Benefits of having adequate sleep include the following:
• Restoration and replacement of worn out and dead cells in the body
• Boosting of the immune function, preventing and fighting diseases
• Lowering of cortisol level, depression and anxiety.
• Lowers the risk of stress-induced heart disease.
• Improvement of brain function
• Prevention of diabetes.
• Slowing down of the ageing process and the visible effects associated with aging.
• The most important secret for averting wrinkles.
• How well a person sleeps can predict how long he will live.
Some other things that happen when you sleep:
• Important hormones are secreted during sleep especially growth hormone which is important for the growth of children
• This growth hormone is also important for regulating body mass and fat in adults. The less growth hormone is produced, the less the body can burn fat.
• Getting older and lack of sleep lowers the production of growth hormone and this may explain why many people become overweight or obese as they grow older.
• This is why those who sleep for fewer hours than recommended may be struggling with weight loss and find out that they keep adding rather than losing fat.
• The hormone leptin is also secreted during sleep
o It has a direct influence on appetite and weight control, it’s the hormone that tells the body when it should feel full
o If someone doesn’t sleep well, he will not have enough leptin and therefore feel hungry more often and gains weight compared to someone who sleeps more.