Dr Sanjay Bhojraj highlights the significance of good sleep for optimal brain and heart health. Here’s how many hours he recommends.
Good sleep is one of the most important pillars of overall wellbeing. Getting enough sleep and good sleep quality can play an important role in your weight, emotional wellbeing, blood pressure, diabetes, mental and physical performance, and more. Moreover, during sleep, your body works to support healthy brain function and maintain your physical well-being.
Highlighting this, Dr Sanjay Bhojraj, an interventional cardiologist with over 20 years of experience, in conversation with Dr Shivani Gupta, an inflammation expert, emphasised how sleep is the most powerful medicine for the brain and heart.
Why is sleep important for brain and heart health?
On September 30, Dr Gupta posted a clip on Instagram from her interaction with Dr Bhojraj with the caption, “What if the most powerful medicine for your brain and heart is…simply more sleep?”
In the video, the cardiologist explained why seven and a half hours of sleep is the sweet spot for brain health, heart health, and inflammation repair. He also urged that the path to healing begins in your bedroom.
He said, “One of the things that I think is so central to everything is sleep…if people just have one takeaway, 7 and 1/2 hours. That is the ideal time. I’m not saying it’s easy. But aim for 7 and 1/2 hours. That would be five 90-minute sleep cycles for most of us. If all you do is that, then your brain will work better, your body will work better.”
Why is sleeping 7 to 8 hours good for your body?
According to a February 2002 report by the National Institutes of Health, published in The British Medical Journal, the best survival rates were found among those who slept seven hours a night. A group sleeping eight hours was 12 percent more likely to die within the six-year period than those sleeping seven hours, other factors being equal. Even those with as little as five hours lived longer than those with eight hours or more nightly.
