Why Good Sleep Matters So Much

Last Updated on December 31, 2022

We humans spend about one-third of our lives asleep. This one-third dramatically impacts the quality of the other two-thirds of our lives. Many things contribute to a good night’s rest, and your mattress lies at the foundation.

According to WebMD, when it comes to sleep quality, “to get it right, you’ve got to start with the basics and your mattress is the first building block to a restful slumber.” After all, if you’re tossing and turning all night, struggling to get your body into a pain-free position, your sleep quality will be reduced, and your wellness will suffer.

The Importance Of A Good Night’s Sleep

A good night’s rest can be the difference between having a great day and feeling miserable, but it’s not just about the neck and back pain. Even if you eat right, exercise, and take care of yourself, failing to consistently get enough sleep can put your health at risk. You can find yourself tossing and turning when you should be in deep sleep. Even just one night without sleep can make driving and operating machinery dangerous. According to the Cleveland Clinic, there are also plenty of long term risks for a body that doesn’t get enough sleep.

The National Institutes of Health explains that sleep protects our physical health, mental health, performance, and safety. We have listed some of the points to summarize below:

Sleep And Rejuvenation

When you’re sound asleep, your body internally and automatically performs the following actions:

• Repairs itself – Sleep is involved in the healing and restoration of your heart and blood vessels.
• Regulates its blood sugar levels – A lack of sleep can lead to an increased risk of diabetes due to the inability to control insulin levels.
• Builds bone and muscle mass – While deep asleep, the hormone which boosts muscle mass is most active.
• Boosts its immune system – While even the best mattress can’t prevent or cure a cold, it can help you stave off a cold by helping you sleep better.

Sleep, The Brain, and Body

Sleep is one of the essential components of body functioning and mental health. Good sleep promotes the following concerning the brain and body:

Boosts Overall Well-Being

General mental health and outlook towards things are much more positive. If you suffer from anxiety, depression, or another mental illness, the lack of sleep could worsen your symptoms. Even if you don’t have any of these disorders, you could find yourself more irritable and grumpy when you aren’t sleeping enough.

Improves Memory

Lack of sleep makes remembering even the simplest of things harder, but proper rest doesn’t. Sleep deprivation can affect the brain in many ways. For example, are you constantly forgetting things that you really ought to remember? Are your loved ones tired of answering the same questions over and over again? When you don’t get enough sleep night after night, you can begin to lose memory function. Don’t worry, once you start getting regular sleep once again, you can recover this skill.

Aids In Learning

Whether it’s learning how to drive or speak a new language, healthy sleep makes learning easier.

Improves Reasoning and Decision-Making

Getting plenty of rest makes it easier for people to make better decisions in daily life. This is because overall mental health and brain functioning is at optimum levels and best concentration.

Forms New Pathways In The Brain

Every night while asleep the brain is trying to learn and remember channels for the next day. Getting good sleep makes this function much easier for the brain.

Heart Problems

The National Sleep Foundation says that people who don’t get enough sleep every night put themselves at greater risk for cardiovascular disease. Even if you never smoke, stay at a healthy weight, and eat a heart-healthy diet, the lack of sleep can raise your risk. Although scientists don’t know why this occurs, the link is pretty clear.

Weight Gain

Are your pants feeling a little tight lately? Believe it or not, your bad mattress could be the culprit here as well. That’s right; Johns Hopkins Medical Center has found that a lack of sleep makes you more likely to crave sweet and starchy foods. If you get fewer than five hours of good sleep per night, you are 50 percent more likely to be obese.

Disease Risk

Without proper sleep, you could be three times more likely to develop diabetes. You also increase your chance of getting cancer and high blood pressure. These serious diseases can take years off of your life and can be difficult to manage.

Immune System Problems

A lack of restful sleep can make your immune system less equipped to take on challenges. You are three times more likely to catch a cold when you haven’t gotten enough sleep. Clearly, stomach sleepers need to find a good mattress to stay healthy.

Sleep And Performance

When we have enough sleep, we have more energy, make fewer mistakes, and experience increased performance in various aspects of life. The sleeping habits of successful people have been studied in-depth and have found that plenty of rest and good slumber can reap the following benefits:

• Productivity – Whether it’s writing reports or doing household chores, being adequately rested helps boost productivity.
• Work quality – Not just quantity, but the quality is also improved.
• Reaction time – This refers to both physically or mentally, but being slow is an adverse effect of poor quality sleep.

Sleep And Safety

When we’re sleep deprived, we often experience episodes of microsleep, which are brief periods of sleep during the day without one knowing that it has happened. For example, have you ever driven home and forgotten entirely part of the journey? Or perhaps sat through an entire movie and only remember parts of it? That is often due to spates of microsleep, which usually occurs due to lack of proper sleep. It is much better to get your sleep on a good mattress than in a car, in school, or on the job. Microsleep is not the best scenario for anyone, and is something that we can all do without due to the following reasons:

• Can happen anywhere – This includes when we’re driving, which is extremely hazardous for everyone. It impairs driving ability more than being drunk.
• Difficulty remembering – Experiencing frequent microsleep will leave empty holes in your day where eventually daily memory will suffer.