Surveys in the population clearly show that we are going to bed too late and that we have to get up too early. Out of this reason, the necessary sleep duration of seven to eight hours nearly never is reached and a chronical lack of sleep arises -– although it is a well-known fact, that too less sleep is unhealthy. Amongst others, this development is the consequence of the missing positive attitude towards the importance of sleep. In the end, it is a question of the own living- and sleeping-culture. This development leads to a more or less constant lack of sleep –- and too less sleep is unhealthy, as generally is known. But, most people underestimate that a lack of sleep is a risk for the own health. Summarized, too less sleep is fattening and sickening. US-studies confirm that people with bad sleep actually have a lower life expectancy.
Further scientific investigations confirm, that a persistent lack of sleep makes “stupid”, because, as a result, the memory performance decreases. This got apparent in test series in which test persons had to learn vocabularies and which were tested after different sleep durations. Just as a quick reminder: the final saving process of learned stuff and hence knowledge is happening during sleep! So, when you get too less deep sleep, you measurably forget things quicker. During REM-sleep, motoric skills like how to drive a car, playing piano, new movement patterns in sports, for example, are processed and consolidated. Only this constitutes a training progress. If you want to take care of your body and weight, you should have sufficient sleep! Because, during the night we easily go 12 and more hours without food. During the day, this would be a difficult task. In addition to that, the energy consumption during the night is insignificantly lower than during the day.
The reason why we don’t need any food while sleeping: during sleep, the appetite-inhibiting hormone leptin is released. But, when the sleep is interrupted, the hunger returns. Then, the opponent of leptin -– namely the hormone ghrelin -– takes over and a sense of hunger and therewith the need for eating arises. This explains, why sleep disturbed people often try to compensate their discomfort with going to the fridge and hence create overweight.
This is a trend noticeable in practice work. The modern, rushed and stressed human being more and more tends to steadily decreasing sleep. 20 years ago, we slept one hour more, at least. Especially for mono-sleepers, meaning for people who normally enjoy sleep in one piece, the shortening of sleep may be disastrous. Here a small example: meanwhile, more and more people suffer under type 2 diabetes (adult-onset-diabetes). Unfortunately, often only the delivery of insulin gets adjusted, in most cases the way of living remains unchanged. But, here it would be decisive that the people concerned adapt their lifestyle to their disease. Now, a study proved the importance of sleep. The scientists of the University of Chicago examined 161 women suffering under adult-onset-diabetes.
Too less sleep may become dangerous
The participants had to write down how much sleep they have got and how much sleep they would have needed. Furthermore, they had to evaluate their quality of sleep by means of 19 questions. After that, their HbA1c-value was measured. This is a blood value that shows the average blood sugar level of the last three months, a kind of “blood-sugar-memory-value”. A healthy blood sugar balance reflects in a value between four and six points. The result of the study: the worse the participants slept the less they were able to keep their blood sugar at a constant level. Diabetics not only should sleep sufficiently but also should improve their sleeping quality by following their wake-sleep-dream-cycle. It might become especially dangerous when they don’t keep their rhythm.
Only because of three hours of lack of sleep per week the blood sugar value increased by 1.1 points! This example shows the big influence of the sleep duration on our health. And especially risk groups, in our case diabetics, should pay attention to get enough sleep. Seven to eight hours are ideal. But, not only our health is at risk but also the risk of accidents in traffic and at the working place drastically rises when sleeping bad. Scientists found out, that a bad or too short night’s sleep considerably reduces the reactivity of drivers. One might compare the reaction speed with a driver with an alcohol level of 1. So, the decisive factor is and remains the sleeping quality which can only be achieved by sufficient and restful sleep!