August 3, 2023
Right now, there is a country-wide epidemic of people who are not getting enough sleep each night. Around 1 in every 3 people report not getting enough sleep, leading to around 40% of adults admitting to falling asleep without meaning to once a month! Sleep is incredibly important to all bodily functions, directly or indirectly, and the healthy process is no different.
Your doctor does not tell you to rest during a recovery only so you don’t injure yourself. You need to rest so your body can heal itself. This means that during the day, you should use the healing devices offered by Gladiator Therapeutics, but you also need to make sure that you’re getting enough sleep.
The Importance of Sleep for Your Health
Many people don’t know exactly what sleep does to help your body’s healing process. By simply resting, you are allowing the cells and tissues in your body to heal themselves. Have you ever noticed that many open cuts and scratches scab over faster after a good night’s sleep? This is because, during sleep, cells in the body produce healing hormones. These healing hormones include:
- Human growth hormone (HGH)
- Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1)
- Insulin
- Testosterone
These hormones have several uses, but during the healing process, they help with tissue regeneration and cellular repair. This can also help boost your immune system so your body can fight off infections and diseases more effectively.
Finally, adequate sleep helps reduce inflammation in the body to prevent further injury or illness. In most cases, when you’re asleep, your bodily functions are reduced both from lack of movement and physical activity. This allows your body to focus on other functions and conserve energy.
How Much Should You Sleep?
How much sleep you need depends on your age. Every adult between the ages of 18 and 60 needs between 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night in order to properly function. It is recommended that children get even more sleep than adults. They require around 10 to 12 hours per night.
Then, continuing the trend of needing less sleep as we get older, the elderly usually require less sleep than the average adult. They can operate normally on only 7 hours of sleep.
It’s important to note that these are averages, so some people may require more sleep than others. While it is possible, it is unlikely that someone could operate on less sleep than the average person without experiencing negative side effects.
Symptoms of a Lack of Sleep
A lack of sleep won’t only hinder your healing process, but harm your other bodily functions as well. If you fail to get a good night’s sleep regularly, your symptoms will get progressively worse. These symptoms include:
- Reduced alertness and concentration
- Impaired memory and decision-making abilities
- Mood swings, irritability, depression, or anxiety
- Slowed reaction time
- Inability to regulate body temperature
- Weakened immune system
- Decreased sex drive
- Increase in appetite (and potential weight gain)
- Headaches
Considering your symptoms, you’re likely to notice that many of them are focused on your brain. More than any other muscle in your body, your brain requires sleep the most. Without it, it will slowly lax in how well it completes the bodily functions it’s supposed to be doing. This will have an adverse effect on the rest of your body.
Catching up on hours on the weekend does not fix the problem, contrary to popular belief. That is simply one to two days where your symptoms are minorly relieved.
Make Sure to Sleep During Your Recovery
Nothing can replace sleep, not even the healing devices at Gladiator Therapeutics. When you sleep, you give your body its chance to keep in tip-top shape. If you don’t get enough sleep, whatever injury or wound you want to heal won’t be able to properly do so.
If you want to ensure your injury is healing the best it can, set up a schedule that helps you get more sleep, and then utilize alternate healing devices, such as those offered by Gladiator Therapeutics, when you’re awake.
We have innovative devices that can help you heal while you catch up on the sleep you need. Through the combined efforts of a proper sleeping schedule and our healing devices, your wound or injury will heal faster and better than it normally wound. Contact us for more information.