The importance of sleep for the mind and body
We all know what it feels like to wake up cranky and then spend a day feeling tired, irritable and dazed. Our body and indeed minds need rest, this is true for all humans. And if you’re an athlete or even just do a lot of sport or working out this is especially true.
Physical exertion takes it’s toll on the body, muscle fibres and the body in general needs time to repair and a good nights sleep is the perfect cure for this.
Here a few important things on the importance of sleep to note:
Poor sleep is strongly linked to weight gain
Lots of studies have shown that regular poor sleeping patterns can help you pile on the pounds, this makes sense on a few different levels:
Tiredness can make us lazy so we are less likely to be motivated or have the mental energy to exercise and of course have less physical energy to exercise or play sport.
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It can change diet patterns – if you’re very tired all the time you maybe less likely to prepare food and more likely to snack and eat convenient and less nutritious food.
Poor sleep may decrease your resting metabolism
Sleep promotes better athletic ability and performance
Ever get that sluggish feeling after a bad nights sleep? Thats because the body repairs during sleep. And a good sleep pattern has proven to improve
- better performance intensity
- give you more energy
- better coordination
- faster speed
- better mental functioning
Good sleep patterns can improve concentration and productivity
Sleep loss can increase irritability, impatience, inability to concentrate, and moodiness. When it comes to learning and memory functions, sleep helps the brain commit new information to memory through a process called memory consolidation and studies have shown that people who’d slept after learning a task did completed the tasks better.
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In a less scientific way of looking at it – get a few nights of bad sleep then look at the result in the work place or when studying!
Sleep helps with social, emotional and mental well being
Sleep has links to people’s emotional and social intelligence. If we don’t get adequate sleep we’re more likely to be impatient, irritable, emotional and snappy resulting in communication issue with others.
The association between sleep and mental health has been the subject of research for a long time, and mental health issues, such as depression, are strongly linked to poor sleep quality and sleeping disorders.
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