A new study shows that sleeping less than 6 hours per day for several consecutive nights is as harmful to one's mental state as staying awake for two whole nights. When young people cannot fall asleep, they tend to have some bad habits: drinking coffee or strong tea and other stimulating beverages, reading in bed, watching TV, or listening to headphones, which leads to the phenomenon of "falling asleep after a while when there is noise but waking up immediately when the TV is turned off." These long-term habits result in this group having the least amount of sleep, with an average of less than six hours of sleep per day, whereas normal sleep should last at least seven hours. Clinically, it has been proven that sleep quality is related to cardiovascular disease. Sleep quality can be improved through comprehensive psychological and physical treatment and self-regulation. Despite many people understanding that lack of sleep can negatively affect health, in the fast-paced modern life, people often sacrifice sleep time for various activities. This neglect of the harm caused by insufficient sleep actually hides a huge health crisis. Attention should be paid to —— what are the harms of lack of sleep? Lack of sleep comes at a cost to health. The impact of modern science and technology on human lifestyles has reached a point where humans must reflect on it. While improving the quality of human life, it also brings unavoidable troubles to daily living. With nighttime sleep increasingly replaced by the internet, emails, late-night TV programs, and other temptations of modern life, more and more scientific evidence indicates that too little or irregular sleep may come at a health cost, increasing the risk of multiple major diseases, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. Studies show that lack of sleep or irregular sleep not only causes eye strain, increased coffee consumption, and dozing off during afternoon meetings, but also increases the risk of various serious diseases, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. New large-scale studies have again confirmed that the prevalence of obesity in America is at least partly due to reduced average sleep duration. A national sampling analysis of nearly ten thousand American adults found that among those aged 32 to 49, those who sleep less than seven hours at night have a much higher risk of obesity. Lack of sleep increases the risk of cancer. Many researchers have already discovered similar relationships between sleep and other diseases. For example, the Nurses' Health Study conducted by Harvard University in the U.S. found that lack of sleep or irregular sleep increases the risk of colorectal cancer, breast cancer, heart disease, or diabetes. Subsequent research organizations across the United States found factors that might explain this relationship, such as disturbed sleep affecting important hormones and proteins in the body related to these diseases. Several studies found that people who work night shifts are particularly prone to breast and colorectal cancers. Researchers looking for explanations found that exposure to light at night reduces melatonin levels. Melatonin is believed to reduce the risk of cancer influenced by other hormone levels (such as estrogen). In scientists' eyes, melatonin suppresses tumor cell growth—it is an anti-cancer substance. If exposed to light at night for long periods, the production of melatonin generally decreases, increasing the risk of cancer. Recently, Emmanuel Mignot of Stanford University in the U.S. said: "There has been a great deal of research in this area, and it is developing rapidly. People are beginning to think that many diseases are related to lack of sleep." But not everyone agrees with this view. Some experts point out that the association between sleep patterns and health problems is at best tenuous and easily explained by other factors. Other researchers believe that more research is needed to confirm the authenticity of this apparent link and fully understand how sleep deprivation affects health. However, increasingly strong evidence suggests that sleep is an important factor in the development of many diseases. Although many issues about sleep remain unsolved mysteries, such as why we sleep, the emerging theory is that lack of sleep or staying up disrupts the body's biological clock, causing many basic bodily functions to lose synchronization. Sleep deprivation interferes with the body's physiological functions, and no physiological mechanism allows humans to adapt to this behavior. Adequate sleep is essential for health. Each person's required sleep duration varies; some can maintain energy throughout the day with just a few hours of sleep, while others need more than ten hours to feel refreshed. Experts say most people need 7-9 hours of sleep. If sleep is less than 6 or 7 hours, the risk of illness increases. Scientists have long known that sleep disorders (such as sleep apnea, narcolepsy, and chronic insomnia) can lead to serious health problems. However, large epidemiological studies have found that people with the least sleep appear to have a significantly increased risk of death. This is the first indication that healthy individuals whose sleep is insufficient or irregular due to work, family, or lifestyle reasons may experience health impacts. Physiological studies show that sleep deprivation keeps the body in a highly alert state, increasing the secretion of stress hormones and raising blood pressure, which are important risk factors for heart disease and stroke. Moreover, the concentration of substances in the blood of people lacking sleep increases, indicating inflammation in the body, which has recently been identified as an important risk source for heart disease, stroke, cancer, and diabetes. The latest research by scientists finds that if the body does not get enough sleep, inflammatory markers will appear, leading to low-grade inflammation over time, making people prone to heart disease and shortening their lifespan. The latest study by Columbia University in the U.S. on obesity once again suggests that adults who sleep the least have the highest risk of gaining weight and becoming obese. Other researchers have also found that even mild sleep deprivation quickly disrupts the normal levels of "ghrelin" and "leptin," hormones that affect appetite, fitting the theory that "humans naturally stay awake only when they need to search for food or avoid danger — that is, when they have taken in enough energy." Therefore, maintaining sufficient sleep in today's fast-paced lifestyle aligns with nature, providing a convenient way to achieve health and longevity. Related theme articles:
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