Sleep is absolutely essential to your physical and mental health. Still not convinced? We’ve rounded up some of the top sleep benefits from stress relief to preventing heart disease.
For most entrepreneurs, sleep is a luxury only a few can afford. They have to work round the clock to ensure their businesses work smoothly. However, sleep is essential. If you go for a long time without sleeping, you’ll eventually experience burnout, which can threaten your business but also your health.
It is essential to get some shut-eye if you want to strike a balance between your personal life and business. Here’s a list of 5 key benefits of sleep that you’ll derive from getting a good night’s rest.
1. Reduces anxiety & stress levels
Handling general business operations can leave you feeling stressed out. When you overwork your brain, anxiety creeps in to remind you of your failures. And that anxiety results in stress, which is the true enemy of entrepreneurship.
Anxiety and stress also increase your blood pressure and the production of stress hormones, which puts you at risk of experiencing a heart attack and stroke.
One of the best ways to comfort and soothe your worried mind is to slip yourself under the covers of some silky smooth sheets and tuck yourself in for the night. A good night’s sleep will help to alleviate many of the side effects of stress, including aggressiveness, forgetfulness, and fatigue.
2. Improves your memory, concentration, and attention
Studies show that better sleep supports memory consolidation. When you sleep, your brain continues to work. It processes your day, linking various events, feelings, and memories.
High-quality sleep makes it possible for your brain to store your daily experience and convert them into short-term and long-term memories. This improves your ability to remember and process things. After a deep sleep, you’ll wake up and see things more clearly.
When your body and brain are relaxed you can focus on your activities without getting distracted. You also get to maintain your attention throughout the day.
On the flip side, a lack of quality sleep means your body and brain won’t function to their maximum capacity. This not only impairs your concentration but also your attention and reaction time.
A successful entrepreneur is always on his or her toes and alert. Enough sleep will boost your alertness and memory, ensuring you remember all the information you need. Whether you need to analyse your business plan or give a speech in the morning, it’ll be much easier after a good night’s sleep.
3. Boosts your immune system
A quality 7–8 hours sleep helps your body’s immune system fight off pathogens and germs. Sleeping is like checking yourself into the mechanic and making sure the day’s bruises, scars, and bumps are repaired. That’s why it’s easy to break if you go without sleep for a long time.
Sleep helps your body cells produce more protein molecules, which are essential building blocks of cells. The molecules repair any damage you might have incurred during the day.
Sleeping helps the protein molecules detect and destroy any pathogens that your body might have come in contact with during the day. It also boosts your cells’ immunity against the pathogens so that when you encounter them again, you can fight them off.
4. Keeps your heart healthy
High blood pressure, heart attacks, diabetes, stroke, and coronary heart disease can all result from a lack of enough sleep.
Waking up in the morning triggers your body’s fight-or-flight mode, which is how your body reacts when it senses danger. You also experience increased blood pressure, which prepares you for waking up.
However, if you cannot sleep, your body lacks a way to compensate for the rise of blood pressure, which means it will remain at high levels for some time. In addition, a lack of quality sleep is linked to increased cholesterol levels. This puts you at risk of developing coronary heart disease or getting a heart attack or stroke.
Research also links poor sleep to poor insulin regulation, which affects your body’s blood sugar. This can lead to high sugar levels, which eventually results in diabetes. So if you want to protect yourself from cardiovascular disease and diabetes, it’s wise to get enough sleep.
5. Deep sleep might help prevent cancer
According to studies, reduced melatonin levels might put you at risk of developing breast or colon cancer. Melatonin is a sleep hormone that regulates your sleep patterns. Some scientists believe melatonin can help to suppress the growth of cancerous cells.
Dim the lights or switch them off when you want to sleep. This way you can trigger the production of melatonin, which is necessary for quality sleep.
Final thoughts
The key to a healthy mind and a healthy body is having a good night’s sleep. If you’re an entrepreneur and you want to always be on your game, incorporate deep sleep into your daily plan. You need 7- 8 hours of good night sleep for optimal efficiency.
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