Lose Weight, Be Smarter, Look More Attractive, Live Longer
… and be more successful! How?
It’s easy. Really!
Just get enough sleep.
Getting enough sleep might actually be the single most beneficial action we could take to improve our lives—in almost every way—according to Harvard Medical School’s Division of Sleep Medicine.
Too little sleep:
- makes it more difficult to memorize and comprehend new information
- can lead to hormone imbalances which affect eating decisions causing weight gain
- leads to job-related accidents and mistakes (Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and sleep-deprived doctors)
Getting enough sleep:
- can improve chronic health conditions
- improves our proficiency at complex tasks (better productivity)
Do you think you don’t have time to get the right amount of sleep? Does it seem like a waste of time?
Harvard scientists say it’s not only all those benefits, but for many people it’s a matter of safety: nearly 60% of adults say they have driven a vehicle in the past year while they were drowsy; more than 33% say they actually nodded off at the wheel of a car. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says over 100,000 crashes each year result from driver fatigue.
On the positive side, Dr. Robert Stickgold of Harvard, says that sleep helps us master tasks and improves our memory. Have you ever had the experience of struggling to understand or do something, but the next day it seems easy? Dr. Stickgold says that’s because sleep enables the brain to process and organize concepts and activities: “The skills you learned during the day are being refined and improved while you sleep.” But you have to get enough sleep that night, or it’s too late, he says.
Your body has its own “clock” that determines the amount of sleep you need; generally that’s between 7 and 9 hours every night. Trying to make up for lost sleep on the weekend doesn’t work.
You know the old expression: “Sleep on it.” It actually works.
Resources:
Caffeine and Sleep: the half-life of caffeine is 5 hours. So if your last cup of coffee is at 4pm, you’ll still have half that caffeine in your body at 9pm.