Maintaining a consistent sleep schedule is a practice that often starts in early childhood. Parents enforce their children to go to sleep at certain hours of the day to keep them healthy and vibrant. However, as we grow up we often lose this consistent sleep schedule and there are plenty of reasons behind it. Sometimes study pressure, work pressure, or certain lifestyles break this sleep routine.
But having at least 8 hours of sleep is something very necessary to keep your body and immune system healthy. Not only sleep duration why sticking to a consistent sleep schedule is important and what are the benefits of a consistent sleep schedule that we will discuss in this blog.
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Consistent Sleep schedule Is Good For Your Heart
We all know that adequate sleep is good for our heart, and at the same time not following a consistent sleep schedule can adversely affect your heart. Regular sleep time is equally important to maintain a good heart. For example, if you sleep at 11 pm at one night and 2 am at another night then you are not doing justice to your heart health. It put you at a high risk of heart attack or heart disease. Study shows if your regular sleep time varies between 30 minutes window then also it is ok for your heart. But if it is a gap of 90 minutes then it doubles the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Along with sleep schedule, inconsistent sleep duration also contributes to heart ailments. It is directly related to metabolic syndrome. How does sleep duration relate to metabolic syndrome? A Harvard study shows that every one-hour change in sleep duration from night to night increases the chance of developing metabolic syndrome by 27%. This metabolic syndrome in turn increases your risk of heart disease.
Also, the sleep time variation has a direct relation with the percentage of increase in heart disease. For example, if your sleep duration varies between 60 to 90 minutes on average then you will have a 14% greater risk of developing metabolic syndrome and if it is more than 90 minutes then you are at higher side up to 58% to develop metabolic syndrome.
Not only heart disease but also the following health problem may occur due to an inconsistent sleep schedule:
- Depression
- Obesity
- Diabetes
- High blood pressure
- Stroke
- Hypertension
Hence, keeping the sleep routine consistent as much as possible is essential for good health. No matter whether it is weekdays or weekends.
Why a consistent sleep schedule is essential for Your Immune System
Have you noticed whenever we fall sick doctor advises us to take ‘rest’? Because rest is essential to restore the body’s own healing power. Similarly, every day we need proper sleep to run our immune system as efficiently as possible. Because sleep gives all your organs a chance to take a break. During sleep, your body’s own immune system can assess any threats and accordingly manage antigens. Unless you sleep well your body organs can’t work at their best.
- A good night’s Sleep Boosts T Cells to work best
An important component of our immune system is T cells. These are white blood cells that play a vital role in the immune system’s response against invaded elements in our body. T cells attack and destroy virus-carrying cells. As per a recent study it has been seen that for people who get a good night’s sleep the T cells’ performance is the best in their body. On the contrary sleep deprivation makes it difficult for the immune system to fight back against virus attacks.
- Sleep Improves the Immune Response time
Not only a better immune system but also a prompt immune response is essential. A consistent sleep schedule along with a good night’s sleep improves the body’s immune response time. For our immune system response, an antigen called cytokine plays a key role. Cytokine is a multifaceted protein that promotes cell-to-cell communication to direct cells to fight against infection. Ultimately, we can say Cytokine triggers the immune system to respond against antigens.
Unless you get a full night’s sleep your body can’t replenish these T cells or Cytokine-type proteins to boost your immune system.
How to fix your sleep schedule
First and foremost, you should have a bedtime routine for maintaining a consistent sleep schedule. You should try to get to bed around the same time each night. For that follow some rules.
- Know Your Circadian cycle: Our body has its own clock which is commonly called the biological clock. The performance of our body and heart strongly depend on the rhythm of this clock which is commonly known as the circadian rhythm.
However, not every one of us has the same biological clock, neither it runs at the same pace nor keeps the same time. Hence, the thumb rule is to understand your circadian cycle properly before you determine the schedules of your daily activities like mealtime, sleep schedule, or workout time.
- Avoid Caffeine and Alcohol before bedtime: Caffeine and alcohol interfere with our sleep. Though sometimes considered as a sleep aid, alcohol often hampers our normal circadian functions. Similarly, caffeine is a stimulant which if taken a few hours before bedtime can disturb the sleep schedule.
- Maintain optimum room temperature: Lowering our body temperature before bedtime is essential so that our body can recover quickly during night’s sleep. Not only that, but optimum room temperature and comfortable dress can also help to enhance quality sleep.
- Relax: It is imperative that before you go to sleep you should relax to induce sleep. So, take a break from work ahead of sleep, avoid laptops or mobile phones as they radiate blue light which impacts sleep quality badly. Some people prefer to take a warm bath before they go to sleep as a warm bath helps to cool down the body along with good blood circulation. At the same time, it gives a freshness. Also, do not watch TV, instead read some books to fall asleep.
Final verdict:
So, we have seen how important it is to maintain a consistent sleep schedule. However, everyone has their own work schedule which sometimes we can’t avoid as part of our living. But despite that, we must remember that health is wealth and we should at least try to reduce the odds of suffering from health issues like heart disease or diabetes by following a consistent sleep schedule. Stay safe and stay healthy!