Most of us are sleep deficient *.
"The French sleep on average 7:05 days worked, against eight to nine hours a day in the 1960s," observes the National Institute of Sleep and Vigilance (Insv).
24% of the population spends less than 6 hours sleeping on weekdays and only 7:08 on weekends. And 73% wake up at least once a night for about 30 minutes. The deficit is therefore chronic.
"But a quality sleep of sufficient duration is a major factor in the prevention of aging and diseases," says Dr. Joëlle Adrien, President of Insv.
Sleep to recover your mental and physical abilities
The immediate effects of insufficient rest are known to all: irritability, concentration problems, blunted reflexes ... But the long-term consequences are less so, because they do not appear until 5 to 10 years later.
The body recovers during the night: the damaged cells repair themselves, the tissues rehydrate, the muscles evacuate the toxins and the brain regenerates.
An American study of John Hopkins University, published in February 2017 in the journal Science, showed that sleep optimizes brain plasticity.
It allows neurons (our small gray cells) to create new connections between them, which increases cognitive abilities, increases the flow of information in the brain and consolidates memory . Conversely, sleep deprivation induces irreversible loss of neurons.
Sleep to avoid weight gain
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine is formal: there is a link between the number of hours of sleep and the body mass index (BMI) . In fact, the small sleepers (5 hours or less per night) have an average body size greater than that of good sleepers (7 hours or more). The gap is widening considerably over the years. The former have a 32% increased risk of dropping an extra 15 kilograms in 16 years!
Too little time spent under the quilt disrupts the hormonal secretions and biological signals of hunger. Adipose tissue makes less leptin, a protein that informs the brain of the state of available energy stocks. And the stomach produces more ghrelin, a molecule that whets the appetite, especially for fatty and sugary foods.
To keep his wasp size, it is better to sleep like a dormouse.
Sleep to get rid of the spectrum of chronic diseases
A sleep debt also weakens our immune defenses against microbes and doubles the risk of developing diabetes (type 2), researchers at Boston University have shown.
It also amplifies inflammatory reactions, leading to an increased risk of arthritis or osteoporosis .
The cardiovascular system is also impacted. A reduction in sleep time raises blood pressure, which further exposes to myocardial infarction and stroke . So give yourself hearty naps and fat morning without feeling guilty.
* If you suffer from sleep disorders, consult the site https://reseau-morphee.fr, a free and anonymous questionnaire, developed by sleep specialists, will allow you to evaluate your symptoms and to find the medical orientation the more suited to your case.
