5 Surprising Ways Sleep Affects Your Health

Sleep affects many different parts of your body and mind. When you don’t get enough sleep, you’ll feel the effects in everything from your cardiovascular system to your memory and mood. On the flip side, getting good sleep can help you feel and stay much healthier.

Here are a few ways getting better sleep can affect your health:

1. Better Memory

Sleep affects your ability to remember and react to things. For your memory to be at its best, you need good sleep both before and after you do whatever you want to remember. Being sleep deprived reduces your ability to learn, focus, and remember.

Over your lifetime, chronic sleep deprivation can lead to a higher risk of dementia and other cognitive impairments. Sleep helps clear the neurotoxins that can lead to Alzheimer’s disease.

2. Better Balance and Coordination

Sleep deprivation, whether it’s chronic or not, may have a negative effect on your balance. In one study, people who got just one night of poor sleep did worse than the control group at coordinating their steps on a treadmill with the beat of a metronome.

If you’re not getting enough sleep, you might feel like you’re stumbling through the day. You’ll also be at higher risk for falls and other accidents.

3. Good Sleep Quality Reduces Risk of Illness

Sleep affects just about everything your body does, including your immune system’s functioning. Your immune system will weaken over time if you’re chronically sleep deprived.

With a less functional immune system, you’ll be more susceptible to some illnesses. It may also take you longer to recover from illnesses like the flu.

4. Reduced Risk of Diabetes and Heart Disease

Insufficient sleep is linked to a number of diseases and chronic conditions, including type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Researchers also think that sleep problems may be linked to mood disorders like depression.

Sleep can also affect how well your body manages some diseases and conditions. For instance, sleep duration and quality can predict your level of Hemoglic A1c, which is a marker of blood sugar control. If someone with type 2 diabetes gets better sleep, they may have better blood sugar control and an easier time managing their condition.

5. Better Moods Come from Better Sleep Quality

You might have noticed that you’re more likely to feel grumpy or emotional when you’re tired. Research shows that sleep quality has a large effect on mood. People who are sleep deprived are more likely to experience negative moods like anger, sadness, frustration, and irritability and less likely to experience positive moods.

People also tend to feel more stressed when they’re angry. When you don’t get enough sleep, you may have higher cortisol (“stress hormone”) levels. On the other hand, good sleep tends to naturally reduce cortisol levels.

About Slumber Ease

At Slumber Ease Mattress Factory, we care about your sleep. We create custom fit mattresses in Marysville, WA, to help our customers feel more comfortable at night and hopefully improve their sleep quality. We customize your mattress based on your health needs, sleep preferences, need for motion isolation, and any other concerns you have.

We believe that a high-quality mattress can make a huge difference. Stop by our factory showroom to get started on creating the perfect mattress for you.