How to Reduce Your Stress With the Health Benefits of Sleep
When was the last time you had a truly good sleep and experienced all the health benefits of sleep? We’re talking at least eight hours, the perfect temperature and minimal waking up during the night.
If you can’t remember the last time it happened, it might be time to ask yourself a more serious question.
Have you been feeling stressed or overwhelmed recently?
Because when it comes to the level of stress in your life, the quality and amount of sleep you’re getting each night plays a crucial role.
Want to reduce your stress and experience both the physical health benefits of sleep and mental health benefits of sleep? You’ve come to the right place! We’ll go though:
- The relationship between stress and sleep
- Hitting the sleep reset button
- The unexpected health benefits of sleep
- Favorite tips for getting a good night’s sleep
Whether you’re wanting to decrease the stress in your life, learn about the health benefits of sleep or just get some high quality and consistent shut eye, we’ve got you covered. Let’s jump in!
The Relationship Between Stress and Sleep
To understand the health benefits of sleep, we first need to start with stress and the cyclical relationship between the two.
When we become stressed, our body releases the hormone cortisol. Chronic stress causes your brain to stay in fight or flight mode, making it difficult to relax and fall into deep sleep every night.
This might not seem serious, however stress can worsen heart conditions, cause digestive issues and weight gain and impair your immune function. That’s why getting sufficient sleep is not only crucial for reducing stress but also improving your overall health.
Sleep as a Reset Button
While there are deeper health benefits of sleep, getting a good night’s sleep is also your daily reset button. Here are three small health benefits of sleep that will kickstart your health journey:
→ Brain Detox Mode
Your glymphatic system is mostly inactive during your waking hours but helps to detox your brain as you sleep.
It consists of a network of pathways that use cerebrospinal fluid to clear toxins and waste from your brain. A healthy glymphatic system is vital for brain health while impaired function has been linked to Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative disorders.
→ Cognitive Reset and Emotional Processing
Getting a mental reset is another one of the health benefits of sleep. REM (rapid eye movement) sleep is also responsible for other daily brain functions such as memory storage.
Short term memories get transferred to long term memories and learnings from the day are consolidated.
REM also helps us to process our emotions which is crucial for mental health and helps us feel mentally refreshed and balanced once we wake up.
→ Reduces Anxiety
A lack of sleep can increase feelings of anxiety and impair our brain function, however when we do get enough sleep, the opposite happens. Cortisol levels and feelings of stress and anxiety can drop after just one night of good sleep.
The Unexpected Health Benefits of Sleep
So, what are the deeper health benefits of sleep? Most people are familiar with the general health benefits of sleep, however there are other factors that impact your overall and long term health.
Unexpected Health Benefits of Sleep #1 – Healthy Heart
This is a big one. Getting enough sleep has been linked to fewer heart issues and a decrease in blood pressure.
But it’s not just cardiovascular conditions that love a good night’s sleep; blood sugar regulation is another benefit. Sleep impacts our insulin function and keeps the risk of type 2 diabetes at bay.
Unexpected Health Benefits of Sleep #2 – Resilience
We’ve talked about sleep reducing anxiety but the health benefits of sleep go deeper than that.
Studies have shown that the health benefits of sleep and sleep quality are linked to overall resilience to stress. The less sleep we get, the less resilient we are to the ups and downs of life and situations that impact us emotionally.
Unexpected Health Benefits of Sleep #3 – Immunity and Inflammation
The health benefits of sleep aren’t just stress related, they can also help you get sick less often and recover faster if you do.
One of the major health benefits of sleep is to boost your immune function and reduce your susceptibility to illness through the production of antibodies and immune cell function.
On the flip side, a lack of sleep can result in your body producing cytokines which can impair immune function and cause chronic and low grade inflammation. This can be linked to conditions such as diabetes and neurodegeneration.
Unexpected Health Benefits of Sleep #4 – Creative Breakthroughs
Creativity might seem like one of the more unexpected benefits of sleep but it demonstrates how a healthy brain and mind work best.
The transferral of short term memories to long term helps the brain to retain new information and therefore process information more efficiently and effectively. Just as importantly, it helps the brain make connections between unrelated concepts which is vital for creative thinking.
Top Tips to Enjoy the Health Benefits of Sleep
Now that we’ve talked about the health benefits of sleep, let’s discuss how to actually get some of the best and most restful nights of your life! Here are our favorite tips for getting some solid shut eye:
Sleep Anchoring
Ahoy! If you’re experiencing trouble sleeping at night or are frequently waking up, sleep anchoring is the first thing to try to experience the health benefits of sleep.
Sleep anchoring makes the most of your circadian rhythm and your internal body clock because it involves going to bed and waking up at the same time each night and morning.
There is about a thirty minute leeway but you want to aim for roughly the same time each day, including weekends to tap into those health benefits of sleep.
Bedtime Routine
An important part of making the most of the health benefits of sleep is a bedtime routine. A bedtime routine might sound like something you set for your kids but having one as an adult can be a comforting addition to your evening.
Help your body start to unwind by setting an alarm an hour before bedtime to keep track of it. Try reading ten pages of a good book, meditating and dimming your lights to set the mood for a restful night.
Our blog on mindfulness also has some great ideas on how to unwind!
Power Down
The health benefits of sleep are especially accessible to those that minimize their time on technology before bed time.
Light exposure, especially blue light exposure suppresses melatonin production, the hormone crucial for regulating our sleep quality. Try switching your devices off an hour before bedtime, using blue instead of red lighting (device night mode) and switching off your WiFi.
The Sleep + Stress Master Plan
Want to start reducing the stress in your life? Following these steps to enjoy the health benefits of sleep is a pretty good place to start.
But if you’re concerned about heart health, unexplained weight gain or even digestive issues, Synergy Integrative Health and Wellness is here for you. We can help guide your body back into gentle balance by building resilience to stress and addressing any underlying health issues you’re experiencing.
Instead of guessing how to get your health back on track, our nurse practitioner and holistic health coach at our Oak Park clinic will customize a healing plan just for you. It will include one-on-one consultations, lab testing and health coaching.
Ready to take the health benefits of sleep to the next level? A strong immune system, healthy weight loss and a diverse microbiome are all within reach. Book in a consultation today!