22 Aug Why Your Heart Needs a Full Night’s Sleep
No matter your age, it is always important to think about your heart health and steps you can take to improve it. One of the steps to better heart health that is often overlooked is getting more restful sleep at night. If you have sleep apnea, this may be more of a challenge, but treatment is available to restore the quality of your nightly rest. When you don’t get the sleep you need, your heart may suffer.
Quality sleep may assist in weight loss.
Obesity is a leading risk factor for heart disease, and it is a complex problem. For some people, it may be difficult to lose weight without changing sleep patterns, since limiting sleep can cause more binge eating and reduced metabolism. Losing sleep may also cause you to rely too much on caffeine, which can be bad for your heart in excessive quantities.
Sleep lets the body repair vital tissues.
When you sleep, many systems in your body remain quite active. As you dream, your body is self-repairing muscle and vascular tissues, including the heart and surrounding blood vessels. If you miss out on valuable hours of sleep or you do not achieve a deep, restful sleep each night, your heart may be sustaining damage at a compounding rate.
Sleep balances hormone production.
Another benefit of adequate sleep is the regulation of hormones in the body. Hormones are chemicals that tell the body to perform various tasks, and they affect everything from metabolism to sex drive to stress perception. Therefore, an imbalance related to sleep deprivation could put significant stress on your heart.