Thursday, March 1, 2012
Why Sleep is Important for Health?
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Sleep is a natural state for all living creatures, especially humans and animals to rest. Sleep is important for health, not only for humans but also for animals. When in a state of sleep, all the strenuous activity is stopped. Workings of the brain "cooled" from the work of thinking, other limbs also had the opportunity to take a break from strenuous activity.
Drowsiness is a symptom of someone who needs sleep. Human adults spend about a third day to sleep. Therefore, for us humans, sleep is mandatory. If we do not sleep, head / brain will feel the heat, heart pounding, tense nerves. Try to look at when there is someone staying up all night and not sleeping. Due to lack of sleep / not sleep, people will more quickly aroused emotions. People who sleep less tend to think more brief than in people who get enough sleep / rest enough. In addition to rapidly rising emotion, lack of sleep can also weaken the concentration, sharpness and memory of the brain.
Actually time is sufficient and regular sleep is necessary for survival in humans and other living things. But in the midst of various activities that we live every day, sometimes make us less taking the time to take a break. Though sleeping or resting is very important for the health of our bodies.
In 1913, French scientist Henri Pieron wrote the book Le probleme du physiologique sommeil. This is the first paper to examine the sleep from a physiological perspective. His work is regarded as the beginning of the modern approach to research on sleep.
Dr. Nathaniel Kleitman, known as the "Father of the American Sleep Research", began his research in Chicago in 1920 by questioning the rules about sleep, awake, and circadian rhythms. Kleitman important research includes studies on sleep characteristics of different populations and the effects of sleep deprivation. In 1953, he and his student, Dr. Eugene Aserinsky, discover what's important, namely the mechanism of rapid eye movement (REM) during sleep.
According to Kleitman, in the past, the benefits of sleep are often ignored. The emergence of an understanding of the importance of sleep for health was fairly new. In fact, when a person sleeps less than six or seven hours each night, the risk of disease will increase.
Here are 12 reasons why sleep is important for health :
1. Healthy heart. Your heart will be healthier if you get between seven and nine hours of sleep each night. It helps calm the nervous system and eliminate the stress of busy work.
2. Reduce the risk of cancer. People who work and active at night have a higher risk of breast cancer and colon cancer. The researchers believe that this is due to different levels of the hormone melatonin in people who are exposed to light at night. Exposure to light can reduce melatonin levels. Melatonin is a hormone that protects the body from cancer. Melatonin appears to suppress tumor growth. Make sure that your bedroom dark to help your body produce the melatonin it needs.
3. Reducing the risk of hypertension. Stress is also caused by lack of sleep. A person who is experiencing stress can be detrimental if prolonged due to the function body is always in high alert. This leads to increased blood pressure and increased production of stress hormones.
4. Inhibiting aging. Stress hormones also make it harder for you to sleep. You are in a dangerous circle. Stress hormones also can disrupt the balance of other hormones that accelerate the disease process and aging process.
5. Vigilance. Sleep well at night make your internal systems such as the immune system becomes more alert and alive.
6. Sharpen memory. When dreaming and deep sleep is an important time for your brain to rest. Getting more quality sleep will help you remember better.
7. Lose weight. Those who slept less than seven hours per night were more likely gained weight. Lack of sleep also affects the balance of hormones in the body that affect appetite. Hormones ghrelin and leptin, which is supposed important for appetite regulation, to be disrupted due to lack of sleep.
8. Prevent heart disease. Sleeping during the day to be an effective alternative to protect the health and make you more productive. A study of 24,000 adults in Greece shows that people who napped several times a week a lower risk of dying from heart disease.
9. Low stress levels. People who nap at work has a much lower stress levels. Napping also improves memory, cognitive function, and mood. Sleeping during the day, which is sometimes called a "power nap", is one of the secrets of success to the 40th president of the United States, Ronald Reagan.
10. Lower the risk of depression. Sleep affects many chemical elements in your body, including serotonin. People with low serotonin will typically suffer from depression. You can help prevent depression by making sure you are getting the proper amount of sleep.
11. Cures. Sleep is the time for your body to repair damage caused by stress, ultraviolet light, and exposure to other hazardous substances. Sleep is also a time to get rid of toxins that accumulate during the move all day.
12. Produce more protein. Your cells will usually produce more protein while you are sleeping. Molecules form the building blocks for cells, allowing them to repair the damage. Sleep heals headaches or colds.
Although sleep is important, but that does not mean we should use our time to sleep more and more frequently. With more hours of sleep can actually make us sick easily. There are even studies that says that the adult human sleep time exceeds 7 to 8 hours a day will have an increased risk of death. Why? because our bodies will not move / activity so that fitness can be decreased. And when too much sleep in a long time, stamina and muscle in a person can come down. Therefore we should not over-sleep, but we sleep enough to make our bodies rest and be ready to move again when you wake up.
The need for sleep time for every human being is not the same but in general the need for hours of sleep is dependent on a person's age. As an example of a newborn child requires about 18 hours a day to sleep. As for adults is only about 7-8 hours a day.
For clarity the need to sleep on average per day in humans can be seen below:
New born : 18 hours
1-12 months : 14-18 hours
1-3 years : 12-15 hours
3-5 years : 11-13 hours
5-12 years : 9-11 hours
Adolescents : 9-10 hours
Adult Adults (including elderly group/old) : 7-8 (+) hours
Pregnant women : 8 (+) hours
From the table shows that the average requirement for a person's sleep time is not the same and the higher the age, it becomes increasingly less time to sleep it needs. In addition, the stamina, sleeping habits, as well as the quality of sleep will greatly affect the body's readiness to resume activity at the time of waking up later.
That's a little about why sleep is important for health. We can make it simple for this article, "human body like a machine, need some rest to recharge energy to be used for a long time.
