How Sleep Impacts Your Health

Humanity comes with lots of variations, but we all share a few things in common. We all need oxygen, water, and food, for starters. And we all need sleep.

Even though we all require it, everyone has a different relationship with sleep. While getting a good night’s rest is the easiest thing in the world for some folks, sleep can be a real challenge for others. That’s a problem because sleep is a critical tool your body uses to preserve and promote your physical and mental wellness.

With that in mind, let’s look at how sleep impacts your health, and what you can do if getting enough rest is a struggle.

Why sleep is so important

Your body needs 7–9 hours of sleep each night to accomplish essential functions. During sleep, your body:

• Repairs cells, tissues, blood vessels, and your heart
• Balances out hormones, including the ones that help you feel hungry and full
• Removes toxins from your brain
• Fights germs and illnesses

Getting enough sleep helps to lower your risk for a range of serious health issues, from Alzheimer’s disease to high blood pressure to heart disease.

As researchers looked at how sleep impacts your health, they learned that it’s just as important for mental wellness and function. Sleep deprivation has links to mental illness and low mood. It also affects your cognitive ability. If you’ve ever felt irritated or cloudy-headed after a bad night of sleep, this comes as no surprise.

All told, sleep is absolutely critical for your body, including your brain, to function its best. Sleep is your system’s time to reset, repair damage, fight disease, and more.

The sleep struggle

Sure, you might be thinking, it’s all well and good to know how sleep impacts your health. It doesn’t do anything for your personal sleep struggles, though.

Just knowing you need to sleep doesn’t make it any easier to drift off or stay asleep. In fact, stressing about not getting enough sleep could be enough to keep you from entering dreamland.

If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) reports that one in three adults in America say they don’t get enough sleep.

Some healthy sleep habits can make a difference. Those include:

• Going to bed and getting up at the same time every day
• Making your bedroom cool and dark
• Regular exercise
• Steering clear of caffeine in the afternoon and evening
• Avoiding screens for at least a half-hour before bed
• Eating healthy, balanced diet

Adding in a sleep supporting supplement can go a long way, too. As they’ve looked at how sleep impacts your health, researchers have identified some things that make a difference. They learned, for example, that certain ingredients like L-theanine, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), and melatonin can help us fall asleep and stay asleep.

That’s why we combined all of them into our Sleep Support dissolvable strips. Slip one under your tongue, enjoy the minty taste as it dissolves, then dissolve into your pillow as you drift off to dreamland. You’ll rest a little easier knowing you’ve taken steps to support the sleep your body needs.

Sources:

• https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/sleep-deprivation/health-effects
• https://www.aamc.org/news/sleep-determinant-health
• https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-lifestyle/sleep/how-sleep-affects-health-infographic
• https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2013/04/benefits-slumber
• https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/about/index.html
• https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/sleep-deprivation
• https://www.ninds.nih.gov/health-information/public-education/brain-basics/brain-basics-understanding-sleep