Over the next few months, I am starting a new segment for my blog on the connection between poor sleep and other popular health concerns. Many of these may come as a surprise. Are you aware that getting too little sleep can lead to many health problems? Research shows that sleeping less than 7 hours each night may affect your heart, hormones, immune system, and brain in various ways, including[i] [ii]:
- Increased risks for weight problems
- Cardiovascular health problems
- Memory and Concentration
- Digestive disorders
- Breathing problems
- Decreased immune function
- Blood sugar control issues
Studies are showing that both how much and how well you sleep are important for your health. Not getting enough sleep can harm your body in many ways. When you don’t sleep enough, your body can’t repair itself, and changes start happening that affect your organs and how they work. These problems can build up over time, making sleep a vital part of staying healthy.
Brain Function Impairment
Not getting enough sleep can hurt your brain’s ability to think, remember things, and make good decisions. It can also affect your mood, making you feel more anxious or sad. Poor sleep stops the brain from working properly, which can increase the risk of mental health problems and brain disorders.[iii]
Cardiovascular Effects
Sleep disturbances can directly affect blood pressure control, increasing the risk of hypertension and cardiovascular problems. Sleep deprivation also elevates sympathetic nervous system activity, heart rate, vasoconstriction, and salt retention. These factors may lead to hypertension resulting from cardiac overdrive and volume overload.[iv]
Digestive Issues
Recent research shows that not sleeping well can cause problems with your digestive system. When you don’t get enough good sleep, certain chemicals in your body—called cytokines—can increase and lead to issues like acid reflux, bowel diseases, and even liver problems. These chemicals are known to be involved in inflammation, and their levels can change when you have digestive conditions or don’t sleep enough.[v]
Hormonal Disruptions
- Cortisol elevation: When sleep deprived, the stress hormone cortisol levels stay high, affecting blood pressure, blood sugar control, and immune function.[vi]
- Leptin and Ghrelin imbalance: Inadequate sleep can disrupt appetite hormones, leading to increased hunger and potential weight gain.[vii]
- Testosterone: Chronic sleep deprivation is associated with decreased testosterone levels.[viii]
Impaired Glucose Metabolism
Poor sleep can reduce insulin sensitivity, raising the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Lack of sleep worsens glucose metabolism[ix]. Inadequate sleep is linked to prediabetes, a form of glucose intolerance that does not qualify as diabetes[x]. People already diagnosed with diabetes who experience insufficient or restless sleep may find it harder to control their blood sugar. As mentioned above, poor sleep also affects key metabolic hormones like leptin, ghrelin, and insulin.
Immune System Dysfunction
Research indicates a link between short sleep duration and infection risk[xi]. Just one night of sleep deprivation can reduce the function of key immune cells[xii]. At the same time, extended sleep deprivation and the associated stress response cause immunodeficiency[xiii]. Lack of sleep is directly connected to fewer immune cells and reduced immune activity. [xiv]
Not getting enough sleep can make your body react with more inflammation. Studies show that missing sleep changes important chemicals in your blood, like IL-1 beta, TNF-alpha, IL-6, and CRP, which means your body is responding to the lack of rest. [xv]
Weight Management
Circadian rhythmicity influences the weight loss process and has been proposed as a predictor of how effective weight loss will be. Short sleep duration is linked to higher energy intake, primarily due to increased consumption of saturated fats, which can lead to weight gain and a higher BMI[xvi]. Getting less than 7 hours of sleep each night can make you more likely to gain weight: the less sleep you get, the more likely you are to become overweight, as measured by body mass index (BMI). Research shows that people who sleep fewer than 6 hours are more likely to have a higher BMI. Not sleeping enough lowers the level of leptin, a hormone that helps you feel full, and raises the level of ghrelin, which makes you feel hungry. This means poor sleep can make you eat more and gain extra weight[xvii].
Sleep Supplement Suggestions
Since this is the first in the series, I thought we should start with some of my favorite sleep ingredients and how they work. Here is my list:
- Lemon verbena: A study with RelaxPLX® has shown that it improves sleep time in the deeper stages, precisely the percentage of time spent in deep sleep and REM.
- Melatonin: Melatonin production increases when it begins to get dark and shuts off when there is daylight. Melatonin has many effects on the body, including reduced arousal and related brain activity and delays in the production of cortisol. Studies with melatonin have shown improvements in the time it takes to fall asleep (sleep latency), sleep quality, jet lag[xviii], and the time required to fall asleep[xix].
- PEA: A study with Levagen®+ showed improvements in sleep latency, the number of awakenings, and the time it takes to feel awake. Throw in the fact that it also helps with pain (a contributing factor to poor sleep), and it is no wonder this is a good sleep option.
- Saffron: A recent study on Affron® and sleep found that saffron supplementation was associated with increased evening melatonin concentrations and no increases in cortisol levels.[xx]
- Valerian: Valerian is known to increase stages 3 and 4 of the sleep cycle while decreasing stage 1 (the time to fall asleep). This means valerian will help one to fall asleep faster and stay in the final two stages of sleep longer.
While none of these ingredients have studies to show that they work specifically for these other health conditions, I like to assume that if sleep is an underlying risk factor for a condition, then taking something to aid with sleep may be a missing piece for the end consumer.
Look for my next blog and suggestions for combating the health concerns linked to these physiological and biochemical links, where sleep plays a critical role.
[i] Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Sleep Medicine and Research; Colten HR, Altevogt BM, editors. Sleep Disorders and Sleep Deprivation: An Unmet Public Health Problem. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2006. 3, Extent and Health Consequences of Chronic Sleep Loss and Sleep Disorders. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK19961/
[ii] Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Sleep Medicine and Research; Colten HR, Altevogt BM, editors. Sleep Disorders and Sleep Deprivation: An Unmet Public Health Problem. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2006. 3, Extent and Health Consequences of Chronic Sleep Loss and Sleep Disorders.
[iii] Ramos AR, Wheaton AG, Johnson DA. Sleep Deprivation, Sleep Disorders, and Chronic Disease. Prev Chronic Dis 2023;20:230197. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5888/pcd20.230197
[iv] Nagai M, Hoshide S, Kario K. Sleep duration as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease- a review of the recent literature. Curr Cardiol Rev. 2010 Feb;6(1):54-61. doi: 10.2174/157340310790231635. PMID: 21286279; PMCID: PMC2845795.
[v] Khanijow V, Prakash P, Emsellem HA, Borum ML, Doman DB. Sleep Dysfunction and Gastrointestinal Diseases. Gastroenterol Hepatol (N Y). 2015 Dec;11(12):817-25. PMID: 27134599; PMCID: PMC4849511.
[vi] Banner Health Website, How Sleep Can Affect Stress, https://www.bannerhealth.com/healthcareblog/teach-me/how-sleep-can-affect-stress#:~:text=Sleep%20decreases%20cortisol%20levels,feelings%20of%20stress%20and%20anxiety., February 28, 2019, accessed November 8, 2024
[vii] NIH National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute website, How sleep Affects your Health, https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/sleep-deprivation/health-effects#:~:text=Heals%20and%20repairs%20your%20heart,Research%20for%20Your%20Health, Last updated June 15, 2022, accessed November 8, 2024
[viii] Hanson JA, Huecker MR. Sleep Deprivation. [Updated 2023 Jun 12]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2024 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK547676/#
[ix] National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). (2017, February). Diabetes, Heart Disease, and Stroke. https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/diabetes/overview/preventing-problems/heart-disease-stroke
[x] Sleep Foundation Website, How Sleep Deprivation Affects Your Heart, https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-deprivation/how-sleep-deprivation-affects-your-heart#references-78800, Updated April 25, 2024, Accessed November 8, 2024
[xi] Besedovsky L, Lange T, Haack M, The Sleep-Immune Crosstalk in Health and Disease, Physiological Reviews 99: 1325–1380, 2019
[xii] Morey JN, Boggero IA, Scott AB, Segerstrom SC. Current Directions in Stress and Human Immune Function. Curr Opin Psychol. 2015;5:13‐17. doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.03.007
[xiii] Besedovsky L, Lange T, Born J. Sleep and immune function. Pflugers Arch. 2012;463(1):121‐137. doi:10.1007/s00424-011-1044-0
[xiv] Besedovsky L, Lange T, Haack M, The Sleep-Immune Crosstalk in Health and Disease, Physiological Reviews 99: 1325–1380, 2019
[xv] Mullington JM, Simpson NS, Meier-Ewert HK, Haack M. Sleep loss and inflammation. Best Pract Res Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2010 Oct;24(5):775-84. doi: 10.1016/j.beem.2010.08.014. PMID: 21112025; PMCID: PMC3548567.
[xvi] Papatriantafyllou E, Efthymiou D, Zoumbaneas E, Popescu CA, Vassilopoulou E. Sleep Deprivation: Effects on Weight Loss and Weight Loss Maintenance. Nutrients. 2022 Apr 8;14(8):1549. doi: 10.3390/nu14081549. PMID: 35458110; PMCID: PMC9031614.
[xvii] Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Sleep Medicine and Research; Colten HR, Altevogt BM, editors. Sleep Disorders and Sleep Deprivation: An Unmet Public Health Problem. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2006. 3, Extent and Health Consequences of Chronic Sleep Loss and Sleep Disorders. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK19961/
[xix] Nagtegaal JE, Laurant MW, Kerkhof GA, et al. Effects of melatonin on the quality of life in patients with delayed sleep phase syndrome. J Psychosom Res 2000;48:45-50.
[xx] Lopresti A, Smith S, Drummond P, An investigation into an evening intake of a saffron extract (affron®) on sleep quality, cortisol, and melatonin concentrations in adults with poor sleep: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multi-dose study, Sleep Medicine Volume 86, 2021, Pages 7-18,