It’s no secret sleep is important.
Sleeping gives our bodies the opportunity to rest and recover and regenerate.
A British doctor has revealed the reason you should never delay your bedtime.
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Taking to TikTok, Dr Karan Rajan explained how by delaying your bedtime, you’re missing a crucial element of sleep.
Watch how Dr Rajan explains more in the video above.
While there are different levels of sleep, Rajan said, “the early parts of the night are dominated by NREM (non rapid eye movement) sleep and is coupled with the biggest release of growth hormones in your 24 hours.”
This is the type of rest that includes the deep restorative sleep we all so desperately crave on a regular basis.
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He explained for men, “70 per cent of growth hormone is released during slow wave sleep.”
As the night progresses, you get less of the NREM sleep and it develops more into just regular REM sleep.
By delaying your bedtime, Dr Rajan says “you cut short the time you spend in slow wave sleep and so you get less of the juicy growth hormone.”
As we get older, our bodies reduce the production of the growth hormone release in the 24 hours so as you age into your 30s and 40s, according to Dr Rajan, “it gets worse.”
He said that the amount of slow wave sleep also decreases.
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By sticking to that regular bedtime routine, and similar bedtime every night, it gives your body the opportunity to soak up every bit of growth hormone while you still can.
Getting enough sleep is linked to many other health benefits including our weight, lowering the risk of serious health problems and even reducing stress and improving our memory.
According to researcher from Harvard Medical, Dr. Robert Stickgold, “after you learn something, that memory you have formed is not in its final form,” he says.
“The brain still has to do a lot of work with deep memory… your brain takes care of this while you’re asleep.”
So essentially, sleeping is crucial to living our everyday lives at maximum potential and efficiency.
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