A Good Nights Sleep is Essential for Good Health

Worried about stress and disease? Get a good night’s sleep!  Ahh, but how to get enough consistent sleep? How to avoid waking  up tired and cranky? 
First, let’s discuss the importance of sleep and look at what lack of sleep can cause: 

1. *It can lead to problems of aging such as heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and cancer. In fact, it accelerates aging in general. 
   
2. *It can impair brain functions such as motor skills and problem solving abilities.
   
3. *It can impact the hormones that control hunger and/or satiation (ghrelin and leptin). You will experience more hunger and also have to eat more to feel satisfied. Hence, lack of sleep contributes  to obesity. 
   
4. *It contributes to the onset of Alzheimer's disease by denying our glymphatic system (like our lymphatics system but for the brain) the opportunity to send cerebral fluid into the brain’s tissues to flush out cellular waste and neurotoxins. The glymphatic system also clears out the amyloid proteins that are found in the brains of those with Alzheimer's disease.  
   
5. *It often results in sleep apnea, a serious sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts. Those with this condition often have high blood pressure or heart problems, daytime fatigue, liver problems and sleep deprived partners.  
   
6. *It is prevalent in those who snore. Snoring is a sign of inflammation and is most often linked to our diet.  
   
7. *It causes degeneration of the mitochondria whose job it is to take nutrients into your cells and turn them into energy so that the cells can grow, divide and function.  If they  are not functioning optimally we see conditions such as muscle weakness and pain, digestive problems, heart disease and accelerated aging.  
   

Good sleep is important!  Not just quantity but also quality. Sleep is a time of  recovery and healing for our body. The best sleep happens when  breathing and heart rates drop to their  lowest levels and  brain waves slow down.  So, now the question is how do we get there?   Stay tuned as I will discuss that next in my next blog.  Catch my previous blogs at susannej.com and on Facebook.   Please share.