“There are not enough hours in the day!” Have you heard
yourself exclaim this before? If not, then you truly found a great balance in
life. However, many of us are living very frantic lives with schedules,
deadlines and commitments that can sometimes cause us to neglect a very
essential thing in life – sleep! Many of us put that down the list when
prioritizing our daily lives. However, a lack of sleep can have a very negative
effect on our overall health and well being, including our appearance. There’s
a reason it’s called “getting our beauty sleep.” Cutting back on sleep hours
can take a toll. Our bodies need this rest during sleep in order to repair and
recharge. Not getting an ample night’s sleep can affect a myriad of things from
our skin, our mood, cognitive thinking and learning abilities, even our weight.
While the right amount of sleep varies between people, the goal for most adults
should be to get around 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night.
Here’s how sleep deprivation could affect these aspects of
our well being:
How sleep affects the skin
As it turns out, sleep quality and a healthy youthful
complexion are extremely correlated. Lack of sleep can have a big impact on the
appearance of our skin and habitual sleep loss will cause fine lines, wrinkles,
and dark circles under the eyes and a premature aging of our skin. When we do not get enough sleep,
certain chemical changes in the body take place that affects our skin’s health.
When you don’t get enough sleep, your body releases more of the stress hormone
cortisol. In excess amounts, cortisol can breakdown skin collagen, the protein in the skin that keeps it smooth and
elastic. It also protects against UV damage and bacterial infection,
seals in moisture all to help preserve a youthful appearance.
A shortened sleep also causes the body to release a
smaller amount of human growth hormone. This type
of hormone is released during the deeper stages of sleep and helps to repair
daily skin damage and as we age it helps increase muscle mass, thicken skin,
and strengthen bones. Over a long period of time, if you’re only getting a
small amount of daily skin breakdown eventually it accumulates into more
visible signs of aging. When you accumulate a sleep debt over a long period of
time your skin will definitely suffer as less growth hormone is being released
to repair skin. As sleep expert Phil Gehrman, PhD puts it, “It’s during deep sleep — what we call slow-wave
sleep — that growth hormone is released. It seems to be part of normal tissue
repair, patching the wear and tear of the day.”
How sleep affects mood
We are all aware of the influence that sleep can have on a
person’s mood. After a sleepless night, you may be more irritable,
short-tempered and more vulnerable to stress. Lack of sleep is commonly
associated with increased stress levels, anxiety, depression and
aggressiveness. However, once you sleep well, your mood often returns to
normal. Skipping out on a couple of hours a sleep just two or three times a
week won’t have a long term effect on your overall mood but chronic sleep loss can
lead to the development of insomnia, panic attacks and anxiety disorders,
depression, and a myriad of other psychiatric disorders.
How sleep affects cognition and ability to learn
A lack of sleep can have a huge impact on your cognitive
thinking and learning abilities. The ability to make clear and sound decisions
feels much harder when sleep deprived. Not getting enough sleep also impairs
our ability to concentrate, as well as impairs reasoning, alertness and problem
solving skills, making it extremely challenging to learn. When it comes to
memory, chronic sleep loss can have a big impact on your ability to retain
information learned. When sleeping, your brain processes information
accumulated throughout the day, consolidates and optimizes memories. Getting
enough sleep is a critical step in the ability to make memories last and so
that later you can recall these memories. Students as we know, are notorious
for not getting enough sleep because of late night studying for exams or
pulling all-nighters to finish a project due the following day. But did you
know that pulling an all-nighter makes your cognition, that is your mental
ability including attention, memory, and problem solving abilities, no better
than if you were legally drunk? It’s true! Studies have shown that after 19 consecutive hours ormore without sleep, performance on tests is equivalent to that at a bloodalcohol concentration or 0.1%!
How sleep affects weight
If you are trying to drop a few pounds, sleep deprivation
could be a reason you’re not reaching your weight loss goals. A lack of sleep
increases appetite and stimulates cravings for high-fat and sugary foods.
Therefore, not only will you be hungrier, you will be more likely to crave
foods that are detrimental to your diet goals. The reason this happens is
because while you sleep, your body produces the hormones leptin and ghrelin. Both of these hormones play a big
role in weight regulation. Leptin controls the appetite by sending a signal to
the brain that you are full. Ghrelin on the other hand stimulates hunger. A
short night of sleep brings on an increase of ghrelin (feeling hungry) and a
decrease in leptin (feeling full) – a bad combination if you are trying to lose
weight.
This is therefore why sleep deprivation is often
associated with weight gain and obesity. When you are sleep deprived, cortisol
levels rise. Cortisol often makes us feel hungry and can raise insulin levels,
increasing fat deposits around the abdomen. People who are tired also crave
more fattening foods and carbohydrates because that lack of sleep increases the
release of ghrelin, as mentioned above, which is the hormone that stimulates
hunger.
To provide an example of how sleep affects weight gain,
here are results from one research study on this topic. Two groups of
participants in the study both ate the same diet with the same amount of
calories, however one group had only 5-1/2 hours of sleep per night and the
other had 8-1/2 hours of sleep per night. At the end of the study, the
participants who slept fewer hours lost 55% less body fat and unfortunately
lost 60% more of their lean body mass than those who slept longer!
It should now be clear to see how healthy it is to get a
good night’s sleep.
Sleep is regenerative for your skin, your brain, and your
body. If you consistently get enough sleep each night, you’ll see results come
in a variety of health, beauty, and overall wellness benefits. Look more
refreshed, have a sharper mind and see a more gorgeous and youthful you. So
don’t skimp on your beauty sleep! Get plenty of those nightly Zzzzzs!
Dena DaSilva (Las Vegas, NV/Riviera Maya,
Mexico) is a health, wellness and travel writer and marketing professional, active in sharing her research, experiences and knowledge on a variety of these topics. Born into
a very health-conscious and fitness-crazed family, this fun-loving energetic
beach lover and avid traveler has a natural passion for all things promoting
health, wellness, spa, holistic lifestyle and travel. She earned two BA degrees
at West Virginia University and an MBA with an emphasis in Marketing and International Business from Pepperdine University Graziadio School of Business and
Management.
