top of page

Quality

 

Center for Disease Control (CDC):

Good sleep quality, separate from the quantity of sleep, is crucial for overall health and well-being. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) emphasizes that sleep quality is as important as getting enough sleep. Signs of poor sleep quality include feeling sleepy or tired even after getting enough sleep, repeatedly waking up during the night, and having symptoms of a sleep disorder. Improving sleep habits and addressing any sleep disorders are essential steps to enhance sleep quality.

 

 

Sleep Foundation:

The Sleep Foundation also highlights the significant health benefits of quality sleep. Good sleep quality restores the body, improves energy levels, and positively impacts mood. Inadequate sleep is linked with increased risks of mental distress, anxiety, depression, and irritability. Additionally, quality sleep supports cardiac health by allowing the heart rate and blood pressure to decrease during rest, contributing to the overall health of the heart and vascular system.

​

​

​

National Sleep Foundation (NSF): 

In terms of clinical guidelines, the National Sleep Foundation conducted an extensive review to provide evidence-based recommendations on good sleep quality indicators. The consensus among experts is that measures such as sleep latency, the number of awakenings, wake-after-sleep onset, and sleep efficiency are appropriate indicators of good sleep quality. However, there is less consensus regarding sleep architecture or nap-related variables. The recommendations highlight that continuous education and public health initiatives are needed to promote good sleep quality.

​

​

 

Sleep quality also influences blood sugar regulation and mental function. Proper sleep helps regulate the relationship with insulin, thereby aiding in blood sugar control. Furthermore, sleep is vital for memory and cognitive thinking, as it enables the brain to grow, reorganize, and form new neural connections, crucial for learning new information and forming memories. Lack of quality sleep impairs clear thinking, memory formation, learning ability, and overall daily function.

​

 

Indeed, the most recent data is compelling regarding sleep regularity and mortality. A study tracked 60,977 participants. Those in the highest (regular) relative to the lowest (worse) 20th% of sleep regularity, night to night had a 49% decreased risk of all-cause mortality, a 39% decreased risk of cancer mortality, and a 57% decreased risk of cardiometabolic mortality. Thus, irregular sleep and short sleep duration are both predictors of premature mortality, but sleep regularity was statistically even stronger as a predictor than sleep duration. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37738616/

​

​​

Bibliography​

​

​

​​

© 2024 by  Matthew Walker

  • Screen Shot 2021-07-24 at 12.33.28 PM
  • Grey Twitter Icon
  • Grey LinkedIn Icon
bottom of page