The Benefits of Sleep

Many of us want to sleep as little as possible or feel like we have to. There are so many things that seem more interesting or important than getting a few more hours of sleep. But just as exercise and nutrition are essential for optimal health and happiness, so is sleep. The quality of your sleep directly affects the quality of your waking life, including your mental sharpness, productivity, emotional balance, creativity, physical vitality, and even your weight. No other activity delivers so many benefits with so little effort!

Sleep is a time for your body to repair damage caused by stress, ultraviolet rays and other harmful exposures. Your cells produce more protein while you are sleeping. These protein molecules form the building blocks for cells, allowing them to repair damage.

Sleep consists of a series of distinct cycles and stages that restore and refresh your body and mind. Even minimal sleep loss takes a toll on your mood, energy, efficiency, and ability to handle stress. If you want to feel your best, stay healthy, and perform up to your potential, sleep is a necessity, not a luxury. Learn what happens when you’re sleeping, how to determine your nightly sleep needs, and what you can do to bounce back from chronic sleep loss and get on a healthy sleep schedule.

While sleep requirements vary slightly from person to person, most healthy adults need between 7.5 to 9 hours of sleep per night to function at their best. Children and teens need even more. And despite the notion that our sleep needs decrease with age, older people still need at least 7.5 to 8 hours of sleep. Since older adults often have trouble sleeping this long at night, daytime naps can help fill in the gap.

There is a big difference between the amount of sleep you can get by on and the amount you need to function optimally. Just because you’re able to operate on 7 hours of sleep doesn’t mean you wouldn’t feel a lot better and get more done if you spent an extra hour or two in bed. The best way to figure out if you’re meeting your sleep needs is to evaluate how you feel as you go about your day. If you’re logging enough hours, you’ll feel energetic and alert all day long, from the moment you wake up until your regular bedtime.

When your body is sleep deficient, it goes into a state of stress. The body's functions are put on high alert which causes an increase in blood pressure and a production of stress hormones. Higher blood pressure increases your risk for heart attacks and strokes. The stress hormones also, unfortunately, make it harder for you to sleep

The increase in stress hormones raises the level of inflammation in your body, also creating more risk for heart-related conditions, as well as cancer and diabetes. Inflammation is thought to one of the causes of the deterioration of your body as you age.

Sleep loss may result in irritability, impatience, inability to concentrate, and moodiness. Too little sleep can also leave you too tired to do the things you like to do.

Sleep deprivation alters immune function, including the activity of the body's killer cells. Keeping up with sleep may also help fight cancer.

Chronic sleep deprivation may cause weight gain by affecting the way our bodies process and store carbohydrates and by altering levels of hormones that affect our appetite.

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Insomnia and How to Overcome

Insomnia, from the Latin "in" (not) and "somnus" (sleep), is a condition characterized by difficulty falling asleep and remaining asleep. It includes a broad spectrum of sleep disorders, from lack of quantity of sleep to lack of quality of sleep.

Sleep is one of the most important parts of our lives. Studies show that a huge chunk of our existence is spent at sleeping. But what if sleep is deprived from you? What if sleep becomes more of a luxury? If getting a good night sleep is almost next to impossible, then you are suffering from insomnia. Knowing insmonia causes will help you deal with the problem more efficiently. Sleep deprivation is a serious matter that calls for your immediate attention.

Insomnia can affect all age groups and is more common in adult women than adult men. The condition can lead to poor performance at work or school, obesity, depression, anxiety, poor immune system function, reduced reaction time, and an increased risk and severity of long-term disease.

Insomnia is a sleep disorder (often referred to as "insomnia sleep disorder") and, most importantly, it is a symptom and not a disease.

So, when we talk about an insomnia cure we are not talking about curing insomnia directly but simply treating the underlying cause of insomnia.

causes of insomnia are numerous and can be divided into two major groups

Primary Insomnia. Primary insomnia is a sleep disorder for which there is no specific underlying condition and is the most common form of insomnia. Stress, environmental changes , disruptions to your normal sleep pattern , and the side-effects of many medications can all give rise to primary insomnia. Other contributory factors include the excessive use of drugs, alcohol or caffeine

Secondary Insomnia. Secondary insomnia can be attributed to a specific underlying physical or psychological condition. These include other sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, narcolepsy, restless legs syndrome and circadian rhythm disorder. Other physical and psychological conditions that often give rise to insomnia include depression, respiratory problems (including asthma), heart problems (such as congestive heart failure), arthritis, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and hyperthyroidism.

There are several ways to prevent insomnia

- Don't do any exercise just before you go to bed, If you are going to do any exercise make sure that you do it in the earlier part of the day.

- Try meditating this may be one of the most simplest things that we can do as people, but even now so very few people practice this simple way of relaxing.

- Don’t drink any coffee or any other beverage, which has lots of caffeine contained within it.

- Try not to have a big meal before you go to bed our bodies aren’t necessarily designed to be digesting food when we are supposed to be asleep.

- Try reading a book this has been known to help some people get to sleep.

- Try a natural herbal remedy like Nytol or calms these contain natural occurring herbs that may help you sleep and are non addictive.

- Buy a CD with nature sounds on it or a machine that generates natural sounds say, for example, waves on the beach.

- Have a bath and add some aromatherapy oil to it just before you go to bed say about an hour before.

- Use your bedroom for what it is designed for sleeping only, if at all possible, this will help to train your brain that the bedroom is for sleep and sleep only.

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