Sleep is a vital part of every person’s health and well-being because it repairs the body and allows your body and mind to recharge, leaving you refreshed and alert when you wake up. Getting proper sleep also prevents you from excess weight gain, heart disease, and increased illness duration. When you don’t get enough sleep, your brain can’t perform functions properly which impairs your ability to concentrate, think clearly, and process memories. A healthy diet and a positive lifestyle can help you to have a good sleep each night. During the daytime, when you perform your daily routine activities, adenosine, an organic compound, is produced in your brain, resulting in feeling tired. When you go to bed, your body breaks down this compound, and you feel relaxed and refreshed the next day. There are many reasons why sleep is important for our mental health, well-being, and staying healthy. In addition, there are many ways to optimize our sleep and improve our sleep quality.

Why sleep is important?

How sleep is important is a general question that often arises in our minds. There are the following reasons why sleep is important for our mental health.

i. Poor sleep and obesity

Poor sleep is strongly associated with obesity. Sleep on weight gain is due to the hormonal imbalance and disturbance of the sleep-wake cycle. 

ii. Good sleep increases performance and productivity

Good sleep is important for various brain functions like cognition, concentration, productivity, and performance. In addition, proper sleep improves your problem-solving skills and enhances your memory performance.

iii. Poor sleep and depression

Insufficient sleeping time and poor quality of sleep cause depression and anxiety, resulting in mental disorders. People who have insomnia or obstructive sleep apnea are at high risk of depression and anxiety than those who take good sleep.

iv. Good sleep improves the immune system

A slight disturbance in the sleeping cycle can impair your immune system functions. According to research, those who slept less than 7 hours are almost 3 times more likely to develop a cold than those who slept 8 hours or more.

v. Poor sleep and inflammation

Sleep has a significant effect on your body’s inflammation. Poor sleep is strongly linked to long-term inflammation of the digestive tract, also known as inflammatory bowel disease.

vi. Sleep and mood boost

During your sleeping duration, your brain processes your emotions. When you take less sleep, your brain doesn’t have enough time to recognize and react in a good way, resulting in negative emotions and mood swings.

vii. Good sleep and a healthier heart

When you are sleeping, your blood pressure goes down, and your heart and blood vessels have a bit of a rest. When you’re awake more than usual, then high blood pressure can lead to heart stroke.

Steps to optimize sleep

By taking the following steps, we can optimize sleeping patterns:

• Increasing the light exposure during daytime
• Reducing the blue light exposure during evening time
• Don’t take caffeine at night
• Reduce your long daytime nap duration
• Keep in sync with your body’s natural sleep-wake cycle
• Take a melatonin supplement
• Improve your bedroom environment
• Turn your lifestyle into a healthy lifestyle
• Take a proper and healthy diet
• Take a relaxing bath in the evening
• Exercise regularly in the morning
• Fix your food and don’t take alcohol in the evening
• Make sure your bedroom is cool, dark, and quiet with a comfortable pillow, matrix, and blanket

Sleep is important to keep us healthy in eating, breathing, and drinking. Sleeping improves our physical and mental health. Sleep and health status are strongly interlinked. When our sleep is then, it leads to poor health, while when there’s poor health, you can’t sleep properly. Sleep disturbances can be one of the first signs of poor mental health. Common mental health problems like anxiety and depression can often underpin sleeping disorders like insomnia or obstructive sleep apnea. There are many reasons why it is crucial to have proper sleep to keep our heart, immune system, and brain healthy. In addition, it prevents us from many diseases to refresh our bodies each morning. Poor sleep can lead to many health problems, so there are many ways to optimize sleep. A good lifestyle and healthy diet play a more crucial role in combatting sleep disorders, improving sleep quality, and regulating the sleep-wake cycle.