Answered: Your Most Burning Questions About SLEEP BENEFIT

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A lack of sleep at night can make you cranky the next day. And over time, saving on sleep can mess up more than just your morning mood.

Studies show getting quality sleep regularly can help improve all sorts of issues, from your blood sugar to your workouts.

Train yourself to sleep on your left side. Putting a body pillow against your back will prevent you from rolling over while sleeping.

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Insufficient sleep is linked to a multitude of health problems, from depression to cardiovascular disease. Make sure you're falling asleep quickly so you can get a good night's rest.

9 Surprising Health Benefits of Sleeping

9 Surprising Health Benefits of Sleeping

1. Sharper Brain

When you are running low on sleep, you will probably have trouble holding onto and recalling details.

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That's because sleep plays a big part in both learning and memory. Without enough sleep, it is tough to focus and take in new information.

Your brain also doesn't have enough time to properly store memories so you can pull them up later.

Your mind is surprisingly busy while you snooze. During sleep, you can strengthen memories or practice skills learned while you were awake.

2. Mood Boost

Another thing that your brain does while you sleep is processed your emotions.

Your mind needs this time to recognize and react the right way. When you cut that short, you tend to have more negative emotional reactions and fewer positive ones.

Chronic lack of sleep can also raise the chance of having a mood disorder. When you have insomnia, you are five times more likely to develop depression, and your odds of anxiety or panic disorders are even greater.

Refreshing sleep helps you hit the reset button on a bad day, improve your outlook on life, and be better prepared to meet challenges.

3. Healthier Heart

While you sleep, your blood pressure goes down, giving your heart and blood vessels a bit of a rest.

The less sleep you get, the longer your blood pressure stays up during a 24-hour cycle. High blood pressure can lead to heart disease, including stroke.

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4. Athletic Achievement

Your sport needs quick blasts of energy, like wrestling or weightlifting, sleep loss may not affect you as much as with endurance sports like running, swimming, and biking.

If you are an athlete, there may be one simple way to improve your performance: sleep.

A 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.

Besides robbing you of energy and time for muscle repair, lack of sleep saps your motivation, which is what gets you to the finish line.

5. Steadier Blood Sugar

During the deep, slow-wave part of your sleep cycle, the amount of glucose in your blood drops.

Not enough time in this deepest stage means you don't get that break to allow a reset like leaving the volume turned up.

Your body will have a harder time responding to your cell's needs and blood sugar levels.

Allow yourself to reach and remain in this deep sleep, and you are less likely to get type 2 diabetes.

6. Germ Fighting

Your immune system identifies harmful bacteria and viruses in your body and destroys them.

Ongoing lack of sleep changes the way your immune cells work. They may not attack as quickly, and you could get sick more often.

Good nightly rest now can help you avoid that tired, worn-out feeling, as well as spending days in bed as your body tries to recover.

7. Weight Control

When you are well-rested, you are less hungry. Being sleep-deprived messes with the hormones in your brain leptin and ghrelin that control appetite.

If you are thinking about going on a diet, you might want to plan an earlier bedtime too. Researchers at the University of Chicago found that well-rested dieters lost more fat—56% of their weight loss—than those who were sleep-deprived, who lost more muscle mass.

Dieters in the study also felt more hungry when they got less sleep. With those out of balance, your resistance to the temptation of unhealthy foods goes way down.

And when you are tired, you are less likely to want to get up and move your body. Together, it's a recipe for putting on pounds.

The time you spend in bed goes hand-in-hand with the time you spend at the table and at the gym to help you manage your weight.

8. Not Too Much Sleep

Sleep needs vary, but on average, regularly sleeping more than 9 hours a night may do more harm than good.

The research found that people who slept longer had more calcium buildup in their heart arteries and less flexible leg arteries, too.

Your best bet is to shoot for 7-8 hours of slumber each night for peak health benefits.

9. Encourage creativity

Get a good night’s sleep before getting out the easel and paintbrushes or the pen and paper.

In addition to consolidating memories, or making them stronger, your brain appears to reorganize and restructure them, which may result in more creativity as well.

Researchers at Harvard University and Boston College found that people seem to strengthen the emotional components of a memory during sleep, which may help spur the creative process.