With midterms stress and spring break just around the corner, we’re all trying to ace our exams while aware that we’re going to be living in a bikini next week. Want a simple solution that will help you rock both of these scenarios? Read on.
Rather than crash dieting and staying up all night (both are really, really bad for your body), try spending some quality time with your pillow. Research shows that you need to get 7-9 hours of sleep per night in order to fully reap the benefits of snoozing. Don’t have 7 hours to set aside for some slumber? Allow me to convince you to make it a priority.
- Dream on. Aside from being a pleasant way to semi-live out our deepest and darkest fantasies, research shows that dreams also play a powerful role in problem solving. While you’re asleep your brain will subconsciously continue to work on those nasty Organic Chem mechanisms, and you will wake up understanding them better than you did before you fell asleep.
- Boost your metabolism. Did you know that depriving yourself of even one hour of sleep per night can decrease your leptin levels, causing decreased appetite control? Sleep deprivation also increases ghrelin levels, resulting in increased appetite cravings. Moreover, the longer you stay awake, the more fuel your body needs to consume. Hence, midnight snacking and excessive calorie consumption ensue, both of which are not your bikini’s friend.
- Enhance your memory. Depriving yourself of sleep takes a huge toll on your neurons (brain cells). During sleep, the connections between neurons are strengthened. This is how memorization is accomplished, and no obvious work is done on your part! Putting your body on a regular sleep schedule will, with time, fortify these neuronal connections and sharpen your memory.
- Better skin! Ever wonder why night creams are popular? They aren’t just some silly marketing ploy. Sleep has been clinically proven to restore everything from overall organ health to your complexion. There’s a reason it’s called “beauty sleep.”
- Increase your next-day alertness. If you’re spending $4 on a cup of coffee at Starbucks every day for 4-5 times per week, you’re spending over $800 on coffee alone each year. Hello! That’s spring break round two! Sleep is free. And one of its primary functions is to do exactly what coffee does. Except sleep does it better.
- Lengthen your lifespan. Just like diet and exercise are crucial to healthy living, so is sleeping the right amount each night. The restorative roles that sleep plays are crucial for keeping your vital organs (and sanity!) in tip-top shape.
- Boost your immune system. It is virtually impossible for your body to repair itself when in a state of stress. Extensive research shows that sleep decreases your body’s cortisol (nasty little stress hormone) levels, which in turn leads to a decrease in stress. Go sleep, beat influenza.
Some of these may seem obvious, but if they’re so obvious, then why do constantly put sleep on the back burner? In reality, an extra hour of sleep is far more beneficial in both the long and short term, than an extra hour of studying (or whatever it is you may be doing at 3AM on a Monday).
Try it for a week. I promise you’ll never return to sleep-deprived living.
Image: https://www.sleepnbeauty.com/benefits