How you feel when you wake up says a lot about the night you had and the day to come. Sleep plays an important role in our physical and mental health. Some of the benefits of sleep revealed by recent researches is mentioned here.

1. Health Benefits of
Sleep
Adequate sleep is a key part of a healthy
lifestyle, and can benefit your heart, weight,
mind, and more.

2. Sleep plays a critical role in immune function,
metabolism, memory, learning, and other vital
functions.
How you feel when you wake up says a lot about
the night you had and the day to come.

3. Proper sleep improves memory. Sleep helps the
brain to commit new information to memory. In
addition to consolidating memories, or making them
stronger, brain appears to reorganize and restructure
them, which may result in more creativity as well.
Too much or too little sleep is associated with a
shorter lifespan.

4. The researchers suggests getting plenty of sleep
might prevent weight gain.
Research indicates that people who get less sleep -six or fewer hours a night -- have higher blood levels
of inflammatory proteins than those who get more.
These inflammatory proteins are linked to heart
disease, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, and premature
aging.

5. A Stanford University study found that football
players who tried to sleep at least 10 hours a night
for seven to eight weeks improved their average
sprint time and had less daytime fatigue and more
stamina.
College students who don't get enough sleep have
worse grades than those who do, researches
reveals.

6. A 2009 study found that children ages seven and
eight who got less than eight hours of sleep a night
were more likely to be hyperactive, inattentive, and
impulsive.
Researchers at the University of Chicago found that
dieters who were well rested lost more fat -- 56
percent of their weight loss -- than those who were
sleep deprived, who lost more muscle mass.

7. Sleep can reduce levels of stress, and with that
people can have better control of their blood
pressure. It's also believed that sleep effects
cholesterol levels, which plays a significant role in
heart disease.
Sleeplessness affects reaction time and decision
making. Insufficient sleep for just one night can be
as detrimental to your driving ability as having an
alcoholic drink.

8. Lack of sleep can contribute to depression. A good
night's sleep can really help a moody person
decrease their anxiety. You get more emotional
stability with good sleep.
Researchers have found that getting good sleep can
supplement medication for pain.

9. People who got seven hours of sleep a night or less
were almost three times as likely to get sick as the
people who got at least eight hours of sleep a night.
Average sleep needs by age
Newborn to 2 months old
12 - 18 hrs
3 months to 1 year old
14 - 15 hrs
1 to 3 years old
12 - 14 hrs
3 to 5 years old
11 - 13 hrs
5 to 12 years old
10 - 11 hrs
12 to 18 years old
8.5 - 10 hrs
Adults (18+)
7.5 - 9 hrs