The Importance of Getting Enough Sleep

A couple of blog posts ago I talked about the importance of rest. This time I'm going to be a little bit more specific and talk about the importance of getting enough sleep. There's a ton of research on the topic and we're going delve into it. Let's go.

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     Most people aren't getting enough sleep. According to 'GoodBody', 35% of Americans don't get the recommended seven hours of sleep each night. Roughly 20% of Americans have sleeping disorders. In 1910, the average person slept 9 hours a night. 

     According to National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Also, an estimated 50 to 70 million Americans have chronic (ongoing) sleep disorders. Sleep deficiency is linked to many chronic health problems, including heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, obesity, and depression.

The Benefits of getting Enough Sleep
     Sleep is when you recharge. It is when you recover and grow your muscles from that hard workout you did. If you're not feeling or sick, you should be getting 8-10 hours of sleep. When I was sick a couple of weeks ago, I was literally getting an average of 10 hours of sleep each night. I would go to bed at 9, and stay in bed until 9 the next morning.

     Your brain is most clear right when you wake up in the morning. That's why they say do the most important things of the day first while you're brain is still at it's optimal function. The benefits of getting enough sleep include: (Healthfinder.gov)

1. You get sick less often, high immune system
2. Stay at a healthy weight
3. Lower your risk for serious health problems like diabetes and heart disease
4. Reduce stress and improve your mood
5. Think more clearly and do better in school and at work
6. Get along with people better

Improve the quality of your sleep.
Without listing off a bunch of research articles again, here are some tips I will give for improving the quality of your sleep.

1. Make your room as dark as possible at night. Whether than means blocking any light entering the room or wearing an eye cover, making the room as dark as possible can help improve the quality of your sleep. 

2. Try to make your room as quiet as possible. If you have loud neighbors who party at night or if your partner snores too loud, you may want to consider getting a sound machine. I have this one at my office - here. Also, you may want to try giving your partner some nose strips to help their snoring. 
3. Try to go to sleep and wake up at the same time everyday. 

4. If you go to bed while having a thousand thoughts running through your head, try doing some deep breathing exercises or mediation before you go to bed.

5. Try not to look at a tv, laptop or phone screen for at least an hour before you go to bed. I know this is really hard in this day and age, and most people won't follow this advice. I probably won't either. But there hard science showing the blue light in our screens prevent us from getting the best sleep we could get. 

6. Put your phone on airplane mode when you go to bed. I know people assume that people who think our phones are subtlely killing us are a bunch of crazy conspiracy theorists, but there is research showing that the radiation coming from the air waves from our phone could be causing cancer. Of course, that just depends on how much you have your phone against your face and in your pocket.
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     I'll probably get femur cancer some day from having my phone in my front jeans pocket all day every day. But even more interesting, the new 5g phones that are coming out, they are way worse than 4g. They send out way more radiation and there's a lot of growing concerns about them. So anyway my point is, at night just put your phone on airplane mode at the very least. 

Ok well, that's wrap for this post. In conclusion, get 8 hours of sleep a night. If you have to change your lifestyle around a bit, do it. You'll live a healthier, happier life and you won't be in a chronic zombie-like state from being sleep deprived. 

Cheers, 
Alex S.