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Quality sleep is important to your well-being

Experts believe lack of sleep causes feelings of depression, anger and worry. Research team at the Duke University, USA, ran a gambling experiment on several participants to improve each of their gambles.

Those who didn’t sleep for a night, made less choice that avoided loss, and better decisions that maximized potential gain. This meant, they took more risks and were more confident.

Scientists say that part of the brain that suffers when one is sleep deprived is the hippocampus. Hippocampus is the region critical for the storing of new memories. Ability to remember drops when people don’t sleep well.

Participants in the experiment showed less activation in the hippocampus when they asked to memorize a set of pictures, while those who sleep well showed higher activation. Usually, the hippocampus needs one to sleep well in order to move new information to be stored in other areas of the brain.

However, when there’s lack of sleep, the hippocampus is filled up, blocking new information from being stored.

A lot of people are not getting enough sleep because often times, people forfeit rest time to work. It’s also been discovered that the blue light emitted from mobile or other devices make it more difficult for one to get quality sleep.

It’s important we rediscover how important sleep is and appreciate the benefits it brings to our brains. Sleeping well makes one smarter, make good decisions and live a healthier life.

Encomium

Written by Encomium

A media, tech and events company.

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