We all sleep at least five to six hours – if not 8 hours as recommended – everyday. But how many of us really stopped and pondered as to why do we need sleep. Even if you would have done that, you wouldn’t surely have found a suitable answer. The reason being, scientists are yet to unfold the truth logically. However, here we are to discuss certain facts that delineate why sleep is that important in your day to day routine.
A daily tune up
We just take our body as a car that we drive daily. If we will keep driving it without a tune up whatsoever, it might still run but not the way it used to when properly tuned. In a similar way, sleep is a daily tune to your body. Though human body can function without a full sleep but that will keep you in a state of sleep deprivation that will not only keep you unhealthy but you won’t also be able to work or think the way you do when resting properly.
Repair work and restoring energy
Body also does most of its repair work like rebuilding and restoring muscle tissues efficiently while asleep. The body also secretes growth hormone which is important for growing children as well as needed in adulthood also to rebuild the tissues.
The brain, which is busy in thinking and creative work the whole day, also restores its energy during sleep. However, the fact that brain is highly active during sleep makes these common theories, little if not too much, ambiguous. This surely doesn’t put the fact behind that we use the sleeping time to feed, reproduce and repair the nervous and immune systems, muscles as well as bones of the body.
What if we don’t sleep?
1) Effects on mind
The importance of sleep can be supported by another question: What if we don’t sleep? No sleep terribly affects our personality. It could have serious effects on brain’s ability to function properly and it is highly likely that we become irritable and less tolerant to others around. Lack of sleep may leave you with grumpiness, grogginess, irritability and forgetfulness. Just a single knight without sleep and you will lack the concentration and or cognitive process while the attention span also shortens considerably.
2) Effects on body
Not only the mind but our body also suffers in lack of proper sleep and thereby coordination. We lack agility to do things rapidly and our body loses weight too. Proper sleep also nourishes our skin and tones up the muscles. Scientists also believe that lack of proper sleep affects the part of brain that manages language, memory, planning and sense of time which in return badly affect the performance of an individual.
Sleep deprivation isn’t just about the bad effects on cognitive functioning but also affects emotions badly. The disorders like sleep apnoea that result in excessive daytime sleepiness causes stress, might increase blood pressure as well as make you obese because the hormones and chemicals that control the hunger and weight gain are released while asleep.
There might not be any scientific theory that unfolds the secrets behind the sleep logically, but the facts under ‘What if we don’t sleep’ clearly outline why sleep is that important. So never miss your eight hour of sleep everyday.
