Sleep Your Way To Good Health

Restful sleep is one of the pillars of health and getting a good night’s sleep should be at the top of your to-do list. Everyone knows there’s nothing like a good night’s sleep for feeling refreshed and alert in the morning. Sleep is important to maintaining your health; without it you become more susceptible to health problems. Failure to obtain quality sleep may lead to poor alertness, lack of attention, reduced concentration, decreased work and academic productivity, and even car accidents.  

Did you know....?
Before the invention of the light bulb, people slept an average of 10 hours a night. Today, we average 6.9 hours of sleep on weeknights and 7.5 hours per night on weekends. 
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The three key elements of good quality sleep are:

• Duration: Sleep experts agree that most adults need between 7-9 hours sleep each night for good health, this can vary from person to person and the best measure of how much sleep you need is how you feel when you wake up.
• Continuity: Sleep periods should be seamless without interruption
• Depth: Sleep should be deep enough to be restorative.
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Quality sleep can:

• Help to maintain a strong immune system – Chronic sleeplessness may harm your immune system, since lack of sleep is linked to an increase in cytokine molecules that control immune response.
  
• Keep your memory sharp – when sleep is cut short the body doesn’t have time to complete all the phases needed for memory consolidation
  
• Help you lose weight – sleeplessness elevates levels of ghrelin, the hormone responsible for appetite stimulation and lowers levels of the hormone leptin, responsible for feeling of fullness, which could leave you eating more. • Decelerate aging – Too little sleep may cause levels of the stress hormones to soar raising the level of inflammation in your body. Inflammation is thought to be one of the causes of deterioration of your body as you age.
  
• Help you look more attractive - According to a 2010 study published in the British Medical Journal, researchers photographed 23 people after a period of sleep deprivation and after a normal night's sleep of eight hours. The photos were shown to 65 people who rated each photo based on health attractiveness and tiredness. The sleep deprived group scored lower in all three categories.