April 12, 2018
You Need Your Zzzzz’s More Than You Know!
We all know that sleep makes you feel better (hug that comforter!) but its importance goes way beyond just boosting your mood or banishing under-eye circles. During sleep, your body is working to support healthy brain function and maintain your physical health. Not enough sleep on a regular basis can raise your risk for some chronic health problems.
Sleep affects how well you think, react, work, learn, and get along with others. While you’re sleeping, your brain is laying the foundation for the next day. It’s forming new pathways to help you learn and remember information.
During sleep, you strengthen memories or “practice” skills learned while you were awake (this process is called consolidation). If you’re trying to learn something new, whether it’s a new language, how to play the piano or how to perfect your tennis swing, sleep helps enhance your learning and problem-solving skills. Sleep also helps you pay attention, make decisions, and be creative.
While the right amount of sleep helps you, lack of sleep seriously works against you. Studies reinforce that sleep deficiency alters 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.
“A lack of sleep can contribute to depression,” says Dr. Jean Raymonde Jean, MD, director of sleep medicine and associate director of critical care at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York City. “A good night’s sleep can really help a moody person decrease their anxiety. You get more emotional stability with good sleep.”
The first signs you may be aware of when getting less than 6 hours of sleep is you feel tired, forgetful, irritable, and just not on the top of your game. Yet, to everyone around you, it might just seem like you’re doing poorly at work, have mood swings or are depressed.
Sleep also is crucial to your physical health. Sleep is involved in healing and repair of your heart and blood vessels. Ongoing sleep deficiency is linked to an increased risk of heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and stroke.
Not getting enough sleep also affects how you look, besides tired. When you’re sleep deprived, you have higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which increases your appetite. That’s another reason to get to bed earlier!
While your body is renewing itself, take this time to revitalize your skin and hair. Put on a few drops of REJUVENIQE® Oil Intensive to your facial skin and décolleté before your nighttime cream and get an extra boost of hydration for improved texture and tone. You’ll get extra nighttime benefit and wake up with silky and more youthful looking hair and skin!
The bottom line is that without proper sleep, your brain can’t regenerate properly. So make sure you get your zzzzz’s. And you might as well turn your important sleep time into important beauty time too!
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How Important Is Sleep? American Sleep Association. https://www.sleepassociation.org/about-sleep/how-important-is-sleep/
Barnes, Z. The Hidden Ways Sleep Deprivation Can Lead to Weight Gain. Daily Burn. http://dailyburn.com/life/lifestyle/sleep-deprivation-effects-weight-loss/
Sparacino, A. 11 Surprising Health Benefits of Sleep. Health. http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20459221,00.html
Why Is Sleep Important? National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/node/4605
