Do you get enough sleep?

Why Is Sleep So Important?
We need to wake up in the morning feeling refreshed and ready for the day without the need for caffeine. Eight hours of sleep each night is recommended but if you are regularly only getting six hours or less you are increasing the risk of certain cancers and Alzheimer’s disease.
Insufficient sleep seems to be a lifestyle factor these days but even moderate reductions in sleep disrupts blood sugar levels so profoundly that you would be classified as pre-diabetic, lack of good quality sleep increases the likely hood of coronary arteries becoming blocked. Have you noticed you tend to eat more when you’re tired? Too little sleep swells concentrations of a hormone that makes you feel hungry at the same time suppressing a hormone that signals food satisfaction. When you are in deep sleep your brain activates the immune system and chemicals in your body in order to repair it and refresh it, also part of your sleep is called REM sleep (rapid eye movement) whilst this is happening all of your learning, experiences, of the day, things you need to remember are being filled away into the long term memory and negative thoughts are being changed from emotional thoughts into a narrative memory, a memory we have control over, unfortunately R.E.M. sleep has only 20% of your sleep devoted to it therefore a shortage of sleep will leave your short term memory overloaded and not much will be filled away leaving you exhausted.
Imagine an office block, all the workers go home at 5pm, then the cleaning staff come in to clear up the rubbish from the working day and vacuum and give the place a good clean. The maintenance staff is there to repair any broken bits and pieces. All of this is being orchestrated by the supervisor of the building.
If there are not enough cleaners or maintenance men to do the jobs properly then they will run out of time and when the office staff come in the following day the place is still dirty, untidy, and broken things have not been repaired and the building soon becomes tired looking and worn.
In this example your brain is the supervisor that fantastic brain we all have trying so hard to make sure your body is relaxed, refreshed, and sufficiently repaired for the following day. If you get that lovely 8 hours of sleep we all need each night then you are well on your way to staying alert and healthy.
Did you know that a tired driver is a far greater danger than a driver who is over the limit with alcohol, a drunk driver can use the brakes and steer albeit not well, conversely a driver that has fallen into a micro sleep (eye lids shut) at the wheel cannot.
Learn how to sleep well and feel great.
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