The importance of rest
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Getting a good night’s sleep is just as important as eating a balanced diet and exercising. Everyone requires different amounts of sleep, on average adults need 7-9 hours of sleep per day. Below are some tips to help you improve your quality of sleep:
- Go to bed and wake up at the same time everyday. Even on weekends
- Make sure that your bedroom is dark, quiet & cool if possible.
- Try to relax at least an hour before your bedtime (E.g. read a book, listen to a soothing audio).
- Aim to exercise during the day, just not close to your sleep time.
- Avoid caffeine especially at least for 6-8 hours before bed.
- Avoid bluelight (TV, smartphones, etc) before going to sleep.
- Avoid taking naps during the day.
- Avoid sleeping in after a bad night’s sleep and stick to your regular sleeping hours instead.
- Avoid large meals & alcohol before bedtime. Both can prevent deep and restorative sleep.
“The importance of regularity in the time for eating and sleeping should not be overlooked. Since the work of building up the body takes place during the hours of rest, it is essential, especially in youth, that sleep should be regular and abundant.”
“The stomach, when we lie down to rest, should have its work all done, that it may enjoy rest, as well as other portions of the body. The work of digestion should not be carried on through any period of the sleeping hours.” {Counsels on diet and foods, page 175}
An analysis in 2020 found that adults who slept fewer than 7 hours per night had a 41.2% increased risk of developing obesity. Whereas sleeping longer didn’t increase the risk. The effect of sleep on weight gain is believed to affected by numerous factors, such as hormones and the motivation to exercise. For example, sleep deprivation increases levels of grelin (the hormone that makes us feel hungry) and decreases levels of leptin (the hormone that makes us feel full). This may cause a person to feel hungrier and overeat.
“Studies showed that experimental sleep restriction was associated with increased levels of ghrelin, salt retention and inflammatory markers as well as decreased levels of leptin and insulin sensitivity.” {Source}
“Good sleep hygiene is crucial to maintain optimal functions of the neuroendocrine and appetite regulation systems. To date [2018], there is clear evidence in support of a causal relationship between sleep, circadian misalignment and cardiometabolic risk.” {Itani, O., Jike, M., Watanabe, N., & Kaneita, Y. (2017). Sleep duration and obesity in adults: A meta-analysis of prospective studies. Sleep Medicine, 40, 90-99.}
“Sleep exerts a wide range of physiologic functions, and, in this review, we have provided evidence that short sleep duration is associated with higher total caloric intake, higher absolute intake of fat, and diets with relatively higher fat and lower protein composition.” {Source}
Sleep is also known to be important for various aspects of brain function. Your cognition, concentration, productivity and performance can all be negatively affected by a lack of sleep.
“Vigilant attention is a major component of a wide range of cognitive performance tasks. Vigilant attention is impaired by sleep deprivation and restored after rest breaks and (more enduringly) after sleep.” {Source}
“Sleep is an important component of human life, yet many people do not understand the relationship between the brain and the process of sleeping. Sleep has been proven to improve memory recall, regulate metabolism, and reduce mental fatigue. A minimum of 7 hours of daily sleep seems to be necessary for proper cognitive and behavioral function.” {Source}
“When one sleeps, the brain reorganizes and recharges itself, and removes toxic waste byproducts which have accumulated throughout the day. This evidence demonstrates that sleeping can clear the brain and help maintain its normal functioning.” {Source}
This study on overworked physicians helps stress the importance of a good night’s sleep. It showed that overworked doctors with moderate sleep related impairments were 53% more likely to report clinically significant medical errors, doctors with high sleep related impairments were 96% more likely to report clinically significant medical errors & doctors with a very high related sleep impairment were 97% more likely to report clinically significant medical errors.
In addition, this study showed better quality, longer duration and greater consistency correlated with better grades.
“Overall, better quality, longer duration, and greater consistency of sleep correlated with better grades. However, there was no relation between sleep measures on the single night before a test and test performance; instead, sleep duration and quality for the month and the week before a test correlated with better grades. Sleep measures accounted for nearly 25% of the variance in academic performance. These findings provide quantitative, objective evidence that better quality, longer duration, and greater consistency of sleep are strongly associated with better academic performance in college.” {Source}
“Longer sleep duration the night prior to an examination was associated with higher course grades and semester grade point averages (GPAs)…Adequate sleep the night prior to an examination was positively associated with student course grades and semester GPAs.” {Source}
Lastly, in this study the participants who slept less than 5 hours per night were 4.5 times more likely to develop a clinical cold than those who slept more than 7 hours, and those who slept between 5-6 hours were 4.24 times more likely to develop a cold than those who slept for more than 7 hours. This shows that there could be an association between shorter sleep duration and susceptibility to the common cold.