Put an alarm for 6 in the morning? What time did you sleep at night?
If you don’t sleep a lot, my friend, you are in for trouble.
According to a new study by a sleep scientist, Matthew Walker, the shorter we sleep, the shorter our lifespan.
Our bodies need an average of 8-9 hours of sleep every day to function the way they are supposed to. Anything less than that is termed as sleep deprivation and puts you at the risk of contracting several diseases.
Walker listed down some valid reasons for the same to The Guardian,
“First, we electrified the night. Light is a profound degrader of our sleep. Second, there is the issue of work: not only the porous borders between when you start and finish, but longer commuter times, too. No one wants to give up time with their family or entertainment, so they give up sleep instead. And anxiety plays a part. We’re a lonelier, more depressed society. Alcohol and caffeine are more widely available. All these are the enemies of sleep.”
So, what happens if you don’t sleep for 8 hours every night?
- Your natural killer cells – the ones that attack the cancer cells that appear in your body every day – drop by 70%.
- Lack of sleep is linked to cancer of the bowel, prostate and breast, or even just that the World Health Organisation has classed any form of night-time shift work as a probable carcinogen.
- Less sleep appears to hijack the body’s effective control of blood sugar, the cells of the sleep-deprived appearing, in experiments, to become less responsive to insulin, and thus to cause a prediabetic state of hyperglycaemia.
- You are susceptible to weight gain.
- Your immune system becomes weaker.
- Getting too little sleep across the adult lifespan will significantly raise your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
- Less sleep adversely affects your mental health.
To get enough sleep, there are a couple of things you can do. Stop pulling all-nighters, start sleeping, duh! Also, companies need to start rewarding sleep and motivate employees to get their rest. And please avoid sleeping pills and technology during bedtime.
So be like Chandler, and get some sleep.
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