“I’ll sleep when I’m dead”…

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE! Welcome to 2026! I’ve been writing this blog for a year now, and honestly, I still feel the same joy and passion for it as when I first started! I’m also so happy that you are all still rocking with me till today! It’s only onwards and upwards from here! I really want to transform the blog this year and take it to new places. I want to write for you, my readers! I want to hear what you want to know! So please interact and let me know your thoughts!

We’re starting this year with a message I think is important with this new year – the importance of good sleep. So many people I talk to nowadays are so happy to share that they barely sleep 6 hours a night, and I don’t know if it’s linked to the world’s hustle culture, but this isn’t good. Not sleeping enough has detrimental effects on your body. Many of us might think the hours we’re missing aren’t affecting our bodies, but the long-term effects of these decisions aren’t positive. As someone who has struggled with insomnia during two separate occasions in my life, I cannot stress the absolute need for good sleep. It is difficult to make clear, measured decisions when your brain is functioning at a fraction of its normal capacity.

I’m here to de-influence you and deglamourise sleep deprivation. It is not cool to not be sleeping enough. Sleep is key to living healthily and happily; do not neglect it. I’m not just saying it either, I’m going to back up my words with research to show you just how important sleep is!

What is Sleep?

During sleep, think of the human body as a smartphone. Just like your phone switches between modes like aeroplane or power-saving to conserve energy and perform optimally, your body moves through two main sleep phases: rapid eye movement (REM) and non-rapid eye movement (NREM). NREM sleep operates much like a maintenance mode, divided into three stages: N1, N2, and N3. Stage Wake is also a phase in the sleep cycle, as it marks the period of preparation for sleep. Each of these stages is controlled by neurotransmitters and hormones, which are chemicals that stimulate the body in different ways. The ability to successfully navigate these stages for long enough determines the quality of sleep. Over the course of evolution, sleep has proven to be very important to humans, but the reasons behind this are still not understood. Some believe that sleep is essential for resetting the body’s natural balance, while others speculate that it helps support numerous higher-order neurological functions, such as memory, cognition, and learning. Good sleep also helps us keep on top of our metabolic processes and control our whole-body hormonal system (4).

A normal night for most people who sleep adequately involves about 4 to 5 cycles through the natural sleep stages, with most people spending most of their sleep time in N2, a stage in the non-rapid eye movement phase of the sleep cycle. A complete sleep cycle takes roughly 90-110 minutes. So let’s do some maths –

90 – 110 minutes to complete one cycle of sleep, with roughly 4-5 cycles a night, averages out to about 6-9 hours of sleep, which is required to qualify for “good” sleep.

During these different stages of sleep, different things happen to our brain and our body:

• During the Wake stage, brain activity begins to change, leading to drowsiness and eyelid closure.
• In N1 NREM, breathing becomes more levelled and slower.
• In N2 NREM, the Deep Sleep stage, many physiological changes occur in the body. Body temperature drops and heart rate reduces, which puts the body in a state of calm and ultimate relaxation. Some people may experience teeth grinding during Deep Sleep.
• In N3 NREM (Deepest Sleep stage), this is the most difficult stage to wake from, but if woken from it, there is a period of brain fog that can lead to a transient reduction in mental performance. It is in the Deepest Sleep stage that the body rebuilds new muscle and bone and strengthens the immune system. As people age, they spend less time in this stage of sleep. For those focused on fitness, the muscle rebuilding during this phase is crucial for next-day workout gains, as it means your muscles have recovered and are stronger, ready to tackle your next exercise routine effectively.
• REM sleep is well known because this stage is associated with dreaming. This stage of sleep is not particularly restful, so if you have frequent interruptions, your sleep is likely to be unsatisfactory.

A third of human life is spent asleep, so it is important that we understand just how beneficial this time is for our bodies. It is also important that we understand the benefits of sleep so that we stop sacrificing sleep, thinking it is not important. In fact, sleep is more important than we can understand. In study 2, results show that among people who sleep 7-8 hours a night, the risk of diseases such as stroke, cancer, and heart disease is lowest. People sleeping less than 6 hours or more than 9 hours a night consistently were at a higher risk of death from most diseases than those who sleep between 7 and 8 hours.

Effects of Sleep on the Heart

As we know, one of the most common conditions which causes death is heart disease, especially coronary heart disease. Numerous studies have shown a link between sleep deprivation and the worsening of heart conditions like high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, heart failure, etc. Study 3 suggests that sleep deprivation may increase blood pressure by altering the nervous system’s control of the heart. This is supported by results showing that people with normal and high blood pressure had higher blood pressure the following day after a difficult night’s sleep.

Another study suggests that sleep deprivation directly relates to busier and more risky lifestyles, and thus is linked to poorer health and increased strain on the heart. Other studies suggest that other conditions a person might have might put them at risk of sleep deprivation, and therefore, the link between deprivation and heart disease comes from the pre-existing conditions, rather than sleep causing disease. A study (5) following over 70,000 women in the US over a decade, there were almost 1000 coronary events, with over 200 of those having fatal effects. Further results show that the relative risk of heart-related conditions rises with fewer hours of sleep (5).

Sleep helps reset the stress on the heart and allows the heart to restore its balance in preparation for the new day. If you don’t give your heart the opportunity to reset and restore, you could be putting yourself at risk of heart disease.

Effect of Sleep on Body Weight

One of the biggest resolutions every year for almost everyone is “to be healthier and lose weight”. Well, I want to help with that. Not getting enough sleep affects your weight-loss goals. In fact, sleep has been directly linked to obesity, with studies showing that the less sleep you have, the greater your risk of obesity (6). Study 7 followed and monitored almost 500 young adults, and the results showed a negative correlation between sleep duration and body mass index. This means that with fewer hours of sleep, the BMI is higher, and vice versa.

There is no specific cause identified for this link, as many factors can contribute; however, some theories suggest that sleep deprivation dysregulates key hormones that help us maintain our weight and hunger cues. Another theory suggests that poor sleep is associated with poor dietary choices and low levels of exercise, as these are all unhealthy habits, and so there may just be a habitual link between poor sleep and weight gain. Poor sleep also directly affects the decisions you make throughout your day. If you have a poor night’s sleep and feel unrested, you do not have enough energy to sustain you through the day. This leads the body to promote the consumption of higher-energy foods through hormonal stimulation. A lot of these high-energy foods remain in the body and contribute to weight gain, because low sleep duration also likely reduces exercise levels (7, 8).

Effects of Sleep on the Brain

There is extensive research examining the links between poor sleep and its effects on the brain, and most studies have concluded that poor sleep habits can harm memory, cognition, and learning. Some studies suggest that a lack of sleep can damage the brain area involved in memory and learning, the Hippocampus (11). At a basic level, lack of sleep leads to tiredness, which is easily understood. Tiredness causes a whole range of different effects. The lack of energy that leads to tiredness reduces attention, with knock-on effects on information retention and memory. So directly, we can already see the knock-on effects of sleep on the brain. Again, a lack of sleep disrupts neurotransmitter and hormone regulation, further impairing the brain’s normal functions. This leads to greater effects in the body as well (12).

Effects of Sleep on Mental Health

It feels like everything affects your mental health these days, and honestly, most things can actually contribute to the state of your mental health. One of the factors which GREATLY affects your mental health is sleep. This is why lack of sleep and oversleeping are so commonly seen in the symptoms list for many mental health conditions. Poor sleep can lead to mental health conditions like anxiety, depression, alcohol and substance misuse, etc (6, 9). Unfortunately, though, because of the close ties between sleep and mental health conditions, we are unable to say whether sleep disorders cause mental health disorders, or whether mental health disorders cause sleep disorders. It’s just very important to know that if you prioritise sleep, then you are giving yourself the best possible chance with regard to your mental health.

There are so many other ways a lack of sleep can affect the body, but as a soft introduction, we’ll keep it to those. Don’t be one of those people who hear/read this message but continue to live life on only 6 hours of sleep. As you can see, your lack of sleep will eventually harm your hustle rather than help it! Choose health, choose wise living!

Now that we have discussed the importance of sleep, I would like to leave you with some really good tips to improve your sleep quality. Some of these will be things you’ve heard before (13), and others may just be things that worked well for me. I hope that either way, they help you and start you on a journey to better sleep.

• Stick to a good sleep routine – this is always the first and most crucial step. Our bodies regulate our sleep using something called the Circadian Rhythm. This system works with our body clock and helps us sleep well when we maintain a set routine. If your sleep is all over the place, it’s likely because your body doesn’t know when it’s supposed to be sleeping and when it’s supposed to be awake!
• Give yourself time to get tired maybe you’re one of those people who gets into bed straight after a mentally taxing activity, or someone who spends hours doomscrolling in bed before you sleep, these are not helpful routines. Instead, try replacing the time before you go to sleep with a calming activity that promotes mindfulness. This could be reading a book, or listening to a calming playlist, or practising mindfulness and meditation through journaling, just pick something which helps you feel relaxed.
• Play some white noise – now this hasn’t been proven to help with sleep, but for me, this has worked. My choice of white noise is rain. I love the calming sound of the pitter-patter, and it really helps me feel tired, so I would recommend you try this as well if you ever struggle with sleep.
• Separate your work and sleep environments – those of you who work from home, try not to work in your bed or bedroom. This can lead to associating stress with your bedroom, making it difficult to relax there even when you are trying to sleep.
• Count sheep! – I’ll be honest, I don’t actually believe this works, but it’s been used historically, so why not try it out?!

Here’s to 2026, everyone! See you at the next post!

References

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11. American Chemical Society. How sleep deprivation can harm the brain. ACS Press Room. Available from: https://www.acs.org/pressroom/presspacs/2023/september/how-sleep-deprivation-can-harm-brain.html American Chemical Society. Accessed on: Friday 2nd January 2026
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13. NHS UK. How to fall asleep faster and sleep better. NHS Every Mind Matters. Available from: https://www.nhs.uk/every-mind-matters/mental-wellbeing-tips/how-to-fall-asleep-faster-and-sleep-better/. Accessed on: Friday 2nd January 2026