Benefits of Sleep

Imagine you are in your room debating with yourself to watch one more episode of the new TV show everyone’s talking about. You don’t realize this will harm you severely, so you watch it. The following day you feel grumpy and tired and you have a headache. An average person can survive longer without food than they can without sleep. People who sleep less have a bigger chance of dying at a young age. Sleep is very beneficial makes us more refreshed, keeps us healthier, and increases our ability to learn.

First and foremost, sleep is valuable because it makes us more refreshed and happier. For example, being tired makes us more grumpy and increases anxiety. Less sleep also makes it harder for us to control outbursts. Usually, when I sleep less I’m more likely to feel annoyed at tiny things. However, when I get a good night’s sleep, I’m more cheerful and more flexible. “Sleep and Mood,” states, “In one major study of 10,000 adults, people with insomnia were five times more likely to develop depression.” Insomnia is a disease that deprives sleep and the adults who have it don’t get a good night’s sleep which causes depression. Also, without sleep, our brain is overwhelmed because it didn’t have time to understand what happened during the day. Being overwhelmed causes us to be more irate because the brain has too much to handle. Since the brain doesn’t have time to process things we tend to forget everything. “Surprising Reasons to Get More Sleep,” states, ”Another thing that your brain does while you sleep is process your emotions. Your mind needs this time in order to recognize and react the right way. When you cut that short, you tend to have more negative emotional reactions and fewer positive ones.” Processing emotions decrease stress and anxiety levels. This proves that sleep makes us more relaxed and ecstatic.

In addition, sleeping keeps your body healthy. For instance, sleep helps reduce the risk of illnesses. “What To Know About Sleeping When You’re Sick,” states, ” Your immune system also needs energy to function. When you’re awake, your body needs to direct energy to activities like thinking or moving around. If you’re sleeping, your body can redirect that energy to your immune system so you can get better as quickly as possible.” Also when you sleep, your body produces something called cytokines that direct the immune cells to fight the infections. Sleeping lowers the risk of heart disease, heart attack, and heart failure. People who get less than the amount of sleep they’re supposed to get are at an increased risk of Type 2 diabetes. I usually get around eleven hours of sleep every night, that explains why I don’t get sick very often. Adding on to example one, when we sleep our body repairs itself. According to, “Does a Bad Night’s Sleep Affect Your Health?” it states, “While you sleep, your body is hard at work repairing itself by releasing proteins and hormones that help restore damaged tissues, including muscles.” This is very essential for athletes to build muscle and become stronger after a workout. While you sleep, your body works actively to mend itself from harmful things like stress, ultraviolet rays, etc. It does that by producing proteins that form the building blocks of cells, fixing the day’s damage and keeping you healthy. It’s amazing how our body can rebuild itself with just 10 hours of doing nothing. In conclusion, sleep is crucial to lead a healthy life.

Last but not least, not sleeping enough deprives our ability to learn. For example, “Sleep, Learning, and Memory,” states, ”Without adequate sleep and rest, over-worked neurons can no longer function to coordinate information properly, and we lose our ability to access previously learned information.” This shows that when we don’t get enough sleep we have difficulty accessing our memory easily. We create new neural pathways when we sleep to store everything we learn. That inserts the things we experienced during the day into our short-term memory. The lack of concentration, caused by getting less sleep, makes it harder for short-term memory to make it into long-term memory. Studies show that people who don’t get enough sleep are at a higher risk of making false memories. I think this is why it’s bad to pull an all-nighter, all the things learned won’t be stored properly without sleep. Furthermore, sleep deprivation impairs your thinking process. It is harder to make decisions with a lack of sleep because you can’t assess the situation well and pick the correct behavior. I know this because, “What Lack of Sleep Does to Your Mind,” states, “Sleepiness also impairs judgment.” Due to the limited amount of sleep, our brain gets confused easily. This interferes with your capability to perform tasks that involve logical thinking. Also, our reaction time slows down when we are sleepy. This is harmful because you need to be alert at school and other places that involve your concentration and sleepiness limits that. In conclusion, the scarcity of sleep makes it harder for us to learn new things.

To sum it up, sleep is important to humans. It makes us happier and helps you have a healthy body. Also, sleep benefits your thinking process. Humans may be different but there is something that ties us all together; we need sleep to survive. So if you’re on your device right now, turn it off and take a nap. It will benefit you incredibly.