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Do you know what your body is up to when you’re asleep? Sleep is an integral part of our daily routine. It’s important for our well-being and whenever your body doesn’t get enough sleep because of conditions like sleep disordered breathing, snoring or sleep apnoea, your body and brain also misses out the opportunity to replenish itself.

Listed below are 5 important things you may not know about why it’s important to get a good night’s sleep.

1. Your body slows down

Whenever you’re drifting off to sleep, your breathing and heart rate will also slow down. But just because your body’s asleep doesn’t mean that it’s not doing anything. In fact, it’s working just as hard during the day. Your body is assessing, organizing, and preparing itself to help your body get a jump start for the next day.

2. It impacts brain function

A good night sleep helps your brain adjust to everything that’s going on during the day. If you don’t get enough sleep, your brain will struggle to process, adapt and even remember what you’ve learned during the day.

Researchers also believe that a mini spring clean is going on whenever you’re asleep. It helps you restore memories and remove waste products from your brain cells.

3. You build muscles and repair injuries

When you think of building muscles, you’ll automatically think of the gym but little do people know that sleep also makes a great impact on building muscles. When you’re sleeping, your body enters a higher anabolic state that repairs and rejuvenates all of the tissue in your body, including your muscle tissues.

Your body also conducts protein metabolism and builds larger molecules that repairs parts of the body including your muscular, immune and nervous systems.

4. You can be paralysed

Becoming paralysed while sleeping is possible! Sleep paralysis happens whenever you wake up before the REM stage is completed and your body's ability to move hasn't been turned back on.

According to The Journal of Neuroscience, during the REM stage, your eyes remain moving while the rest of your body doesn’t. Several things can bring on sleep paralysis.

5. Your body temperature drops

Your body’s temperature falls whenever you’re sleeping, it loses its heat, which helps you fall and stay asleep longer.

So, if you’re getting less than 8 hours of sleep each night, you might want to have a good look at your sleeping habits or speak to your GP about any sleep problems you may be having.