Insomnia impacts millions of Canadians. Why? Join our live chat at 12pm ET today, with Canadian psychiatrist and sleep expert Dr. Michael Mak
Swedish scientists recently set out to assess the impact a bad night’s sleep has on subjective age, meaning how old people feel. “Do we not all want to feel young and rejuvenated,” they asked, somewhat rhetorically.
The finding supports the theory that sleep might hold a key to staying youthful, the team concluded, which might just give the millions of Canadians who struggle with sleep yet one more thing to worry about.
It’s not just about feeling young(er). Studies suggest sleep helps drain the brain of waste products that build up during waking hours. It helps restore physical energy, helps with consolidation of memories and new learnings and helps the immune system thwart viruses. Poor sleep has been linked with higher odds of developing diabetes, obesity and Alzheimer’s disease. “Sleep occupies a third of our life,” said renowned sleep expert Charles Morin of Université Laval. “We know so much more about the impact of lack of sleep” or inadequate quality sleep, on health, he said.
Some people are aiming for perfection, a phenomenon known as “sleep maxxing” that sleep specialists like Morin worry is turning decent sleepers into bad sleepers.
Readers can post their questions in the comment section below. Please be patient with us. All questions are pre-moderated, so there might be a delay in your question appearing after being submitted. We aim to get to as many questions as possible.
National Post