What Happens To Our Bodies When We Don’t Get Enough Sleep

It is essential to know how important sleep is to our bodies, especially what happens when we don’t get enough sleep.

The main reason we sleep is to rest our bodies and minds and prepare them for a new day. You should also know that sleep directly affects your cellular metabolism.

In this article, we’ll talk about what happens when we don’t get enough sleep. However, the quality of our sleep is just as important as its duration. So it may be that someone who sleeps only six hours a day feels fine, while someone who sleeps ten hours a day is always tired.

The body of people who don’t get enough sleep is much like a machine that works continuously without stopping. The end result is that sooner or later their bodies inevitably collapse. When this will be depends on the health of each individual.

Sleep disturbances are associated with many different health problems and can affect the function of any organ. In addition, insufficient or poor sleep can:

• make someone more sensitive to pain
• reduce memory capacity
• severely weaken the immune system

What happens to our bodies when we don’t get enough sleep: increased risk of Alzheimer’s

Scientists have long believed that there is a link between sleep disorders and Alzheimer’s disease.

Recent studies show that people who do not get enough sleep have an increase in biomarkers that are characteristic of Alzheimer ‘s disease. In particular, beta-amyloid and tau proteins are associated with the onset of dementia.

During the studies, it could be seen that people who slept less than five hours a night had higher concentrations of biomarkers. The same was seen in people who slept between six and eight hours a night, but whose sleep was of poor quality.

The buildup of tau proteins can cause neurofibrillary tangles, which are highly destructive to the brain. High levels of beta-amyloid proteins lead to the formation of plaques. Plaques are highly toxic to cerebral neurons.

High concentrations of these two biomarkers cause excessive fatigue and accelerate degenerative processes in the brain, making the brain more vulnerable. Insufficient sleep therefore not only causes you to suffer from physical and mental fatigue, but can also increase the risk of Alzheimer’s.

At the moment it is not yet clear what the cause is and what the consequences are. High concentrations of tau and beta-amyloid proteins can also lead to insomnia and interrupted sleep. Science is therefore increasingly showing how important it is to get enough and good sleep every day.

Simple tips to improve your sleep quality

Getting good quality sleep can improve many aspects of your health, including:

• Fight or delay cellular aging.
• Preventing physical, psychological and emotional disorders.
• Better control your appetite and prevent weight gain.
• Reduce physical, cognitive and emotional wear and tear to fight fatigue.

• Energizing the body and improving your mood, helping you do better work and perform better.

1. Make sure you experience less stress every day

Stress is nowadays the main reason why people don’t get enough sleep. It also has a negative effect on other aspects of our health. To get a good night’s sleep and improve your quality of life, it is essential to lower your stress and anxiety levels.

While it may seem impossible to completely get rid of stress, small changes in your attitude can make all the difference.

• Keep your private life separate from your work. Respect your need for rest and pleasure.
• Participate in activities that help you relax, such as yoga, Pilates, or meditation.
• Develop healthy habits that give you more energy and release tension.
• Prepare yourself mentally for your bedtime. You need to relax and calm down. Maintain a positive frame of mind. To do this, you have to put your daily obligations and mobile phone aside for a while. Make yourself a nice cup of tea and take a deep breath in and out for a few minutes.

2. Maintain a Balanced Diet

Poor eating habits combined with regular digestive problems  can significantly reduce your quality of sleep. In addition, your immune system will also suffer, which of course can lead to the development of various diseases.

It is therefore a good idea to opt for a light evening meal that is low in carbohydrates to aid digestion so that your stomach does not keep you up at night. It is also crucial to follow a balanced diet throughout the day.

3. Get plenty of exercise

Regular exercise benefits both your physical and mental health. It helps you to:

• weight control
• keep cardiovascular and respiratory system healthy
• promote self-confidence

Just walking for 30 to 45 minutes a day can help protect your body from the harmful effects of insufficient sleep. Finally, it also improves your physical and cognitive performance throughout the day.