Sleep is necessary, it is not just something that give us pleasure and peace. While asleep, our organism perform numerous functions like growth and repair of the cells, while simultaneously working on energy restoration and nutrients supply to worn our tissues and muscles. Sleep helps in hormone balance and support of the immunity, while at the same time supporting the function of memory.
All of these reasons show why bad quality sleep can leave us not just feeling cranky, but with less focus.
Sleep Deprivation Connection to Diseases
- Alzheimer’s Disease
Sleep is necessary for removal of waste from exhausted brain cells and also repair of worn and damaged structures. If this is not rightly done, than there is appearance of cognitive decline, dementia and other brain conditions.
John Hopkins University conducted a study in 2013 that discovered that irregular sleep is one of the possible reasons of Alzheimer’s disease. The studies included 70 adults between the age of 53 and 91. Participants that had poor sleep often were found to have higher amount of beta-amyloid deposition in their brains shown on PET scans. This compound is a marker for Alzheimer’s and this is how researchers suggest that poor sleep can affect the appearance of this disease.
- Obesity And Diabetes
University of Chicago scientists have found proof that poor sleep is also connected to obesity and eventually – diabetes.
They discovered that not enough sleep leads to accumulation of fatty acids that influences the metabolism and the sensitivity to insulin. With analysis of 19 men’s sleep over 3 nights, it has been found that patients with only 4 hours of sleep have fatty acid blood levels 15-30% higher than the other participants that had eight and a half hours of sleep.
- Cardiovascular Disease
Cardiovascular disease is largely influenced by overall lifestyle and diet, so it is logical that sleep also plays a big role.
The European Society of Cardiology presented proof that there is direct link between good sleep and heart disease risks.
The study conducted showed that people that had poor sleep discovered that have 2.6 times larger risk of heart attack caused by dying of the heart muscles, and they also had a 1,5 to 4 times higher stroke risk.
- Mental Issues and Suicide
Poor sleep is also linked to causing issues of mental health.
One study from 2014 discovered a connection between suicide attempts in adults and poor sleep. Also, continuous lack of regular sleep was connected to almost one and a half times greater risk of suicide attempt.
These results were compared to other studies and only confirmed the already found link.
- Ulcerative Colitis Chron’s Disease
Inflammatory bowels disease which is characterized by appearance of ulcers in the digestive system is called ulcerative colitis. Research has shown that colitis and Crohn’s disease are very much connected to sleep irregularity.
Scientists from Massachusetts General, in 2014 presented a study that included women enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study, and found proof that women that had 6 hours of sleep or less were at higher risk to suffer from one of these two conditions.
Nine hours of sleep, or longer also increases the risk so this shows that just the right time of sleep is the basis of control of inflammation appearance in the digestive system.
- Prostate Cancer
One study published in a distinctive journal, presents that sleep can indeed be a protector of the prostate.
This study was conducted in Island and examined the participants patterns of sleep proving that men that had irregular sleep had sixty percent higher risk of prostate cancer appearance, and men that had hard time staying asleep were 120% more likely to develop this condition.
Melatonin which is a sleep hormone has been proved to affect prostate cancer, and some studies proved that this hormone usually suppresses the growth of tumors.
