For your whole life, you’ve been told that you need at least eight hours of sleep every night. Throughout different phases of our lives, we achieve eight hours (sometimes more, if we’re lucky) or we fight to get any sleep at all. As adults, we already know that sleep is important. But for those individuals who somehow manage to thrive off of three hours at best—they are likely fighting some health conditions that developed as a result of the short sleep cycles.

As a Top Rated® Local mattress store in Sarasota, we offer the largest selection of certified organic mattresses, bedding, and mattress toppers in Tampa Bay. Our organic mattress store is a one-stop shop for the best names in organic mattresses and bedding— so it’s safe to say that we know the importance of a good night’s sleep. Our goal is to help people sleep better and sleep the way nature intended by offering organic mattresses in Tampa Bay. Visit our site and shop bedding, mattresses, and pillows 100% all-natural materials without harmful or dangerous chemicals.

If you are suffering from health conditions that you can’t seem to resolve or get the relief you need, you might want to take a closer look at your sleep habits. In today’s article, we’ll focus on the importance of sleep, and not just a few hours of it, but the importance of a full night’s sleep. If you live in Sarasota, be sure you stop by our mattress store and browse our selection of organic mattresses!

Why Is Sleep So Important?

As mentioned above, and throughout your entire life, sleep is an essential part of life. While the majority of us would be tempted to give up their first born just to be able to sleep all day long, there are some people who choose to only get a few hours of sleep each night.

Trust us, we know what you’re thinking: Who are these voluntary insomniacs? Well, there are the workaholics, night owls, college students, new parents, and a few people who are crazy enough to want to be awake all the time. If you are, or know anyone who doesn’t get enough sleep, direct them to this blog. Below are important reasons why your body needs quality sleep every night!

Weight Gain

Poor sleep habits have been shown to increase one’s weight. People who sleep less than eight hours tend to gain weight faster and more significantly than those who have healthy sleep habits. In fact, the strongest contributor to obesity is short sleep duration.

The effect that adequate sleep has on weight gain is mediated by several factors, including hormones and motivation to exercise.

Poor Concentration

If you don’t already know that sleep is important for your brain activity and its ability to function, it is. While you sleep, certain parts of your brain come to a rest while others continue to work and rehabilitate your cognition, concentration, productivity, and performance. A study found that short sleep can impact your brain’s function to a similar degree as alcohol intoxication.

Good sleep has been shown to improve memory, problem solving skills, focus, and concentration in both adults and children.

Athletic Performance

If you’re an athlete, you need a consistent good night’s sleep. As mentioned above, your concentration and focus improves on a good night’s rest, but it also significantly improves speed, accuracy, reaction times, and mental wellness.

Additionally, poor sleep habits have also been associated with poor exercise, recovery, as well as functional limitation.

Heart Health

People with poor sleep habits have a greater risk of heart disease and stroke. Regularly sleeping less than 7-8 hours each night has shown to increase heart disease and stroke.

Mental Health

One of the first signs of a mental health disorder, such as depression, is poor sleep quality and sleep disorders. Approximately 90% of depression patients complain about their sleep quality which ultimately worsens the symptoms of depression. Talk about a vicious cycle.

Overall Health

If poor sleep habits affect your mental and heart health, it makes perfect sense that it can affect your overall health too. Even if you usually sleep a solid eight hours, but there is one week in particular that you’re lacking sleep, it can impair your immune function.

A recent study shows that those who sleep less than seven hours had weakened immune systems and were three times more likely to develop a cold. If you are someone that often gets sick with colds, take a closer look at your sleep habits and consider going to bed at an earlier time than usual.

Sleep loss is also known to activate inflammation and cell damage. Poor sleep is strongly connected to long-term inflammation of the digestive tract and can lead to irritable bowel syndrome. Many physicians, researchers, and other medical practitioners are recommending sleep evaluation to help understand and predict the outcomes of people who suffer long-term inflammatory issues.

You already knew that the amount and the quality of sleep you get on a regular basis impacts more than just being tired the next day. Now that you understand how important good sleep is, it’s time to take action. Ask yourself what factors are contributing to a poor sleep routine and begin making adjustments to improve your sleep quality. For some people it’s more of a challenge to control stress like new babies, late work hours and for others it’s procrastination and binge watching Netflix. Regardless, there needs to be an adjustment to your sleep health as it plays such a vital role in other areas of your life.

If sleep duration isn’t so much of the problem, but the quality of sleep is lacking, you may have your mattress to thank for that. Sleep Organics’ mission is to improve your quality of sleep the way nature intended by eliminating the harmful chemicals that fill non-organic mattresses. As Tampa Bay’s only authorized retailer for Naturepedic, Savvy Rest, and OrganicPedic by OMI we don’t settle for anything short of the best, and neither should you. Not only do organic mattresses and toppers help you breathe easier, they are extremely soft and comfortable and will help to improve the quality of sleep you’re getting.

Don’t forget the rest of the family! Sleep Organics carries a wide selection of organic crib mattresses and pads from the best organic mattress brand names! Be sure to shop our natural bedding, sheets, pillows, and mattress foundations to ensure you and your mattress is getting the proper support.  

Visit our site to see our full selection of products and if you’re in Sarasota stop by our mattress store and shop with Sleep Organics today!