Sleep is such a crucial component of living a healthy life, but it is also something that so many of us neglect when life starts to get busy and things come up last minute. Everybody has busy lives, jobs, and plenty of other things to keep them occupied that when it comes to going to bed early at night and then waking up early with the sun, many of us just can’t comprehend the idea, or have the desire to actually do it. I remember in high school it used to be ‘cool’ to stay up late, watch all the TV shows that were on at a time that was not even suitable for high school kids to be watching and for people to be working on their homework well into the early hours of the morning. Thankfully, I stayed true to myself and was not one of these people but the fact that I wasn’t, lead me to feel ‘uncool’ when people were talking about the shows they watched and how late they stayed up each night.
Fast-forward 8 years out of school, I am still such a grandma when it comes to bed times, often being in bed and asleep by 9.30pm and I bloody love it! I wake up at 5.30am each day feeling energised and excited for the day ahead and seriously well rested. I ensure that I get 8 hours sleep each night because I know that is what makes me feel and perform at my best each and every day. However, rather than feeling ‘uncool’ like I did back in high school, I now get people saying how they admire my sleep and lifestyle patterns, and how they wish they could be in bed sleeping early and waking up early. How life changes as you grow up and get out of the high school bubble hey!
Anyway, the point of that story was that there are many critical bodily activities that occur while we are in a sleeping state, these include:
- Our internal organs rest and recover. Tissue repair, muscle growth and protein synthesis take place predominantly in a sleeping state.
- Hormones are released that help to regulate appetite control, stress, growth, metabolism and other important bodily functions.
- Memory consolidation occurs, allowing for the formation and storage of new memories, essential for learning new information.
Without getting 7-9 hours of sleep each night, it is impossible for our bodies, as adults, to do all of those things mentioned above.
Along with these bodily activities, sleep also benefits us in many other ways, such as:
- Increased energy to make beneficial and healthier lifestyle choices (cooking, exercise, self-care etc.)
- Strengthened immune system
- Heightened alertness, focus and creativity
- Improved mood, reduced anxiety, irritability and mental exhaustion
- Increased libido (sex drive)
How good are all of these benefits!! Surely they make you want to hit the hay earlier, wake up earlier and be jumping out of bed each day because you feel so awesome and energised! To feel these amazing benefits, adults should be aiming for 7-9 hours of solid, restful and uninterrupted sleep each night.
Sleep deprivation can have a serious (and very occasionally irreversible) impact on your health. It affects people in many different ways. Some of the most common affects I have found in people who are sleep deprived, and don’t allow their bodies a good chance to rest and repair each night are more likely to gain weight, have higher risks of illness and injuries, their brains do not function optimally and they are more likely to struggle with emotions (anxiety, depression, body/eating disorders etc.).
Sleep is seriously so important for your health and I hope by reading this it has inspired you to take a look at your own sleeping habits, evaluate how important sleep is to you, your life and your goals and make any necessary changes to make sure you are giving yourself every chance of living a healthy, happy and restful life! Stay true to yourself, don’t worry what your friends are doing, what times they go to bed, especially if they are staying up late, sleeping in and wasting days, just focus on YOU and becoming the best version of YOURSELF as possible!
If you would like to get in touch for a free initial health consultation and discuss any areas you are struggling with in your quest to live a healthy life, please do not hesitate to contact me. I will be happy to help you in anyway I can.
Email: ashlee.yourwellnessproject@gmail.com
Happy and restful sleeping xxx