One of the 10 actions for Empowered Living is recharging your energy. Achieving this requires connecting with nature, consciously breathing in fresh air and getting restful sleep. Humans spend about a third of our lives sleeping, because it is critical to healthy living and longevity.
Here’s what happens with good quality sleep:
• The heart and blood vessels heal and repair themselves.
• Grhelin (hunger hormone) and leptin (satiety hormone) are balanced. Inadequate sleep makes ghrelin levels go up, so you feel hungrier than when you have restful sleep.
• Healthy insulin levels are supported. Insulin controls blood sugar levels, which increase when you are sleep-deficient.
• Deep sleep triggers the release of the growth hormone that helps children and teenagers develop healthy muscle mass, repair cells and tissues.
• Deep sleep supports healthy development during puberty and promotes fertility.
• Restful sleep supports the body’s immune system. Sleep deficiency can affect the body’s natural defense system against germs and illness, making it difficult to combat infections.
• Major threats to longevity are decreased. These risks include heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity and stroke.
• Good sleep supports the brain to improve learning and memory. Problem-solving, decision-making and creativity are enhanced.
Sleep deficiency can result in feelings of stress and depression; and can cause mood swings, lack of motivation and not getting along in social situations. It can also cause lack of focus, problems in learning new things, slow reactions and poor decision-making, which in turn result in making more mistakes. It’s a vicious cycle of frustration and fatigue, lack of confidence and inertia. In other words, when was the last time you felt joy when you were sleep-deprived?
Smart nutrition, clean air and water are basic necessities, but when you think about humans spending a third of our lives sleeping (or at least trying to sleep), the importance of good sleep is obvious. If you can’t sit still, watch TV, read or be a passenger in a vehicle for an hour without falling asleep, you probably need more restful sleep. It’s not about quantity as much as it is about quality.
Create your sleep sanctuary and commit to good habits that support deep sleep, so you can feel good every day and experience empowered living! With great sleep, you can choose joy!
Source: https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/sleep-deprivation/health-effects
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