SLEEP! 7 ways sleep can affect your Health.
“Innocent sleep. Sleep that soothes away all our worries. Sleep that puts each day to rest. Sleep that relieves the weary labourer and heals hurt minds. Sleep, the main course in life's feast, and the most nourishing.”― William Shakespeare, Macbeth. Even though Shakespeare may not be a healthcare professional, he could not have said it better. Sleep is a vital pillar of health that has been much neglected by the modern, urbanized world we live in which prides itself in the pursuit of economic progress at all cost. This is indeed true for Singapore which was found to be the most fatigued in a study by Sleepseeker in 2021. If we take a poll of the people around us, we may find that the majority of the people around us actually sleep <7 hours.
1. Sleep and General Health
It is known by a few studies that adults sleeping <7hrs per night has been associated with poorer general health, overall physical health and mental health on the health related quality of life measure as compared to those with more than 7hrs of sleep. Disease and disease risk factors were also more evident in those with less than 7hrs of sleep versus 7 to 8 hours of sleep.
2. Sleep and Cardiovascular Health
Most studies focused on coronary heart disease, stroke and hypertension in relation to sleep. It was found that the highest correlation to these conditions were in patients sleeping less than 6 hours. Despite having some evidence for cardiovascular risk and hypertension with sleep duration greater than 8 hours, these results were less compelling. Anyone with these conditions and sleeping less than 6 hours/night should seriously begin increasing sleep duration especially if the sleep reduction is caused by poor health habits like binge watching television programs.
3. Sleep and Metabolic Health
There is strong evidence that sleep can affect metabolic health. When we are sleep deprived, it causes our body to be less sensitive to insulin and lowers glucose tolerance. This would cause blood sugar levels to rise. When sleep deprivation is prolonged, it can even affect pancreas function leading to type 2 diabetes. Hence sleep should be looked at especially with any newly diagnosed diabetes. Ask your doctor about sleep as a medication.
4. Sleep and Immune Health
It is well known that sleep affects immunity. Short sleep has been associated with reduced natural killer cell function and mobilisation. Vaccine response has also been found to be improved with longer sleep. There are studies associating upper respiratory tract infection and patients with less than 7 hours of sleep. In another prospective study, they found that those with 5 hours and less of sleep were associated with higher risk of pneumonia.
5. Sleep and Performance
For those who are interested in improving productivity, you would be keen to know that sleep has been correlated to cognitive function like vigilant attention, cognitive processing speed and memory. The participants who slept longer hours yielded better performance that received less sleep.
6. Sleep and Mental Health
There have been experimental and longitudinal studies suggesting that short sleep durations can lead to depression and other mental conditions. Even with our own personal experience, we can attest to poorer moods and being more irritable after a night of bad sleep. Stress levels go up and we become more easily triggered.
7. Sleep and Pain
Pain symptoms seem to correlate with reduced sleep. According to studies, those with 6 hours or less of sleep experienced more pain than those with more sleep. Sleep duration between 7 to 9 hours were associated with reduced symptoms. This implies that healthcare professionals managing pain should consider sleep in their assessments as it would affect pain symptoms.
In conclusion, we have learned that sleep can affect many aspects of health. The golden number that is commonly associated with poorer health is 6 or less hours of sleep and the optimal seems to be 7 to 9 hours of sleep. So sleep well my friends, for good health!
Good night!
References:
Garbarino, S., Lanteri, P., Bragazzi, N.L. et al. Role of sleep deprivation in immune-related disease risk and outcomes. Commun Biol 4, 1304 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02825-4
https://www.sleepseeker.co.uk/blog/fatigued-cities
Watson NF, Badr MS, Belenky G, Bliwise DL, Buxton OM, Buysse D, Dinges DF, Gangwisch J, Grandner MA, Kushida C, Malhotra RK, Martin JL, Patel SR, Quan SF, Tasali E. Joint consensus statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society on the recommended amount of sleep for a healthy adult: methodology and discussion. J Clin Sleep Med 2015;11(8):931–952.
