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Sleeping is More Beneficial Than You Think

-Elizabeth Chinery, Junior Community Outreach Coordinator

healthline.com (How Losing Sleep Can Cause You to Pack on the Pounds)

It’s common knowledge that a lack of sleep disrupts your sleeping schedule and makes you more tired and sluggish throughout the day. What many people don’t know is that it actually affects more than just your ability to focus and get through the day without yawning every minute.

Some studies have found a relationship between sleeping and an individual’s metabolism (in this case, the rate our bodies breakdown certain substances and chemicals). In a recent study, “Dr. Jonathan Cedernaes, a researcher in the neuroscience department at Uppsala University, Sweden,” and his research team “found changes in the DNA methylation of genes that have been associated with obesity and type 2 diabetes, as well as for genes that regulate adipose tissue function, such as how fat cells absorb circulating fatty acids.”
 
Adipose tissue stores fat. Therefore, when the genes that regulate it’s function go through changes, it is easier to through off our metabolism, potentially increasing “your risk of obesity or type 2 diabetes.”
 
Sleeping around 6 to 8 hours a night is something we shouldn’t take so lightly. Even adding a few short naps throughout the day could greatly benefit our health.
 
It’s more beneficial to think of this as a way to increase your life expectancy than as just another weight loss tip.

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