The type and amount of sleep we get impacts our health, energy and mood.
Sleep and energy
A regular lack of sleep can have a significant impact on your mood, health and can even shorten your life expectancy. Lots of important processes take place whilst you sleep such as consolidating memory, muscle repair, hormone release and removal of waste products and toxins. Poor sleep and common sleep disorders are associated with weight gain and weight related conditions such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
How much sleep do we need?
The commonly recommended amount of sleep is around 8 hours of good-quality (uninterrupted) sleep a night. However, we are all different, so some of us need more than this, some of us less. The best thing is to find out how much sleep your body needs. If you continually feel tired, lethargic and are counting down the hours till you can have a nap, it’s likely you need more sleep than you’re currently getting.
There are many causes of poor sleep. Some of these can be caused by medical conditions, such as sleep apnoea, which your doctor or health professional can advise if this is a concern. Other common causes of poor sleep include stress, too much alcohol, being regularly inactive, too much caffeine, shift work, travelling between time zones.
Did you know too much alcohol can reduce the quality and amount of sleep you get each night
What’s the impact of poor sleep?
If you’re regularly not getting enough sleep this can have a real impact on your energy levels, mood, overall health and risk of disease.
Studies have linked lack of and poor-quality sleep with weight gain, depression, anxiety as well as an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure (hypertension).
