In a less busy world we'd all grab extra shut-eye. But it could have more effect on your health than you think.
1) It could make you thinner Research in Virginia has found that the less sleep you get, the higher your body mass index tends to be.
A Bristol study may have the explanation: people who sleep five hours a night were found have 15% more gherlin (a hormone that boosts hunger) in their bodies and 15% less leptin (which suppresses it) than those sleeping eight hours.
2) It could boost your money Sleep plays a key role in making new memories stick in the brain.
A Harvard experiment showed that subjects taught complex finger movements like a piano scale recalled them much better after 12 hours' sleep than 12 hours' wakefulness. Another study showed that working into the night slowed thinking skills, both at the time and during the next day.
3) It boosts the immune system. A study of elderly people suffering depression found that those with disturbed sleep had fewer disease-fighting cells in their blood.
Moreover, melatonin, produced when you sleep, is a cancer-fighting antioxidant. Night-shift workers, whose wake/sleep rhythms are disrupted, may have up to 70 times greater risk of breast cancer.
4) It can slow down ageing Persistent sleep debt has been shown to affect carbohydrate metabolism and hormone function in a way that may increase the severity of age-related chronic disorders.
In fact, a large-scale study concluded that people who sleep 6-7 hours a night lived longer than those sleeping less than 4.5 hours.
5) It could keep you on the straight and narrow If you're a child, that is. The depression and low self-esteem often associated with just being a teenager actually correlate with sleep shortage. And young kids who sleep poorly are more than twice as likely to take to drink and drugs in adolescence.
Seed Newsvine
