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Sleeping your way to a healthier you
Another way to ensure a healthy lifestyle is by ensuring that other aspects of your life are kept in balance.

Sleep is a huge component of why oftentimes we find ourselves sick. Consistent and sufficient amounts of sleep is crucially important to your overall health as well as the health of your immune system.

Recent studies have shown that a proper night’s sleep in intimately tied to the balance of hormones (cortisol and melatonin). Both of these hormones will ensure your overall mental health and will keep your brain functioning all day long.

We all have plenty on our plates, and some people need more sleep than others, but as long as you get a consistent number of hours, you will ensure your body’s immune system to remain constant as well.

Also, more important than the number of hours you sleep, is specifically when you sleep. By sleeping according to the day night cycle, your body’s glandular system will be more in balance. This means in a perfect world to upkeep your glandular system, you should be going to bed between nine and ten p.m. in the summertime, and the optimal time to go to bed in the winter is between eight and nine p.m. It is also proven that sleep cycles that start before midnight are far more effective than those started after midnight, regardless of the number of hours slept. So lets say you go to bed at one a.m. and sleep until nine a.m., sure that is eight hours the recommended number of hours to bolster your health, but because it was not in sync with hours of the day your glandular system will still not be up to par.

Understandably, these hours are very difficult to upkeep given our rigorous schedules we observe during he day, but if you feel that your health is in jeopardy try and fit a few more smart hours of sleep into you life.

Rest and proper sleep, are the two cheapest ways to ensure your health. In fact a healthy cycle of sleeping habits are more important than you think. In fact if someone is highly deprived of sleep, there are significantly harmful effects to your health, that can all be avoid with an adequate sleep cycle.

More often times than not, your inadequate number of hours of sleep is due to an unrecognized sleep disorder. And if you have a sleep disorder and are not taking care of it, it can be very harmful to your health.

If you wake up and do not feel refreshed and find yourself sleepy throughout the day, it may very well be because you have a sleep disorder. In fact without a proper night’s sleep, you may be more at risk to the following:

Decreased performance and alertness; in fact if you lose a precious half hour of sleep, you can be reducing your daytime alertness by almost 32%.

Memory and Cognitive Impairment: if you are missing precious sleep hours, there is a good chance you will be unable to think and process information throughout the day.

Poor Quality of Life: if you are missing out on hours of sleep, you may find it more difficult to get through the day’s small tasks. Your attention span might lessen, and the day may pass you by as if you were living in a cloudy daze.

An insufficient number of hours of sleep can also lead you to a day full of lower performance, so when you are on the job or behind the wheel, you may find yourself unable to stay awake to prevent injuries or harmful situations.

Long Term effects of sleep deprivation are much more harmful to your health. You may find yourself with high blood pressure, at risk for a heart attack, heart failure, stroke, obesity, Attention Deficit Disorder, Mental impairment, Psychiatric problems, fetal and childhood growth retardation, injury from accidents, disruption of your bed partner’s quality of sleep, and an overall poorer quality of life.

All of the above long term and short term effects can have a detrimental effect on your health. Try and change your sleeping habits sooner than later.