For a healthy body and soul, experts insist on getting at least seven hours of sleep per night. When the body does not get enough sleep, the hormonal balances break, causing various illnesses from cardiovascular diseases to weight problems.
Offering insight into the importance of sufficient sleep, dietitian İdil İmamoğlu said less than seven hours of sleep is called “insufficient sleep,” while sleeping for more than nine hours is called “long sleep.”
“Insufficient sleep causes numerous hormonal disorders. For instance, insufficient sleep leads to overconsumption of sugar in the body,” İmmaoğlu said.
İmamoğlu also said that the longer people stay awake, the longer their eating period spreads through the night. “When people start to stay awake during the night, they tend to eat more which in the long run might cause weight problems. Moreover, the irregular release of melatonin, which is a sleep hormone, becomes irregular and it leads other hormones to be affected as well. The disturbance in hormonal release increases [the chance for] the body to catch other illnesses as well,” she added.
A healthy sleep should be at least seven hours long but it should not surpass more than nine hours. For better sleep quality, digestion should end two hours before sleep time. Given the fact that the metabolism starts to slow down after 9 p.m., it is important to have your dinner as early as possible. The sleep hormone starts to be released after 11 p.m., so it is important to start a smooth transition into sleep after that hour.