Sleep: Why it is important and what it does to the body and mind

Why do we need to sleep? What happens when we don't get enough - and which factors tip us into a state of sleep deprivation? In this series of articles, I explore the medical evidence for self-help strategies that can actually work and those which are just a ploy to extract your hard-earned money or a tactic to gain more followers on TikTok.

How much sleep do we need?

Ideally, as adults, we should be aiming for about seven hours a night but according to the latest figures from the National Centre for Health Statistics a third of the UK get less than six hours and a colossal 10m people are looking for help every year. Many turn to the plethora of over-the-counter gadgets and pills or pin their hopes on the latest "hack'' on social media.

Why do we need sleep?

Sleep recharges the energy stores in every cell, clears up oxidative toxic metabolites which have built up over the day. It slows the cell cycle allowing more time for DNA repair. It even encourages the growth of healthy bacteria in the gut so reduces excess inflammation and improves immunity.

What happens when we don't get enough sleep?

It's completely normal to have the odd sleepless night but persistent insomniacs live in a world of chronic fatigue, cognitive impairment which can lead to relationship and work issues, and often have demotivation to exercise and undertake healthy living programmes. In the longer term, it increases the risk of dementia, obesity, high blood pressure and heart disease. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) now classes sleep-disrupting night-shift work as a carcinogen.

What can interfere with a good night's sleep

Multiple physical, environmental and psychological factors conspire to disrupt regular sleep patterns. So, it would be unlikely that a single quick fix would help sleep and what may work or one person may not work for another. Combining different strategies are likely to have the best results.

Environmental factors: Noisy neighbours or outside traffic, an uncomfortable bed, a snoring partners, too much light in the bedroom, a room or is either too hot or too cold. And there are physical disruptive symptoms: menopausal hot flushes, pain, restless legs, getting up at night to pass water, joint stiffness and arthritis, chronic cough and indigestion.

Anxiety and depression: Turning over stressful scenarios prevents us getting off the sleep and having a low mood or being depressed will wake us up in the early hours fixated on negative thoughts.

Medication: Steroids are well known to cause wakefulness but other drugs as statins, glucosamine, beta blockers for the treatment of blood pressure can contribute.

Sleep deprivation in the longer term causes multiple short and long-term health issues. Surprisingly, medical interventions have considerable shortcomings but fortunately we can do a lot to help ourselves with the correct resources, advice determination and persistence.