Are You Hurting Your Health by Not Getting Enough Sleep?

There is no written rule of how many hours of sleep your body needs but a rule of thumb states that you should try to get at least 8 hours of sleep a night. Researchers at the Sleep Disorder Clinic at Stanford University have linked serious health risks such as heart disease with sleep deprivation. Did you know that it is believed to be even worst the smoking or drinking for us? In studies it has been shown that people getting less then 6hrs a sleep on a nightly basis have an 18% risk of heart attack and if that sleep intake drops to 5 hours or less a nightly the risk just increased to 40%. If this isn't enough information to stand up and take notice for a second I am not sure what would be.

So why exactly is a sufficient amount of sleep so important for us? Sleep is the time our Bodies use to repair them-selves. Our Stress levels drop which makes it possible for our Brain to become focused again. Even the ability to loose weight has been successfully linked to your sleeping habits. In the relaxed stages of sleep our body has the ability to fight disease from the inside, repair tissue damage and more. Our bodies are complex machines that need constant care and sleep is its version of self-overhaul. You wouldn't rush your mechanic to check over the electrical parts or motor of your vehicle would you? But we do it to the "little mechanics" inside our own bodies.

Getting back to sleep and loosing weight for a second. What does one have to do with the other? Medical Research shows us that our ghrelin levels rise and our leptin levels drop. If you are like me you have to quirk your eyes at first too and ask in a slightly irritated why to speak plain english please. Simply put, leptin is a hormon your body produces which function is to make you feel satisfied after you eat. Less sleep equals lower leptin levels, which in turns means that you don't feel satisfied after you eat and will eat soon again. Ghrelin is another Hormon your body manufactures and its is responsible to stimulate your apetite. When those levels go up your body gets hungry more often, which means you will eat more. Hence you gain more weight.

So again back to the heart attack risk, why does the lack of sleep cause the risk of heart attack to rise? Not withstanding the earlier explanation of your body not having enough time for self-repair, it is also directly related to the ghrelin / leptin inbalance. Ok in simple terms again. When you don't get enough sleep on a constant basis you are going to crave high carb and high calorie foods, because your body is looking for energy. However most of the time high calorie foods also means high fat foods which brings you body fat up (BMI increases) and that makes it more difficult on your heart to do what it is supposed to do.

Now that we have this out of the way and explained the next important question arises. How do we get enough sleep? If time restriction is a problem due to deadlines or a overly busy schedule try taking naps throughout the day if you can. Or take some of the obligations of your plate if at all possible. If you have a hard time going to sleep, try exercising during the day, but avoid doing this closer then 3 hours to bedtime. Start using a bedtime ritual. Warm milk with honey, a warm bath, reading for a little bit before bed are all good options. Make sure your room isn't too hot and well ventilated.

Now remember that this is sleep deprivation on a constant basis. We are not talking about loosing a few hours of sleep once in a great while.