As we age, the quality of our sleep gradually diminishes due to hormonal shifts such as menopause when hot flashes and night sweats disrupt restful slumber.
Researchers from UCLA discovered that even one night of poor rest can make your cells age faster, which increases the risk of diseases like multiple sclerosis and heart disease.
1. It Reverses Cellular Aging
Scientists don’t fully understand why humans sleep, but it appears to serve a vital function. One theory suggests that restful sleep allows your body to conserve energy, since no physical activity takes place while sleeping. Another possible explanation for why we sleep could include helping repair and renew cells damaged during daily activity – however this latter theory requires further evidence.
Sleep is widely thought of as necessary to help our bodies fight illness and infection, with its immune system producing cytokines and antibodies to target bacteria and germs while also strengthening natural defences against them. Furthermore, sleeping gives the immune system a chance to remember foreign invaders that might resurface, giving our body the best chance at fighting them off effectively in future encounters.
Studies have revealed that with age comes decreased sleep quality and protein homeostatic maintenance mechanisms that lead to protein homeostasis; possibly explaining why aging often coincides with poorer quality slumber. Therefore, getting ample amounts of quality restful sleep each night is critical in maintaining optimal cellular health and maintaining overall wellness.
Sleep is such an integral component of overall health that when it is taken away, your body immediately reacts by slowing down. This is due to sleep’s role in regulating your circadian rhythm; when your circadian rhythm shifts due to lack of restful slumber, this can trigger adverse health outcomes; for instance, high blood pressure levels and stroke risk increase due to inadequate rest and the amygdala, an area responsible for emotions like fear in your brain becoming reactive and overreacting more readily than usual.
2. It Reverses Memory Loss
Anybody who has had difficulty sleeping knows first-hand the negative impact it can have on memory, but researchers are beginning to comprehend how and why different forms of memory are influenced by sleep; furthermore, they’re discovering methods of undoing some of the damage caused by lack of restful slumber.
Research by UC Berkeley researchers has discovered that deep, non-REM slow-wave sleep can “reset” memory circuits in the brain and make memories more permanent. Participants in the study underwent tests such as memory task and PET scans measuring beta-amyloid accumulation – an associated protein with Alzheimer’s disease – with people getting the most deep slow wave sleep outperforming those who had high beta amyloid levels on frontal cortices but still managed to perform better on memory tests.
This research builds upon previous work which has linked memory loss with specific brain regions that become active during sleep, such as the hippocampus which supports short-term memory storage becoming active at night so as to replay events from the day and transfer them onto long-term memories held within neocortex regions – which in turn forms long-term memories. A decrease in size of hippocampus is often an early indicator of dementia.
Sleep scientists have also discovered that various memory processes are affected by rest, such as recalling declarative (memories of facts) or nondeclarative (emotional) memories. Lack of sleep can contribute to memory problems such as misplacing your keys or forgetting what was taught at school or work.
But new research suggests that sleep may help reverse some of these effects, particularly for people treating sleep apnea. Researchers were able to restore access to mice’s social memories by giving them roflumilast, an FDA-approved treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
3. It Reverses Depression
If you have ever struggled with depression, then you understand how a lack of sleep can alter your emotions. Research indicates that depression itself may lead to issues sleeping; even with medication for depression in place it can be challenging to combat depressive symptoms if sleep problems remain an issue.
Sleep is essential to maintaining brain health, as well as helping combat depression. Studies have demonstrated that when we’re sleep deprived, our brain cannot consolidate memories or process emotions effectively, leading to health complications including an increased risk of suicide. Sleeping better can improve your mood and make you feel more positive about life overall.
Researchers generally acknowledge the close correlation between sleep and mood. Depression can impede one’s ability to get adequate restful slumber, while lack of restfulness contributes to anxiety and depression. Furthermore, research shows a paradoxical connection between the two; an 1882 PNAS study demonstrated how just one night of partial sleep deprivation led to rapid and significant relief of symptoms of depression.
Though its exact mechanism remains unknown, scientists believe the antidepressant effects of sleep could be related to an increase in synaptic plasticity in the prefrontal cortex. When asleep, neurons form small protrusions called dendritic spines that change their shape depending on neural activity; disrupting them using genetic tools reversed its antidepressant effects and reversed sleep deprivation’s antidepressant benefits.
Although more research needs to be conducted, it appears that sleep can have antidepressant effects due to an increase in dopamine release – known for encouraging positive attitudes and helping overcome mood disorders like depression.
4. It Reverses Anxiety
Sleep has long been considered an antidote to emotional pain and William Shakespeare described it as the cure-all solution. A good night of restorative slumber helps balance out emotions while an interrupted rest may cause 30% more anxiety than usual. Researchers from UC Berkeley have revealed that deep non-rapid eye movement slow-wave sleep is the most restorative form of restful rest, helping reset brain processes while simultaneously lowering heart rates and blood pressure. At this stage, neural oscillations become tightly synchronized and emotional centers in the brain become subdued, making sleep deprivation an aggravating factor for anxiety as well as leading to long-term health consequences such as cardiovascular problems, weakened immune systems, obesity and type II diabetes, poor memory performance and impaired thinking abilities.
In a series of experiments conducted by the team, 18 healthy young adults watched emotionally stirring video clips immediately following both a good night’s rest and poor night’s rest, before and after they experienced poor sleeping conditions. Their research team discovered that after poor restful sleeping environments caused medial prefrontal cortex activity to reduce while deeper emotional centers became overactive; on the contrary, after good restful sleeping conditions this response decreased and deeper emotional centers increased activity levels significantly more.
The team’s findings constitute one of the strongest neuronal links between sleep and anxiety to date, providing convincing evidence that deep sleep acts as a natural anxiolytic provided enough time is given for it. Furthermore, emerging positron emission tomography research shows specific neurotransmitter systems governing sleep-wake regulation–such as adenosine, melatonin, norepinephrine, and GABA–are involved with anxiety as well. Dysfunctional pathways related to anxiety disorders may contribute to insomnia as well as increasing symptoms while insomnia will only exacerbate anxiety symptoms further compound anxiety symptoms further; therefore breaking this anxiety-sleep cycle can be challenging at best.
5. It Reverses Obesity
Lack of sleep is linked to various health conditions. Lack of restful slumber has been linked to high blood pressure, obesity, heart disease, diabetes and depression – yet researchers are only now beginning to comprehend its importance for the human body. Sleep may provide growth and healing as well as metabolic function maintenance and defense against illness as well as mood regulation.
Sleep deprivation can lead to behavioral issues, including overeating and weight gain, because it triggers production of ghrelin – a hunger stimulating hormone – while decreasing production of leptin (a signal of fullness). Research also shows that being sleep deprived makes people less motivated to exercise or consume healthy foods.
Studies have shown that regular sleep discontinuity increases risk for transitioning from overweight to obesity and reduces likelihood of transition back from obese back to non-obese status. Researchers concluded that increasing their sleeping time helped their bodies more efficiently regulate energy homeostasis.
There are numerous strategies for improving sleep, such as sleeping in a dark room, going to bed early and exercising regularly. But the most essential step is prioritizing sleep – increasing its duration can reverse some of the negative effects of aging on both your body and mind, leading to greater happiness and improved health – helping combat obesity epidemic through sufficient restful slumber! Taking steps to enhance your rest can reverse signs of aging while also helping prevent weight gain while decreasing risk factors for heart disease or other chronic illnesses.
