Diet, Exercise and Sleep

Most people recognize that to optimize their mental and physical health a good balanced diet and exercise program is essential. What many people do not realize is that there is a third element to the formula which is every bit as important as the other two. That element is sleep. Many people in our modern world simply do not get enough sleep and even minimal sleep loss can affect your mood, energy, and stress levels.

As a result of busy schedules and loaded lifestyles, an increasing number of people in our society want think that reducing the number of sleep hours is the best way to fit it all in. There are just too many things that seem more interesting or important than getting a few more hours of sleep. Otherwise healthy people who recognize the importance of diet and exercise, will simply ignore the significance of sleep even though the quantity and quality of their sleep directly affects the their mental capacity, productivity, creativity, emotional balance, physical performance, and can even their weight. Name one other activity we can receive such benefits from with so little effort.

The brain actually needs sufficient sleep time to re-organize our thoughts. Just like a de-frag operation you might perform on your computer to organize and store information efficiently, your brain does the exact same thing during sleep. During sleep your brain is overseeing a wide variety of biological maintenance tasks that keep your mind and body running at high performance levels and prepare you for the day ahead. If you don’t get enough sleep, you’re like a car in need of an oil change. You will encounter difficulties with your daily activities when you attempt to work, learn, create, and communicate at a level even close to your true potential. Lack of sleep can affect your relationships with co-workers, because you become irritable and short tempered. If you make a routine habit of cutting back on “mental maintenance” you are actually running the risk of a major mental and/or physical breakdown.

The important thing to remember about sleep is that it is not only about quantity, but also quality. If you are not getting quality sleep hours you are still at risk. If you believe you are getting plenty of sleep time, but you’re still having trouble waking up in the morning or staying alert all day, you may have a quality issue. If you have trouble with snoring, getting up multiple times to urinate, anxiety waking, or simply just can’t stay asleep for longer periods, you are missing out on quality sleep. You need deep sleep and REM sleep to allow your brain to function properly. By understanding how the sleep cycles work and the factors that can lead to those cycles being disrupted, you’ll be able to start getting both the quantity and the quality of sleep you need.

Everybody has an internal 24-hour sleep-wake cycle. This cycle is known as a circadian rhythm and it is your biological clock. It regulates the processes in the brain that tell you when you are in need of sleep as well as sensing the changes between light and dark. When the sun sets, your body responds to the loss of daylight by producing melatonin. During the day, sunlight triggers the brain to inhibit melatonin production so you feel awake and alert.

It has been well documented that this sleep-wake cycle can be disrupted by night-shift work, traveling across time zones, or irregular sleeping patterns. This can leave you feeling groggy, disoriented, and sleepy during the course of your work day. Your production of melatonin can also be thrown off when you’re deprived of sunlight during the day or exposed to too much artificial light at night, disrupting the sleep-wake cycle and preventing you from getting the sleep you need.

Here are some sleep facts and fictions that you should be aware of:

Sleep Fiction and Facts
Fiction: Getting just 1 hour less sleep per night won’t affect your daytime functioning.
Fact: Even though you may not be noticeably sleepy during the day, even slightly less sleep can affect your mental ability to think and affect your body’s ability to respond. Sleep deprivation can compromise your cardiovascular health, energy balance, and ability to fight infections.

Fiction: Your body adjusts quickly to different sleep schedules.

Fact: The truth is it can take more than a week to adjust to traveling across several time zones, or switching to a night shift job. Most people can reset their biological clock, but only by appropriately timed cues—and even then, by normally only by 1–2 hours per day.

Fiction: Extra sleep at night can cure you of problems with excessive daytime fatigue.
Fact: As previously mentioned, not only is the quantity of sleep important but also the quality of sleep. Some people sleep 8 or 9 hours a night but don’t feel well rested when they wake up because the quality of their sleep is poor.

Fiction: You can make up for lost sleep during the week by sleeping more on the weekends.

Fact: Although this sleeping pattern can help you recover, it will not completely make up for the lack of sleep. I addition, you body is seeking to find a steady sleep pattern rhythm. Sleeping later on the weekends confuses your sleep-wake cycle making it much harder to go to sleep at the right time on Sunday nights and get up early on Monday mornings.

Signs You may be sleep deprived