Are You Getting Enough Sleep?

Did you know that lack of sleep is making you fat, ruining your creativity, increasing your stress level, and even putting you at risk for type 2 diabetes and a heart attack?

The Division of Sleep Medicine, at the Harvard Medical School, determined that short-term productivity gains from skipping sleep are more than offset by the detrimental effects of sleep deprivation on your ability to focus, your mood, and access to higher-level brain function for days after the all-nighter. Frighteningly, people who are drunk actually outperform those lacking sleep.

You Need Adequate Sleep to Perform

There is now evidence that when you sleep, your brain removes toxic proteins from its neurons that are by-products of neural activity when you are awake. The problem is your brain cannot remove these toxins while you are awake. Thus, the proteins that remain in your brain cells wreak havoc and impair your ability to think.

Skipping sleep also slows your ability to process information and problem-solve, increases your stress levels, and shuts down your creativity.

How Sleep Deprivation Affects Your Health

Sleep deprivation is linked to serious health issues such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, and even heart attack. The problem arises from the surplus amounts of the stress hormone cortisol, which occurs when the body is sleep deprived. Lack of sleep also makes you look older and takes a serious toll on the immune system.

How Much Sleep Do I Need?

According to research, most people need seven to nine hours of sleep per night to feel adequately rested. Very few people perform at their best with less than seven hours of sleep. This is a major problem because most Americans get less than the necessary seven hours of sleep each night (National Sleep Foundation).

Five Tips for Getting Better Sleep

Avoid sleeping pills as these substances greatly affect your brain’s natural sleep process.
Stop drinking caffeine, or at least after lunch as this is a powerful stimulant that interferes with sleep by increasing adrenaline production.
Avoid blue light at night. Sunlight contains high concentrations of blue light, and it is blue light that halts the production of melatonin, a sleep-inducing hormone. The challenge is that devices such as laptops, TVs, tablets, and mobile phones all emit short-wavelength blue light. The best thing is to avoid these devices after dinner. You could also try eyewear designed to block blue light.
Maintain the same daily schedule to keep your body rhythm consistent. When you have a habitual wake-up time, your brain sets itself to this schedule and will slowly wake you up so you feel alert at your normal wake-up time.
Learn how much time you need to be sufficiently rested. Follow your body and its natural rhythm and you will perform at your best.

Having enough sleep each night is imperative if you intend to live a healthy, happy productive life. Stop sabotaging your health and your success and start getting enough sleep!