Sleep Deprivation Can Be Lethal

You have no doubt heard the foretelling saying “I’ll sleep when I’m dead”; you may have even said it yourself.  

In fact, lack of sleep can be lethal. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, drowsiness and fatigue cause more that 100,000 traffic accidents each year resulting in 1,550 deaths.  

At the very least sleep deprivation will age you in fast forward.  

But how much sleep do you really need? Ideally humans should go to bed when the sun sets, and rise with it in the morning to stay in sync with natural circadian rhythms. 

This is hardly practical, especially in the winter months.  However, if you can get to bed by 10:00 pm, and get up around 6:30 am, your body would thank you.  

Between the hours of 10:00 pm and 2:00 am your body regenerates physically, and between the hours of 2:00 am and 6:00 am your brain regenerates psychologically. Cut into either one of those 4-hour segments, and you are compromising your system’s ability to restore itself. 

Hormonally speaking, (melatonin, serotonin, insulin, dopamine, prolactin and cortisol, to name a few), can not be balanced with out deep prolonged sleep.

The good news is, you will also be balancing your blood sugar and neurotransmitters, strengthening your immune system and slowing the aging process.   

Best case scenario to keep disease at bay and have natural energy and vitality, is to get 8 hours of restful uninterrupted sleep a night, starting as close to 10:00 pm as possible.  

There are folks who insist that 5 hours is all they need.  Of course, that’s after their Venti Cappuccino in the morning, Red Bull mid afternoon, Pepsi at 3 pm, and another with dinner.  No wonder it takes them until 2 am to fall asleep.  

The closer you get to 8 hours of sleep a night, the healthier you will be, the less you’ll spend at Starbucks, and the longer you will live.

For guidance and support on your journey to better sleep, contact me for a free 15 minute consultation at nina.lynn@me.com.

We All Need More Beauty Sleep.

Quality sleep is essential for good health.  Lack of adequate sleep will prevent your body from regenerating, and it’s all downhill from there. FYI, by adequate sleep I mean 7-9 hours.  You can eat perfectly, and exercise appropriately but if you are not sleeping you will not be healthy, period, end of sentence.

Our bodies repair and regenerate as part of the rhythm of our biology, and unless you are meditating all day, you need to sleep for that to happen.  If you don’t allow for the rebuilding of your body systems, you will continually break down until you crash head on into a degenerative disease.

When people tell me they don’t have time to sleep, I know their lives are out of balance. You don’t want to disrupt your body’s natural rhythms any more than you want to try to fool Mother Nature.   The go-go-go lifestyle will get-get-get you to an early grave.  

Here’s what happens when you don’t sleep.  You prevent your body from producing melatonin, a powerful antioxidant as well as your ticket to restorative sleep.  Without melatonin at night, along with the subsequent production of the hormone prolactin, your immune system is suppressed, and that is never a good idea.  

Furthermore, cortisol stays up as late as you do and your insulin stays up to deal with all of it.  That means that in the morning, when you need it, cortisol is no where to be found.  This is the reverse of a “normal” and desired circadian rhythm.  As a result you wake up groggy, and your low cortisol means low dopamine so you can’t focus.  

With cortisol and insulin out of whack, your other hormones are all tripped up and you find yourself out of balance on all levels.  Here is where carbohydrate cravings take over in an effort to gain energy and focus.  And we all know where that leads...belly fat and mood swings on your way to insulin resistance.

Another consequence of of staying up after midnight is a reduction in the coveted growth hormone, which keeps us youthful.  As we age, our level of growth hormone reduces on its own, so I would say sleeping is a pretty easy and convenient way to stay young.  They don't call it beauty sleep for nothing.

for guidance and support on your journey to better sleep and a younger you, contact me for a free 15 minute consultation at nina.lynn@me.com.