Five Surprising Reasons to get More Sleep

Of course, in a less busy world we’d all grab some extra shut-eye. But sleep could have more effect on your health than you think

1. It could make you thinner: Research in Virginia has found that the less sleep you get, the higher your body mass index tends to be.

Another study may have the explanation: people who sleep five hours a night were found to have 15% more ghrelin (a hormone that boosts hunger) in their bodies and 15% less leptin (which suppresses it) than those sleeping eight hours.

2. It could boost your memory: Sleep plays a key role in making new memories stick in the brain. A Harvard experiment showed that subjects taught complex finger movements such as a piano scale recalled them better after 12 hours’ sleep than 12 hours’ wakefulness.

3. It can fight colds, ulcers and even cancer: Good sleep boosts the immune system.

Melatonin, produced when you sleep, is a cancer-fighting antioxidant. Night-shift workers, whose wake/sleep rhythms are disrupted, may have up to 70 times greater risk of breast cancer. It also seems the chemical your body makes to repair damage to the stomach lining is secreted during sleep, so staying up all night on a regular basis could raise your risk of ulcers.

4. It can slow down ageing: Persistent sleep debt has been shown to affect carbohydrate metabolism and hormone function in a way that may increase the severity of age-related chronic disorders. In fact, a large-scale study concluded that people who sleep 6-7 hours a night lived longer than those sleeping less than 4.5 hours.

5. It could keep you on the straight and narrow: If you’re a child, that is. The depression and low self-esteem often associated with just being a teenager actually correlate with sleep shortage. And young kids who sleep poorly are more than twice as likely to take to drink and drugs in adolescence.