Why We Sleep

Why We Sleep will motivate you get more and better quality sleep by showing you the recent scientific findings on why sleep deprivation is bad for individuals and society.

Walker shares that he used to tell people the three pillars for good health consisted of diet, exercise, and sleep. Now that he understands the huge importance of sleep, he tells people that sleep is the foundation that the others stand upon. We all know heart disease is a huge problem around the world. The cost of this increasingly prevalent health problem is a huge burden on healthcare systems. But Walker proposes that the real cure is pretty much free. He says people just need to get more sleep. 

In a 2011 study looking at 500,000 people from various ages and ethnicities, researchers found that sleep deprivation increases the risk of a person getting or dying from heart disease by 45 percent. Another study looking at Japenese men for 14 years found that the workers who slept less than six hours every night were a staggering 500 percent more likely to suffer from cardiac arrest. Even when researchers account for factors that contribute to cardiovascular problems like obesity or smoking, the link remains strong. 

Why is there a link, though? Because a lack of sleep causes a rise in blood pressure. This instance of increased pressure in the veins takes a toll, and eventually, damages the artery walls. This makes you more susceptible to heart disease. So if you want to lower your blood pressure and increase your chances of living a long and healthy life, it could be as simple as getting more sleep!

We all know of the tragedy that drunk driving can inflict upon not just the driver but also others. But did you know that driving while drowsy is equally as dangerous as driving drunk? So not only is sleep deprivation bad for your health, but it also can make you a threat to society if you get behind the wheel. Getting less than seven hours of sleep per night will increase your chance of getting in an accident considerably. When you sleep less than your body needs, it attempts to make up for the lack of sleep by going into a microsleep. Microsleeping is a short bout of sleep that only lasts for a few seconds. It’s the same as normal sleep, just much shorter. So during a microsleep, you don’t have control of motor function. If this is at the wheel, it can only take a two-second microsleep to cause you to drift into another lane and cause a major accident. In an Australian study, researchers divided participants into two groups. One drank enough alcohol…