SLEEP

Sleep is, unsurprisingly, just as important to health as a good diet or exercise.

No matter how you go about managing your physical (or mental) health, be it running, weight lifting, or yoga, one of the most common recommendations is to ensure getting enough rest. So take a seat, rest a minute, and read on for what may be the easiest, most important aspect of your overall health and wellness journey. Over the last few weeks, I have shared the importance of daily movement. Today, I want to take a “rest” from moving, and literally talk about the importance of rest! Adequate rest and sleep is imperative to your body, as this allows for the rejuvenation, healing, adaptation, and growth that your body needs for its well-being and optimal function. Unfortunately, we don’t talk about it enough, and many of us certainly don’t get enough of it.

Speaking from personal experience, prioritizing rest might actually include difficulties greater than that of even exercise itself. The world keeps spinning, days go by, we’re over-committed (to both others’ commitments and our own), and it just feels like we need more time in the day. We often feel as if we don’t even have the time to rest. Or, many feel that rest may even slow you down towards achieving a goal, because after all, “success doesn’t sleep.” Right? Not necessarily. Your overall success actually depends upon your brain’s ability to consolidate the information it receives throughout the day, repair muscle tissue stressed by exercise, and increase resiliency and motivation to seize the day ahead, all of which happens during sleep.

As you sleep, your brain goes through four different stages, grouped within two main cycles: NREM, non-rapid eye movement, and REM (rapid eye movement). NREM begins as you start to fall asleep (N1), leading to the second stage, “light sleep”, where your brain activity slows and other physiological changes occur within your body. 46-60% of sleep remains in this stage. During this stage, your brain refreshes its ability to learn new information throughout the day. In the third stage of sleep, “deep sleep”, most of your body and mind’s growth and restoration takes place. Finally, REM sleep is often associated with dreaming and procedural memory consolidation (learning a new task or skill). Generally, the National Sleep Foundation recommends 7-9 hours of sleep for adults, allowing for 4-6 full cycles of sleep to take place.

As stated before, your body needs rest in order to repair muscle, increase mental capacity, prevent stress and burnout, positively affect healthy maintenance of weight, enhance memory and learning, and more. Sleep is shown to directly influence hormone levels, including: growth hormone, thyroid hormone, and cortisol. Growth hormone, essential for muscle and bone development and repair, increases throughout the night. Sleep promotes better control of thyroid hormone, which greatly affects glucose metabolism; whereas a lack of sleep may lead to glucose intolerance. Cortisol levels, the hormone secreted in re- sponse to stress, are lowered throughout the day with adequate rest. Beyond its powerful effect on hormones, the natural regulators of all physiological processes, brain activity during sleep leads to the body’s enhanced ability to more effectively learn new movement skills and process new information throughout the day (i.e, names of people you meet, data important for work, procedure for new tasks, etc.).

The above information grasps only the surface of sleep research and its necessity for good health and peak performance (physically and mentally). However, like most other things, implementing sleep habits into your routine is a lot easier said than done. Some tips for attaining good sleep include: keeping a consistent sleep schedule (waking up early on the weekdays, and sleeping in for hours on the weekend can negatively affect the body, much like jet lag), ceasing use of technology at least one hour before bedtime (exposure to blue light found in screens keeps the brain awake), and maintaining an optimal sleepsupporting atmosphere (dark room and low temperature, which helps you fall asleep faster).

Adequate rest is essential to improving and maintaining good health, in all aspects. Allowing your body to rejuvenate creates a slingshot effect; a slight setback for a powerful propulsion forward. Need to contemplate? Give it a thought, and just “sleep” on it.