How many hours of sleep do you get each night? Are you getting enough? It’s essential you get enough sleep for your general health, but sleep and cancer prevention is an important consideration.
If you’re sleeping less than six hours every night, you are not getting enough quality sleep, so you may be raising your risk of developing certain types of cancer. When you sleep your body gets busy repairing itself and fighting off all the bad stuff, like cancer cells.
So if you are not getting enough sleep, you are reducing your body’s ability to heal.
Sleep and Cancer Prevention
Here’s why sleep matters in preventing cancer.
Sleep Boosts Your Immune System
A lack of sleep can weaken your immune system, so you become more vulnerable to cancer and other illnesses.
Sleep helps strengthen your immune system, which is responsible for fighting off infections and nasty invaders, including cancer. During sleep, your body produces immune cells, antibodies, and cytokines, which help fight infection and prevent illness.
Sleep Balances Your Hormones
Sleep helps keep your hormones in check. When you’re sleep-deprived, your body can produce an increase in the hormones that are linked to cancer, such as cortisol, which is your stress hormone. Stress can cause many problems to your health, so maintaining hormone balance is important.
Disruptions in your body clock also disrupt the levels of melatonin, the hormone that regulates your sleep-wake cycle. Reduced melatonin can encourage cancer cells to grow.
Getting enough sleep helps keep these hormones in balance. It also helps the body release healing hormones secreted by various glands, which are essential for cell repair and growth.
Sleep Repairs Your Cells
While you sleep, your body goes into repair mode. It heals and restores cells and grows healthy tissue. It fixes up damaged cells and DNA, which can help prevent cancer from forming or spreading.
The deepest phases of your sleep cycle also allow for proper blood flow in the body, which helps cells regenerate. This increased blood flow carries nutrients and oxygen throughout your body.
When you lack sleep, it affects your body’s ability to perform healing and restorative processes. Sleep deprivation can disrupt the body’s natural circadian rhythm, which regulates cell division and repair processes, potentially increasing your risk of cancer.
Sleep Reduces Inflammation
Lack of sleep can lead to inflammation in your body as well as sitting too much, which is linked to a higher risk of cancer. You can have higher levels of inflammation because your immune system may become overactive. This can lead to chronic inflammation which can create an environment conducive to cancer growth and progression.
Therefore, getting enough rest helps keep inflammation in check by maintaining a balanced immune response, lowering your risk of cancer.
Sleep Helps You Make Healthy Choices
If you don’t get enough sleep, you’re more likely to crave unhealthy foods high in sugar and fat, and skip exercise.
You’re more likely to engage in other behaviors that can increase your risk of cancer, such as smoking and excessive drinking. If you are well-rested, you’re more likely to make healthy choices, which will lower your cancer risk.
Evidence has emerged that different components of sleep, including sleep duration, sleep quality, circadian rhythm, and sleep disorders, can affect cancer risk.
How to Improve Your Sleep
If you’re not getting enough sleep, you can still do something about it to lower your risk of cancer.
- Make sleep a routine: For starters, establish a regular sleep schedule. Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. Consistency helps maintain your circadian rhythm and body clock. Make your bedroom comfortable too.
- Relax before bed: You may need to use blackout curtains to block out the light, as darkness is best for healthy sleep. Make sure you unplug from your mobile devices before bed because the light coming from them can affect your sleep.
- Be care about eating and drinking before bedtime: Avoid eating heavy meals and drinking caffeinated drinks 2 to 3 hours before bedtime. You also need to stay physically active during the day, which helps you fall asleep faster.
In Summary
Getting enough sleep is vitally important in your cancer prevention and overall health. When you get enough rest, your body’s natural healing processes are optimized, so you are giving your body a fighting chance to fight off anything!
Make sure you prioritize your sleep to stay healthy and cancer-free, by following the tips mentioned above to improve your sleep quality.