The Importance of a Complete Night’s Rest

Healthy sleep habits have an impact on overall well-being. “Sleep is free! It’s the easiest thing you can do to improve your health,” said Dr. Prachi Singh the director of the Sleep and Cardiometabolic Health Laboratory at Pennington Biomedical. “As we learn more and more about the value of sleep and its necessity to our health, we are discovering that there is a tremendous deficit in sleep, which has been found to be linked to cognitive impairment, obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular events. If you focus on improving sleep, then depression and anxiety levels go down, and you’re able to feel happier and see an improved quality of life.”

Risk factors of poor sleep

In Dr. Singh’s lab, she and her team explore how sleep alters cardiometabolic risk factors. Poor sleep, defined as insufficient sleep duration and sleep disorders such as insomnia and sleep apnea, has been linked to obesity, morbidity and early death. The lab examines the mechanisms through which sleep and sleep disorders contribute to hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

Americans of all ages are reporting that they experience insufficient sleep at night, but among children, Louisiana ranks near the bottom nationally. According to a 2024 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 50.3% of children in Louisiana experience sleep deficits, with several other southern states also ranking among the lowest. Researchers cite a variety of factors contributing to these deficits, including stress, excessive screen time and early school start times.

Currently, one out of every three adults in the U.S. reports to sleep six hours or less most nights of the week – a habit that can contribute to high cardiovascular risk and disease. Additionally, habitual short sleepers are more likely to eat at irregular intervals, usually consuming more than daily recommendations – a behavior that further contributes to heightened cardiovascular and metabolic risk.

The circadian system in humans is key to maintaining a balance or homeostasis in the body, but a misalignment of the circadian rhythm, such as a shortened sleep duration, coupled with extended snacking times and duration, can lead to high blood pressure and insulin resistance.

While the laboratory investigates the biological mechanisms underlying sleep and disease, the research reinforces many practical strategies for improving sleep. Dr. Singh and her team encourage creating a relaxing sleep environment, limiting screen time before bed and paying attention to habits that influence sleep quality. In addition to well-known tips to improve sleep quality, Dr. Singh’s research has generated other practical tips for improvement.

Tips to Improve Sleep

• A consistent sleep schedule is helpful, but the challenge is to retain it on weekends as well. Your body doesn’t know when Friday rolls around. Some people try to catch up on sleep during the weekends, which is fine, but be careful that it does not disrupt your schedule and give you a sleep debt on Monday.
• While exercise is vital for good health, try not to do it late in the evening.
• If you are considering taking supplements, be sure to let your doctor know, as additional precautions are recommended for some supplements like melatonin.

Shortened sleep duration can result in a wide array of health problems, and with nearly 33 percent of all adults getting less than the recommended amount of sleep, the need to identify and address the roots of these problems is becoming more and more urgent. his is especially important, as even when we are aware of the negative health consequences of short sleep duration, we find it difficult to develop a routine that consistently includes time for adequate sleep duration.

The Pennington Biomedical Research Center is at the forefront of medical discovery as it relates to understanding the triggers of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and dementia. Pennington Biomedical has the vision to lead the world in promoting nutrition and metabolic health and eliminating metabolic disease through scientific discoveries that create solutions from cells to society. The Center conducts basic, clinical and population research, and is a campus in the LSU System.