The Benefits of Sleep and Why We Need It

Studies have found that the benefits of sleep go beyond just giving your body and brain a rest from the stimuli and rigors of the day. It is a biological necessity. Certain processes vital to your health and well-being can only happen when your body powers down and you are asleep.

It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it. – John Steinbeck

Sleep supports brain function, physical recovery, and immune system function by providing a period of quietness. This is one of the biggest benefits of sleep. It enables the brain to reset and restore its connections and carry out important processes. These involve memory consolidation, hormone regulation, tissue repair, and the restoration of energy.

Without enough quality sleep, your body and brain are unable to function properly. This can affect your mood and emotional well-being, concentration, judgment, reaction time, and ability to think clearly. It can also increase the risk of chronic health problems such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

How Sleep Works

Sleep is an active process that consists of four distinct stages that a healthy person cycles through multiple times during the night. Each stage plays an essential part in the cycle that enables your brain and body to recover and grow. This helps you wake up refreshed and ready to face the day ahead.

Stage 1 (N1): N1 is the first and lightest stage of sleep and is easy to wake up from. It is a dozing off, transition period that only happens when you first fall asleep, and typically lasts just a few minutes. During this phase, heartbeat and breathing start to slow, muscles relax, and you may experience occasional sensations of falling as you start to nod off.

Stage 2 (N2): N2 is the longest sleep stage, making up roughly 45-55% of your total sleep time. It is a light to moderate phase during which your body temperature drops, muscles relax more deeply, heart rate and breathing slow, eye movement stops, and brain waves slow down. The brain has short bursts of activity that some researchers believe happen as it reorganizes memories and information gleaned while you were awake.

Stage 3 (N3): N3, also known as deep, slow-wave, or delta sleep, is the deepest sleep stage. Your body is the most relaxed during this stage, and it is the hardest one to wake up from. This is the restorative phase of sleep.

During N3, growth and other hormones critical to the repair and rebuilding of your body and mind are released into your bloodstream, strengthening your immune system and enabling tissue repair as your body heals and grows. Even though brain activity is reduced during this stage, some studies show that deep, delta wave sleep contributes to creativity, insightful thinking, and memory.

Stage 4 (REM Sleep): REM sleep is where most dreaming takes place. Brain activity increases to close to what it is when you are awake. Your eyes move rapidly behind your eyelids, and voluntary muscles such as your arms, legs, and torso become temporarily immobilized. This is to protect you from physically acting out vivid dreams and potentially injuring yourself.

During the night, you may go through several sleep cycles. Most typically, people go through four to six of them. Not all are the same length, but on average, they tend to last about 90 minutes.

Benefits of Sleep

In addition to boosting your energy and alertness by providing you with an extended period of stillness and reduced activity, sleep enables several essential physical and psychological functions to take place that cannot happen in the body’s awake state.

Restoration and Repair: During sleep, the brain clears out waste products and neurotoxins that accumulate throughout the day. It also releases hormones necessary for body tissues to be able to grow and repair themselves.

Improved Executive Function: Healthy sleep improves executive functions such as sound judgment and decision-making. It improves your ability to recognize and react appropriately to danger and threats.

Problem-Solving: As neurotoxins are cleared from the brain during sleep, cognitive functions such as logical reasoning are enhanced. Studies have shown that when facing a complicated problem, sleep often improves your chances of finding a creative solution to it when you wake up.

Memory Consolidation: Sleep enables the brain to organize, categorize, and consolidate memories and learned information so they take root. This boosts memory and makes it easier to access and use things you learn, increases attention span, and improves focus and concentration.

Emotional Regulation: Sleep reduces irritability and anxiety, improves your mood, and helps you regulate your emotions. This occurs by enabling you to better handle the physical and emotional effects of stress.

Strengthened Immune System: Adequate sleep strengthens immune function, enhances your immune system’s ability to identify potential threats, and increases your body’s ability to fight off disease and infections.

Improved Heart Health and Reduced Inflammation: Sleep slows down your heart rate, lowers blood pressure, reduces inflammation, and decreases your risk of stroke or cardiovascular disease.

Improved Metabolism: Getting enough sleep helps improve your metabolism, which promotes blood sugar control, reduces the risk of diabetes, and helps you maintain a healthy weight.

Enhances Athletic Performance: Adequate sleep facilitates tissue repair, cell regeneration, and muscle growth, and contributes to enhanced endurance, alertness, and response time.

Effects of Sleep Deprivation

Sleep deprivation can affect your mood, reduce your ability to control your emotions, impair your judgment, and hurt your mental health and physical well-being.

In addition to causing you to feel tired or sluggish during the day, insufficient sleep makes it harder to focus, think clearly, or remember information. It also decreases your attention span and ability to make sound decisions. A lack of sleep can lead to cloudy thinking that heightens your risk of making costly mistakes or becoming involved in an accident.

If allowed to become persistent and long-term, sleep deprivation can weaken your immune system. This can increase your susceptibility to sickness and chronic health issues such as cardiovascular disease or diabetes. Extended sleep deprivation can also interfere with your metabolism, cause relationships to suffer, lead to depression and anxiety, and even shorten your life.

Tips for Getting a Good Night’s Sleep

• Create and commit to a regular sleep schedule to help your body maintain a consistent internal clock.
• Adopt a relaxing bedtime routine that helps you wind down before bed and make it easier to fall asleep.
• As much as possible, go to bed and get up at the same time every day – even on weekends or when on vacation.
• Make your bedroom a comfortable, relaxing, soothing place, and keep it cool, dark, and quiet.
• Stop using electronics and avoid screen time at least an hour before bed.
• Store digital devices somewhere other than your bedroom.
• Keep naps short, and avoid napping late in the day.
• Get exposure to at least 20 minutes of natural light first thing in the morning.
• Exercise regularly, preferably early in the day.
• Avoid late-night snacking.
• Avoid using alcohol, nicotine, or caffeine late in the day or before bed.
• If you can’t fall asleep, don’t try to force it. Instead, try picking up a book and reading until you start to feel sleepy.

Benefits of Sleep Therapy

If you have been having trouble falling or staying asleep and getting the rest you need, you may want to consider sleep therapy. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), in particular, is an effective non-drug treatment that addresses the root causes of your struggles with sleep rather than just the symptoms.

CBT-I helps you identify negative thought patterns and behaviors that may be contributing to your difficulties and retrain your brain to replace them with new ones that support better sleep. This can be explored with a trained therapist like those in this office.

If you would like to set up an appointment to meet with one of the faith-based counselors at our location, please give us a call. Your first appointment is risk-free.