The role of sleep

For something that is so universal to humanity, as well as all other known living species, it’s slightly odd that our understanding of sleep until recently has been relatively poor. You may think that sleep is just the body’s reaction to feeling tired and is merely a means of regaining energy so that you wake up the following morning feeling refreshed – and you’d be correct.

However, as our understanding of sleep has improved considerably over the last 10 years we now know that its role is infinitely more important than this statement would suggest. The truth is, sleep plays many roles in maintaining good physical and mental health and can consequently have a negative impact on both of these things if not shown the appreciation it deserves.

It is the costly impact of neglecting good quality sleep that this article focuses on, which is perhaps more important than ever before given that the value we place on sleep at the societal level is, as you’ve probably guessed, too low.

You might think that sleep deprivation sounds serious and is probably quite a rare thing. Unfortunately you’d be wrong, as routinely getting six hours or less of sleep per night actually qualifies as sleep deprivation, which is something that applies to roughly one third of adults in many developed nations. When considering the number of health risks that are increased as a result of habitually sleeping six hours or less each night, this paints quite a worrying picture.

For example, this amount of sleep significantly increases the risk of certain forms of cancer and is a key lifestyle factor linked to the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Inadequate sleep – even moderate reductions for just a week – disrupts blood sugar levels so profoundly that you would be classed as pre-diabetic.

Short sleeping also increases the chances of your coronary arteries becoming blocked which, over time, could lead to cardiovascular disease, stroke and cognitive heart failure.

Sleep deprivation contributes to all major psychiatric conditions, including depression, anxiety and suicidality, and is a proven recipe for weight gain. Add each of these health issues together and a proven link becomes easier to understand; relative to the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep per night, the shorter your sleep, the shorter your life span.

It isn’t surprising that countries such as the UK, US, Japan and South Korea, and several others in Western Europe (where sleep has declined dramatically over the past century), are suffering the greatest increase of sleep related health conditions. Although this sounds quite hopeless, there are reasons to be positive. Our understanding of sleep has improved immensely over the last 10 years, to the point where we now understand how important it is to maintaining good general health, which is beginning to filter into public consciousness.

Perhaps the road to changing the way in which we think about sleep at the societal level begins with the individual. Sleep is starting to emerge within the world of wellbeing as an area of focus but we still have a way to go in shifting attitudes away from sleep being something that’s interchangeable towards sleep being something that’s non-negotiable. If reading this article has made you realise that you either need to increase the amount of sleep you’re getting each night, or that you need to improve the quality of your sleep, there are some simple steps you can take towards achieving both:

  1. Stick to a specific sleep schedule whereby you aim to go to bed and aim to get up at the same time each day, whilst giving yourself the opportunity to get at least 7 hours of sleep each night.
  2. Control your exposure to light – melatonin is a natural hormone that helps to regulate your sleep-wake cycle. Your brain secretes more melatonin when it’s dark helping to make you feel sleepy. Artificial light generated by bright screens can alter your body’s production of melatonin so try and avoid bright screens within 1-2 hours of your bedtime.
  3. Exercise during the day - regular exercise promotes better sleep at night and makes you feel less sleepy during the day. Even light exercise, such as walking for 10 minutes a day, improves sleep quality.
  4. Think about what you eat and drink – caffeine is a natural stimulant and it can take the body up to 7 hours to remove only 50% of the caffeine that may be consumed over a day. As a result, it’s best to restrict caffeine consumption to the morning.