Sleep Is A Nutrient!

We often talk about sleep as a luxury in busy lives, a casualty of work, kids, stress, screens, and schedules. In fact, it often seems strangely revered or worthy of bragging rights to be one of ‘those people’ who can burn the candle at both ends and thus be seemingly ‘more productive’ by getting less sleep. But what if we redefined sleep entirely? What if we thought of sleep like an essential vitamin – non-negotiable, restorative, and vital? It’s time we start seeing sleep as a nutrient.

Nutrients are substances essential for growth, health, and survival. Like protein builds muscle and calcium strengthens bones, sleep fortifies every system in the body. And unlike water or food, sleep can’t be supplemented or stored – there’s no such thing as “catching up” the way people imagine. Missing sleep is like missing out on important bodily nourishment.

While we sleep, our brains and bodies undergo a sort of tune-up:

The brain consolidates memories and clears out metabolic waste.
The immune system ramps up its defensive response.
Hormone levels rebalance and follow their circadian rhythm, particularly those that regulate stress, hunger, and mood.
Tissue grow and repair.

Getting insufficient sleep, even short term, is bad for our health and wellbeing – think of it as your body and mind trying to function while missing key nutrients. Insuffucient sleep impacts cognitive function, mood, and psychomotor performance, increasing the risk of accidents and injuries. Chronic sleep deprivation increases inflammation and dysregulates our immune systems, making us more susceptible to infections. Short sleep duration and poor quality sleep are linked to increased risk of many health conditions including obestiy, hypertension, type 2 diabetes. Sleep restriction – even short term – results in a biomarker profile associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease. In fact, the American Heart Association added sleep to their Life’s Essential 8 construct of cardiovascular health in 2022. Check out this review to deep dive into the effect of sleep deprivation on pretty much every organ system in the human body.

So how much sleep do we need? As blogged previously, population studies show that the optimum amount of sleep is 7.7 hours, though this will vary from person to person. Aiming for 7 to 8 hours is reasonable for most people. Check out this prior blog post for sleep hygiene tips to help get you there! For those who think that they’re more productive because they function on less sleep – paradoxically, your day would be more productive overall (even at a lower number of waking hours) if you rested adequately as your mental performance would be better – and work done/decisions made better and safer (read more here and here).

BOTTOM LINE: By identifying sleep a nutrient, we change the narrative. It’s not a passive state or ‘nice to have’ – it’s active recovery, and it’s essential to our health and wellbeing. Sleep is a necessity, not an indulgence. Just as we wouldn’t miss out on hydration or nutrition every day and expect our bodies to thrive, we mustn’t treat sleep as optional. Prioritizing sleep is a form of self-respect and foundational health care.

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