2019 Edition vol6 Issue 22 DIGITAL

Health
Why Your
Body Needs
A Good And
Adequate
Sleep
By Tedman Oscar
Medically speaking, sleep
is, in fact, important to
health as much as eating and
having regular exercises are.
Faced with work stress and other
social challenges, many research
works have shown that a greater
percentage of people sleep fewer
hours than they should. This
lack of adequate sleep, although
harmless as it might seem, comes
with numerous health problems,
amongst them are:
1. Risk of heart disease and
stroke
Research has clearly proven that
the quality and duration of one’s
sleep matter a lot. Poor quality
and less sleep could lead to health
problems like heart disease and stroke.
To avoid the risk of heart disease, it is
medically recommended that you have
between a 7-8 hour sleep every day. Of
course, to take a siesta is good, however,
it is equally healthier to sleep 7-8 hours at
night rather than in the day time and stay
awake at night. Your body and mind are
accustomed to a night’s sleep.
2. Productivity and better
concentration
Sleep goes hand in hand with your brain
functions. Lack of good sleep affects
not only your brain productivity and
performance, it equally, influences your
cognition and concentration. Medical
research works have proved that sleep
deprivation can impact your brain to a
significantly similar degree as alcohol
intoxication. On the other hand, a night
of good sleep can lead to improved
concentration and memory, as well as
problem-solving skill.
3. Sleep poorly, gain weight.
Poor Sleep has been linked to weight
gain, hence people who sleep less or
poorly, often become fat. Of course, being
fat comes with other health problems
like diabetes, heart problems, stroke,
obesity, etc. In other words, good sleep,
amongst others, is crucial if you want to
lose weight.
4. Suicide
Most people who commit suicide
or those about to, have a history of
depression. Patients with sleeping
disorders like obstructive sleep apnoea or
insomnia are often depressive as well as
more likely to commit suicide than those
who have no sleeping disorders.
5.Less consumption of calories
As said earlier, poor sleep could lead to
weight gain and obesity. While often,
people gain weight due to too much
food and unhealthy eating habit, poor
sleep can cause an increase in appetite,
which could lead logically to eating more
calories. This is because lack or poor
sleep affects the daily fluctuations in
appetite hormones like ghrelin, which
stimulates appetite and reduces the level
of Leptin hormone, which suppresses
appetite. The result is that with adequate
sleep, you tend to eat fewer calories than
when you have poor sleep.
6. Depression
Recent studies have indicated that
many people sleep less than before.
Industrialisation, globalisation and
other economic factors play a major
role in the result of the studies. Having
less sleep could lead to depression,
bad mood, headache and other health
challenges. It has been medically proved
that lack of sleep or poor sleep could
lead to depression. Research has equally
pointed out that a greater percentage
of people who are depressed equally
complained about poor sleep or sleeping
disorders.
7. Inflammation increase
Another health issue linked to poor
sleep is an increase in inflammation in
the body and cell damage. According to
some medical research, inflammatory
bowel diseases, long-term inflammation
of the digestive tract is associated
with poor sleep. To avoid the risk of
recurrence of inflammatory bowel
diseases, patients are often advised to
have adequate sleep.
8. Good sleep can maximize
athletic performance
Has it ever occurred to you why athletes
are often advised to have enough
sleep? The advice is not for nothing
because poor sleep can affect one’s
athletic performance. Be it in football,
basketball, cycling, running, good sleep
is necessary to improve physical as well
as mental functionality like one’s speed,
reaction, mental judgement, accuracy,
etc. On the other hand, lack of sleep
causes weakness, inaccuracy, functional
limitation.
6 Kata kata cartoon magazine Issue 22 2019 www.katakata.org