LET’S GO TO SLEEP

Part of a successful lifestyle is getting adequate sleep. The same goes for training programs, weight loss, and general health.

In fact, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, sleep deprivation increases a person’s risk for obesity, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, kidney disease, and stroke.

In a study of teenagers cited by the NHLBI, every hour of lost sleep increases one’s odds of being obese. While the study focused on teenagers, these impacts aren’t limited to any single age group. This is in part because a healthy sleep pattern balances one’s hungry and full hormones – called ghrelin and leptin, respectively – which makes the sleep-deprived individual feel hungrier than their well-rested counterpart.

More so, deep sleep is the time in which your body releases hormones that facilitate the growth of muscle mass and the repair of tissues and cells. That means, if you are trying to attain more muscle mass (this is called hypertrophy), it’s crucial to your training program that you get proper sleep.

A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that adults who only achieved 5.5 hours of sleep per night on average (compared to those who slept 8.5 hours) on a calorie-restricted diet – striving for fat loss –lost 55 percent less fat mass (adipose tissue) than their well-rested counterparts. Meantime, they lost 60 percent more of their lean (or “fat-free”) body mass.  In the study, all caloric intake was controlled by the researchers, and patients kept careful track of exercise and sleep patterns.

Even if none of this applies to you, dear reader, and you aren’t striving for fat loss or muscular hypertrophy, you should still consider the effects of sleep on not only your physical health but your mental function, too. As college students, even as college staff and faculty members, our mental facilities are our most important tools, day in and day out.

The NHLBI reports that sleep-deficient individuals are less productive, exhibiting slower reaction times, increased mistakes, and taking longer to complete tasks and activities. Loss of sleep also harms retention (memory) abilities.

Whatever you are striving for, even if that simply means productive daily functioning, it is important that you get proper sleep.

Now, excuse me while I go take a nap.