Study Shows Health Benefits After Months of Regular Sleeping

Irregular Sleep Disorder

Only a medical professional can answer what type of sleep disorder you’re suffering from. Irregular sleep is a part of a rare form of CRSD or circadian rhythm sleep disorder.

Such a sleep disorder would make you fall asleep at different times of the day. Even when you take naps, you don’t get a night of proper sleep because you are not sleeping adequately at night time. And the worst part is, those people don’t have any pattern of sleep. Besides affecting their mental health, it hampers their work, family, and social life too!

Causes of Irregular Sleep Disorder

Feeling hungry during the night or having a dependency on sleeping pills might cause sleep problems. If you’ve issues with irregular sleep, you might have earlier faced many difficulties with poor sleeping. And all these might have been a cause of the things mentioned above. If you think that irregular sleep disorder only happens in people having problems with brain function, it’s not true!

In fact, people who follow an irregular work shift can also come across such a problem. Or consider the ones who often travel! They might also face such disorders due to the change in the time zones. While you might be thinking a whole lot of things, here’s presenting some of the causes which might have affected you with an irregular sleep disorder.

Special Diet

A dietitian always includes necessary nutrients in whatever he or she is prescribing. They know the right way to bring your weight down or up, according to what your body requires. After all, a dietitian is a go-to person when you want a proper method to either gain or lose weight. But, in some cases, you might face some sleeping problems, due to a lack of food intake (as you used to consume earlier before maintaining the diet).

Surveys suggest that many people get tired during the daytime when they force themselves with a hardcore diet plan with minimum food intake. While your daily performance would not get affected by it, it would undoubtedly have a gradual negative impact on your sleep routine. You might as well fall asleep during the daytime and in the night stay awake. And this is not for one day. It might happen several times, affecting you with irregular sleep disorders.

What About Sleeping Pills?

How many times have you decided to yourself not to take sleeping pills anymore? And how many times did you fail to stick to such a decision? Well, sleeping pills, despite sounding like an apparent reason for sleeping, makes it all the more difficult for you to sleep, when stopped. It is similar to smoking and caffeine – it’s already a kind of addiction that many people have, especially the ones who suffer from depression. And once you become used to these sleeping pills, it becomes incredibly challenging for you to quit or sleep without them.

You need to know that sleeping pills make it more challenging for your body to get into sleep naturally. And if your doctor has prescribed you the sleeping pill, all you need to do is limit its dosage so that the next day when you determine yourself not having it, you sleep naturally.

Cigarettes and Caffeine

Once you have become addicted to smoking or caffeine, the quality of your life begins to degrade. Both caffeine and tobacco are considered to be harmful fuels that help you work for the time being. But what happens when the initial rush of smoke or coffee wears down? You feel more lethargic than ever, and irregular sleeping is an example that you experience as the downside.

While consuming caffeine in the evening can lead to disrupted sleep, smoking is nowhere different. The latter one is more harmful because nicotine happens to be a stimulant which makes it all the more difficult to fall asleep. So, the next time you have sleeping difficulties at night, please do not smoke! Instead, perform some tweaks, which this post will be enlightening you in the later sections. Since aging is a whole new discussion, here’s why sleep problems in aging become way more severe.

What Happens to Your Body When You Don’t Get Regular Sleep?

Call it an integral part of every day or a mode to promote your healthy well-being; sleep is something that you can never compromise on. After all, quality sleep is something that helps you with the stronger immune system, helps with balanced weight, increases your sex drives, and even helps you think (because thinking brings the possible decision-making approaches).

If you are unable to get a good night of sleep, it will gradually negatively impact your lifestyle. And then there are risks of so many diseases that can be caused by irregular sleeping syndromes. Keep reading for some serious implications associated with poor-quality sleep.

Getting Sick Constantly

Do you feel sick often? Are you, in fact, sick and tired? If you are sick and tired of being sick and tired, you need to get some good rest. Not getting enough sleep can impair the body’s capabilities of fighting off the illness. And that’s how you tend to fall sick quite frequently.

Surveys indicate that there’s a reciprocal relationship shared between your body’s immune system and your sleep patterns. It is difficult to shake a sickness when you don’t get adequate sleep. Not only that, but you will get sick again, and still not be able to overcome the second illness if you are still sick from the first. It’s a continuous cycle that you can break with regular sleep.

Heart Health and Cancer Risks

Both long and short sleep duration (i.e., nine hours or five hours every night) have individual negative impacts on the health of your heart. Oversleeping or not getting enough sleep can result in the development of some coronary diseases, leading to stroke or other heart diseases. With your immune system on the fritz, the rest of your body can suffer.

With poor quality sleep, comes the possibility of cancer risks. Pieces of research indicate that shortened sleep is possibly associated with cholesterol, breast, as well as prostate cancers. Night shift workers high risk of developing coronary heart disease.

Lacking Concentration

Lack of concentration is another issue associated with irregular sleep. Studies say that brain functions get worsened with poor quality sleep. With that, you might end up in a situation where thinking becomes challenging for you. Thinking power is something that humans are blessed to have.

And you should always try to maintain a healthy sleep pattern so you aren’t left staring off into space or forgetting what you were just talking about to someone. Besides getting enough sleep, eating foods with omega-3s can help with this problem.

Gaining Weight

Did you know that your sleep pattern affects your weight? If you don’t have enough sleep, the chances are high that you will start gaining weight. Not getting enough rest signals your appetite hormones, leading to ghrelin (making you hungry).

You eat more, and you gain weight since you aren’t sleeping, like you are supposed to be at that hour! Remember, when you eat, start with a large, healthy breakfast. By the end of the day, you shouldn’t be eating right before bed — or in bed.

Increasing Your Risk of Diabetes

Besides a bigger waistline, the risk of diabetes also comes into the picture when you don’t get a proper sleep routine. Why? Because the chances are good that you aren’t eating a salad at 11 pm. It’s probably donuts, ice cream, or a greasy cheeseburger.

Surveys indicate that six to seven hours of sleep would avoid insulin issues, thereby eliminating the possibility of diabetes. You need to make sure you aren’t missing out on precious hours of sleep. However, don’t oversleep either!

Creating Bad Skin

Women and men alike are obsessed with healthy skin; poor-quality sleep makes your face dull, thereby making you look older. In a world where makeup can boast of your skin, does natural glowing skin still hold that much importance? The answer is a big yes.

So, make sure you get an adequate amount of sleep to rest your skin and keep it looking younger and radiant. If the risk of diabetes isn’t enough to scare you, maybe the thought of having dry skin will force you into some beauty sleep.

Ruining the Bedroom Scene

Scientifically and physiologically speaking, for an adult, having regular intercourse is a part of his or her well-being. As long as everything is consensual with protection, of course. With the loss of sleep, you tend to become less sound when it comes to intercourse because you end up being tired for most of the day.

Besides having a headache, being too tired to make love is another big issue with the workout. Since it reduces the sex drive, it doesn’t promote healthy living.

Serious Sleep Conditions

For an older adult, complaining about his or her sleep difficulties isn’t something unusual. Science says that healthy aging can promote changes in sleep patterns. While sleep problems in old age aren’t unrealistic, there might be conditions when the adult develops specific health issues, which can cause sleeping disturbances. The common problems that can cause people, especially the elderly, with sleeping problems are mainly due to some underlying medical conditions. If you notice any of the following problems, it might be part of something more serious.

Sleeping problems take a serious toll on their lives. Describing them one by one, here’s presenting the five of them (because there’s a lot more to elucidate on). So, how irregular sleeping disorders take an unfortunate U-turn? Besides dementia, mental disability, and brain damage, you can even suffer from the following sleeping issues.

Insomnia

Stress, certain medications, depression, and anxiety are some of the causes of this sleeping disorder. Of course, you face difficulty in sleeping. Besides that, you deal with more problems at work. Since insomnia is a chronic issue, it should be experienced for at least three months in order to get diagnosed with this disorder.

If you are up for hours upon hours on end throughout the night for several nights a week, you might have insomnia. You should make an appointment with a medical professional to learn more.

Sleep Apnea

Have you ever heard someone snoring uncontrollably loudly? It might be sleep apnea. Who would ever wonder that a partial or complete blockage of the throat can cause such a sleeping disorder, better known as sleep apnea? Yes, it’s a type where patients suffer from symptoms such as daytime sleepiness, morning head pains, and so many others.

And the worst part is, the ones who have it don’t realize it, until the time someone else comes up and tells them about the problem; hence, the incredibly noisy snoring. Of course, you get proper medications for that issue.

Sleepwalking

As an English literature student, the Sleepwalking scene in Macbeth by legendary dramatist Shakespeare might have always amazed you. But as someone suffering from the same, it’s nowhere an unusual or regular kind of sleep.

It might help if you make your bedroom a sound-sleeping environment. If you are a sleepwalker, you might have learned after waking up in a crazy place, or — even worse — getting hurt. Discuss other ways to deal with sleepwalking with a medical doctor.

Sleep Terrors

The primary cause of sleep terrors is sleep deprivation or some illness. The symptoms that people come across are screaming, violence, and some burst movements during sleep. When sleep terror bothers a person, he or she is entirely awake. So, it becomes all more challenging for people to calm them down.

It’s best recommended to improve the sleep environment and include medication when in case of emergency. Sometimes children experience sleep terrors, and their parents are quite startled at night. However, they can ‘grow’ out of this issue.

Teeth Grinding or Bruxism

Blaming the level of anxiety or stress, teeth grinding, or bruxism can be a bad experience. Often, sufferers come across symptoms such as headaches, sore jaw in the morning time, many such annoying things while sleeping. What you can do is avoid things, including chewing gums or other chewing items apart from food. You can also consult with a dentist so it doesn’t cause damage to your teeth.

Other such disorders that a person can face with sleep are restless leg syndrome, REM sleep behavior disorder, narcolepsy, and more. All have specific symptoms as well as diagnosis outlines. Treatments are available in a wide range of therapies from medicine to lifestyle changes.

Take These Steps If You Have an Irregular Sleeping Disorder

Feel lucky if you don’t deal with a terminal sleeping disorder. But if you have irregular sleeping problems, you would probably not want to wake up cranky the next morning. Yes, it certainly leaves you in a bad mood. As a result, the entire day, you tolerate your mood swings, and you get all the more pissed off. Regardless of the reasons that you want to justify your sleep loss, nothing’s going to help you with it, and you’d only end up facing problems both physically and mentally.

When sleep gets distracted, the secreted hormones that your body release tends to fall short for you to wake up fresh the next morning, so, the following day when your boss assigns work to you, you end up making mistakes with a long face. Or may you did it correctly, but you failed to describe it in words. You go for a movie with your loved one, and you end up with a mood swing. So many incidents take place when you have sleep loss. Hampering everything else just because of your sleep patterns, does it even make sense? No, it doesn’t! That’s why we’ve come up with some of the best tweaks that you can follow to improve regular sleep and get benefits from it in the long run.

Reduce Unnecessary Naps

Power naps can indeed promote energy for the entire day. However, napping during daytime can also affect you negatively. As a result, it can cause irregular sleep at night. Additionally, sleeping during the daytime even confuses your body’s internal clock. This just means that you might struggle at night to sleep peacefully.

Studies so far have already indicated that taking a nap for 30 minutes or even less than that enhances brain function during the day. And longer naps more than 30 minutes, affects your good night’s sleep. But the effects of napping entirely depend on individuals, so if you take regular nap intervals and you sleep peacefully during the night, don’t worry at all!

Quit Smoking and Drinking

When you follow a scheduled routine for getting healthier sleep, you tend to be smarter to take such a move and enhance your body to function well. One of the most common reasons why people suffer from irregular sleep disorders is because of the consumption of alcohol.

Yes, you read that right! Consuming alcohol occasionally does make sense, because let’s just face it – you cannot entirely say no to your happy highs! Similarly, smoking can also be dangerous. We’ve already mentioned it in the first half of this post. The nicotine that it contains is a stimulant, which is why it’s all the more dangerous for your health, leading to sleep loss. Stop drinking and quite smoking for better sleep.

Create a Sleep Space

The bedroom setup is way more significant than you think for a healthy sleep pattern. The things that we perform the entire day in our daily chores of life reflect on our sleep habits. And that’s precisely why your bedroom setup should always be sound in promoting healthy sleep at night.

Factors like temperature, lights, noise, and arrangements of furniture always have a direct impact on your night sleep pattern. Plus, studies also shed light on how annoying external noise can lead to poor sleep. When you’re deciding on optimizing the bedroom environment, always try minimizing the external noise, lamps, and alarm clocks. Make sure that you have a quiet bedroom, which is clean and relaxing.

Avoid Heavy Meals Late at Night

Ask your doctor friend how your evening eating habits affect your sleeping pattern! And you would get the answer right there! There’s a reason why doctors suggest eating more solid food during breakfast time. During the morning, our body tends to be in working mode, which is why we need to produce more energy.

Similarly, during the nighttime, you tend to become less energetic. At that time, if you eat heavy meals, things aren’t going to work with sleep, especially when you deal with an irregular sleep disorder. Instead, choose light foods and see the difference yourself!

Focus on Peaceful Rest

In a world where more advancement is taking place, focusing on sleeping peacefully becomes far easier. When depression seems to bother you, when the day’s hectic schedule leaves you with sleep loss, when your anxiety level is at its peak, the information on the Internet might become your smart savior!

That being said, the best thing about today’s Internet world is that it comes with all the answers that you need. For healthy sleep, what you can do is download an instrumental sleep musical piece, and there you have it — just play the instrumental music and see the difference yourself.

Benefits from Months of Regular Sleep

They say that our mind and body gradually develop following a particular routine. And it entirely depends on the method that we follow. With months of regular sleep, you are going to have super benefits. After all, promoting a healthy sleeping pattern is quite remarkable.

After all, you don’t want any more mornings to be as mind-wrecking as you might have already faced before with irregular sleep disorder. And, who would ever want that? One such hectic day (after the night you don’t get enough sleep) is okay, but you can’t bear another such day, following it! Months of regular sleep make all sense! So, what are the benefits you would receive with months of proper sleep?

Could Lower Blood Pressure

The work-home and home-work phase has changed our daily life’s culture. With that, there’s been a negative impact on how we follow a particular sleep pattern. Taking things on the psychological front, sleep is, of course, an integral part of our healthy life.

But if you think it more scientifically, surveys suggest that sleep has a direct impact on lowering high BP. Someone having more elevated BP has chance of encountering a heart attack or stroke. Getting plenty of your good night’s sleep would encourage a constant relaxation state, thereby reducing high BP and keeping the level under control.

Medicinal Benefits

Did you just read that and got excited about not consuming pills anymore? It’s not entirely a medicine that would eliminate the need for consuming drugs. However, there are reasons why it is said to act as medicine. When you’re on your good night’s sleep, your body produces some new protein molecules. These molecules tend to fight infections more effectively.

So, next time when you feel a little run down, or you are suffering from cough and cold, straight go to your bed a bit earlier so that you give your sleep the allowance to act like a medicine and help you fight infections!

Balance your Mood

There’s a link between your mood and sleep, but did you know that before? First things first, sleep affects your mood, and that’s nowhere a myth. A sleepless night will make you short-tempered and irritable. And when you get a night of good sleep, your mood becomes as regular as before!

From studies, it is relevant that partial sleep deprivation will have massive effects on your mood. But both go hand in hand because, with a bad mood, there also come sleepless nights. There are numerous sleep therapies for that. And once you practice the same, you are going to have months of regular sleep, decreasing the levels of anxiety, stress, and depression.

Take Smart Naps

Talking about being more intelligent, how about taking power naps during the daytime. Of course, too much sleep during the day can give you sleepless nights. But with months of regular sleep, you learn the right way to act smarter in taking quick naps in the daytime.

This would contribute to your brain being more effective as well as productive. With that, your brain acts shaper, more productive, and of course, leaves you focused all day long. That’s how it gives reasons to act smarter.

Improve Reasoning Skills

Reasoning skills come with better memory. You tend to feel out of mind when you suffer from sleepless nights. It also makes it harder for you to remember certain things. With months of regular sleep, your body and brain become busier to organizing memories and storing them in your mind.

Quality sleep, thus, also improves your reasoning skills. By doing that, you stay focused on making the right decisions. Therefore, getting quality sleep will always help you remember things and make decisions wisely.

Keep a Healthy Heart

It’s no secret that sleep deprivation will affect your healthy heart, leading to chances of heartaches and strokes. Science says that sleep is essential for a healthy heart to perform effectively. While you may think heart problems are just a concern for elderly adults, it is not. Your poor sleep pattern can harm your heart, and this has already been mentioned above.

With months of quality sleep, it lowers your levels of stress and inflammation to the cardiovascular system. This, in turn, helps in reducing the possibility of strokes or heart attacks, thereby keeping your heart healthy. It also reduces the chances of sugar or diabetes.

More Productivity

Pieces of research are proof of how sleep can help you stay active all day long. With a good night’s sleep, you would be able to feel productive and organized. With that, it would increase the chance of quality sleep too.

While a hectic schedule can bring more frustration to your life, it can even promote regular sleep, because the entire day you are active and are performing the daily chores of life brilliantly. Staying active will help you sleep peacefully at night. After you have your share of quality sleep, you feel refreshed the next morning after waking up. This is a cycle, which, when performed for months, will promote regular quality sleep.

Avoid Sleeping Pills

Sleep is regarded as a natural painkiller, which, when overdosed or underdozed, has its own share of negative impacts on your body and mind, both mentally and physically. And no sedative would get inside your body and leave you healthier. Remember that once you start a sleeping pills course, you are going to feel dependable upon it.

Sleep is not the cure-all for your conditions, but it can help. Seek medical attention for further assistance. While sleep needs vary from individual to individual, your months of sleepless nights won’t solve overnight. And you can’t really have an instant solution for that. All you need to do is focus on your small to smaller daily habits to get closer to having regular sleep. Lightly, and slowly, one tortoise steps at one single time! You’ll get right there in the next couple of months.

Sources

Wikipedia – Irregular sleep-wake rhythm

Eight Sleep – 6 Factors That Affect Your Sleep

Fast Company – 8 Common (And Terrible) Sleep Disorders

Healthline – 10 Things That Happen to Your Body When You Lose Sleep

Better Health While Aging – 5 Top Causes of Sleep Problems in Aging, & Proven Ways to Treat Insomnia

Dreams UK – How to Sleep Better at Night

Tri Health – How to Fix Common Sleep Problems