Why is sleep important?
Sleep is important for MANY different reasons, and now more than ever more and more people seem to have difficulty getting a good nights sleep.
So why is sleep so important and why do we need to focus more on our sleeping habits?
First of all, there are different stages to sleep, REM (rapid eye movement) and non-REM (quiet sleep) and BOTH are important for our overall mental and physical health.
Non-REM sleep is important for our physical body. It’s the time when our body renews and repairs itself from our daily demands we’ve placed on it. This is the stage that plays a big role in energy and enhancing the body’s ability to make more ATP.
On the other hand, REM sleep helps to improve our mind and our ability to sort through relevant and non-relevant information. REM sleep can also facilitate learning and memory. For example, a study from Harvard examined how sleep affected learning a new tasks. They measured individuals who had a good night sleep and didn’t after they learned a new task, and found individuals who had a good night sleep performed the new task better than those who didn’t get a well rested sleep.
Here are a few take home reasons why sleep is so important!
- Improves energy levels
Sleep allows our body adequate rest so it can produce ATP which is the energy of cells and help us carry out activities during the day. - Gives your body a chance to repair tissues and stimulate growth
At night as our circulation to our brain changes, the pituitary gland secretes growth hormone that stimulates tissue growth and muscle repair. - Facilities memory and learning
Gives your brain a chance to sort through important information and new skills and improve on performance the next day.