One of the biggest problems of our time is insomnia...

I hear it so often from my students and friends.
As well as those looking for a cure for insomnia, there are also those who boast that they are happy with little sleep. However, if those who boast of getting less than 7-8 hours of sleep a night were aware of the potential physiological and mental collapse that awaits them in their later years, I am sure they would address this issue immediately.

In this article, I would like to summarise the value of quality sleep in the simplest way possible.

Is quality sleep given the importance it deserves?

A regular, restful sleep routine is an indispensable key to staying healthy and vibrant.

• Denied importance
• Neglected
• The boast that little sleep is enough

So how does not getting enough sleep or too little sleep affect our bodies?

•      Disturbs the internal balance of the body 
•      Suppresses the secretion of the satiety hormone leptin and causes weight gain
•      Suppresses the secretion of serotonin hormone 
•      Suppresses the secretion of the melatonin hormone
•      Weakens the immune system
•      Causes chronic inflammation Increases physiology
•      It shortens the telomeres, the protective caps at the end of our chromosomes inside our cell nuclei, which are the determinants of our biological age. You therefore age faster than your chronological age. 

 What is restful sleep?

•      All people generally need between 6 and 8 hours of restful sleep each night. 
•      You do not use drugs or alcohol to fall asleep.
•      You fall asleep quickly after turning off the light
•      The type of sleep that allows you to sleep soundly into the morning is called restorative and quality sleep.

How do you know when you are getting good quality sleep?

•      The best quality sleep occurs when you adapt your sleep cycles to circadian rhythms, or the rhythm of nature.
•      This means going to bed around 10:30-11:00 pm and getting up around 6:30-7:00 am. 
•      Ideally, you should eat a light meal in the evening, preferably before 8pm, so that your sleep pattern is not disrupted by digestive processes. 

The importance of circadian sleep

•      Our biological clock is involved in many aspects of our complex physiology. A large proportion of our genes are regulated by the biological clock. 
•      In summary, our circadian biological clock helps regulate sleep patterns, eating behaviour, hormone release, blood pressure and body temperature.

As you know, Aziz Sancar was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for mechanistic studies of DNA repair. What does this mean?
In a nutshell, it means this;
The cell’s response to circadian disruption is DNA damage.  Although the circadian rhythm has long been known in the scientific world, the fact that this rhythm also applies at the cellular level was discovered by our Nobel Laureate Aziz Sancar and his team, who were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2015. The gist of Aziz Sancar’s clinical study is this;

Cells in organisms adapt to circadian rhythms and change their functions according to the different time zones of the day.

For example, when we see daylight, the hypothalamus in our brain sends messages to the cells and physiological functions change. And the biological clock genes in our cells change the protein pathways of the cell.
Conclusion: At this last point reached by epi-genetics and chronobiology, the old adage 'you are what you eat' is replaced by the following:

You Are,
When you Eat, When you Sleep, When You Exercise.

Be Well, Be Happy!

Ebru Şinik | Wellbeing Coach