Sleep

According to an article I read from the medical journal The Lancet reporting that too little sleep can accelerate aging and contribute to the incidence of diseases such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, memory loss, and obesity.  These are the very conditions that have risen to epidemic levels in our society.  Scientists found that sleep debt resulted in hormone imbalances of insulin and cortisol levels that are critical for proper energy, metabolism and balanced blood sugar.  In addition to these, thyroid stimulating hormone was also decreased contributing to lower energy and weight gain.  The researchers concluded that consistent lack of sleep can be as detrimental as severe stress and they found that as little as one week of sleep deprivation can affect the hormone balances.

Admittedly, sleep is a necessary health element that I often neglect and I find many of my clients neglect as well.  Numerous other studies have been done showing how lack of sleep contributes to decreased brain function, but this is the first study I’ve seen that looked at these crucial hormone levels.  Most experts agree that 7 hours of sleep is the bare minimum, but that many people could benefit from as many as 9 hours every night and that 10 pm is the ideal bedtime.  For us night owls, the only good news from this study is that it appears that the hormone imbalance from sleep debt can be made up with a few nights of sleep recovery.  Sleep well!