Why you should sleep enough and sleep well

Many of us tend to sleep less and work more in order to use those sleeping hours productively. At a first glance that might seem like a great idea. But sleeping is not a waste of time but rather very vital for the body and mind.

If you are entrepreneur, start-up founder or a business leader, you find less hours for sleeping. You always have long list of things to complete before you hit the bed.

Many in technology sector burn the mid night oil to get more work done. If you have deadline to meet, working overnight once in a while is OK. But spending the night hours working and sacrificing sleep on a continuous basis may not be the right approach in the long run.

Here are the top five reasons why sleeping is more important than you probably think

Spurs creativity
Enhances concentration
Increase your stamina
Maintains a healthy weight
Helps you to stay away from depression

(1) Spurs creativity

Get a good night’s sleep before getting back to the laptop, mobile phone, drawing board or other devices. When you sleep well, in addition to consolidating memories and making them stronger, your brain appears to reorganize and restructure them resulting in more creativity and better problem-solving abilities.

(2) Enhances concentration

Sleeping keeps your mind fresh and agile, ready to grasp any piece of information, any time. And by doing so, helps you concentrate on the task at hand. “Always remember, your concentration power determines the quality of learning” says Er. Pradip Langhe.

(3) Increases your stamina

Stanford University study found that college football players who tried to sleep at least 10 hours a night for seven to eight weeks improved their average sprint time and had less daytime fatigue and more stamina.

Not just for athletes, but for all of us, if we want to have a brisk, energetic, and exiting day rather than a dull, heavy and boring one then sleep is key.

(4) Helps to maintain a healthy weight

Unintuitively, sleep has a lot to do with weight-loss and being fit. Researchers at the University of Chicago found that dieters who were well rested lost more fat—56% of their weight loss—than those who were sleep deprived, who lost more muscle mass.

(5) Helps you to stay away from depression

A good night’s sleep can help you steer clear of depression and keep you motivated and happy.

“A lack of sleep can contribute to depression,” Dr. Jean says.

“A good night’s sleep can really help a moody person decrease their anxiety. You get more emotional stability with good sleep.”

What happens when I don’t sleep enough?

During sleep, our body repairs DNA and replenishes the body. The lack of sleep will not facilitate this. Sleep is essential for people of all ages but in the USA and other countries, it is estimated that 30% of adults and 66% of adolescents are sleep deprived.

Not only that sleep deprivation can cause inconvenience in our day to day activities and metabolism but it also reduces the capacity to learn, impacts memory, affects the mood, and also reduces agility of the body and mind. Study shows that sleep deprivation can also cause inflammation, hallucination, increased blood-pressure.

Sleep deprivation and sleeplessness are also linked with diabetes and obesity. Sleeping for less than 6 hours on a daily basis also increases your risk of strokes by 4.5 times. So just remember to sleep enough and stay motivated and happy.