Impact of bad sleep on health and cognition

Sleep is essential for the proper functioning of the immune system and getting enough sleep can help boost immune function. Sleep deprivation has been shown to increase the risk of infections and chronic disease.

Importantly, sleep has a huge effect on our brain function. As we age, circadian rhythms change which means we are more prone to waking up earlier; this combined with a decrease in the hormone melatonin means that the quality and length of sleep decreases in older age. Studies have found that this has a marked effect on memory retention. This potentially means it is the lack of sleep in older age that is causing us to forget appointments etc and not just that our brain is becoming less effective. Sleep has been shown to have an affect on our ability to learn new things and also in our ability to retain the information we have learnt – so the night before learning and the night after learning, good sleep is essential to the process.

What did you think when you read this information? Do share your thoughts.