Time to go Night Night

Usually on steemit, I like to share a lot of the things I like to do to stay active and talk about the different ways that these activities have a positive impact on health. But I read an article last week in TIME that helped to drive home the importance of rest and more specifically sleep which is often overlooked when talking about things we can do to improve our health.  

Back in school we’d talked about some of the some of the effects that sleep had on the body, but I was more of a meathead gym nerd who focused more on muscle repair than anything else.

Shame on me, I should've paid more attention. 

They estimated that about a third of adults don't get the recommended 7 hours of sleep on a consistent basis, which is a problem that starts early in childhood. A lot of this is due to how a lot of us view sleep as just another option or something that gets in the way of productivity instead of something that could have huge negative impact on our health. 

I personally find it hard to get away from social media and video games at night sometimes as well which is shown to be a common disruption of getting quality sleep.

“Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives”

William Charles Demet

We usually think of sleep as downtime but there's actually a lot that goes on while we sleep. In preparation for sleep our body sends signals that tells our major systems including our muscles, lungs, nervous, and digestive systems it’s time to relax. And during that time of relaxation and sleep our body goes through different stages of sleep to help repair our muscles, and maybe even more importantly, certain areas of our brain. 

It takes time to get through these stages, and consistent inadequate or disrupted sleep has been shown to have negative effects on all of the bodies major systems. In several studies that were able to find links to people not getting enough sleep and early death. 

Sleeping helps to filter out some of the emotional components of our day and other less important information. These are some of the ways sleeps helps to improve our memory and the way we deal with stress on a daily basis. The brain takes this time to balance out any enzyme, protein, or hormone levels that may be out of whack as well. All of this reorganization and other event are important in maintaining long term mental health and may help prevent symptoms of depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia

But anyway, make sure that you don’t make the mistake of taking sleep lightly or something that can be replaced with a couple of cups of coffee. A lot goes on during this time, and it plays a big role in keeping us healthy. If you’ve already made it a habit of not getting enough sleep make sure you check out the article and try to find different things you can do to correct those habits.

 Check out the original article here for more detail: http://time.com/4672988/the-sleep-cure-fountain-of-youth/

And try to be in bed at a respectable hour tonight!