Go to bed!

Go to bed! Sleep for restoration & growth!

This topic takes me back to my childhood in Georgia, having the air conditioner turned as low as possible with plenty of cold air filling my room. I would wrap up in my blanket and sleep as long as I could. I love the feeling of coming into my own bedroom, pulling the covers back on my bed, climbing in and laying my head on my special pillow.

Most people I know rarely get enough high quality sleep, so this edition deals with the affects and benefits according to personal experience and other studies. Studies show most school aged children are chronically sleep deprived and adults are even more under-rested and at increased risks of disease and mortality because of it.

“Consistent, high quality sleep is where our bodies and our minds recover, restore and grow from all of the events and circumstances of our lives that occurred the day before. Jesus knew the importance of sleep. The Bible identifies a number of instances where he was sleeping like a baby, even in the middle of a violent storm.” (Allan Holson, director of the Laboratory of Neurophysiology at Harvard)

“Sleep plays a major role in preparing the body and brain for an alert, productive, psychologically and physiologically healthy tomorrow” Dr. James B. Mass, author of Power Sleep.

Proper, high quality sleep is the most important non-nutrient you can integrate for a healthy lifestyle. A good night’s rest revitalizes tired bodies, gives us more energy and helps us to think more clearly (helping to make better decisions in the everyday). Sleep experts say we should shoot for 8 hours because according to studies; when people can control the amount of time they sleep (sleep laboratories), they naturally sleep 8 hours in a 24 hour period of time. Our biological cycles typically follow the 24 hour cycle of the sun or what is known as the circadian rhythm (cycles recurring at approximately 24 hour intervals).

During this time the body is performing many functions we don’t even know about such as an automatic system that carries on functions of cleansing and rebuilding. The liver goes through a cleansing process between 11:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. meaning if you’re awake during this time, your liver cannot cleanse properly. Without properly cleansing during the night, the liver will be unable to process and eliminate the toxins taken in during the day; if these toxins are not processed and removed from your body then they have to find a place to reside and typically this will be a place like you fat cells and organs which do not need them. Shoot for 8 but the closer to 9 the better; the problem is most Americans haven’t been getting 8 hours of sleep restoration for a long time. According to the National Sleep Foundation, 100 years ago adults slept an average of 9 hours a night, in the present era however these same studies show Americans get a little less than 7 hours, which is 20% less than our great-grandparents slept. It is believed that every hour slept before midnight is equal to 4 hours slept after midnight. Try going to bed earlier, even if it’s just 30 minutes early.

Dr. Joseph Mercola, says, “one hour of sleep before midnight is equal to four hours of sleep after midnight”. If you go to bed really late like midnight or after, you will probably not feel as well the next day or the next few days. Test it for yourself and make your own adjustments; if you typically find yourself going to bed at midnight or beyond discipline yourself to get to bed earlier and see how sleeping more before midnight and a good portion into the morning changes how you perform the next day and increases your energy levels needed to perform. The National sleep Foundation reports that high school students get an average of 7 hours and 20 minutes of sleep each night, when they should be getting 9 hours and 15 minutes of sleep each night (in bed by 9:45 for a 7:00 a.m. wake up call). Some research shows that a chronic lack of sleep among children hurts there performance inside and outside the classroom and that sleep deprived teens also experience more emotional problems and are more prone to becoming obese adults. Sleep deprived teens will only become sleep deprived adults if they don’t change their lifestyle.

Are you getting enough sleep (at least 8 hours) or do you fit in the category of the sleep deprived adult who needs to make some changes in lifestyle and get more rest?