Goodnight!
The study, the results of which are published in the latest issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, showed that in order to avoid failures in the cardiovascular, endocrine, immune and nervous systems, a person needs to get enough sleep. According to the data provided in the journal, from 50 to 70 million Americans suffer from sleep disorders in one form or another, as well as chronically sleep deprived.Scientists have found out that the lack of a full night's rest leads to obesity, and this problem is more relevant for Americans than for anyone. Lack of sleep leads to increased human production of the "hunger hormone" - ghrelin. The human body strives to "somehow" compensate for the lack of sleep and produces this hormone, causing the desire to eat.
It is significant that the majority of obese people lead a "nocturnal" lifestyle. At the same time, during sleep, another hormone is produced - leptin, which suppresses appetite, reports with reference to ITAR-TASS.
In addition, scientists have found that people who sleep less than five hours a day are two and a half times more at risk of developing diabetes than those who sleep the required number of hours. Sleep-deprived people are also almost twice as likely to have a heart attack as those who get enough sleep. Sleep-deprived people also have increased blood pressure, doctors say.
According to another study on this topic, the results of which are also published in the journal, in 2007, about 20% of serious car accidents in the United States, as a result of which people were injured, occurred with the participation of sleepy drivers.
According to doctors, lack of sleep is fraught with serious consequences in the form of depression, nervous disorders and even alcoholism.
However, some scientists talk about the benefits of insomnia. So, a researcher from the University of Missouri at the beginning of last year found out that lack of sleep can be an advantage. Observing more than 2,500 patients, Dr. Daniel K. Vinson, who teaches a course at the university dedicated to the medical care of families and individual areas, discovered an unexpected circumstance: patients who complain of drowsiness are less likely to be injured.
"Perhaps a person who feels sleepy begins to behave differently," Vinson suggested. - If I feel really tired, I may not go to play sports or get behind the wheel of a car. If, feeling exhausted, we change our lifestyle, then, probably, that's why the risk of injury decreases."
But still, most of the institutions dealing with this problem are still only calculating losses, not profits from lack of sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation, based in Washington, the problem costs the US economy about $ 100 billion a year - such are the losses from low labor productivity, treatment costs and other factors.