Healthy sleep habits impact overall well-being. “Sleep is free! It’s the easiest thing you can do to improve your health,” says Dr. Prachi Singh, director of Pennington Biomedical’s Sleep and Cardiometabolic Health Laboratory. “As we learn more and more about the value of sleep and its necessity for our health, we are discovering that there is a massive sleep deficiency that appears to be linked to cognitive impairment, obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular events. Focusing on improving sleep will reduce depression and anxiety levels, and you can feel happier and see a better quality of life.”
Risk factors of poor sleep
In Dr.’s laboratory Singh, she and her team are investigating how sleep changes cardiometabolic risk factors. Poor sleep, defined as insufficient sleep duration and sleep disorders such as insomnia and sleep apnea, is associated with obesity, morbidity and premature death. The laboratory investigates the mechanisms by which sleep and sleep disorders contribute to high blood pressure, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Americans of all ages report not getting enough sleep at night, but among children, Louisiana ranks lowest nationally. According to a 2024 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 50.3% of children in Louisiana experience sleep deprivation, while several other Southern states also rank among the lowest. Researchers cite several factors contributing to these deficits, including stress, excessive screen time and early school start times.
Currently, one in three U.S. adults report sleeping six hours or less most nights of the week — a habit that can contribute to high cardiovascular risk and disease. In addition, people who sleep short are more likely to eat at irregular intervals, typically consuming more than the daily recommendations – a behavior that further contributes to increased cardiovascular and metabolic risk.
The circadian system in humans is key to maintaining balance or homeostasis in the body, but misalignment of the circadian rhythm, such as shorter sleep duration, combined with longer snacking and duration, can lead to high blood pressure and insulin resistance.
As the laboratory investigates the biological mechanisms underlying sleep and disease, the research strengthens many practical strategies to improve sleep. Dr. Singh and her team encourage creating a relaxing sleep environment, limiting screen time before bed, and paying attention to habits that affect sleep quality. In addition to well-known tips to improve sleep quality, Dr. Singh provided even more practical tips for improvement.
Tips to improve sleep
- A consistent sleep schedule is helpful, but the challenge is maintaining it over the weekend. Your body doesn’t know when it’s Friday. Some people try to catch up on sleep over the weekend, which is fine, but be careful not to let this disrupt your schedule and leave you with a sleep debt on Monday.
- Although exercise is essential for good health, try not to do it late in the evening.
- If you are considering taking supplements, let your doctor know as additional precautions are recommended for some supplements such as melatonin.
Shorter sleep duration can result in a wide range of health problems. With nearly 33 percent of all adults sleeping less than the recommended amount of sleep, the need to identify and address the causes of these problems is becoming increasingly urgent. This is especially important because even when we are aware of the negative health consequences of short sleep duration, we find it difficult to develop a routine that consistently includes time for adequate sleep duration.
The Pennington Biomedical Research Center is at the forefront of medical discovery when it comes to understanding the causes of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and dementia. Pennington Biomedical has the vision to lead the world in advancing nutrition and metabolic health and eliminating metabolic disease through scientific discoveries that create solutions from cells to society. The center conducts basic, clinical and population research and is a campus in the LSU system.
The post The Importance of a Full Night’s Sleep appeared first on Alternative Medicine Magazine.