This entry was posted on Thursday, May 21st, 2009 at 2:54 pm and is filed under Information, Sleep. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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May 21, 2009
We need to “wake-up” to the fact of how important sleep is to our bodies. Here are just a few of the side effects of little to no sleep:
- alters chemical balance
- daytime sleepiness and fatigues
- increases accidents whether at home or work
- weakens our immune system leaving us vulnerable to diseases
- causes stress
- upsets our mental processes
Scientists are looking seriously at what happens to our bodies when we live on 5-7 hours of sleep a night. We may think that achieving those number of hours of sleep in one night is plenty of sleep for us, but discoveries are showing some negative results.
The University of Chicago tested healthy young men who slept 4 hours for 6 consecutive nights. These men showed the same results of someone who had diabetes after they were examined on the seventh day. Processing blood sugar was reduced by 30%, a huge drop occurred in their insulin response and elevated levels of a stress hormone leading to hypertension and memory impairment occurred. Six hours of sleep would have the same impact, just that it would take a longer period of time to show the effects.
People who constantly sleep shorter have a hard time keeping blood sugars stable, making them prone to insulin resistance and obesity. Brain function is slowed in the areas of attention, complex planning, complex mental operations and judgment.
How can we combat this sleep deprivation? Unfortunately not by sleeping longer the next day but planning in advance and sleeping extra hours the day before instead of after the fact. You can also try napping for 20-30 minutes in the early afternoon in a comfortable position.
If we want to be healthy, it is important to get the sleep we need. How much is that? Do an experiment on your next holiday. See how long you sleep for the first few days or week. The following week you’ll be sleeping the right hours naturally and that will be the correct amount of sleep you need.
Look into memory foam pillows to help provide a good night’s rest for a healthier you.
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