My mom told me time and time again to get to bed whenever she caught me staying up ’til the wee hours of the morning. I was a growing girl and I needed my beauty rest, she advised. But honestly, going to bed before midnight? C’mon, Mom!

Being a night owl may have its perks — first viewing of all the new infomercials, plenty of time to catch up on your crocheting — but unfortunately, it looks like my mom was onto something. Getting seven to eight hours of sleep may be more crucial than I had previously thought.

It’s not just about falling asleep at your desk or nodding off during girls’ night out. Skipping out on sleep won’t just cause your work and social life to suffer: it could also do some serious harm to your mind and body. Here are 10 reasons why you should be catching your Zs.

1. Controls your weight

If you want to shed some pounds or just keep your weight in check, make sleep a high priority. Cutting back on carbs and taking spin classes is great, but if you’re not getting your shut-eye, you could increase your risk of weight gain.

Sleepy people burn more calories, but are more likely to gain weight, says a study published by The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

That’s because of the hormone leptin, which controls your sense of fullness. If you’re not getting enough sleep, your leptin levels plummet, and you end up noshing on leftover carbonara at two in the morning.

“We found that when people weren’t getting enough sleep they overate carbohydrates,” reports Kenneth Wright, director of the University of Colorado’s sleep and chronobiology laboratory. “They ate more food, and when they ate food also changed. They ate a smaller breakfast and they ate a lot more after dinner.”

So not only do sleep-deprived people crave more food — but they also want high-fat and high-calorie foods.

2. Makes you chipper

Lack of sleep can make anyone … well, kind of a monster. Ever notice that when you’re tired, you feel like you’re on a rollercoaster ride of emotions? Don’t worry. You’re probably not insane – you’re just freakin’ tired.

Getting a good night’s rest can prevent drastic mood changes. In one study, patients were shown disturbing photos while they were inside an MRI scanner. Those who were deprived of sleep for 35 hours were more likely to respond with hyperactive brain activity compared to those who slept for a normal amount of time. The MRI scans of these sleep-deprived people mimicked patients with psychiatric disorders. Getting the proper amount of sleep balances out your mood and keeps you from unleashing your inner diva.

3. Reduces your sick days

Being sick really blows. One way to reduce your risk of picking up colds, flus and other illnesses is to get those eight hours of sleep. Getting quality sleep boosts your immune system and makes you less likely to sit at home hacking up a lung or nursing flu symptoms. One study followed a group of 150 people who were exposed to the flu. Researchers monitored their sleeping habits, and found that participants who got seven hours of sleep or less were almost three times more likely to catch the virus. So, if you don’t want to be a breeding ground for bacteria and viruses, dim the lights and get sleeping.

4. Keeps you in tip-top shape

Getting the right amount of sleep not only keeps you from getting sick, but it can keep your body healthy too. People who get the right amount of sleep reduce their risk for high blood pressure, irregular heart rhythms and type 2 diabetes.

When you have a disrupted sleep pattern, your body isn’t able to control your glucose levels. Patients who were periodically disturbed during sleep had a 23 percent increase in their glucose levels, according to a study conducted by Easra Tsala at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

5. Increases your pain tolerance

Good news: getting some shut-eye is your natural pain medication.

“Sleep increases pain tolerance and supplements the effect of pain medications,” says Dr. Michael Nolledo, director at the Institute for Sleep Medicine in Browns Mills, N.J. The more sleep you get, the less your body hurts.

Sleeping more may not make you superhuman or a bionic woman, but it does increase your pain threshold. You’re able to tolerate higher levels of pain than if you were sleep deprived. So if you’re thinking of running a marathon or getting your next tattoo, make sure you get plenty of sleep beforehand.

6. Lowers your risk of injury

Being tired can make you spacey, which can lead to avoidable falls or accidents. Yeah, the stove has always been there. You just walked into it because you’re ridiculously tired.

Sleep has also been known to improve your balance, which prevents injuries due to falling.

“When you’re overtired, you’re more likely to trip, or fall off a ladder, or cut yourself while chopping vegetables,” says Dr. Jodi A. Mindell, a professor of psychology at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.

Not to mention sleep keeps you from being a menace on the road. Every day in the U.S., around 250,000 people fall asleep behind the wheel. Sleep-deprived drivers cause more than 56,000 crashes every year — killing 1,550 people and injuring 40,000 people, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Adminstration (NHTSA). Don’t be a statistic — get some shut-eye!

7. Helps you get your study on

If you’ve ever pulled an all-nighter for an exam, you probably weren’t shocked when you got your crappy marks back. Or maybe you were, in which case, newsflash: sleeping after you learn something new helps your brain retain information. Staying up all night studying only to do poorly on the test because you were tired isn’t just super ironic — it’s also totally avoidable.

In one study, researchers found that students who weren’t allowed to sleep after they learned a new skill were unable to remember the skill three days later. Sleep helps you keep information in your head where it belongs — so the more of it you get, the better you’ll be able to learn.

8. Boosts your decision-making skills

It’ll come as no surprise that not getting enough sleep turns your decision-making skills into mush. Ever heard of drunk dialing? Well, exhausted dialing your ex is an equally bad idea.

But if you’re sleep-deprived, you may find yourself breathing heavily into your Smartphone at three in the morning. That’s because lack of sleep makes the area of your brain that thinks about positive outcomes more active and quiets other parts of your brain that measure negative outcomes. You’re more likely to engage in risky behavior, says a study published in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). Call your ex? Great idea! Nope.

Sleep-deprived people also perform poorer on logic and math problems than their well-rested counterparts. You’re also more likely to make weird mistakes “like leaving your keys in the fridge by mistake,” says Dr. Jodi Mindell.

“Sleep loss affects how you think,” she adds. “It impairs your cognition, your attention, and your decision-making.”

9. Improves your memory

Besides forgetting your keys in the fridge, your memories of what happened yesterday or a few days ago could be lost if you don’t get enough sleep. When we sleep, our brain does some upkeep called memory consolidation, in which our memories are processed and filed into our memory banks. If we don’t get enough sleep, this process stalls and memories aren’t stored correctly.

What’s even worse is that lack of memory consolidation can produce false memories. In one study, groups of sleep-deprived and well-rested volunteers were asked to look over a list of related words. The sleep-deprived participants remembered words that hadn’t been on the list.

“Sometimes they were even more convinced than on the real words,” says Susanne Diekelmann, a researcher from the University of Lubeck, Germany.

10. Amps up your sex life

Good sex and good sleep are perfect bed buddies. Getting better sleep gives you more energy for sex while bad sleep habits can decrease your sex drive, says Dr. Robert D. Oxeman, director of the Sleep to Live Institute in Missouri.

Plus, having sex means you’ll increase the amount of time you do sleep. A hot shower and a little fun between the sheets before bed will net you six extra minutes of shut-eye. More sleep? More sex? It’s a win-win.

The National Sleep Foundation found one in four Americans were too exhausted to have sex before bed. While an Australian study found 22 percent of women and one in three men said their sex lives improved when they got enough sleep. That’s a bunch of sleepy and unsatisfied folks.

Get your Zs. Your partner and your body will thank you.