Get sleepy with it!

Sleep.

Is it really as important as people make it sound?

You bet your ass it is!

Sleep plays a very important role in your physical health. While you are sleeping your body is healing and repairing your organs, muscles, etc. Most of the things that you read, learned, and experienced during the day are retained at night. When you are asleep that is when your body moves what it deems important to you from your short term memory to long term memory.

For example, if you are a student, and just crammed for a quiz or test you have the next day, if you don’t get at least 7-8 hours of sleep then you wasted that time studying because you won’t remember most of what you just made sure you would remember. If you don’t get enough sleep, and keep going with not enough sleep, then you are increasing your risk of heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and having a stroke.

While all of those are scary to think about and deal with, not getting enough sleep can raise your chances of gaining weight. Your hormones that make you feel hungry are messed up and it causes you to feel so much hungrier than you would if you had gotten adequate sleep. I know when I am super tired I want to eat all the time. All day, anything I can get my hands on, and I know it’s bad, but I am too tired to care.

When children and teens are sleeping that is when their growth and development occurs. Has it ever felt like your child grew overnight? It feels that way because they did! During sleep the hormones for growth and muscle mass are being released. Also released during sleep are the hormones for tissue repair, puberty, and fertility.

When you were sick as a child your parent(s) made you spend most of your time in bed so you could rest, didn’t they? That is because your immune system is relying on that sleep/nap/rest to do its job and make you healthier.

Not only can you get yourself potentially set up for physical issues with your body you also start having trouble with making decisions, figuring out how to solve a problem you are dealing with, your emotions are out of whack, and your behavior and coping skills are minimal. That is part of why children that don’t get enough sleep have such crazy mood swings and have trouble paying attention when they are school aged.

One thing I learned while doing some research for this is microsleep. Microsleep is something that happens when you don’t get enough sleep. It is a brief moment where, when you are normally awake, you are actually microsleeping. Do you ever drive somewhere when tired and notice that you don’t remember a part of the trip? You were probably microsleeping. Have you ever listened to a lecture, watched a movie/tv show, and notice that you don’t remember a few minutes of what you were listening to? Microsleep. You can microsleep without even noticing it. I know I have had both of those things happen to me. I have also been watching tv with my dad, closed my eyes for a second, and open them up 10 minutes later. It didn’t feel like it had been ten minutes and I could still hear everything on the TV, but I was microsleeping.

Now that I have told you how a lack of sleep can affect your mind and body I am going to give you a few tips on how to get better sleep!

1. Stick to a schedule. Even if you are on vacation or it is the weekend, make sure that you are going to sleep at the same time every night. But, if you can’t fall asleep after about 15 minutes then get up and do something relaxing. Meditate for a few minutes, read a couple pages of a relaxing book, and then go back to bed once you start feeling relaxed. Stressing about falling asleep can even make it harder to fall asleep.

2. Pay attention to what you are eating a drinking before bed. Try to limit how much you drink in the time before bed so you don’t have the urge to wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. Limit caffeine and nicotine in the hours leading up to bed time as well.

3. Start a bedtime ritual. Take a warm shower/bath, read a book, meditate, listen to music (making sure to have dim lights), but do something that will help relax you. Try not to use the TV or other electronics because the blue lighting does something to your brain to keep you wired and awake.

4. Get comfy!! Make sure your room is cool, have dark shades over the window to keep out ambient lighting, have a bed that is comfortable. Turn your room into a fortress of solitude. A place where as soon as you walk into it you know that sleep is going down!

5. Limit your napping. If you have to take a nap then keep it to only 10-30 minutes. Unless you are a baby or toddler you don’t need more than a 30 minute nap. If you work at night and have to sleep during the day then sleeping during the day is different for you, just make sure you have minimal light in your bedroom.

6. Let’s get physical, physical! Exercising regularly can boost your sleep and help you get deeper asleep at night. Just try not to do it too close to bedtime if you workout later in the day because it can actually wake you up instead.

7. Don’t stress out, man! If you are a constant worrier or constant stressor than that can make your sleep suffer. Get as organized at you can so you can utilize the day to the best you can. Give yourself to take a break. Write down what is stressing you out or worrying you so that you get it off your chest and out of your mind.

Now that you know more about how sleep affects your body and how to get better sleep I hope you utilize as much as you can and get a better nights sleep!