Why do I focus on Sleep?

Why Sleep?

In our stressed out, overly busy world of 'info - besity', it's hard to know where to focus your efforts to improve your health.

Should I do keto? What about intermittent fasting or HITT exercise classes?

Is this health watch the answer to my extra lockdown inches?

I get it.

The good news is there is one helper for all health concerns including lack of energy, hormone or mood imbalance, excess weight, lack of mental focus or just productivity issues.

Read that again!

Dr Sleep heals and restores all systems in your body - your cardio- vascular, immune, brain and nervous system as well as your endocrine (hormone) system. Detoxification really gets underway as you sleep.

If you've noticed you look older when you're sleep deprived- you're right! That's because sleep is the ultimate anti - aging treatment, not just in terms of our looks but what's going on inside our bodies. Missing a night's sleep can cause fluid to accumulate below your eyes leading to circles and swelling.

The growing body of research on sleep is clear -

the shorter your sleep, the shorter your life.

If there's one thing I want you to know, dear reader, it's this. Sleep is the foundation of your mental and physical health.

Not one foundation amongst others like good nutrition, adequate hydration and exercise.

The foundation. The One.

It's the foundation upon which those pillars of health- nourishing food, water and regular exercise - are built.

Adults who regularly sleep more than 7 hours each night are;

1. More resourced to handle the damaging impact of stress chemistry in their body. Don't ignore your fatigue. Those yawns are your body's demand for restoration time. Elevated blood Cortisol and Adrenaline levels due to unmanaged stress go hand in hand with inability to sleep which is a shame because when life is stressful, you need that sleep more than ever.

I get it. Frustration.com

2. More likely to be a healthy weight with less abdominal fat.. Sleep has so many complex impacts on your hormones that it's the best friend of dieters which is why I always ask my clients who are working on weight to embed good sleep before counting calories - in fact I never recommend the latter! Sleep deprivation causes blood sugar imbalance and cravings and reduces your ability to regulate appetite and make good food choices.

Losing fat is so very much more than calories in; calories out.

3.Less likely to become ill - sleep optimises your immune system so it can fight off infection, viruses and reduce long term disease risk.Your immune system needs your nightly unconsciousness to come fully onboard.

4. Have better mental acuity. You haven't imagined it. When sleep deprived, you're less emotionally tolerant, less sharp and more forgetful. You're more easily distracted, less creative and less able to problem solve. Your brain needs good quality sleep to do the nightly de-cluttering and processing of our daily experience that is so crucial for learning, building and maintaining healthy relationships and for mental wellbeing.

So there you have it - the shorter your sleep, the shorter your life span.

Chronic sleep deprivation or short sleeping - less than 7 hours a night for adults - is a risk factor for myriad mental and physical health problems including Diabetes, Obesity, Cardio Vascular disease including high blood pressure, stroke and heart attack, Hormonal abnormalities because sleep helps the body produce and regulate levels of various hormones. Sleep and mental health are closely interconnected and chronic sleep deprivation is strongly linked with conditions like depression, anxiety, bi-polar disorder and lack of sleep in middle age may increase our risk of dementia (NIH 2021)

So, what to do?

Invest in your sleep. Invest your focus and effort on improving your sleep because you'll get that time back with double the energy and heightened productivity.

This panacea for mental and physical health is cost and side effect free and available on repeat prescription every night.

Join my FREE Facebook Group, myBestme where I'll be sharing FREE TRAINING on these topics starting Friday 1 - Monday 4 October ;

• Sleep 101 Friday 1 October

• Sleep, Anxiety, Stress & Mood

• Sleep and Peri-menopause

• Sleep Myths and how to get to Sleep Quicker.