Sleeping is essential and that is not just for rejuvenating your mind and driving away exhaustion but also for restoring the vital functionalities of the body. In fact, research suggests that proper amount of sleep is as much essential for the long-term well-being as are exercising and dieting.
Poor sleep happens to augment the risk of heart ailment on its own without being accompanied or affected by the other issues like alcoholism, obesity and smoking. Even the individuals who are otherwise healthy can start to develop physical anomalies if they are sleep deprived.
A Good Night’s Sleep is Essential
Previously most people used to sleep for 9-10 hours as the sleep cycles were linked with the rising and setting of sun. However, the emergence of the artificial lights extended the day and the further addition of the television and the internet along with the modern devices have reduced the sleep timing to barely 7 hours. Some of us sleep for even a more reduced period with just a minimum siesta of 6 hours or even less.
Adults who manage to get less than 7 hours of sleep can develop a number of health issues like stroke, heart attack and heart disease and many more. These issues mainly include the following.
- Obesity – A lack of sleep can lead to obesity or unhealthy weight gain. This is especially the case with the adolescents and the kids who call for more sleep than the others. Being deprived of a certain amount of sleep can impact a specific brain part that is responsible for controlling hunger.
- Type 2 Diabetes – Diabetes happens to be an ailment that causes the sugar to enhance in the blood- a condition that can lead to the damaging of the blood vessels. Blood sugar can be controlled if a person has sufficient amount of sleep – this is proved by many types of studies conducted.
- High Blood Pressure – At the time of normal sleep, the pressure gets reduced. When you have sleep issues your blood pressure can stay higher for a longer period of time. The higher pressure is one of the major causes of the stroke and the heart ailment. One in every 3 adults are reported to have higher blood pressure.
All these can raise the issues of heart ailment and heart attack that can undoubtedly, turn fatal before you know.
Sleep Conditions Hurting Heart Health
Here are some sleep conditions that can affect your sleep and eventually your heart.
- Insomnia – This happens when people find it problematic to fall asleep or stay asleep or both. At some point or the other 1 in every 2 persons can experience short-term Insomnia and 1 in every 10 can have long-lasting Insomnia. The Insomnia is linked with heart ailment and high blood pressure. You can also develop other poor habits that can hurt your heart in the long run if you don’t sleep well at night.
- Sleep Apnea – The sleep apnea happens when during sleep the air passage is blocked more than once leading to stoppage of breath for shorter time periods. According to the sleep apnea dentist, this condition can be triggered by a number of health problems like heart attack, blood pressure and stroke along with the obesity. The sleep apnea affects the oxygen in the body which enhances the risks of many health issues like heart attack, blood pressure and stroke.
Tips to Sleep Better
While some people’s body can go off to sleep very easily, others may call for some efforts. You should follow these tips –
- Train the body to go to bed at the same time each night and rise around the same time each day.
- If you are unable to fall asleep leave your bedroom and go to another bedroom.
- Do not use the bed for reading, working, browsing your cell phone or watching television.
- Get it easy on alcohol, nix caffeine and stay away from nicotine. Alcohol can help you fall asleep, but you will experience disrupted sleep then. Caffeine looms large in the body so after noon try to go decaf. The nicotine effects start kicking in some period (a few hours) after the last cig and this can wake up the person from deep sleep.
- You can sleep well if you go for a brisk workout or short walk and some exercise just before retiring to bed.
If you are a snorer, consult with the sleep apnea dentist today and try to identify whether you have sleep apnea and start treating it today.