Sleep affects various aspects of our overall health, including:
- Cognitive performance. Sleep helps organize memories, solidify learning, and improve concentration. Lack of sleep impairs alertness and affects judgement, reaction time and recall.
- Mood and mental well-being. Lack of sleep has been linked to anger, anxiety, sadness, and mental exhaustion.
- Hormones and metabolism. Important hormones are secreted based on a person’s sleep pattern. These hormones affect hormones affect growth, regulate energy, and control metabolic and endocrine functions.
Inadequate sleep may also contribute to the development of obesity and diabetes. It causes a decline in the body’s supply of growth hormone, allowing more fat than muscle to develop. It impairs our body’s ability to metabolize sugar, making us more prone to getting diabetes. It may also increase our risk of hypertension and heart disease, and causes a breakdown of our immune system.
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