Have you ever wondered what happens to your body when you take a sound sleep? If you think that the body halts and takes a break too, then you’re mistaken. For the body works harder while you sleep, repairing the damage done throughout the day, developing immunity and balancing hormones to keep many ailments at bay. Curious to know how? Find out how!
Hormonal Imbalance- Lack of proper sleep at night leads to increase in cortisol level in the body. In simpler words, cortisol is a hormone produced by the “cortex” portion inside the adrenal gland. The unbalanced levels of cortisol leads to an increase in appetite, resulting in increased food consumption, thus, resulting in weight gain. Proper sleep at night not only maintains the right levels of cortisol in the body, but also keeps the body fit and immunity balanced.
Diabetes trouble- Researches have proved that restricted, inhibited, disturbed or insufficient sleep at night stirs up hormonal imbalances in the pancreas. Insulin and Glucagon are two hormones secreted from the “islets” of the pancreas, which maintains the blood sugar level in the body, discarding possibilities of diabetes. These very hormones are also associated with the feeling of satiety felt after a meal. When imbalanced, these hormones fail to signalise the feeling of satisfaction or “feeling full” after a meal, resulting in overeating; thus gaining weight. Proper sleep ensures balance in the pancreas to a great extent.
Visceral Adipose tissue- Researches conducted in John Carroll University have yielded that lack of improper sleep (an optimum level for a human adult being 7-8 hours) at proper time of the night lead to deposition of visceral adipose fat which is harmful for the body. While subcutaneous fat is the fat directly under the skin, the visceral adipose tissue is the layer of fat (adipose) covering the organs inside the body.
BMR- The metabolism of the body mainly takes place when we are sleeping. BMR or Basal Metabolic Rate of the body is the rate at which the body metabolises when at complete rest (that is, sleeping). An increased BMR means increased metabolism, thus increased weight-loss, or rather, the maintenance of ideal body weight. Proper period of sleep helps in maintaining the ideal BMR of the body, thus ensuring proper catabolism of those extra kilos.
Recovery- Like every machine, human beings need proper period of rest too. Taking sound sleep gives time for the body to heal internally, repair damaged tissues and synchronise blood circulation correctly. Since exercises and physical activities of any kind result in muscle tissue damage, healing & repair is necessity, else the next set of exercises and activities become disadvantageous.
The optimal amount of sleep required by the adult human body is 7-8 hours and it is this period during which the body repairs, stabilises and restores it’s natural and proper balance which is extremely required for the body to be fit. Lack of sleep can be more harmful to the body than you think and so it’s advisable to ensure your body gets proper rest.
Written by – Chandrima Mukhopadhyay
