Don’t Let the Bedbugs Bite…
Quality sleep is one of the most fundamental nutrients that every person needs in order to perform at their optimal level of function.
Sleep deprivation creates a heightened stress response within the body that disrupts normal healing and tissue rejuvenation processes. Sleep deprivation increases ALLOSTATIC LOAD on the body ad rapidly accelerates the aging processes.
What is Allostatic Load?
It’s the consequence that comes from repeated or chronic stress. Frequent activation of the body’s natural stress response, essential for adapting to acute survival threats, can damage the body in the long run.
Higher allostatic load increases the risk for sickness, injury, disease and early mortality.
Healthy sleep cycles help to reduce allostatic load and allow individuals to adapt to life’s stressors more effectively.
Sleep deprivation dramatically reduces human growth horomone (HGH) secretion and testosterone production.
Both of these hormones are responsible for tissue healing and boosting metabolism to burn fat and build muscle as well as for providing a healthy immune response.
Sleep deprivation causes a decrease in lean body tissue, an increase in fat stoage and decreased immune coordination. Lowered immune coordination increases inflammatory processes and increases the susceptibility to auto-immune conditions.
Sleep deprivation also reduces insulin receptor sensitivity leading to increased susceptibility to diabetes type II. Sleep deprivation also dramtically increases the risk of heart disease, cancer and overall mortality.
Memory performance has been shown to be significantly reduced in sleep deprived individuals. Coordination, balance and reaction time are also known to be reduced in chronically sleep deprived individuals.
So what do you do about it?
Ideal sleeping hours for the greatest healing and anti-aging effects are between 10:00 pm and 6:00 am. Some experts suggest that every hour of sleep before midnight is equivalent in quality to three hours of sleep afterwards due to its HGH boosting effects.
Do something to unwind your mind before bed. Great strategies are to read and meditate and keep a gratitude journal, or use something else that inspires and brings peace to your mind.
