5 surprising reasons to get more sleep

Why am I not sleeping?
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Source: Reader Digest

It could make you thinner. The less sleep you get, the higher your body mass index tends to be. Research showed that people who sleep 5 hours a night were found to have 15 percent more ghrelin (a hormone that boosts hunger) in their bodies and 15 percent less leptin (which sprresses it) than those sleeping eight hours.

It could boost your memory. Sleep plays a key role in making new memories stick in the brain. A Harvard experiment showed that subjects taught complex finger movements such as a piano scale recalled them better after 12 hours' sleep than 12 hours' wakefulness.
It can fight colds, ulcers and even cancer. Good sleep boosts the immune system. Melatonin, produced when you sleep, is a cancer-fighting antioxidant. Night-shift workers may have up to 70 times greater risk of breast cancer. Also, the chemical to repair damage to the stomach lining is secreted during sleep, so staying u all night regularly could raise your risk of ulcers.

It can slow down ageing. Persistent sleep debt affects carbohydrate metabolism and hormone function in a way that may increast the severity of age-related chronic disorders. A large-scale study concluded that people who sleep six to seven hours a night lived longer than those sleeping less than 4.5 hours.

It could keep you orderly. If you're a child, that is. The depression and low self-esteem often associated with just being a teenager actually correlate with sleep shortage. Young kids who sleep poorly are more than twice as likely to take to drink and drugs in adolescence.