Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi
New Delhi, Dec 15: Adequate and quality sleep is one of the most crucial pillars of overall wellbeing, playing a vital role in maintaining brain function, heart health, emotional balance and physical performance, experts have stressed.
Highlighting the importance of sleep, Dr Sanjay Bhojraj, an interventional cardiologist with over two decades of experience, said that sleep is “the most powerful medicine” for the brain and heart. He was speaking during a conversation with inflammation expert Dr Shivani Gupta, a clip of which was shared on social media on September 30.
In the video, Dr Bhojraj underlined that around seven and a half hours of sleep is the ideal duration for optimal brain and heart health, as well as for reducing inflammation. “One of the things that I think is so central to everything is sleep. If people just have one takeaway, seven and a half hours is the ideal time. Aim for it. That would be five 90-minute sleep cycles for most of us. If all you do is that, your brain will work better and your body will work better,” he said.
Dr Gupta, sharing the clip on Instagram, captioned it: “What if the most powerful medicine for your brain and heart is… simply more sleep?” Both experts emphasised that the process of healing often begins in the bedroom, with consistent and sufficient sleep.
Scientific evidence also supports this view. A report by the US National Institutes of Health, published in The British Medical Journal in February 2002, found that people who slept seven hours a night had the best survival rates. Those who slept eight hours were found to be 12 per cent more likely to die within a six-year period compared to those sleeping seven hours, while even individuals sleeping as little as five hours fared better than those sleeping eight hours or more.
Health experts note that good sleep not only supports healthy brain function but also helps regulate weight, blood pressure, blood sugar levels and emotional wellbeing, reinforcing its role as a cornerstone of long-term health.