Is a Lack of Sleep Affecting Your Health?

Is a Lack of Sleep Affecting Your Health?

Dear Reader,

The National Sleep Foundation in the US, recently released its annual "Sleep in America Poll," which reveals how much sleep Americans are getting, what their bedtime habits are, and who's seeing the doctor and taking medications when sleep is elusive.

Only about four in 10 respondents said they got a good night’s sleep every night, or almost every night, of the week.

This indicates an overall trend showing that people are not having enough good-quality sleep - a short-coming that could put your health at risk.

That’s because your body carries out essential repair work while you sleep. Not getting enough sleep can impair your immune system, leaving you less able to fight off diseases of ALL kinds.

Health risks linked to not getting enough sleep

Too little sleep impacts your levels of thyroid and stress hormones, which in turn can affect your memory and immune system, your heart and metabolism, and much more.

Over time, lack of sleep can lead to:

* Accelerated ageing
* Depression
* High blood sugar levels and an increased risk of diabetes
* Brain damage

Recent research, published in the journal Sleep, also found that the amount of sleep you get is linked to gains in abdominal fat. This link was still prevalent even after researchers accounted for other factors that could influence weight, such as calories consumed and exercise habits.

Abdominal fat is linked to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, strokes and other chronic diseases. So, to start with, if you’re not taking your sleep needs seriously, you could unknowingly be sabotaging your weight — and your health.

A lack of sleep can seriously alter levels of important hormones linked with appetite and eating behaviour. When you are sleep deprived, your body decreases production of leptin (the hormone linked to the feeling of satiety). At the same time, it increases levels of ghrelin, a hormone that triggers hunger.

In one study, researchers found that people who received only four hours of sleep a night for two nights experienced:

* 18 percent reduction in leptin
* 28 percent increase in ghrelin

Also, the sleep-deprived subjects in the study seemed to eat more sweet and starchy foods, rather than vegetables and dairy products. Researchers suspect these cravings stem from the fact that your brain is fuelled by glucose (blood sugar); therefore, when lack of sleep occurs, your brain craves carbohydrates.

In short, sleep deprivation puts your body into a pre- diabetic state, and makes you feel hungry, even if you’ve already eaten.

The influence of the sleep-wake cycle

As already mentioned, how well you sleep can seriously alter the balance of hormones in your body. This can disrupt your sleep-wake cycle, also called the circadian rhythm. A disrupted circadian rhythm may influence cancer progression through shifts in hormones like melatonin, which the brain produces during sleep.

Melatonin is an antioxidant that helps suppress harmful free radicals in the body and slows the production of oestrogen, which can activate cancer. When your circadian rhythm is disrupted, your body produces less melatonin and therefore lowers your natural defence against cancer.

In addition, a lack of sleep can speed up tumour growth. Tumours grow two to three times faster in laboratory animals with severe sleep dysfunctions

Not only that, but sleep deprivation can cause:

* Changes in your brain activity similar to those experienced by people with psychiatric disorders
* An increased risk of heart disease and stroke
* Raised blood pressure

7 ways to guarantee a good night’s sleep

If you’re having problems getting a good night’s rest, the following tips can help you nod off:

1. Take a hot bath before bedtime to relieve stress.Soothing fragrances, lights and music may also help you unwind.

2. Limit activities in bed to sleep and sex only. That means no reading, watching TV, eating or drinking in bed. In fact, having sex is the perfect antidote to insomnia as it helps you sleep more soundly by leaving you feeling more relaxed and tired.

3. Make sure outside noise isn’t preventing you from falling asleep. If this is a problem where you live, earplugs can work wonders.

4. Help your body associate your bed with immediate sleep. Don’t go to bed until you’re completely exhausted, and if you have trouble sleeping try sleeping in another area of the house.

5. If you wake up during the night don’t switch on any lights. New research has found that being woken up and exposed to light during the night can completely throw your biological clock out of synch for the next few days. This disrupts the release of important hormones and affects your energy levels.

6. Avoid caffeine after midday so your body isn’t still stimulated by its effects at night. You can help limit your caffeine intake simply by making your second cup of tea in the morning from the tea bag used from your first cup. Plus cut out sugar and refined carbohydrates – although they both give you a burst of energy, it is short-lived and upsets your blood sugar levels. This can disrupt sleep in the middle of the night as blood sugar levels fall.

7. Have a snack half an hour before you go to bed to help you sleep more soundly. A warm glass of tryptophan- rich milk with a spoonful of honey is beneficial in raising your body’s levels of serotonin – a chemical that relieves stress and depression and promotes sleep.

Continues below...


...and another thing

Bear this in mind as you struggle with hay fever symptoms now that the pollen season is in full swing.

According to researchers, allergy sufferers are far less likely to contract cancer than non-sufferers.

US researchers from Texas Tech University believe that allergic reactions stimulate the immune system, helping to ward off other potentially fatal conditions. They found that asthmatics were 30 per cent less likely to get ovarian cancer than others, and children with allergies to airborne substances were 40 per cent less likely to develop leukaemia than other youngsters. Doctors at Cornell javascript:void(0)University in America, found children with airborne allergies also had reduced rates of throat, skin, lung and intestinal cancer.

Until next time,

Francois Lubbe
UK Editor

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