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Significance of Optimum Sleep for Healthy Living

Team AckoJan 17, 2024

It is said that a healthy body is based on three pillars – eating right, proper exercising, and sound sleeping. This foundation is essential for staying fit for a long period. Out of these three pillars, people focus on diet and exercise but often neglect the third pillar, sleeping.

It is not possible to build a healthy body if this third pillar is not strengthened with regularity. Seven to eight hours of sound sleep is essential for a healthy mind and body. Modern lifestyle is making it increasingly difficult to meet this goal. People are compromising their sleep hours to further their career (example – working late) or to be entertained (example – watching videos). However, they fail to realise that they are harming their body in the process.

In his TED talk, neuroscientist Matthew Walker suggested that sleep deprivation is one of the major challenges faced by the human species in the 21st century. He pitches sleeping as a superpower and urges people to consider sound sleep as a necessity and not as a luxury. Read ahead to know why optimal sleeping plays a significant role in healthy living.

Contents

Importance of a Sleeping Well:
Tips to Sleep Well:
Health Insurance Plans:

Importance of a Sleeping Well:

Weight Watch:

Managing your body weight is of utmost importance for practising a healthy lifestyle. Sleep has a direct impact on your weight. Lack of sleep increases the chances of obesity and related diseases. Lack of sleep can make you prediabetic. Continuous sleep deprivation makes you vulnerable to type 2 diabetes. Alternatively, if you get optimal sleep, you shall crave fewer calories as the appetite hormones remain in check.

Staying Productive:

Be it a student or a professional, sound sleep can help to increase productivity. Optimal sleep improves cognition and concentration. There is a spike in the problem-solving abilities and improvement in memory. The positive effects can also be felt concerning physical activities, for example – enhancement in daily functional activities. Lack of sleep, on the other hand, can harm brain functionality.

Heart Attack Risk:

Several studies suggest that those who sleep poorly are more likely to experience a stroke or heart attack. Low sleep quality and curtailed sleep hours are also responsible for chronic diseases, such as heart-related ailments. Thus, sleeping well can make you less vulnerable to experiencing a heart attack at an early age.

Multiple tests have suggested that sleep deprivation has adverse effects on one’s social life. A sleep-deprived person finds it hard to decipher social cues and deal with emotional information in a healthy manner. Unorderly sleep patterns combined with some sort of sleeping disorder can negatively affect mental health and lead to depression.

Basic Immunity:

Lack of sleep can lower the basic immunity level in the human body. This can make you more likely to catch a cold. If you sleep regularly for around seven to eight hours on an average, there will be a significant improvement in your immune function.

Tips to Sleep Well:

Sleep in a room with a lower temperature
Wear comfortable clothes
Do not stuff your stomach just before sleeping
Avoid caffeine
Maintain a regular sleeping pattern
Avoid using mobile/laptop in bed

Health Insurance Plans:

As mentioned above, there are a lot of advantages related to sleeping well. However, multiple factors contribute to a healthy body. There is no way you can be entirely prepared to avoid diseases and illnesses. But you can take precautionary measures. Purchasing medical insurance is one such precautionary measure that helps you to secure your savings in case you fall severely ill and hospitalized.

Here’s a list of popular health insurance plans

You can choose from these health insurance plans to build a strong health insurance portfolio. In a way, knowing that there is an extensive health insurance portfolio to rely on in case of emergencies can help you to sleep peacefully.

Also, read: 6 Lesser Known Health Issues Caused By Smoking

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Disclaimer: The content on this page is generic and shared only for informational and explanatory purposes. It is based on industry experience and several secondary sources on the internet; and is subject to changes. Please go through the applicable policy wordings for updated ACKO-centric content and before making any insurance-related decisions.