Did you have a good night’s sleep last night? We’re asking because according to researchers, a run of poor sleep can have a dramatic (and negative!) effect on the internal workings of your body.
The BBC reports that researchers have found that not getting enough sleep can actually alter hundreds of genes within your body.
Heart disease, diabetes, poor concentration and obesity are all issues that have been linked to poor sleep. However, until now, it was unknown just how a lack of sleep altered your overall health and well being.
So researchers at the University of Surrey decided to investigate. They analysed the blood of 26 people after they had slept for up to 10 hours each night for a week and compared these samples with blood from people who had slept for less than six hours a night for a week.
The comparison revealed that more than 700 genes were altered by the shift in time and that the chemistry of the sleep-deprived volunteers’ bodies actually changed.
Will you be hitting the hay early tonight?
Researchers discovered that the natural body clock was also disturbed meaning that people weren’t functioning to their full standard, and areas such as the immune system and how the body reacts to stress and damage were also majorly affected.
“Clearly sleep is critical to rebuilding the body and maintaining a functional state, all kinds of damage appear to occur – hinting at what may lead to ill health,” said Professor Colin Smith, one of the researchers.
“If we can’t actually replenish and replace new cells, then that’s going to lead to degenerative diseases,” he added.
The results of the study have been published in the noted journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and further highlight just how important it is for us to get a good night’s rest as often as possible.
If you’re feeling a bit sleep deprived and out of sorts, why not make tonight the night that you hit the hay earlier than usual? Your body will thank you for it…
