New mothers often complain that lack of sleep when caring for newborns makes them age several years. For this reason, a study conducted by the University of California, UCLA, found that these mothers are right! Moms who slept less than seven hours a night were on average 3 to 7 years older biologically than women who slept more than seven hours a night.
Experimental analysis of blood samples from these new mothers found that women who slept less than 7 hours had "shorter" telomeres in their white blood cells. Telomeres are special structures at the ends of chromosomes, which are composed of repeated repetitions of DNA of the same sequence. As cells divide more times, the length of telomeres will become shorter and shorter. When telomeres reach a critical length, cells can no longer divide. At this time, cells will undergo apoptosis, which means that cells no longer have the ability to regenerate and repair, and some diseases caused by aging may slowly appear.
Studies show that sleeping less than 7 hours a night is not only harmful to your health but also increases your risk of age-related diseases, and the good news is that for every extra hour of sleep, your biological age decreases! Therefore, new mothers really need to make more time to sleep. For example, when the baby is sleeping during the day, the mother will also take a nap, or let relatives and friends take over taking care of the baby, and the mother will take the opportunity to catch up on sleep. So, don’t put your children to sleep and then scroll through your phone like crazy to watch TV shows. In fact, what you are spending is not a night or freedom, but precious health and youth! All in all, mothers remember to take care of their own sleep needs. It will definitely help you and your baby!
