Before my kids came along, I used to have between 6-8 hours of continuous beauty sleep everyday. Ever since my kids arrived, getting 6-7 hours of continuous sleep a day is hardly achieved. Ever since Baby was born, the number of hours of sleep I get each night has not been more than 6 hours a day. Waking up in the morning to be greeted by a brightly lit sky is a thing of the past for me. I wake up at 5ish every morning, sometimes even earlier before my maid wakes up. I can feel the consequences the lack of sleep has caused to my body. My immune system is low and I fall sick very easily. In the past, I hardly ever fall sick.
I found out recently that having insufficient sleep not only disrupts your brain function and every physiologic function in the body, it also increases the risk for a variety of major illnesses, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes and obesity, recent studies indicate. Most people apparently need between about seven and nine hours, with studies indicating that an increased risk for disease starts to kick in when people get less than six or seven, experts say.
Here’s an interesting article, excerpts of which I have extracted from http://www.washingtonpost.com:
Physiologic studies suggest that a sleep deficit may put the body into a state of high alert, increasing the production of stress hormones and driving up blood pressure, a major risk factor for heart attacks and strokes.
Moreover, people who are sleep-deprived have elevated levels of substances in the blood that indicate a heightened state of inflammation in the body, which has also recently emerged as a major risk factor for heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes. If you lose sleep that your body needs, then you produce these inflammatory markers that on a chronic basis can create low-grade inflammation and predispose you to cardiovascular events and a shorter life span
After several studies found that people who work at night appear unusually prone to breast and colon cancer, researchers investigating the possible explanation for this association found exposure to light at night reduces levels of the hormone melatonin. Melatonin is believed to protect against cancer by affecting levels of other hormones, such as estrogen. “Melatonin can prevent tumor cells from growing — it’s cancer-protective,” said Eva S. Schernhammer of Harvard Medical School, who has conducted a series of studies on volunteers in sleep laboratories. The theory is, if you are exposed to light at night, on average you will produce less melatonin, increasing your cancer risk.
Other researchers are exploring a possible link to other malignancies, including prostate cancer.There’s absolutely no reason it should be limited to breast cancer, and it wouldn’t necessarily be restricted to people who work night shifts. People with disrupted sleep or people who are up late at night or get up frequently in the night could potentially have the same sort of effect,” said Scott Davis of the University of Washington.
The newest study on obesity, from Columbia University, is just the latest to find that adults who sleep the least appear to be the most likely to gain weight and to become obese. Other researchers have found that even mild sleep deprivation quickly disrupts normal levels of the recently discovered hormones ghrelin and leptin, which regulate appetite.
In addition, studies show sleep-deprived people tend to develop problems regulating their blood sugar, which may put them at increased risk for diabetes.”The research in this area is really just in its infancy,” Van Cauter said. “This is really just the tip of the iceberg that has just begun to emerge.”
So much have been said about getting sufficient sleep. One of my New Year’s Resolution is to get a minimum of 6 hours sleep a night. If I get 7 hours, it’s a bonus!
How much sleep do you get a day?
Shireen, I hate if I don’t have enough sleep. I take naps with my children during weekends. That is my happiest moment. If i don’t take nap during weekends, I may suffer from headache. Before writing this comment, I just swollowed down 2 tablets of panodol. i have around 7 hours sleep per night. I wish to have 8 hours if possible.
Much more attention now to lack of sleep as there are so many distractions these days plus stress all around. There are some US high schools who start classes later, maybe after 10am so that the teens who usually go to bed late can have enough sleep! Not sure if I agree with that concept as that’s not how the real world works…imagine telling the boss at work that u can’t possibly come into work before 10am! Another “disease” that often gets missed is sleep apnea, usually seen in ppl who snore loudly! They may sleep for 8 hours but it is not REM sleep and therefore not restful.