- Better brain health
- Mental clarity
- Better emotional states
- Reduction of brain fog
- Improvements in overall performance
- Healthy weight management
- Better control of stress
- Extended life expectancy
These are just some of the benefits of sleep. The problem is that most of us don’t get enough of sleep and as a result don’t get enough quality sleep. With the rise of technological advancements and industrialization over the last twenty years sleep has become less and less of a priority in many households. People think that they can get away with little to no sleep in exchange for being more successful and productive. The sacrifice of sleep is often worn as a badge of honor after having stayed up all night working on a brief or finishing the assignment or even just Netflix and chilling– but it is in fact it is a disservice to the human body. The lure of achieving success at any cost is quite tempting but the cost of loss of sleep can be debilitating and deadly. Sure you can try to do it all, and all at once, and all at once all the time but there is a price for sacrificing proper sleep and rest. It’s often an expensive price to pay in the form of illnesses like Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, heart attack, stroke, cancer, obesity, exhaustion, increased stress, and a host of other problems.
Arianna Huffington, the Editor in Chief and founder of The Huffington Post, had her own wake up call in 2007 about the importance of sleep when she suddenly fell and hit her head. She woke up in a pool of her blood and was astonished to find out from doctors that her accident was in fact the result of sleep deprivation and exhaustion. She was so busy building her company that is, today, one of the largest media companies, but had she not taken control of her health, in particular her sleep and resting habits neither she nor her giant company would possibly exist. Arianna has since become a self named sleep evangelist. She is literally the godmother of sleep and has written about it extensively in her books including, The Sleep Revolution. In it she writes, “Sleep is a key element of our well-being and interacts profoundly with each of the other parts. Once I started getting seven or eight hours of sleep, it became easier to meditate and exercise, make wiser decisions, and connect more deeply with myself and others.”
Sleep is a key element of our well-being and interacts profoundly with each of the other parts. Once I started getting seven or eight hours of sleep, it became easier to meditate and exercise, make wiser decisions, and connect more deeply with myself and others.
All in the name of productivity sleep gets minimized to whatever time is left over in the day: after work, school, after-school activity #1, after-school activity# 2, meeting up with friends, working on the side hustle, social media scrolling, working out, watching tv, etc. all in the name of being productive we lose sleep. In an era of *YOLO and **FOMO we lose massive amounts of sleep trying to keep up with the Joneses and remain relevant. As we dive further into the benefits of sleep what we find out is that it is not just the simple act of jumping into bed and closing our eyes that ensures us these benefits. We soon find out that timing has a lot to do with it. The time of night we go to sleep and when and how deep sleep occurs are key components that contribute to the rest, recovery and restoration process of sleep.
To be continued…in Part 2.
*YOLO – You only live once
**FOMO – Fear of missing out