Are you Prioritizing your Sleep?

Ask yourself this… How often do you hear someone tell you, "I had an amazing night’s sleep last night!" or "I’m feeling so refreshed and energetic!"? I would imagine not very often. Feeling sluggish/tired seems to be the new normal in our society, and according to the National Sleep Foundation, it actually is the new normal. I'm sure it's no surprise that most people are actually sleep-deprived, but not getting enough sleep could be causing you a lot more trouble aside from that horrible lethargic feeling: it could be seriously harming your health.

Why Aren't We Sleeping?

The reasons we aren't sleeping are many...we live in a 24/7 society, practically anything we want to do is available around the clock, from Netflix to social media and even online shopping.

Unfortunately the first thing we sacrifice is usually our sleep. And it's usually not even a conscious decision to skimp on sleep. We just get to bed a little later most nights because we're so pressed and overloaded.

But even when we do finally get into bed, we aren't guaranteed sleep. Once again, the fast-pace world we live in seems to take a hold of our minds when we're trying to relax and go to sleep. The National Sleep Foundation reports that 60% of people have sleep problems! That means that more than half of us struggle to sleep. And it's taking its toll!

Dangers of Sleep Deprivation

Unfortunately, eating healthy and getting plenty of exercise are simply not enough to make up for the danger that sleep deprivation poses to your health. Adults need around 8 hours of sleep each night.

Risk of Cardiovascular Disease: If you get less than 6 hours of sleep each night and have disturbed sleep, you have 48% greater risk of developing or dying from heart disease and a 15% greater risk of developing or dying from a stroke. Lack of sleep can also cause high blood pressure, blocked arteries, kidney disease and dementia. Those are some serious statistics!

Obesity: Sleep shortage is directly linked to obesity. When you don't get enough sleep, two powerful hormones that control hunger are disrupted. The result causes you to feel hungrier and have fewer sensations of feeling "full". But without enough sleep you will also feel more stressed, which encourages over production of the hormone cortisol in your body. Excess cortisol causes you to have even higher food cravings.

Compromised Immune System: Lack of sleep can cause your immune system to be compromised, meaning you will be much more vulnerable to infections, bacteria, viruses, and even some autoimmune diseases such as arthritis and asthma. When you don't get enough sleep, your immune system becomes stressed and you have a decrease in white blood cells, which are the bodies' main immune system defence mechanism.

Impaired Exercise Performance: Ah good old exercise… being a personal trainer/coach this is one that I see the most. Lack of sleep can negatively impact your fitness efforts. Sleep debt can make your workouts 20-30% less effective because the struggle to maintain your normal level of workout intensity becomes much more difficult. Also, your muscles repair and rebuild while you sleep, and if you don't allow your body this recovery time, you'll be at a significant disadvantage during your next workout.

Make Time for Sleep

The truth is, if you don't adjust your schedule now to make time for adequate sleep each night. You will most likely be forced to adjust your schedule to make time for some sick days in the future. To set yourself up for success, remember that it will probably take significant effort to rearrange your schedule and priorities to carve out time for more sleep, but the payoff will be well worth it when you see an increase in your overall health, energy and productivity! Ready for a nap yet?