SELF HEALTH + HEALING

If good sleep could be encapsulated in a pill, it would be the strongest medication ever produced. Numerous studies have connected inadequate sleep to chronic diseases and shortened lifespan. But alas, sleep is not that simple. In fact, it’s the one natural process that might cause the most issues for modern-day adults, with around 30 percent of the American population having some degree of sleep disruption. 

“Correcting sleep deficits could be the single most important thing you do for your health…”
Why is that? Well, we tend to work in offices for long hours during the daytime, often staring at computer screens for hours on end. Occasionally we head to the gym to bust out an intense workout, and then rush to get dinner prepared before trying to get some zzz’s. With that fairly unnatural schedule, is it any wonder that our circadian rhythms are screwed up and unfettered sleep can be hard to come by?

Deep relaxation happier gene expression and oh yeah a better memory can come with 60 more minutes of shut-eye.

It's weird that we sometimes think we can go without sleep--since we'd be so much more productive with just a bit more.

The BBC's Michael Mosley reports that increasing the quanitity of time spent slumbering by a mere hour can upgrade the quality of your sleep. This, in turn, upgrades the quality of your day--in at least three ways.

"Recent studies have found that it is not just how long we sleep that can affect our weight, but when we wake up. Should we all be jumping out of bed at dawn?"

Want to lose weight? Get a good night's sleep. Research increasingly suggests that chronic sleep deprivation can lead to weight gain. But last week a paper in the Public Library of Science's peer-reviewed resourcePLOS One said that it is not just how many hours of sleep you get each night that matters, but when you wake up too.

People who were exposed to bright light in the morning had lower body mass indexes (BMI) than those who were exposed to most of their light later in the day. The finding was independent of the amount of calories eaten. Dr Phyllis C Zee, a senior author of the paper said that even 20 to 30 minutes of outdoor light before midday could affect BMI.

"Sleep is a funny subject because people approach it with the best intentions. We know how important it is and how bad a lack of sleep can make us feel, yet it is very hard to change habits for the better."

I have written about sleep several times before here, and here…. This post though sets out to be a little bit different. While there is no scientific evidence to back it up I am a firm believer in the old adage -

“One hour of sleep before midnight is worth two after”...