Even if we do not have a full grasp of what sleep does in our body, we know that it is beneficial to maintaining a healthy and quality life. We know that going without a good night sleep may lead to any cognitive malfunction.

On the flipside, getting enough sleep will give you a ton of health benefits. Hover on the list to know more of the surprising benefits sleep can give you.

Sleep Helps Maintain Weight

In an extensive review study, it was found out that 89% of children and 55% of the adult were more likely to become obese.

Sleep deprivation is believed to caused poor appetite regulation. It will result in a higher level of ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates appetite and reduced levels of leptin. It also suppresses appetite and signals the feeling of being full. With it, poor sleepers weigh significantly more than those who get adequate sleep.

Sleep Improves Athletic and Work Performance

One way to improve athletic performance is to sleep.

This claim is supported by a study conducted in the Stanford University. The result shows that college football students who sleep at least 10 hours a day for seven to eight weeks improved their performance, had more stamina, and less fatigue. This result also reflects to study conducted with tennis players and swimmers.

This claim does not only apply to the athlete but also to employees. A study on medical interns is a good example. Interns who are assigned to a schedule with extended work hours of more than 24 hours made 36% more serious medical errors compared to those assigned to schedule that allows more sleep.

If you want to win the race or impress your boss, get an adequate sleep!

Sleep Fires Up Sex Life

Testosterone, a hormone responsible for dictating sex drive is produced during sleep. Getting enough sleep increases libido, hence improving their sex drive. It also prevents erection problems and ensures that you’re never too exhausted for sex.

So if you cheat yourself in getting a good sleep, think again! You are also cheating yourself out of great sex.

Paruthi, a sleep specialist and spokesperson for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine says that a flagging testosterone can sink sex drive which results when men sleep less than 6 hours. If you want to fire up your sex life, there is no reason for you not to get enough sleep.

Creativity Needs Sleep

Sleep begets creativity. A study conducted by Wagner and colleagues proves how sleep can improve creativity.

In the experiment, participants were given a challenging and time-consuming number task. All participants were introduced to the task. Some of them were allowed eight hours of sleep while others kept awake. The result showed that 60% of the sleep group discovered the hidden strategy that speeds up their progress compared to only 23% of the wake group.

Sleep seems to mentally restructure the information learned resulting in new and insightful responses. When you learn something new and immediately sleep on it, what you learned becomes clearer and more creative.

Lots of writers have mentioned how sleep has helped in their creativity. Take Stephen King for example. In his book On Writing, he tells about how he fell asleep on a long plane flight from New York to London and had a terrifying dream.

He dreamed about a famous writer who is captured and held hostage by a psychotic fan. When he awoke, he jotted it down on an airline cocktail napkin. This idea was laid down in one of his best novels entitled Misery.

Sleep Lowers Your Odd of a Car Crash

The ability of the brain to do multitasking could also be impaired when sleep-deprived. Take driving for example which requires the cooperation of the driver’s hand, feet, vision, focus, and awareness of what is going on.

Paruthi says that sleep debt slows the reaction time and the ability to focus. This is evident in a number of a car accident which involves driver not getting enough sleep. A less than five hours of sleep quadruple your odds of a crash says the report.

Takeaway

Given these five health benefits of getting enough sleep, there is no reason why an individual should not get one. There are a lot of sleep guides available online that would help you achieve such a goal to improve the quality of your life.

Do you want to improve your performance, spur your creativity? Whatever your reason, a more information in this comprehensive better sleep guide will help you through.