How a good night's sleep can improve your health

Your health is very precious and looking after it helps you to be at your best every day.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), health is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”¹.

When your mind, your emotions and your body are all at their best, you feel fantastic and can’t wait to live your life doing the things you enjoy most. That’s why your health is so incredibly important, both today and in the long-run too.

There are many factors that contribute to good health, including nutrition, social interactions and exercise; but one of the most essential contributors is quality sleep.

Let’s discuss how getting a good night’s sleep improves your overall health in all aspects of your life.

1. Healthy brain function

Sleep helps your brain work properly.² 

During your waking hours, your brain is learning, adapting and applying knowledge to the tasks you complete every day, such as work, chores, studying and even leisure. Then at night, it uses the downtime to process the events of the day, create new pathways and store memories.

This regenerative and consolidation time helps improve your ability to learn and grow as an individual. This includes anything from how to drive a car or learning a language to picking up new hobbies.

So getting sufficient quality sleep helps enhance your learning and problem-solving skills² that you need to be your best.

2. Improve your mood

Would you love to get out of bed each day and awaken your best?

Being your best has a lot to do with your mood. While you sleep, your brain also processes your emotions which helps you react better to situations and control your overall attitude to challenges.³

Refreshing slumber can help reset your feelings, improve your outlook on life and allow you to feel more positive, so you’re prepared to meet what each day has in store for you.

Physical well-being

Sleep plays an important role in your physical health, too. 

Your body is made up of muscles, cells, a cardiovascular system and much more – all of which need time to heal and repair to function at their best and keep you healthy. This occurs during the hours of sleep when your body can devote energy to maintenance and restoration.⁴ 

When you get enough quality sleep, you may decrease the risk of other illnesses and chronic medical conditions.⁵ Adequate sleep every day can also improve the function of your immune system, allowing it to be strong enough to fight off infections such as colds and the flu.⁶

Better performance

In today’s digital world, everyone lives life at a fast pace. You probably have many things on your to-do list every day and you need to be super productive if you want to get through them all.

Getting enough quality sleep at night helps you function, concentrate and remain alert the following day by reducing fatigue.⁷

However, it’s not just your general level of energy – this also flows on to your ability to identify hazards and safety risks too. When you get enough sleep, you’re less likely to make errors in the workplace and have accidents that can lead to more serious consequences.⁸ 

Think about how much clearer your thoughts are when you get up after a good sleep. Everything from driving to making decisions seems much easier than when you’re feeling exhausted. A good night’s sleep is easy to overlook but it can impact your life considerably.

What’s your sleeping score?

Have you thought about how well you sleep each night? 

As you can see, there are a lot of physical and mental health benefits that come with getting enough quality sleep each and every night.

Unfortunately, some people aren't aware of the risks of sleep deficiency. In fact, they may not even realise that they're not getting enough sleep in the first place. Even with limited or poor-quality sleep, they may still think that they can function well.

If you’re curious and want to get a better gauge of the quality of sleep you get each night, then ‘there’s an app for that!’

Simply download the Sleep Score App here, follow the instructions and give it a try. 

It will give you a score based on your responses and provide you with a way to track your patterns to improve your sleep and live a healthy life!