The Impacts of Sleep on our Health
Sleep touches nearly every part of your health. Logan Pendergrast, Ph.D., summarizes the biggest long-term effects of sleep disruption and what night shift workers can do to protect themselves.
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Bring to my employerSleep touches nearly every part of your health. Logan Pendergrast, Ph.D., summarizes the biggest long-term effects of sleep disruption and what night shift workers can do to protect themselves.
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so now we'll move into talking about the
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effects of restful sleep on our health
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in the short term The first effect of
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restful sleep is that our brain is more
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sharp in its functioning Sleeping
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overnight in a restful fashion can
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improve our focus our memory and our
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ability to react And it's the case that
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a poor night of sleep affects us in a
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similar way to alcohol intoxication the
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dulling of our general senses and of our
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reaction time occur when we don't sleep
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well Next sleep is essential for the
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immune function in our bodies And it's
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actually the case that sleeping less
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than 6 hours per night is associated
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with a four times greater likelihood of
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catching a common
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cold Now lastly here this is probably
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the most obvious of the short-term
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factors relating to a restful night of
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sleep Those who sleep restfully have a
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generally greater mood and stress
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control and this can lead to a general
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improvement in our emotional stability
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in the short term So what are the
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effects of restful sleep in the long
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term well individuals who have more
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restful sleep in the long term have a
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protection generally against chronic
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disease They have lower rates of heart
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disease and high blood pressure as well
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as protections from
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diabetes Additionally sleep is also in
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the long term related to weight
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management So restful sleep can help
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promote effective use of our body's
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hunger hormones And recent studies have
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actually shown that a poor night of
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sleep overall can increase our body's
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perception of want for high calorie
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foods by up to 50%
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Now as I mentioned in the previous slide
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as well sleep is highly tied into our
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mental health and restful sleep can help
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protect us in the long term against
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dementia It can help us improve our
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general emotional well-being as well as
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enhancing our body's ability to retain
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memories And a good night of sleep can
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improve an individual's ability to
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recall memories by up to 40%