Sleep Research: Implications for Health and Wellness

January is the time that most people are still actively attempting to keep their New Year’s Resolutions, which for many means trying to lose weight, exercise more, and improve their overall health and wellness.

The success of these sorts of New Year’s Resolutions depends largely on a scientifically validated dimension of health that is foundational to wellness, but which many people often forget to factor.

This scientifically validated dimension is that of sleep.

Sleep, says neuroscientist Matthew Walker, Director of the Sleep and neuroimaging research lab at UC Berkeley, is one of the most overlooked dimensions of health and wellness and impacts every facet of human functioning.

People who are aiming to lose body fat, for example, are well served by research that demonstrates that a lack of sleep depletes leptin, the chemical responsible for signaling satiety. When leptin is depleted by sleep deprivation, individuals are unable to accurately register the feeling of “fullness,” making them more likely to overeat.

Sleep deprivation also gives rise to a hormone called ghrelin which is responsible for cravings for fatty and sugary processed foods (like donuts and other sweets), the very foods – being calorically dense and nutritionally empty – that tend to wreak havoc with dieter’s attempts to shed excess body fat.

Not only can lack of sleep compromise fat loss efforts, it can seriously impact performance in the gym. Says Steve Magness, sports scientist and author of Peak Performance, “It’s a matter of degree, duration, and understanding what you’re dealing with: sleep deprivation or sleep deficit. Sleep deprivation refers to total lack of sleep, usually for a limited amount of time. Sleep deficit happens when you’re chronically getting below optimal sleep levels. If you’re only getting five hours of sleep a night five days out of the week, you’re building a sleep deficit of two to three hours a night that accumulates over time.”

In other words, the more severe the deficit, the more severe the effect on performance.

Psychological effects, says Magness, tend to appear before physiological effects. For example, people in a sleep deficit perceive any kind of physical exertion – whether that’s walking on a treadmill or lifting a dumbbell – as requiring more effort, as being “harder.” This often results in them giving up a task sooner or giving up altogether.

Individuals in a chronic sleep deficit soon began to experience adverse effects beyond the psychological, as cortisol – the most potent and well-known stress hormone – becomes increasingly elevated while growth hormones necessary for recovery and muscle repair decrease. Research conclusively demonstrates that elevated cortisol keeps the body in a catabolic state where muscle tissue is more rapidly broken down and vital tissue repair is slowed.

Both sleep deprivation and sleep deficit are linked with compromised immune function. Research subjects who regularly slept less than seven hours per night were three times more likely to catch a cold than research subjects who slept only one hour more. (Eight to nine hours of sleep per night is the “gold standard” for most people as empirically verified through medical research.)

A regular lack of sufficient sleep makes it difficult for the body to fight off both minor illnesses and major diseases. Sleep deficit reduces the lymphocytes (white blood cells) that guard against viral cells, and a single night of significant sleep deprivation can lower the body’s protective lymphocyte count by around  70%.

Walker emphasizes that while it is true that select people (a “sleepless elite”) seem to be genetically “wired” to function and flourish on amounts of sleep (six hours or less per night) that pose both short- and long-term health and performance hazards to the average person, such people make up less than one percent of the population.

At Lifecycle Technologies, we’re “ground floor” contributors to the medical research that informs and guides not only everyday health and wellness concerns but also generates cutting-edge solutions to medical problems. If you’d like to see how our innovative tools and services can take you to the next level of streamlined, integrated, optimized operation, contact us today and see what we can do for you.