The importance of good sleep

Scientific research shows that when the fetus develops in the mother's womb, it begins to engage in physiological activities such as sleep in the later stages. Not to mention after birth. In total, a person spends at least one-third of his or her life in bed. Sleep is a physiological activity necessary for life. Good sleep is a very wonderful experience in life and is very important to the existence of life. So, what is the importance of good sleep?

1｜Anti-aging: Good sleep keeps your brain young

Good deep sleep can clear out the "toxic proteins" in the brain at night, preventing them from accumulating and damaging brain cells. This "toxic protein" is called beta-amyloid protein, a "toxin" that is likely to cause Alzheimer's disease.

People with more "toxic proteins" in their brains have poor sleep quality and poor memory. Good sleep can promote detoxification, while poor sleep quality will affect detoxification.

Regardless of age, optimizing sleep can delay brain aging, reduce further damage to the brain by "toxic proteins", and improve a person's overall health, including better mental health, fewer chronic diseases such as obesity, high blood pressure, high blood lipids, and high blood sugar, and their severity.

2｜Weight loss: Get enough sleep to lose weight

When faced with weight gain and obesity, many people blame it on insufficient exercise or poor diet, but ignore the importance of sleep.

Sleep duration affects levels of leptin, a hormone that suppresses appetite and promotes energy expenditure, and ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates food intake.

Short sleep time will reduce leptin levels and increase ghrelin levels. As a result, appetite increases and people will begin to increase unnecessary energy intake, leading to obesity. If you are awake, you have more opportunities to eat and your energy intake increases. Therefore, people who want to lose weight should not only pay attention to exercise and diet, but also pay attention to sleep.

3｜Getting grouchy when waking up: Get enough sleep to get rid of your grouchiness

Many people get angry because their covers are pulled off or they are urged to get up. This is called "morning grumpiness." In fact, the main factors of "being grouchy when waking up" are poor sleep and lack of sleep.

According to sleep expert Ni Zhiyong, "morning grumpiness" (parasomnias) include some abnormal emotions and behaviors, usually manifesting as irritability, anger, impulsiveness, and in severe cases even violence. In adults, irritability upon awakening is mostly caused by insomnia, while impulsiveness and violence are less common. For minors, lack of sleep can easily induce "confused awakening" in parasomnias. When they are forcibly awakened, they may exhibit abnormal emotions and behaviors, such as rolling on the bed, yelling, crying, and even impulsive and violent behavior.

Suggestion: If you occasionally wake up in a bad mood, try changing your sleeping habits, ensure adequate sleep, avoid being woken up suddenly or forcibly with loud noises, and use an alarm clock or music to wake you up gradually. If you are in a bad mood when waking up and the symptoms occur frequently, and there is no obvious improvement after self-adjustment, you should go to the sleep medicine or psychiatric psychology department of a regular medical institution for treatment.