The Magic Power of Sleep

How it makes you happier, healthier, sexier, even thinner.

By Lori Miller Kase
From Reader's Digest
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Getting a good nights sleep can improve the way you feel and the way you look.
Photographed by Frank Veronsky
Getting a good nights sleep can improve the way you feel and the way you look.
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When people are sleep- deprived, there are higher levels of stress hormones in their bodies and an increase in inflammation, both of which can decrease immune function

Enhance Your Life With Sleep

When did 24-7 become a way of life? The massive decline in sleep happened so slowly and seamlessly that few seemed to notice the trend. Was it because of the baby boomlet and all those 2 a.m. feedings? The growing seduction of the Internet, video games and endless TV channels? Never disconnecting from work? No matter how it happened, millions of chronically sleep-deprived Americans are putting their health, quality of life and even length of life in jeopardy. New evidence shows why getting enough z’s may trump all your other priorities.

Magic Power #1. Live Longer and Healthier
Some 40 percent of Americans get less than seven hours of shut-eye on weeknights, and for many of them, it’s taking a toll. “The link between sleep and health, and bad sleep and disease, is becoming clearer and clearer,” says Lawrence Epstein, MD, author of The Harvard Medical School Guide to a Good Night’s Sleep. For example, sleep duration has declined from a median of eight hours in the 1950s to seven in recent years. At the same time, high blood pressure has become an increasing problem. Blood pressure and heart rate are typically at their lowest levels during sleep; people who sleep less tend to have higher blood pressure. The association between hypertension and sleep duration could explain other research findings linking lack of sleep to increased risk of heart attack, diabetes, weight gain and other problems.

Sleeping better may help you fight off illness. “When people are sleep- deprived, there are higher levels of stress hormones in their bodies and an increase in inflammation, both of which can decrease immune function,” says Phyllis Zee, MD, associate director of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Biology at Northwestern University in Chicago.

In fact, bed rest may make your flu shot work better as well. In a University of Chicago study, men who were vaccinated while being deprived of sleep (they were not allowed to sleep more than four hours a night) produced less than half the antibodies to the flu virus as vaccinated men who got a full night’s sleep.

Simply stated, people who sleep well live longer. So say good night sooner, and it may help you stay active and vital to a ripe old age.

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