders and problems such as depression, anxiety, heart attacks, obesity (leading to various other issues), and even exhaustion which can ultimately disrupt one’s life. We must get enough sleep to look and feel fresh and healthy every day.

Introduction

Many of us do not realise the importance that a good night’s sleep holds in our lives. It is so important to sleep well at night to prevent us from getting health problems which can be disruptive for our whole lives. Let’s talk a little bit more about the importance of sleep in our lives.

Healthy Living with Good Sleep

It is essential to sleep well to live a healthy life. There are many health benefits of getting a good night’s sleep, and there are many hindrances to when you don’t get a good night’s sleep. The benefits of good sleep are that it can boost your immune system, boost your cardiovascular health, improve our abilities to think and remember things more clearly, and contain our mental health by preventing some symptoms of anxiety and depression. Sleep also helps us out with containing our exhaustion of course, the best thing to do when you are tired is to go to sleep and regain the energy you need to carry forth with your life. Most importantly, sleeping well and sleeping enough helps prevent obesity, diabetes, heart problems, and various other issues.

We must all sleep for about 8 hours in our adult lives. It can be about an hour less or an hour more, but think about it this way – you must spend about one third to one-fourth of your day recharging your batteries to get ready for the remainder of the days.

You can also read many interesting facts equipped about the importance of sleep essay furthermore in the given here, Importance of sleep essay. Never miss it!

Importance of Sleep Essay 400 Words in English

Sleep is one of the most essential and inevitable things that we have to do in our lives. Whether you eat food or drink water, sleep is inevitable because it’s what the body does naturally. Sometimes it can be tough to get a full night’s sleep, but it is imperative to try.

The Trio of Good Health

We can deny nothing about the fact that there are three things we need to improve our lives – a good diet with tonnes of nutrition, an exercise routine, and, of course, a good night’s sleep every day. These are the three things that are very imperative in our lives to inculcate and follow. Sleeping well has impressive health benefits, such as improving our cardiovascular health and preventing obesity, which even come a lot of other problems. A balanced diet filled with nutritious foods helps us remain fit and healthy, and a good exercise plan will be good for the same, too. Sleeping enough also helps us out with our strength and performance during exercise. Thus, it is a good cycle that we should create for ourselves.

Benefits of Good Sleep

There are several benefits of getting a good sleep at night. It helps you maintain your body weight so that you do not become obese and add to this; there’s also the fact that people who sleep well at night often eat less than those who don’t, which also helps with the weight. Getting adequate sleep also increases your productivity by making you feel more energetic and giving you the time you need to rest. It also helps our lives be in a good mood, and good sleep puts a person in a good mood. Sleeping enough also allows our minds to function correctly and in a better way. Thus we can think better, and we also have a better memory power upon sleeping enough.

Getting adequate sleep is incredibly vital to our mental health and physical well-being. If we do not get enough sleep, we might get burnt out and not be able to carry out our lives in the way that we should be able to. Without the ability to do this, life can become painful and full of difficulties that may become complex over time. Thus, we must all take the initiative in our own lives to sleep on time and wake up on time to prevent any mental or physical blockages and hindrances.

Long Essay on Importance of Sleep 500 Words in English

Long Essay on Importance of Computer is usually given to classes 7, 8, 9, and 10.

Sleep is one of the most essential parts of our lives; still, most of us neglect it as though there’s nothing wrong with that. It is understandable that we barely ever get any time to rest when we have a hectic life. For so many of us workaholics, sleeping can even seem like something you can do later, that there are more things you can do in the time that you could be sleeping. However, working like this may be alright for a short while, but not getting enough sleep for a long-stretched period has been found to have terrible effects on the body in the long run. We must all learn how to take care of ourselves, and this begins by forming a good routine with an adequate amount of sleep inculcated in it, alongside a good diet and regular exercise.

It is a lesser-known fact that sleeping well and sleeping a fair amount of hours when we are supposed to supplements the maintenance of our weight – this means that if you sleep better, you’re less likely to put on more weight! This is corroborated because those who sleep more need fewer calories to function in a day, as they are more refreshed and energised and thus require less food to keep them afloat throughout the day calories mean less weight.

Sleep is when our body and brains regenerate, meaning that your blood vessels and your heart and the other parts of your body heal themselves while you are sleeping. Think about it this way – you are not doing anything, your eyes are closed, and at this time, your brain has no other work because you are not conscious of doing anything in particular that the brain needs to function for. Thus, this is the best time for your body to heal itself. You’ll notice that when you wake up after getting an injury the previous day, the bruises may have already begun to heal – scabs are created in the process of healing through the night while you sleep. Thus, sleep is so crucial for healing the body.

Getting your good 7-9 hours of sleep every night is imperative for our bodies to work well the next day. Sleeping removes the tiredness from our bodies, and it rejuvenates and re-energises us for the next day. With adequate sleep, we can focus on our work better, we can do more things in our day to make it more productive, and we will be able to think, read and do everything else much better through the course of the day with good sleep.

What Happens When We Don’t Sleep Well?

Not sleeping enough is one of the worst things that a person can do to their bodies. As mentioned before, sleeping is great for rejuvenating our bodies and healing our systems inside. So, it is the complete opposite that takes place when we don’t get enough sleep.

If we do not get enough sleep at night, we will end up with terrible health. Most of us end up binge-watching television shows, movies, and even things like YouTube videos at night, and we usually do this at night because, in the daytime, we generally remain busy with other things, like school, office, other work, running errands, and stuff like that. We all think that because we do a lot of work in the daytime, the nighttime is, in a way, free time for us to do as we want. However, this is not the right way to go about life.

We need to get enough sleep because, without it, our blood vessels and heart and other organs as such will stop healing by themselves. Without adequate sleep daily, our minds will always be occupied by one thing or another, especially about how tired we all may feel, and how we want to sleep. Sadly, many us don’t even realise this, and go about their day without sleeping much without knowing how it can affect them in the long run.

Risks for all kinds of health issues, including physical and mental health go up manifold without getting a good night’s sleep every day. Depression, anxiety, stress disorders, sleep disorders, heart attacks, diabetes, obesity, etc. are just a few of the dangers that come from not sleeping well at night.

How Should I Get More Sleep?

Good sleep does not necessarily mean that you get your 8 hours a night of sleep, which is enough. No, that is not enough – it also matters that the quality of this sleep is good. If you go to sleep with your mind disturbed, you will have disturbed sleeping – maybe you will have trouble falling off to sleep in the first place, or even keep on waking up at night because of nightmares and similar things.

The best ways to get some great sleep at night would be to turn off your phone early, maybe at 10 pm or 11 pm, and only turn it back on when you wake up in the morning, possibly at 7 am to 8 am. This is the best way to get more sleep.

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Why sleep is important

• Mental Health

Sleep is essential for a person’s health and wellbeing, according to the National Sleep Foundation (NSF). Yet millions of people do not get enough sleep and many suffer from lack of sleep. For example, surveys conducted by the NSF (1999-2004) reveal that at least 40 million Americans suffer from over 70 different sleep disorders and 60 percent of adults report having sleep problems a few nights a week or more. Most of those with these problems go undiagnosed and untreated. In addition, more than 40 percent of adults experience daytime sleepiness severe enough to interfere with their daily activities at least a few days each month — with 20 percent reporting problem sleepiness a few days a week or more. Furthermore, 69 percent of children experience one or more sleep problems a few nights or more during a week.

According to psychologist and sleep expert David F. Dinges, Ph.D., of the Division of Sleep and Chronobiology and Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, irritability, moodiness and disinhibition are some of the first signs a person experiences from lack of sleep . If a sleep-deprived person doesn’t sleep after the initial signs, said Dinges, the person may then start to experience apathy, slowed speech and flattened emotional responses, impaired memory and an inability to be novel or multitask. As a person gets to the point of falling asleep, he or she will fall into micro sleeps (5-10 seconds) that cause lapses in attention, nod off while doing an activity like driving or reading and then finally experience hypnagogic hallucinations, the beginning of REM sleep. (Dinges, Sleep, Sleepiness and Performance , 1991)

Everyone’s individual sleep needs vary. In general, most healthy adults are built for 16 hours of wakefulness and need an average of eight hours of sleep a night. However, some individuals are able to function without sleepiness or drowsiness after as little as six hours of sleep. Others can't perform at their peak unless they've slept ten hours. And, contrary to common myth, the need for sleep doesn't decline with age but the ability to sleep for six to eight hours at one time may be reduced. (Van Dongen & Dinges, Principles & Practice of Sleep Medicine , 2000)

Psychologists and other scientists who study the causes of sleep disorders have shown that such problems can directly or indirectly be tied to abnormalities in the following systems:

Physiological systems

Brain and nervous system

Cardiovascular system

Metabolic functions

Immune system

Furthermore, unhealthy conditions, disorders and diseases can also cause sleep problems, including:

Pathological sleepiness, insomnia and accidents

Hypertension and elevated cardiovascular risks (MI, stroke)

Emotional disorders (depression, bipolar disorder)

Obesity; metabolic syndrome and diabetes

Alcohol and drug abuse (Dinges, 2004)

Groups that are at particular risk for sleep deprivation include night shift workers, physicians (average sleep = 6.5 hours a day; residents = 5 hours a day), truck drivers, parents and teenagers. (American Academy of Sleep Medicine and National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Working Group on Problem Sleepiness. 1997).

Stress is the number one cause of short-term sleeping difficulties , according to sleep experts. Common triggers include school- or job-related pressures, a family or marriage problem and a serious illness or death in the family. Usually the sleep problem disappears when the stressful situation passes. However, if short-term sleep problems such as insomnia aren't managed properly from the beginning, they can persist long after the original stress has passed.

Drinking alcohol or beverages containing caffeine in the afternoon or evening, exercising close to bedtime, following an irregular morning and nighttime schedule, and working or doing other mentally intense activities right before or after getting into bed can disrupt sleep.

If you are among the 20 percent of employees in the United States who are shift workers, sleep may be particularly elusive. Shift work forces you to try to sleep when activities around you — and your own "biological rhythms" — signal you to be awake. One study shows that shift workers are two to five times more likely than employees with regular, daytime hours to fall asleep on the job.

Traveling also disrupts sleep, especially jet lag and traveling across several time zones. This can upset your biological or “circadian” rhythms.

Environmental factors such as a room that's too hot or cold, too noisy or too brightly lit can be a barrier to sound sleep. And interruptions from children or other family members can also disrupt sleep. Other influences to pay attention to are the comfort and size of your bed and the habits of your sleep partner. If you have to lie beside someone who has different sleep preferences, snores, can't fall or stay asleep, or has other sleep difficulties, it often becomes your problem too!

Having a 24/7 lifestyle can also interrupt regular sleep patterns: the global economy that includes round the clock industries working to beat the competition; widespread use of nonstop automated systems to communicate and an increase in shift work makes for sleeping at regular times difficult.

A number of physical problems can interfere with your ability to fall or stay asleep. For example, arthritis and other conditions that cause pain, backache, or discomfort can make it difficult to sleep well.

Epidemiological studies suggest self-reported sleep complaints are associated with an increased relative risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. For women, pregnancy and hormonal shifts including those that cause premenstrual syndrome (PMS) or menopause and its accompanying hot flashes can also intrude on sleep.

Finally, certain medications such as decongestants, steroids and some medicines for high blood pressure, asthma, or depression can cause sleeping difficulties as a side effect.

It is a good idea to talk to a physician or mental health provider about any sleeping problem that recurs or persists for longer than a few weeks.

According to the DSM, some psychiatric disorders have fatigue as a major symptom. Included are: major depressive disorder (includes postpartum blues), minor depression , dysthymia, mixed anxiety-depression, seasonal affective disorder and bipolar disorder .

According to a long-term study published in the 2004 April issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research , young teenagers whose preschool sleep habits were poor were more than twice as likely to use drugs, tobacco or alcohol. This finding was made by the University of Michigan Health System as part of a family health study that followed 257 boys and their parents for 10 years. The study found a significant connection between sleep problems in children and later drug use, even when other issues such as depression, aggression, attention problems and parental alcoholism were taken into account. Long-term data on girls isn't available yet. The researchers suggest that early sleep problems may be a "marker" for predicting later risk of early adolescent substance abuse — and that there may be a common biological factor underlying both traits. Although the relationship between sleep problems and the abuse of alcohol in adults is well known, this is the first study to look at the issue in children.

Nightmares are dreams with vivid and disturbing content. They are common in children during REM sleep. They usually involve an immediate awakening and good recall of the dream content.

Sleep terrors are often described as extreme nightmares. Like nightmares, they most often occur during childhood, however they typically take place during non-REM (NREM) sleep. Characteristics of a sleep terror include arousal, agitation, large pupils, sweating, and increased blood pressure. The child appears terrified, screams and is usually inconsolable for several minutes, after which he or she relaxes and returns to sleep. Sleep terrors usually take place early in the night and may be combined with sleepwalking. The child typically does not remember or has only a vague memory of the terrifying events.

In the August 2004 issue of the journal Sleep , Dr. Timothy Roehrs, the Director of research at the Sleep Disorders and Research Center at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit published one of the first studies to measure the effect of sleepiness on decision making and risk taking. He found that sleepiness does take a toll on effective decision making.

Cited in the October 12, New York Times Science section, Dr. Roehrs and his colleagues paid sleepy and fully alert subjects to complete a series of computer tasks. At random times, they were given a choice to take their money and stop. Or they could forge ahead with the potential of either earning more money or losing it all if their work was not completed within an unknown remainder of time.

Dr. Roehrs found that the alert people were very sensitive to the amount of work they needed to do to finish the tasks and understood the risk of losing their money if they didn't. But the sleepy subjects chose to quit the tasks prematurely or they risked losing everything by trying to finish the task for more money even when it was 100 percent likely that they would be unable to finish, said Dr. Roehrs.

According to the National Commission on Sleep Disorders Research (1998) and reports from the National Highway Safety Administration (NHSA)(2002), high-profile accidents can partly be attributed to people suffering from a severe lack of sleep.

Each year the cost of sleep disorders, sleep deprivation and sleepiness, according to the NCSDR, is estimated to be $15.9 million in direct costs and $50 to $100 billion a year in indirect and related costs. And according to the NHSA, falling asleep while driving is responsible for at least 100,000 crashes, 71,000 injuries and 1,550 deaths each year in the United States. Young people in their teens and twenties, who are particularly susceptible to the effects of chronic sleep loss, are involved in more than half of the fall-asleep crashes on the nation's highways each year. Sleep loss also interferes with the learning of young people in our nation's schools, with 60 percent of grade school and high school children reporting that they are tired during the daytime and 15 percent of them admitting to falling asleep in class.

According to the Department of Transportation (DOT), one to four percent of all highway crashes are due to sleepiness, especially in rural areas and four percent of these crashes are fatal.

Risk factors for drowsy driving crashes:

Late night/early morning driving

Patients with untreated excessive sleepiness

People who obtain six or fewer hours of sleep per day

Young adult males

Commercial truck drivers

Night shift workers

Medical residents after their shift

According to sleep researchers, a night's sleep is divided into five continually shifting stages, defined by types of brain waves that reflect either lighter or deeper sleep. Toward morning, there is an increase in rapid eye movement, or REM sleep, when the muscles are relaxed and dreaming occurs, and recent memories may be consolidated in the brain. The experts say that hitting a snooze alarm over and over again to wake up is not the best way to feel rested. “The restorative value of rest is diminished, especially when the increments are short,” said psychologist Edward Stepanski, PhD who has studied sleep fragmentation at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. This on and off again effect of dozing and waking causes shifts in the brain-wave patterns. Sleep-deprived snooze-button addicts are likely to shorten their quota of REM sleep, impairing their mental functioning during the day. ( New York Times , October 12, 2004)

Certain therapies, like cognitive behavioral therapy teach people how to recognize and change patterns of thought and behavior to solve their problems. Recently this type of therapy has been shown to be very effective in getting people to fall asleep and conquer insomnia.

According to a study published in the October 2004 issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine , cognitive behavior therapy is more effective and lasts longer than a widely used sleeping pill, Ambien, in reducing insomnia. The study involved 63 healthy people with insomnia who were randomly assigned to receive Ambien, the cognitive behavior therapy, both or a placebo. The patients in the therapy group received five 30-minute sessions over six weeks. They were given daily exercises to “recognize, challenge and change stress-inducing” thoughts and were taught techniques, like delaying bedtime or getting up to read if they were unable to fall asleep after 20 minutes. The patients taking Ambien were on a full dose for a month and then were weaned off the drug. At three weeks, 44 percent of the patients receiving the therapy and those receiving the combination therapy and pills fell asleep faster compared to 29 percent of the patients taking only the sleeping pills. Two weeks after all the treatment was over, the patients receiving the therapy fell asleep in half the time it took before the study and only 17 percent of the patients taking the sleeping pills fell asleep in half the time. (New York Times, October 5, 2004)

According to leading sleep researchers, there are techniques to combat common sleep problems:

Keep a regular sleep/wake schedule

Don’t drink or eat caffeine four to six hours before bed and minimize daytime use

Don’t smoke, especially near bedtime or if you awake in the night

Avoid alcohol and heavy meals before sleep

Get regular exercise

Minimize noise, light and excessive hot and cold temperatures where you sleep

Develop a regular bed time and go to bed at the same time each night

Try and wake up without an alarm clock

Attempt to go to bed earlier every night for certain period; this will ensure that you’re getting enough sleep

In clinical settings, cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) has a 70-80 percent success rate for helping those who suffer from chronic insomnia. Almost one third of people with insomnia achieve normal sleep and most reduce their symptoms by 50 percent and sleep an extra 45-60 minutes a night. When insomnia exists along with other psychological disorders like depression, say the experts, the initial treatment should address the underlying condition.

But sometimes even after resolving the underlying condition, the insomnia still exists, says psychologist Jack Edinger, PhD, of the VA Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina and Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University and cautions that treating the depression usually doesn’t resolve the sleep difficulties. From his clinical experience, he has found that most patients with insomnia should be examined for specific behaviors and thoughts that may perpetuate the sleep problems. When people develop insomnia, they try to compensate by engaging in activities to help them get more sleep. They sleep later in the mornings or spend excessive times in bed. These efforts usually backfire, said Edinger.

From his clinical work and research on sleep, psychologist Charles M. Morin, PhD, a Professor in the Psychology Department and Director of the Sleep Disorders Center at University Laval in Quebec, Canada says that ten percent of adults suffer from chronic insomnia. In a study released in the recent issue of Sleep Medicine Alert published by the NSF, Morin outlines how CBT helps people overcome insomnia. Clinicians use sleep diaries to get an accurate picture of someone’s sleep patterns. Bedtime, waking time, time to fall asleep, number and durations of awakening, actual sleep time and quality of sleep are documented by the person suffering from insomnia.

A person can develop poor sleep habits (i.e. watching TV in bed or eating too much before bedtime), irregular sleep patterns (sleeping too late, taking long naps during the day) to compensate for lost sleep at night. Some patients also develop a fear of not sleeping and a pattern of worrying about the consequences of not sleeping, said Morin. “Treatments that address the poor sleep habits and the faulty beliefs and attitudes about sleep work but sometimes,” said Morin, “medication may play a role in breaking the cycle of insomnia. But behavioral therapies are essential for patients to alter the conditions that perpetuate it.”

CBT attempts to change a patient’s dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes about sleep. “It restructure thoughts — like, ‘I’ve got to sleep eight hours tonight’ or ‘I’ve got to take medication to sleep’ or ‘I just can’t function or I’ll get sick if I don’t sleep.’ These thoughts focus too much on sleep, which can become something like performance anxiety — sleep will come around to you when you’re not chasing it,” said Edinger.

What works in many cases, said Morin and Edinger, is to standardize or restrict a person’s sleep to give a person more control over his or her sleep. A person can keep a sleep diary for a couple of weeks and a clinician can monitor the amount of time spent in bed to the actual amount of time sleeping. Then the clinician can instruct the patient to either go to bed later and get up earlier or visa versa. This procedure improves the length of sleeping time by imposing a mild sleep deprivation situation, which has the result of reducing the anxiety surrounding sleep. To keep from falling asleep during the day, patients are told not to restrict sleep to less than five hours.

Standardizing sleep actually helps a person adjust his or her homeostatic mechanism that balances sleep, said Edinger. “Therefore, if you lose sleep, your homeostatic mechanism will kick in and will work to increase the likelihood of sleeping longer and deeper to promote sleep recovery. This helps a person come back to their baseline and works for the majority.”

A person can also establish more stimulus control over his or her bedroom environment, said Morin. This could include: going to bed only when sleepy, getting out of bed when unable to sleep, prohibiting non-sleep activities in the bedroom, getting up at the same time every morning (including weekends) and avoiding daytime naps.

Finally, a person can incorporate relaxation techniques as part of his or her treatment. For example, a person can give herself or himself an extra hour before bed to relax and unwind and time to write down worries and plans for the following day.

In CBT, said Morin, breaking the thought process and anxiety over sleep is the goal. “After identifying the dysfunctional thought patterns, a clinician can offer alternative interpretations of what is getting the person anxious so a person can think about his or her insomnia in a different way.” Morin offers some techniques to restructure a person’s cognitions. “Keep realistic expectations, don’t blame insomnia for all daytime impairments, do not feel that losing a night’s sleep will bring horrible consequences, do not give too much importance to sleep and finally develop some tolerance to the effects of lost sleep.

According to Edinger, aging weakens a person’s homeostatic sleep drive after age 50. Interestingly, the length of the circadian cycle stays roughly the same over the lifespan but the amplitude of the circadian rhythm may decline somewhat with aging.

National Sleep Foundation http://www.thensf.org

American Academy of Sleep Medicine http://www.aasmnet.org/

American Insomnia Association http://www.americaninsomniaassociation.org/

Sleep Research Society http://www.sleepresearchsociety.org/

NIH National Center for Sleep Disorders Research http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/sleep

The MayoClinic.com Sleep Center

(Blake, et al, Psychological Reports, 1998; National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Working Group on Insomnia, 1998)

David F. Dinges, PhD , Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry, Chief, Division of Sleep and Chronobiology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

Jack Edinger, PhD , of the VA Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina and Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University

Charles M. Morin, PhD , a Professor in the Psychology Department and Director of the Sleep Disorders Center at University Laval in Quebec, Canada

Timothy Roehrs, PhD , the Director of Research, Sleep Disorders and Research Center at Henry Ford Hospital

Edward Stepanski, PhD , who has studied sleep fragmentation at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago

Related Reading

• Getting a good night’s sleep: How psychologists help with insomnia
• What to Do When You Dread Your Bed

Essay on Importance of Sleep

Students are often asked to write an essay on Importance of Sleep in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Importance of Sleep

Understanding sleep.

Sleep is a crucial part of our lives. It helps us rest, rejuvenate, and prepare for the next day. Without sleep, our bodies and minds cannot function properly.

Why is Sleep Important?

Sleep contributes to our overall health. It allows our brain to process information and memories. It also gives our body time to repair and grow.

Effects of Lack of Sleep

Lack of sleep can lead to health issues like heart disease and obesity. It also affects our mood, making us feel irritable and stressed.

So, quality sleep is essential for our well-being. Make sleep a priority to stay healthy and happy.

250 Words Essay on Importance of Sleep

The necessity of sleep, role in physical health.

Sleep plays a significant role in the body’s healing and repair processes, particularly for the heart and blood vessels. Chronic sleep deficiency is linked to heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and stroke. Furthermore, it aids in maintaining a healthy balance of hormones that regulate feelings of hunger and satiety, thereby indirectly influencing our body weight and food choices.

Cognitive Function and Emotional Well-being

Sleep is vital for various aspects of brain function. This includes cognition, concentration, productivity, and performance. During sleep, your brain forms new pathways to help you learn and remember information. A good night’s sleep improves problem-solving skills and enhances memory. Lack of sleep impairs these functions, leading to decreased productivity and increased mistakes.

The Impact on Mental Health

Sleep deficiency has been linked to an increased risk of developing mental health disorders, including depression, anxiety, and mood swings. Sleep helps reset our emotional brain circuits, allowing us to manage daily stress and adapt to change.

In conclusion, sleep is not a luxury, but a necessity. It’s a vital part of our lives that impacts our physical health, cognitive function, emotional well-being, and overall quality of life. Recognizing the importance of sleep and making necessary adjustments to prioritize it is a crucial step towards improved health and productivity.

500 Words Essay on Importance of Sleep

The importance of sleep: an underrated aspect of health.

Sleep, often overlooked, is a crucial aspect of our overall health and well-being. In our fast-paced society, sleep is frequently sacrificed for more seemingly productive activities, however, this neglect can have serious health consequences.

The Science of Sleep

The health implications of sleep deprivation.

Chronic sleep deprivation can lead to a host of health problems. Physically, it can increase the risk of conditions such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. It weakens the immune system, making one more susceptible to infections. Neurologically, lack of sleep can impair cognition, memory, and mood. Studies have shown that sleep deprivation can lead to decreased concentration, memory lapses, loss of creativity, and mood swings. Furthermore, chronic sleep deprivation has been linked to mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety.

Sleep and Academic Performance

For college students, sleep is especially important. Numerous studies have demonstrated a correlation between sleep and academic performance. Adequate sleep can enhance learning and memory, improve concentration, and boost creativity, all of which are crucial for academic success. Conversely, sleep deprivation can impede these cognitive functions, leading to decreased academic performance.

Improving Sleep Quality

In conclusion, sleep is a crucial aspect of health that is often undervalued. The implications of sleep deprivation are far-reaching, affecting physical health, mental health, and cognitive functions. As college students, it is essential to prioritize sleep to maintain overall health and optimize academic performance. By understanding the importance of sleep and adopting good sleep hygiene practices, we can reap the benefits of this vital physiological process.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

Happy studying!

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Good Sleep for Good Health

Get the Rest You Need

Sometimes, the pace of modern life barely gives you time to stop and rest. It can make getting a good night’s sleep on a regular basis seem like a dream.

But sleep is as important for good health as diet and exercise. Good sleep improves your brain performance, mood, and health.

Not getting enough quality sleep regularly raises the risk of many diseases and disorders. These range from heart disease and stroke to obesity and dementia.

There’s more to good sleep than just the hours spent in bed, says Dr. Marishka Brown, a sleep expert at NIH. “Healthy sleep encompasses three major things,” she explains. “One is how much sleep you get. Another is sleep quality—that you get uninterrupted and refreshing sleep. The last is a consistent sleep schedule.”

People who work the night shift or irregular schedules may find getting quality sleep extra challenging. And times of great stress—like the current pandemic—can disrupt our normal sleep routines. But there are many things you can do to improve your sleep.

Sleep for Repair

Why do we need to sleep? People often think that sleep is just “down time,” when a tired brain gets to rest, says Dr. Maiken Nedergaard, who studies sleep at the University of Rochester.

“But that’s wrong,” she says. While you sleep, your brain is working. For example, sleep helps prepare your brain to learn, remember, and create.

Nedergaard and her colleagues discovered that the brain has a drainage system that removes toxins during sleep.

“When we sleep, the brain totally changes function,” she explains. “It becomes almost like a kidney, removing waste from the system.”

Her team found in mice that the drainage system removes some of the proteins linked with Alzheimer’s disease. These toxins were removed twice as fast from the brain during sleep.

Everything from blood vessels to the The system that protects your body from invading viruses, bacteria, and other microscopic threats. immune system uses sleep as a time for repair, says Dr. Kenneth Wright, Jr., a sleep researcher at the University of Colorado.

“There are certain repair processes that occur in the body mostly, or most effectively, during sleep,” he explains. “If you don’t get enough sleep, those processes are going to be disturbed.”

Sleep Myths and Truths

How much sleep you need changes with age. Experts recommend school-age children get at least nine hours a night and teens get between eight and 10. Most adults need at least seven hours or more of sleep each night.

There are many misunderstandings about sleep. One is that adults need less sleep as they get older. This isn’t true. Older adults still need the same amount. But sleep quality can get worse as you age. Older adults are also more likely to take medications that interfere with sleep.

Another sleep myth is that you can “catch up” on your days off. Researchers are finding that this largely isn’t the case.

“If you have one bad night’s sleep and take a nap, or sleep longer the next night, that can benefit you,” says Wright. “But if you have a week’s worth of getting too little sleep, the weekend isn’t sufficient for you to catch up. That’s not a healthy behavior.”

In a recent study, Wright and his team looked at people with consistently deficient sleep. They compared them to sleep-deprived people who got to sleep in on the weekend.

Both groups of people gained weight with lack of sleep. Their bodies’ ability to control blood sugar levels also got worse. The weekend catch-up sleep didn’t help.

On the flip side, more sleep isn’t always better, says Brown. For adults, “if you’re sleeping more than nine hours a night and you still don’t feel refreshed, there may be some underlying medical issue,” she explains.

Sleep Disorders

Some people have conditions that prevent them from getting enough quality sleep, no matter how hard they try. These problems are called sleep disorders.

The most common sleep disorder is insomnia. “Insomnia is when you have repeated difficulty getting to sleep and/or staying asleep,” says Brown. This happens despite having the time to sleep and a proper sleep environment. It can make you feel tired or unrested during the day.

Insomnia can be short-term, where people struggle to sleep for a few weeks or months. “Quite a few more people have been experiencing this during the pandemic,” Brown says. Long-term insomnia lasts for three months or longer.

Sleep apnea is another common sleep disorder. In sleep apnea, the upper airway becomes blocked during sleep. This reduces or stops airflow, which wakes people up during the night. The condition can be dangerous. If untreated, it may lead to other health problems.

If you regularly have problems sleeping, talk with your health care provider. They may have you keep a sleep diary to track your sleep for several weeks. They can also run tests, including sleep studies. These look for sleep disorders.

Getting Better Sleep

If you’re having trouble sleeping, hearing how important it is may be frustrating. But simple things can improve your odds of a good night’s sleep. See the Wise Choices box for tips to sleep better every day.

Treatments are available for many common sleep disorders. Cognitive behavioral therapy can help many people with insomnia get better sleep. Medications can also help some people.

Many people with sleep apnea benefit from using a device called a CPAP machine. These machines keep the airway open so that you can breathe. Other treatments can include special mouthguards and lifestyle changes.

For everyone, “as best you can, try to make sleep a priority,” Brown says. “Sleep is not a throwaway thing—it’s a biological necessity.”

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Why You Should Make a Good Night’s Sleep a Priority

Poor sleep habits and sleep deprivation are serious problems for most high school and college students. This guide offers important tips on how—and why—to improve your sleep hygiene.

The time you spend in high school and college can be both fun and rewarding. At the same time, these can be some of the busiest years of your life.

Balancing all the demands on your time—a full course load, extracurricular activities, and socializing with friends—can be challenging. And if you also work or have family commitments, it can feel like there just aren’t enough hours in the day. 

With so many competing priorities, sacrificing sleep may feel like the only way to get everything done. 

Despite the sleepiness you might feel the next day, one late night probably won’t have a major impact on your well-being. But regularly short-changing yourself on quality sleep can have serious implications for school, work, and your physical and mental health.

Alternatively, prioritizing a regular sleep schedule can make these years healthier, less stressful, and more successful long-term.

The sleep you need versus the sleep you get

According to the National Sleep Foundation , high school students (ages 14-17) need about eight to 10 hours of sleep each night. For young adults (ages 18 to 25), the range is need between seven and nine hours.

How do you know how much sleep you need within this range? 

According to Dr. Edward Pace-Schott, Harvard Summer School and Harvard Medical School faculty member and sleep expert, you can answer that question simply by observing how much you sleep when you don’t need to get up.

“When you’ve been on vacation for two weeks, how are you sleeping during that second week? How long are you sleeping? If you’re sleeping eight or nine hours when you don’t have any reason to get up, then chances are you need that amount or close to that amount of sleep,” says Pace-Schott. 

Most students, however, get far less sleep than the recommended amount. 

Seventy to 96 percent of college students get less than eight hours of sleep each week night. And over half of college students sleep less than seven hours per night. The numbers are similar for high school students; 73 percent of high school students get between seven and seven and a half hours of sleep .

Of course, many students attempt to catch up on lost sleep by sleeping late on the weekends. Unfortunately, this pattern is neither healthy nor a true long-term solution to sleep deprivation. 

And what about those students who say that they function perfectly well on just a couple hours of sleep?

“There are very few individuals who are so-called short sleepers, people who really don’t need more than six hours of sleep. But, there are a lot more people who claim to be short sleepers than there are real short sleepers,” says Pace-Schott.

Consequences of sleep deprivation

The consequences of sleep deprivation are fairly well established but may still be surprising.

For example, did you know that sleep deprivation can create the same level of cognitive impairment as drinking alcohol? 

According to the CDC , staying awake for 18 hours can have the same effect as a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.05 percent. Staying awake for 24 hours can equate to a BAC of 0.10 percent (higher than the legal limit of 0.08 percent). 

And according to research by AAA , drowsy driving causes an average of 328,000 motor vehicle accidents each year in the US. Drivers who sleep less than five hours per night are more than five times as likely to have a crash as drivers who sleep for seven hours or more.  

Other signs of chronic sleep deprivation include:

• Daytime sleepiness and fatigue
• Irritability and short temper
• Mood changes
• Trouble coping with stress
• Difficulty focusing, concentrating, and remembering

Over the long term, chronic sleep deprivation can have a serious impact on your physical and mental health. Insufficient sleep has been linked, for example, to weight gain and obesity, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes.

The impact on your mental health can be just as serious. Harvard Medical School has conducted numerous studies, including research by Pace-Schott, demonstrating a link between sleep deprivation and mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression.

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Importance of sleep for high school and college students

As difficult as it is to prioritize sleep, the advantages of going to bed early and getting quality sleep every night are very real.

College students who prioritize sleep are likely to see an improvement in their academic performance.

If you are well rested, you will experience less daytime sleepiness and fatigue. You may need less caffeine to stay awake during those long lectures. And you will also find you are more productive, more attentive to detail, and able to concentrate better while studying.

But the connection between sleep and academic performance goes well beyond concentration and attentiveness.

“Sleep is very important for consolidating memories. In any sort of experimental setting, study results show better performance if you learn material and then sleep on it, instead of remaining awake. So there’s lots and lots of evidence now indicating that sleep promotes memory strengthening and memory consolidation,” says Pace-Schott. 

There is also a strong connection between sleep quality and stress.

Students who prioritize sleep are better able to cope with the stress that comes with being an active student. 

“It’s a vicious circle where the more stressed you get, the less you sleep, and the less you sleep, the more stressed you get. And in the long term, that can lead to serious psychiatric problems,” says Pace-Schott.

In the worst case scenario, the combination of lack of sleep and stress can lead to mental health disorders such as depression, general anxiety disorder, and potentially even post-traumatic stress disorder.

But prioritizing sleep can create a positive feedback loop as well. 

Establishing a sleep schedule and adequate sleep duration can improve your ability to cope with stress. Being active and productive will help you get more done throughout the day, which also reduces feelings of stress.

And the less stressed you feel during the day, the better you will sleep at night. 

Tips for getting more sleep as a student

The key to getting a good night’s sleep is establishing healthy sleep habits, also known as sleep hygiene.

The first step is deciding to make sleep a priority. 

Staying ahead of coursework and avoiding distractions and procrastination while you study is key to avoiding the need for late night study sessions. And prioritizing sleep may mean leaving a party early or choosing your social engagements carefully. 

Yet the reward—feeling awake and alert the next morning—will reinforce that positive choice. 

The next step is establishing healthy bedtime and daytime patterns to promote good quality sleep.

Pace-Schott offers the following tips on steps you can take to create healthy sleep hygiene:

• Limit caffeine in close proximity to bed time. College students should also avoid alcohol intake, which disrupts quality sleep.
• Avoid electronic screens (phone, laptop, tablet, desktop) within an hour of bedtime. 
• Engage in daily physical exercise, but avoid intense exercise within two hours of bedtime.
• Establish a sleep schedule. Be as consistent as possible in your bedtime and rise time, and get exposure to morning sunlight.
• Establish a “wind-down” routine prior to bedtime.
• Limit use of bed for daily activities other than sleep (e.g., TV, work, eating)

Of course, college students living in dorms or other communal settings may find their sleep disturbed by circumstances beyond their control: a poor-quality mattress, inability to control the temperature of your bedroom, or noisy roommates, for example. 

But taking these active steps to promote healthy sleep will, barring these other uncontrollable circumstances, help you fall asleep faster, stay asleep, and get a more restorative sleep.

And for students who are still not convinced of the importance of sleep, Pace-Schott says that personal observation is the best way to see the impact of healthy sleep habits. 

“Keep a sleep diary for a week. Pay attention to your sleep in a structured way. And be sure to record how you felt during the day. This can really help you make the link between how you slept the night before and how you feel during the day. It’s amazing how much you will learn about your sleep and its impact on your life.” 

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Sleep Deprivation and Deficiency How Sleep Affects Your Health

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Getting enough quality sleep at the right times can help protect your mental health, physical health, quality of life, and safety.

How do I know if I’m not getting enough sleep?

Sleep deficiency can cause you to feel very tired during the day. You may not feel refreshed and alert when you wake up. Sleep deficiency also can interfere with work, school, driving, and social functioning.

How sleepy you feel during the day can help you figure out whether you're having symptoms of problem sleepiness.

You might be sleep deficient if you often feel like you could doze off while:

• Sitting and reading or watching TV
• Sitting still in a public place, such as a movie theater, meeting, or classroom
• Riding in a car for an hour without stopping
• Sitting and talking to someone
• Sitting quietly after lunch
• Sitting in traffic for a few minutes

Sleep deficiency can cause problems with learning, focusing, and reacting. You may have trouble making decisions, solving problems, remembering things, managing your emotions and behavior, and coping with change. You may take longer to finish tasks, have a slower reaction time, and make more mistakes.

Symptoms in children

The symptoms of sleep deficiency may differ between children and adults. Children who are sleep deficient might be overly active and have problems paying attention. They also might misbehave, and their school performance can suffer.

Sleep-deficient children may feel angry and impulsive, have mood swings, feel sad or depressed, or lack motivation.

Sleep and your health

The way you feel while you're awake depends in part on what happens while you're sleeping. During sleep, your body is working to support healthy brain function and support your physical health. In children and teens, sleep also helps support growth and development.

The damage from sleep deficiency can happen in an instant (such as a car crash), or it can harm you over time. For example, ongoing sleep deficiency can raise your risk of some chronic health problems. It also can affect how well you think, react, work, learn, and get along with others.

Mental health benefits

Sleep helps your brain work properly. While you're sleeping, your brain is getting ready for the next day. It's forming new pathways to help you learn and remember information.

Studies show that a good night's sleep improves learning and problem-solving skills. Sleep also helps you pay attention, make decisions, and be creative.

Studies also show that sleep deficiency changes activity in some parts of the brain. If you're sleep deficient, you may have trouble making decisions, solving problems, controlling your emotions and behavior, and coping with change. Sleep deficiency has also been linked to depression, suicide, and risk-taking behavior.

Children and teens who are sleep deficient may have problems getting along with others. They may feel angry and impulsive, have mood swings, feel sad or depressed, or lack motivation. They also may have problems paying attention, and they may get lower grades and feel stressed.

Physical health benefits

Sleep plays an important role in your physical health.

Good-quality sleep:

• Heals and repairs your heart and blood vessels.
• Helps support a healthy balance of the hormones that make you feel hungry (ghrelin) or full (leptin): When you don't get enough sleep, your level of ghrelin goes up and your level of leptin goes down. This makes you feel hungrier than when you're well-rested.
• Affects how your body reacts to insulin: Insulin is the hormone that controls your blood glucose (sugar) level. Sleep deficiency results in a higher-than-normal blood sugar level, which may raise your risk of diabetes.
• Supports healthy growth and development: Deep sleep triggers the body to release the hormone that promotes normal growth in children and teens. This hormone also boosts muscle mass and helps repair cells and tissues in children, teens, and adults. Sleep also plays a role in puberty and fertility.
• Affects your body’s ability to fight germs and sickness: Ongoing sleep deficiency can change the way your body’s natural defense against germs and sickness responds. For example, if you're sleep deficient, you may have trouble fighting common infections.
• Decreases   your risk of health problems, including heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, and stroke.

Research for Your Health

NHLBI-funded research found that adults who regularly get 7-8 hours of sleep a night have a lower risk of obesity and high blood pressure. Other NHLBI-funded research found that untreated sleep disorders rase the risk for heart problems and problems during pregnancy, including high blood pressure and diabetes.

Daytime performance and safety

Getting enough quality sleep at the right times helps you function well throughout the day. People who are sleep deficient are less productive at work and school. They take longer to finish tasks, have a slower reaction time, and make more mistakes.

After several nights of losing sleep — even a loss of just 1 to 2 hours per night — your ability to function suffers as if you haven't slept at all for a day or two.

Lack of sleep also may lead to microsleep. Microsleep refers to brief moments of sleep that happen when you're normally awake.

You can't control microsleep, and you might not be aware of it. For example, have you ever driven somewhere and then not remembered part of the trip? If so, you may have experienced microsleep.

Even if you're not driving, microsleep can affect how you function. If you're listening to a lecture, for example, you might miss some of the information or feel like you don't understand the point. You may have slept through part of the lecture and not realized it.

Some people aren't aware of the risks of sleep deficiency. In fact, they may not even realize that they're sleep deficient. Even with limited or poor-quality sleep, they may still think they can function well.

For example, sleepy drivers may feel able to drive. Yet studies show that sleep deficiency harms your driving ability as much or more than being drunk. It's estimated that driver sleepiness is a factor in about 100,000 car accidents each year, resulting in about 1,500 deaths.

Drivers aren't the only ones affected by sleep deficiency. It can affect people in all lines of work, including healthcare workers, pilots, students, lawyers, mechanics, and assembly line workers.

Lung Health Basics: Sleep

People with lung disease often have  trouble sleeping. Sleep is critical to overall health, so take the first step to sleeping better: learn these sleep terms, and find out about treatments that can help with sleep apnea.

The Role of Sleep in Humans’ Well-Being Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
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Introduction

Brief summaries of videos, the valuable information obtained from videos.

Sleep is considered one of the most important parts of any individual’s life. Some researchers emphasize the usefulness of sleep for productivity, while others focus on its impact on people’s health. The present paper will offer several different opinions on the role that sleep plays in the satisfaction of humans’ well-being. A brief overview of four videos will be followed by a discussion of the lessons that should be taken from the speeches.

Each of the speakers in the videos focuses on a different characteristic of sleep, but all of them agree that without enough sleep, one does not perform to the fullest potential. Arianna Huffington (2010) analyzes sleep as a crucial constituent of happiness. In her speech, Huffington (2010) mentions that sleep deprivation can lead to detrimental outcomes and describes her own negative example of not receiving enough rest. The speaker remarks that women are more likely to arrange the revolution of sleep because, for men, sleep deprivation has become “a virility symbol” (Huffington, 2010). Thus, this speech stresses the importance of sleep and considers women as the most probable change agents in the sleep revolution.

Another speech given by a woman is not focused on feminism. Jessa Gamble (2010) considers sleep as a vital element of humans’ body clocks. In her presentation, Gamble (2010) offers several examples of how people’s sleep habits are correspondent with animals’ chemical clocks. Sleep is thus associated with culture, and the role of sleep in the establishment of a healthy lifestyle is underlined in the speech.

The other two videos present researchers’ talks on sleep and its functions. Russel Foster (2013), a neuroscientist, explains why people need sleep and what can happen when they disregard this vital behavioral experience. In his speech, Foster (2013) provides numerous examples of how people treated sleep at different times and notes that individuals’ ignorance about sleep is too big. Therefore, from the neuroscientist’s point of view, not only the duration of sleep but also its quality is highly important.

The last speech is focused on unique functions of the brain that can only be performed while one is asleep. Jeff Iliff (2014) remarks that during sleep, brain vessels “clear away waste,” which is impossible to do while being awake. Thus, it is crucial for people to have enough sleep for their brain to receive time for restoration. Appropriate brain rest helps to avoid serious disease and enables individuals to discover the full potential of their brain.

Although all speakers analyze sleep from different points of view, they all agree that it is highly significant for people to have a sufficient amount of rest. The videos give information on the value of sleep for health, safety, happiness, academic achievement, and other aspects without which it would be impossible for individuals to live successfully. The most crucial data is given by Iliff (2014) and Foster (2013). These two speakers provide a detailed account of neurological processes taking place in the brain and explain a variety of functions that sleep deprivation can obstruct or eliminate. In particular, scholars remark that the brain does not sleep when the organism is resting. A variety of genes work only during sleep (Foster, 2013; Iliff, 2014). Therefore, sleep is needed not only for restoration but also for the productive work of the organism on the next day. Both Iliff (2014) and Foster (2013) compare the need to clear the brain at night to the need to clean one’s house. Neither of the two kinds of “chores” can be put off for a long time since postponing them would cause inconvenience and discomfort. Thus, from the scientific point of view, sleep is highly important for the brain.

Irrespective of their profession and connection with science, all four speakers emphasize the positive effect of sleep on the well-being of any person. Huffington (2010) mentions that having enough sleep makes individuals more inspired and productive. Gamble (2010) remarks that a body clock is crucial for organizing one’s life successfully. Iliff (2014) notes that the clarity of the mind helps to sustain one’s body in harmony. Foster (2013) explains that at every age, people’s sleep needs are different, but these requirements are frequently higher than people allow themselves to spend sleeping. Particular attention is paid to the negative impact of shift work on one’s sleep pattern (Foster, 2013; Gambler, 2010). Therefore, all speakers urge the audience to review their attitude to sleep and start having enough rest to become healthier and happier.

Sleep is a rather significant component of any individual’s existence. The videos give insight into the most intricate aspects of neural processes and explain why it is not acceptable to sleep too little. All speakers focus on the importance of sleep for people’s health, productivity, and happiness. Watching these videos helps to realize how thoughtless people sometimes are and how necessary it is for them to alter some of their habits in order to be strong both physically and morally.

Foster, R. (2013). Why do we sleep? [Video file]. Web.

Gamble, J. (2010). Our natural sleep cycle is nothing like what we do now . [Video file]. Web.

Huffington, A. (2010). How to succeed? Get more sleep [Video file]. Web.

Iliff, J. (2014). One more reason to get a good night’s sleep [Video file]. Web.

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IvyPanda. (2021, June 19). The Role of Sleep in Humans' Well-Being. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-role-of-sleep-in-humans-well-being/

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10 Benefits of Sleep

The benefits of sleep are many. Sleep plays a crucial role in tissue repair, hormone regulation, and overall health.

Getting enough sleep boosts brain power, improves weight management, and reduces stress and inflammation.

Most adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep per day. Getting less than six or seven hours of sleep can affect you the next day. Chronically missing out on sleep increases your risk of disease.

This article discusses 10 benefits of sleep. It explains how sleep is important for good health.

Strengthens Your Heart

John Fedele / Getty Images

During sleep, your body releases hormones. Some of them keep your heart and blood vessels healthy.

Lack of sleep deprives you of these hormones. That's associated with the following:

• High blood pressure
• Worse heart function
• Over time, heart disease

This is an even bigger problem if you already have a heart condition.

Regulates Your Blood Sugar

Sleep helps regulate your metabolism. That's the way your body converts food to energy.

Sleep deprivation can cause many problems with metabolism, including fluctuating blood sugar levels .

This can be a problem if you have diabetes . It also raises your risk of developing type 2 diabetes .

Blood sugar extremes also affect your:

• Energy levels
• Mental function

Reduces Your Stress Levels

Sleep helps your mind and body relax and recover from your day. When you're sleep deprived, your body releases stress hormones.

Stress can make you react in ways that aren't productive. You may act out of fear or make rash decisions. Or you may be irritable.

A poor night's sleep can make you feel anxious. This may last until you finally get some much-needed rest.

Improving Sleep

Practicing relaxation techniques can help you fall asleep faster.

Decreases Inflammation

Sleep regulates your immune system. When you don't get enough, irregular immune system activity can cause inflammation.

You may not notice excess inflammation. But it can have an effect on your body.

Chronic inflammation damages structures and increases your risk of many health conditions. A few examples include:

• Heart disease

Helps You Maintain a Healthy Weight

Research suggests that people who sleep less are more likely to be overweight or obese .

Poor sleep appears to disrupt the balance of ghrelin and leptin . Those are hormones that control appetite.

If you want to lose or maintain weight, don't forget that good sleep is part of the equation.

Improves Your Balance

Sleep helps you maintain your physical abilities. Studies show sleep deprivation leads to short-term balance problems.

That's called postural instability. It can lead to injuries and falls. Even mild instability can cause problems during sports or exercise.

Increases Your Energy and Alertness

A good night's sleep makes you feel energized and alert. This helps you focus and get things done.

It's easier to exercise when you're energetic and alert. So that's an indirect benefit of getting enough sleep.

Being engaged and active throughout your day feels good. And being more active all day makes another good night's sleep more likely.

Improves Your Memory

Sleep appears to play a big role in what's called memory consolidation.  

During sleep, your brain makes connections. It links events, feelings, and sensory input to form memories.

Deep sleep is important for this. So more quality sleep can improve your memory.

Boosts Your Executive Functioning

Executive function involves complex thinking. That includes things like problem-solving, planning, and making decisions. It can also affect your alertness and memory.

Executive function helps you with work, school, social interactions, and more. One night of sleep deprivation can impair executive function the next day.

Repairs Your Tissues

While you sleep, your body works hard to repair damage. The damage can be from stress, ultraviolet rays, and other harmful things you're exposed to.

Your cells produce certain proteins while you sleep. They form the building blocks of cells. That lets cells repair the day's damage and keep you healthy.

While you sleep, your body is hard at work. It restores hormonal balance, repairs itself, and keeps the circulatory and immune systems functioning properly. Your brain forms and stores memories.

Getting adequate sleep—seven to nine hours a night—keeps your heart healthy, reduces stress, and helps keep blood sugar consistent. It also reduces stress, prevents inflammation, helps control weight, and is important for memory formation and clear thinking.

Quality sleep allows you to be energetic and alert. It allows you to exercise, work, learn, socialize, and do all the things you enjoy.

Bourdillon N, Jeanneret F, Nilchian M, Albertoni P, Ha P, Millet GP. Sleep deprivation deteriorates heart rate variability and photoplethysmography . Front Neurosci. 2021 Apr 8;15:642548. doi:10.3389/fnins.2021.642548

Tiwari R, Tam DNH, Shah J, Moriyama M, Varney J, Huy NT. Effects of sleep intervention on glucose control: A narrative review of clinical evidence . Prim Care Diabetes. 2021 Aug;15(4):635-641. doi:10.1016/j.pcd.2021.04.003

Johns Hopkins Medicine. Get off the blood glucose roller coaster .

Bishir M, Bhat A, Essa MM, et al. Sleep deprivation and neurological disorders . Biomed Res Int . 2020;2020:5764017. Published 2020 Nov 23. doi:10.1155/2020/5764017

Dashti HS, Scheer FA, Jacques PF, Lamon-Fava S, Ordovás JM. Short sleep duration and dietary intake: epidemiologic evidence, mechanisms, and health implications .  Adv Nutr . 2015;6(6):648-659. Published 2015 Nov 13. doi:10.3945/an.115.008623

Ołpińska-Lischka M, Kujawa K, Maciaszek J. Differences in the effect of sleep deprivation on the postural stability among men and women . Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Apr 5;18(7):3796. doi:10.3390/ijerph18073796

Liu XL, Ranganath C. Resurrected memories: Sleep-dependent memory consolidation saves memories from competition induced by retrieval practice. Psychon Bull Rev. 2021 Jun 25. doi:10.3758/s13423-021-01953-6

Pesoli M, Rucco R, Liparoti M, et al. A night of sleep deprivation alters brain connectivity and affects specific executive functions [published online ahead of print, 2021 Jul 10].  Neurol Sci . 2021;10.1007/s10072-021-05437-2. doi:10.1007/s10072-021-05437-2

By Mark Stibich, PhD Mark Stibich, PhD, FIDSA, is a behavior change expert with experience helping individuals make lasting lifestyle improvements.

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Header menu - drawer | united kingdom, sleep matters: the impact of sleep on health and wellbeing.

The aim of this report is to raise awareness about the importance of sleep and its crucial role for our health, both physical and mental, just like diet and exercise. In Part I of this report, we provide information about sleep, why we need to sleep, and what happens during sleep.

In Part II, we review the literature on sleep problems and explain what can happen if we don’t sleep properly. In Part III, we describe ways in which we can improve our sleep and explain possible treatments for those who find achieving good quality sleep difficult. The primary focus of this report is sleep and mental health; both how mental health can affect our sleep, and how sleep can affect our mental health.

This research report on sleep and mental health was published for Mental Health Awareness Week  in 2011.

We spend approximately a third of our lives asleep. Sleep is an essential and involuntary process, without which we cannot function effectively. It is as essential to our bodies as eating, drinking and breathing, and is vital for maintaining good mental and physical health. Sleeping helps to repair and restore our brains, not just our bodies.

During sleep we can process information, consolidate memories, and undergo a number of maintenance processes that help us to function during the daytime. Sleep is crucial to the health of individuals within the UK and to the public health of the UK population.

We all need to make sure we get the right amount of sleep, and enough good quality sleep. There is no set amount of sleep that is appropriate for everyone; some people need more sleep than others. Our ability to sleep is controlled by how sleepy we feel and our sleep pattern. How sleepy we feel relates to our drive to sleep. The sleep pattern relates to the regularity and timing of our sleep habits; if we have got into a pattern of sleeping at set times then we will be able to establish a better routine, and will find it easier to sleep at that time every day.

Sleep is a more complex process than many people realise, much of it is still a mystery to scientists. During sleep, the body goes through a variety of processes and sleep stages. Good quality sleep is likely to be the result of spending enough time in all of the stages, including enough deep sleep which helps us feel refreshed.

Poor sleep over a sustained period leads to a number of problems which are immediately recognisable, including fatigue, sleepiness, poor concentration, lapses in memory, and irritability.

Up to one third of the population may suffer from insomnia (lack of sleep or poor quality sleep). This can affect mood, energy and concentration levels, our relationships, and our ability to stay awake and function during the day.

Sleep and health are strongly related, poor sleep can increase the risk of having poor health, and poor health can make it harder to sleep. Common mental health problems like anxiety and depression can often underpin sleep problems. Where this is the case, a combination approach to treating the mental health problem and sleep problem in tandem is often the most effective.

It is essential for us to better understand the sleep process in order to ensure that we get a regular amount of good quality sleep. Sleepio, co-founded by Professor Colin Espie, Director of the University of Glasgow Sleep Centre, is a new organisation that is dedicated to raising awareness of the importance of sleep. Sleepio collected data from a large-scale, national survey on sleep habits; some of these revealing new data appear throughout this report.

We can all benefit from improving the quality of our sleep. For many of us, it may simply be a case of making small lifestyle or attitude adjustments in order to help us sleep better. For those with insomnia it is usually necessary to seek more specialist treatment. Sleep medication is commonly used, but may have negative side effects and is not recommended in the long-term. Psychological approaches are useful for people with long-term insomnia because they can encourage us to establish good sleep patterns, and to develop a healthy, positive mental outlook about sleep, as well as dealing with worrying thoughts towards sleeping.

One of the most widely used and successful therapies is  Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) . This is useful even for people who have had insomnia for a long period of time. A full course of such a therapy with a sleep specialist is potentially costly, and is most appropriate for people with severe sleep problems. Still, some CBT principles can be appropriate and easily practiced for anyone who is experiencing a sleepless night.

Key points:

• Sleeping poorly increases the risk of having poor mental health. In the same way that healthy diet and exercise can help to improve our mental health, so can sleep.
• There is no universal answer to the question of how much sleep a person needs. This varies from person to person. What is important is that people find out how much sleep they need and ensure that they achieve this.
• The consequences of poor sleep should be taken seriously in healthcare, education, family life, and society at large.

We recommend that:

• The importance and benefits of sleep for both mental and physical health should be highlighted in national and local public health campaigns, including in schools and workplaces. New and easily accessible resources should be made available advising people on what they can do themselves to improve their sleep.
• The Royal College of GPs should provide up to date, evidence-based training and information for its members on the importance and benefits of sleep for physical and mental health. GPs should also have access to a diagnostic tool for use in recognising sleep problems in primary care settings.
• The new Public Health Outcomes Framework should include a specific outcome on reducing sleep problems across the whole population. Sleep should also be reflected in new national mental health outcome indicators, including improving sleep for people who experience significant sleep problems requiring specialist help.
• The National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) should develop guidance for the management of insomnia using non-pharmacological therapies, to complement existing guidance on using pharmacological therapies.
• People with sleep problems should be recognised within the Improving Access to Pyschological Therapies (IAPT) programme, especially regarding access to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). IAPT staff should be suitably trained on sleep issues.
• Further research should be carried out to establish the effectiveness of low cost, non-intrusive CBT-based interventions for sleep problems, such as self-help books and online courses,

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Sleep Matters Report

New research: College students in Scotland report significant symptoms of depression with more than one-third experiencing food insecurity

The largest study on the mental health and well-being of college students in Scotland has revealed more than one-third (37%) experienced food insecurity in the previous 12 months, according to the report published by the Mental Health Foundation today.

Mental health problems cost the Northern Ireland economy at least GBP 3.4 billion a year - new research

Mental health problems cost the Northern Irish economy at least £3.4 billion annually according to a new report published today by the Mental Health Foundation and London School of Economics and Political Science with support from Queen’s University Belfast.

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8 Health Benefits of Sleep

Staff Writer

Jay Summer is a health content writer and editor. She holds a B.S. in psychology and master's degrees in writing and public policy.

Want to read more about all our experts in the field?

Dr. Abhinav Singh

Sleep Medicine Physician

Dr. Singh is the Medical Director of the Indiana Sleep Center. His research and clinical practice focuses on the entire myriad of sleep disorders.

Sleep Foundation

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The Sleep Foundation editorial team is dedicated to providing content that meets the highest standards for accuracy and objectivity. Our editors and medical experts rigorously evaluate every article and guide to ensure the information is factual, up-to-date, and free of bias.

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Table of Contents

Improved Mood

Healthy heart, regulated blood sugar, improved mental function, restored immune system, stress relief, athletic performance, maintaining healthy weight, tips for getting better sleep.

Like eating nutritious food, drinking water, and exercising regularly, getting quality sleep is an important component of overall health. Although the exact reasons humans need to sleep remain unknown, sleep experts agree there are numerous benefits to consistently getting a full night’s rest. Most adults should get at least seven hours of sleep each night.

While sleeping , the body performs a number of repairing and maintaining processes that affect nearly every part of the body. As a result, a good night’s sleep, or a lack of sleep, can impact the body both mentally and physically .

Sleep restores the body and improves energy levels , so waking up well-rested can have a positive impact on an individual’s mood Trusted Source UpToDate More than 2 million healthcare providers around the world choose UpToDate to help make appropriate care decisions and drive better health outcomes. UpToDate delivers evidence-based clinical decision support that is clear, actionable, and rich with real-world insights. View Source . In contrast, people who get inadequate sleep are at higher risk of experiencing mental distress Trusted Source Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) As the nation’s health protection agency, CDC saves lives and protects people from health threats. View Source . A chronic lack of sleep can lead to anxiety, depression, and irritability. However, developing a consistent sleep routine often resolves these symptoms.

Quality sleep promotes cardiac health. During sleep, heart rate slows down, and blood pressure decreases Trusted Source Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) As the nation’s health protection agency, CDC saves lives and protects people from health threats. View Source . This means that during sleep, the heart and vascular system are able to rest.

However, insufficient sleep is a risk factor for unwanted cardiovascular events. Lack of sleep causes blood pressure to remain high for an extended period of time, increasing the risk of heart disease , heart attack, and heart failure .

Sleep impacts the body’s relationship with the hormone insulin , which helps blood sugar, or glucose, enter the body’s cells . The cells then use glucose as energy. Sleeping seven hours or more each night helps ensure blood sugar is regulated in the body Trusted Source Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) As the nation’s health protection agency, CDC saves lives and protects people from health threats. View Source .

Adults who get less than seven hours of sleep at night are at increased risk for Type 2 diabetes. Without enough sleep, the body’s resistance to insulin increases because cells are not able to use insulin appropriately, which leads to too much sugar in the bloodstream.

Sleep is believed to help with memory and cognitive thinking. Brain plasticity theory, a major theory on why humans sleep, posits that sleep is necessary so the brain can grow, reorganize, restructure, and make new neural connections Trusted Source National Center for Biotechnology Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information. View Source . These connections in the brain help individuals learn new information and form memories during sleep. In other words, a good night’s sleep can lead to better problem-solving and decision-making skills.

A lack of sleep can have a negative impact on the ability to think clearly, form memories, learn well, and function optimally during the day. The ability to think quickly slows down after only a week of insufficient sleep Trusted Source Medscape Reference Medscape is on online destination for healthcare professionals worldwide, offering expert perspectives, drug and disease information, and professional education. View Source . Accuracy on tasks also decreases after a week of getting five hours of sleep or less each night. Sleep-deprived people perform poorly in activities that require quick responses and attention to multiple tasks, such as driving.

Insufficient sleep also impacts judgment. Less than five hours of sleep at night is correlated with riskier behavior. A sleep-deprived person is at higher risk of making poor decisions because they only have the ability to focus on a desired outcome, not the consequences.

Restorative theories of sleep suggest that sleep restores and repairs the body, making people feel refreshed in the morning. During sleep, the body produces growth hormones necessary for development in children and adolescents. These growth hormones also repair tissues and cells in people of all ages. The body also produces cytokines during sleep, which support the immune system in fighting infections Trusted Source National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) The NHLBI is the nation's leader in the prevention and treatment of heart, lung, blood and sleep disorders. View Source .

Inadequate sleep can impact the body’s immune response to infection. Chronic sleep loss can make individuals more susceptible to common infections, such as a cold, while insufficient sleep over time can lead to a greater risk for immunodeficiency.

Getting appropriate sleep each night can help manage stress . When people wake up refreshed, they avoid the stressors that come with functioning while sleep-deprived, such as poor performance, difficulty thinking clearly, and lack of energy. Quality sleep can also reduce anxiety, depression, and other mental health strains related to stress.

Sleep is a key element of athletic recovery Trusted Source UpToDate More than 2 million healthcare providers around the world choose UpToDate to help make appropriate care decisions and drive better health outcomes. UpToDate delivers evidence-based clinical decision support that is clear, actionable, and rich with real-world insights. View Source , and the body’s production of growth hormones is highest during sleep. These growth hormones are necessary for the repair of tissue and likely contribute to muscle growth. Most athletes require eight hours of sleep each night for restoration and to avoid overtraining and improve their performance.

Without sleep, athletes are at risk for lowered performance, fatigue, and changes in mood. Performing with less sleep also heightens the risk for injury Trusted Source National Library of Medicine, Biotech Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information. View Source . The potential for injury rises even more when an athlete’s sleep time decreases and time spent training increases.

Quality sleep, in addition to exercise, stress management, and healthy eating choices, is an important part Trusted Source Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) As the nation’s health protection agency, CDC saves lives and protects people from health threats. View Source of maintaining a healthy weight. During sleep, the body naturally produces more of an appetite suppressor, called leptin, while reducing production of the appetite stimulant ghrelin. On nights of too-little sleep, however, production of ghrelin increases and leptin decreases. As a result, a lack of sleep can lead to a greater feeling of hunger.

To get better sleep, and the many health benefits that come along with it, we take a look at the healthy practices around sleep, known as sleep hygiene. A number of lifestyle adjustments can help improve sleep quality.

Create a Consistent Sleep Schedule

A regular sleep and wake routine helps the body keep a consistent internal clock Trusted Source National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) The NHLBI is the nation's leader in the prevention and treatment of heart, lung, blood and sleep disorders. View Source . Sleep experts recommend going to bed and getting up at the same time each day, including weekends.

Some adults like to nap during the day to avoid sleepiness. Keeping naps to about 20 minutes lessens fatigue without impacting sleep schedules. Naps that are too long can reduce alertness and defeat the purpose of napping. Individuals who choose to nap should avoid napping too late in the afternoon so that they can still fall asleep at their usual bedtime.

Make a Quality Sleep Environment

Although individual preferences may vary, most people sleep best in a dark, quiet, and cool bedroom. Too much light or noise at night can keep people awake or interrupt sleep. An eye mask or blackout curtains can eliminate unwanted light, and earplugs and noise machines can reduce distracting noises. Additionally, a fan can cool the room and serve as a noise machine.

Replacing old, worn, or uncomfortable mattresses and pillows with new and supportive ones can help improve sleep quality. The best mattresses and pillows for sleep depend on an individual’s preferred sleep positions and physical needs.

Avoid Caffeine, Nicotine, and Alcohol Before Bedtime

Caffeine is a stimulant that provides a boost of energy and alertness . When taken in the afternoon or evening, caffeine can make it difficult to fall asleep at night. The use of nicotine, found in cigarettes, in the evening is associated with more time spent awake at night. While some people drink alcohol before bedtime intending to get to sleep faster, alcohol is associated with lighter, lower quality sleep.

Exercise During the Day

Daytime exercise can make it easier to fall asleep and daily exercise is associated with better sleep quality. Exercise may also help individuals fall asleep faster and increase the overall time spent sleeping. It can be beneficial to exercise outside, as sunlight exposure during the day also improves sleep. People should avoid exercising too late in the day so that their bodies can relax before bedtime.

Avoid Screens Before Bedtime

Setting electronic devices aside at least 30 minutes before bedtime can make it easier to fall asleep. Phones, tablets, computers, and other electronics with screens emit blue light, which can disrupt the body’s natural production of the sleep hormone melatonin and make it difficult to fall asleep.

Instead, sleep experts advise developing a relaxing routine in the hour before bedtime. During this period of winding down, choose a restful activity such as reading or taking a warm shower.

Talk to a Doctor About Sleep

Those concerned about their sleep quality should consult with a health care provider. It may be helpful to keep a sleep diary to record sleep experiences and other symptoms. Discussing these symptoms with a doctor can identify potential causes for insufficient or interrupted sleep. Doctors can also talk through personalized strategies for improving sleep and refer individuals for additional testing as necessary.

About Our Editorial Team

Jay Summer, Staff Writer

Medically Reviewed by

Dr. Abhinav Singh, Sleep Medicine Physician MD

References 11 sources.

Cirelli, C. (2022, March 13). Insufficient sleep: Definition, epidemiology, and adverse outcomes. In R. Benca (Ed.). UpToDate.

Blackwelder, A., Hoskins, M., & Huber, L. (2021). Effect of inadequate sleep on frequent mental distress. Preventing Chronic Disease, 18.

National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention. (2021, January 4). How does sleep affect your heart health? Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020, December 10) Sleep for a good cause. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention., Retrieved April 5, 2022, from

Puderbaugh, M. and Emmady, P. D. (2022, February 8). Neuroplasticity. In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing.

Bollu, P. C. (2019, November 5). Normal sleep, sleep physiology, and sleep deprivation. Medscape.

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. (n.d.). How sleep works.

Halson, S. (2020, May 1). Overtraining syndrome in athletes. In F. G. O’Connor (Ed.). UpToDate.

Watson, A. M. (2017). Sleep and athletic performance. Current Sports Medicine Reports, 16(6), 413–418.

Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (2021, January 1). Healthy weight, nutrition, and physical activity. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. (2022, March 24). Healthy sleep habits.

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Better Sleep Can Improve Stress Response and Increase Positivity, Study Shows

  Flashpop /Getty

Key Takeaways

• Getting more sleep than you normally would may help you appreciate positive events more, a new study finds.
• It adds to previous research that shows how sleep can impact our emotions, both the next day and in the long term.
• Appreciating the positives more and having more positive experiences can help protect your health, researchers say.

It's time to set that early bedtime you've been putting off: A new study found that when people sleep longer than usual, they enjoy positive experiences more.  

The research, published in the American Psychological Association's Health Psychology, builds on previous research about how sleep impacts both our physical health and our emotional well-being. Much of sleep research has focused on the negative impacts of not getting enough sleep.   But the new study adds to the growing body of research about the positive impacts of getting more sleep.

"After a person has had more sleep than usual, then they're much more likely to perhaps create opportunities where they might experience something positive," Nancy Sin, PhD , assistant professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia who led the study, tells Verywell. Getting more sleep—and having more positive experiences as a result—could have health benefits.

How Sleep Impacts Our Emotions

A good night's sleep can do wonders for how we feel the next day. Similarly, a bad night's sleep can negatively impact how our brain functions and how we process emotions. Previous research has found that sleep debt, or not getting adequate sleep for multiple days in a row, is associated with irritability and aggression.   Sleep deprivation has also been linked to anxiety, depression, and mood swings.  

Nancy Sin, PhD

We found that when people slept longer than their usual amount, then the next day they tended to derive more joy from positive experiences.

Much of the research on how sleep affects people's emotions the next day has been conducted in laboratories, Sin says. Instead, she and colleagues conducted phone interviews with nearly 2,000 people for eight days in a row about how much sleep they got the night before, and how they reacted to daily stressors and positive experiences the following day.  

"Based on that information, we found that when people slept longer than their own usual amount, then the next day they tended to derive more joy from positive experiences," Sin says. "And they were able to maintain their positive emotions, even when they encountered something stressful." Participants were also more likely to interpret ordinary activities like taking a walk outside or getting a hug, as events that were very positive.  

The study builds on previous research by demonstrating how sleep influences our day-to-day functioning, says Jin Wen , a co-author of the study and doctoral student in health psychology at the University of British Columbia. "Some experimental studies have found that sleep deprivation affects positive emotion systems in your brain more than negative emotion systems," he says. "Our study extends these findings to suggest that the impacts of sleep on positive emotions can also be observed in daily life."

What This Means for Your Health

These findings are important, Sin says, noting her previous research on how daily positive events can promote well-being.   "People who tend to lose positive emotions in the face of stress are at greater risk for health problems," she says. Conversely, she's also found that people who get more sleep than usual are more likely to create more positive opportunities for themselves.

It's well-established that stress and negative emotions are bad for your health,   but more research is now focusing on how positive events can help protect your health. "There's also been a lot of work that I've done previously showing that people who have more positive events, they tend to have lower levels of inflammation,"   Sim says. "They have these healthier patterns of diurnal cortisol, so their stress hormones show a healthier pattern."  

Jin Wen, doctoral student

Given that we are currently living through times of greater stress and uncertainty, I believe that it may be more essential for people to consistently get good sleep in order to not let it impact their daily emotional functioning.

Additionally, Wen says the most surprising finding from the study was that people living with chronic conditions appeared to benefit more from getting more sleep.   "In particular, when they were well-rested, they had greater increases in positive emotions when they encountered positive events," he says.

What You Can Do

More research is finding that sleep seems to be a "strong driver" of how we're going to behave and how we'll feel the next day, Sin says. "I think this really speaks to the importance of sleep for promoting well-being."

As a result, one of the most important takeaways of the study is the importance of consistently getting adequate sleep—whatever adequate means for you, Wen says. Experts at the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommend that adults get an average of seven or more hours of sleep on a regular basis to avoid health problems.  

Hours slept isn't the only factor that affects sleep quality . Sleep researchers use an acronym, "SATED," to characterize five aspects of good sleep,   Wen explains:

• S atisfaction: How satisfied are you with your sleep?
• A lertness: How refreshed or alert do you feel during the day?
• T iming: Do you have a consistent bedtime and wake time?
• E fficiency: How much time in bed is spent sleeping?
• D uration: Did you get enough sleep?

"Given that we are currently living through times of greater stress and uncertainty, I believe that it may be more essential for people to consistently get good sleep in order to not let it impact their daily emotional functioning,"   Wen says. "I think it is not only important for people to recognize how sleep impacts their daily emotional functioning, but also prioritize getting good sleep—which could mean committing to a consistent bedtime and waketime or setting a period of time before bed to start 'winding down.'"

What This Means For You

Yes, it can be hard to set a consistent bedtime, especially if you work late, are a parent or guardian to kids, or if you suffer from chronic insomnia or other conditions that affect sleep.

But doing your best to get as much sleep as you can has both mental and physical health benefits. This research shows that not only does more sleep just help you feel better, but it also helps you appreciate the little things.  

Sin NL, Wen JH, Klaiber P, Buxton OM, Almeida DM. Sleep duration and affective reactivity to stressors and positive events in daily life .  Health Psychol . 2020; doi:10.1037/hea0001033

Worley SL. The Extraordinary Importance of Sleep: The Detrimental Effects of Inadequate Sleep on Health and Public Safety Drive an Explosion of Sleep Research.   P T . 2018;43(12):758-763.

Bauducco SV, Flink IK, Jansson-Fröjmark M, Linton SJ. Sleep duration and patterns in adolescents: correlates and the role of daily stressors .  Sleep Health . 2016;2(3):211-218. doi:10.1016/j.sleh.2016.05.006

Saghir Z, Syeda JN, Muhammad AS, Balla Abdalla TH. The Amygdala, Sleep Debt, Sleep Deprivation, and the Emotion of Anger: A Possible Connection? .  Cureus . 2018;10(7):e2912. doi:10.7759/cureus.2912

Sin NL, Graham-Engeland JE, Ong AD, Almeida DM. Affective reactivity to daily stressors is associated with elevated inflammation .  Health Psychol . 2015;34(12):1154-1165. doi:10.1037/hea0000240

Maydych V. The Interplay Between Stress, Inflammation, and Emotional Attention: Relevance for Depression . Front Neurosci . 2019;13:384. doi:10.3389/fnins.2019.00384

Sin NL, Graham-Engeland JE, Almeida DM. Daily positive events and inflammation: findings from the National Study of Daily Experiences .  Brain Behav Immun . 2015;43:130-138. doi:10.1016/j.bbi.2014.07.015

Otto LR, Sin NL, Almeida DM, Sloan RP. Trait emotion regulation strategies and diurnal cortisol profiles in healthy adults .  Health Psychol . 2018;37(3):301-305. doi:10.1037/hea0000564

American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Association for Sleep Clinicians and Researchers. Seven or more hours of sleep per night: A health necessity for adults . June 1, 2015.

Benítez I, Roure N, Pinilla L, et al. Validation of the Satisfaction, Alertness, Timing, Efficiency and Duration (SATED) Questionnaire for Sleep Health Measurement . Ann Am Thorac Soc . 2020;17(3):338-343. doi:10.1513/AnnalsATS.201908-628OC

Wright KP, Linton SK, Withrow D, et al.  Sleep in university students prior to and during COVID-19 Stay-at-Home orders .  Curr Biol . 2020;30(14):R797-R798. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2020.06.022

By Jo Yurcaba  Jo Yurcaba is a freelance writer specializing in mental health.

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The Importance of Sleep

How many hours of sleep did you get last night? According to the National Sleep Foundation, which updated its sleep recommendations earlier this year, young adults (age 18-25 years) and adults (age 26-64 years) should receive 7 to 9 hours of sleep but not less than 6 hours or more than 10 hours (for adults) or 11 hours (for young adults). Older adults (65 years and older) should receive 7 to 8 hours of sleep but not less than 5 hours or more than 9 hours. (Recommendations for children can be found at https://sleepfoundation.org/media-center/press-release/national-sleep-foundation-recommends-new-sleep-times .)

With all of the responsibilities that we face as practitioners, academicians, and family members, getting the recommended amount of sleep can be hard. Earlier this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that insufficient sleep is a public health problem. Many studies have shown that getting enough sleep is important to our health. According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, people with sleep deficiency have a greater risk of many health complications, including heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, and obesity.

In this issue of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Drs Vikesh Khanijow, Pia Prakash, Helene A. Emsellem, Marie L. Borum, and David B. Doman provide a thorough examination of the relationship between sleep dysfunction and gastrointestinal diseases. The diseases highlighted in the article include gastroesophageal reflux disease, peptic ulcer disease, inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, liver disease, and colorectal cancer. According to the authors, poor sleep has been shown to worsen gastrointestinal symptoms, and many gastrointestinal diseases have been shown to lead to poor sleep.

In our other feature article this month, Drs Rishi D. Naik, Yash A. Choksi, and Michael F. Vaezi discuss the bariatric procedures of laparoscopic adjustable gastric band, laparoscopic sleeve gas trectomy, and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. Although these procedures have been shown to achieve sustained weight loss and decreased mortality and morbidity, they can also cause unintended effects on the esophagus involving gastroesophageal reflux disease and esophageal motility.

Our endoscopy column also involves bariatric procedures. Dr Christopher C. Thompson discusses evolving techniques for bariatric endoscopy (intragastric balloon and endoscopic gastroplasty) as well as bariatric surgery.

In the GERD column, Dr John E. Pandolfino examines the treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease using endoscopy and radiofrequency ablation. In the Hepatology column, Dr Marlyn J. Mayo discusses the creation and use of the new GLOBE score to predict outcomes of primary biliary cholangitis. The bimonthly HCC in Focus column features an interview with Dr Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa on the emerging use of genetic alterations to develop liver cancer drugs. Our Clinical Update column is based on part of a presentation from the recent American College of Gastroenterology meeting, in which Dr Gerald W. Dryden explored the management of inflammatory bowel disease using biologic therapies.

In our occasional brief case study section, Drs Alhareth M. Al Juboori, Zeeshan Afzal, and Nisar Ahmed highlight an interesting case of esophageal squamous cell papilloma that caused dysphagia.

I hope that this issue provides valuable insights for your clinical practice.

Healthy Living

Get Enough Sleep

Take Action

It's important to get enough sleep. Sleep helps keep your mind and body healthy.

How much sleep do I need?

Most adults need 7 or more hours of sleep each night. It’s also important to get good-quality sleep on a regular schedule so you feel rested when you wake up.

If you often have trouble sleeping — or if you often still feel tired after sleeping — talk with your doctor.

Get details about healthy sleep habits and sleep disorders .

How much sleep do children need?

Kids need even more sleep than adults:

• Teens (age 13 to 17 years) need to sleep between 8 and 10 hours each night
• School-aged children (age 6 to 12 years) need to sleep between 9 and 12 hours each night
• Preschoolers (age 3 to 5 years) need to sleep between 10 and 13 hours a day, including naps
• Toddlers (age 1 to 2 years) need to sleep between 11 and 14 hours a day, including naps
• Babies (age 4 to 12 months) need to sleep between 12 and 16 hours a day, including naps
• Newborns (age 0 to 3 months) need to sleep between 14 and 17 hours a day  

Health Benefits

Why is getting enough sleep important.

Getting enough sleep has many benefits. It can help you:

• Get sick less often
• Stay at a healthy weight
• Lower your risk for serious health problems, like diabetes and heart disease 
• Reduce stress, improve your mood, and get along better with people
• Think more clearly, form long-term memories, and do better in school and at work
• Make good decisions and avoid injuries — for example, drowsy drivers cause thousands of car accidents every year

Getting enough sleep is also important for children or teens’ healthy development. 

Sleep Schedule

Does it matter when i sleep.

Yes. Your body sets your “biological clock” according to the pattern of daylight where you live. This helps you naturally get sleepy at night and stay alert during the day.

If you work at night and sleep during the day, you may have trouble getting enough sleep. It can also be hard to sleep when you travel to a different time zone.

Get sleep tips to help you:

• Improve your sleep habits, including if you work the night shift
• Deal with jet lag (trouble sleeping in a new time zone)

Trouble Sleeping

Why can’t i fall or stay asleep.

Many things can make it harder for you to sleep, including:

• Stress or anxiety
• Certain health conditions, like heartburn or asthma
• Some medicines
• Caffeine (usually from coffee, tea, and soda)
• Alcohol and other drugs
• Untreated sleep disorders, like sleep apnea or insomnia

If you're having trouble sleeping, try making changes to your routine to get the sleep you need. You may want to:

• Change what you do during the day — for example, get your physical activity in the morning instead of at night
• Create a comfortable sleep environment — for example, make sure your bedroom is dark and quiet
• Set a bedtime routine — for example, go to bed at the same time every night

Sleep Disorders

How can i tell if i have a sleep disorder.

Sleep disorders can cause many different problems. Keep in mind that it’s normal to have trouble sleeping every now and then — but people with sleep disorders generally experience these problems on a regular basis.

Common signs of sleep disorders include:

• Trouble falling or staying asleep, even after making healthy changes to your sleep routine
• Still feeling tired after sleeping the recommended number of hours
• Sleepiness during the day that makes it difficult to do everyday activities, like driving or concentrating at work
• Frequent loud snoring
• Pauses in breathing or gasping while you sleep
• Tingling or crawling feelings in your legs or arms at night that feel better when you move or massage the area
• Feeling like it’s hard to move when you first wake up

If you have any of these signs, talk to a doctor or nurse. You may need testing or treatment for a sleep disorder.

To learn more about sleep disorders:

• Check out this guide to healthy sleep [PDF - 451 KB]
• Read about common sleep disorders

Daytime Habits

Making small changes to your daily routine can help you get the sleep you need.

Change what you do during the day.

• Try to spend some time outdoors in the daylight — earlier in the day is best
• Plan your physical activity for earlier in the day, not right before you go to bed
• Stay away from caffeine (including coffee, tea, and soda) late in the day
• If you have trouble sleeping at night, limit daytime naps to 20 minutes or less
• If you drink alcohol, drink only in moderation (less than 1 drink in a day for women and less than 2 drinks in a day for men) — alcohol can keep you from sleeping well
• Don’t eat a big meal close to bedtime
• If you smoke, make a plan to quit — the nicotine in cigarettes can make it harder for you to sleep

Get tips for: 

• Drinking alcohol only in moderation
• Quitting smoking

Nighttime Habits

Create a good sleep environment..

• Make sure your bedroom is dark — if there are streetlights near your window, try putting up light-blocking curtains
• Keep your bedroom quiet
• Consider keeping electronic devices — like TVs, computers, and smartphones — out of your bedroom

Set a bedtime routine.

• Go to bed at the same time each night and wake up at the same time each morning, including on weekends
• Avoid eating, talking on the phone, or reading in bed
• Avoid using computers or smartphones, watching TV, or playing video games at bedtime
• If you find yourself up at night worrying about things,  use these tips to help manage stress

If you’re still awake after staying in bed for more than 20 minutes, get up. Do something relaxing, like reading or meditating, until you feel sleepy.

See a Doctor

If you're concerned about your sleep, see a doctor..

Talk with a doctor or nurse if you have any signs of a sleep disorder, such as trouble falling or staying asleep or trouble staying awake during the day. Learn about other signs of sleep disorders.

Even if you don’t have these problems, talk with a doctor if you feel like you often have trouble sleeping.

Keep a sleep diary [PDF - 53 KB]  for a week and share it with your doctor. A doctor can suggest different sleep routines or medicines to treat sleep disorders. Talk with a doctor before trying over-the-counter sleep medicines.

Content last updated August 6, 2024

Reviewer Information

This information on sleep was adapted from materials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute; and the National Institute on Aging.

Reviewed by:

Marishka Brown, Ph.D Director, National Center on Sleep Disorders Research National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

You may also be interested in:

Drink Alcohol Only in Moderation

Manage Stress

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