We regard the pillars of excellent overall health being the right diet and both strength and aerobic exercise. But perhaps we should add one more pillar, since without it you can consume a perfectly healthy diet and be as vigorous as a world-class athlete but yet encounter many medical issues.
Needless to say we’re referring to improving our ability to sleep. In fact is estimated that over 40 million Americans aren’t getting enough of it! And tests suggest that women who’re sleep-deficient comprise 2.5 times the amounts of inflammation as men, possibly since men are guarded with higher levels of testosterone.
There are many good methods to battle sleep deprivation, and one we don’t recommend is sleeping pills. They typically allow only uneven sleep and sometimes result in unwanted side effects of their own, including tiredness well later after the time you should be awake.
The reason we sleep goes far beyond simply replenishing our energy levels every 12 hours - our brains actually change states when we sleep to clear away the toxic byproducts of neural activity left behind during the day.
Weirdly enough, the same process starts to occur in brains that are chronically sleep-deprived too - except it's kicked into hyperdrive. Researchers have found that persistently poor sleep causes the brain to clear a significant amount of neurons and synaptic connections, and recovering sleep might not be able to reverse the damage.
We've known that this process occurs when we sleep to clear away the neurological wear and tear of the day, but it appears that the same thing happens when we start to lose sleep. But rather than being a good thing, the brain goes overboard with the clearing, and starts to harm itself instead.
Think of it like the garbage being cleared out while you're asleep, versus someone coming into your house after several sleepless nights and indiscriminately tossing out your television, fridge, and family dog.
You almost certainly can’t make a better time commitment than habitually getting a appropriate quantity of sleep. Not only will you be with less threat for a lot of health problems, but that additional couple of hours committed to sleep each night will pay back in additional productiveness the next day.
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