Sleep – it does a body good

Get your beauty rest, baby, and I’m not kidding.

Night owls beware … I don’t mean to be a nag, but it’s not just beauty rest – it’s health, beauty and anti-aging rest.

How can we look like were still full of the old vim, vigor and vitality if we have those little “mouse bellies” under our eyes every morning and well into the day? Mouse bellies? You know them; they’re those puffy, dark bags that hang around under our eyes after a hard night.

A hard night? That’s any night that we don’t get enough sleep; it’s a hard night on our bodies.

A good night’s sleep is more important than we ever realized. It’s hard to ignore the new evidence from sleep and brain research labs, where scientists have found that skimping on sleep is as dangerous to our health as a bad diet, plus they’re finding that inadequate nightly sleep speeds up the aging process, as well.

Oh, no! Considering the hoops through which we jump, and the bucks we spend trying to stay as many jumps ahead of the aging process as we can, it’s pretty horrifying to learn that if we’ve been cheating on our sleep we’re losing ground, big time, in this battle.

For sure, insufficient nightly sleep dulls the brain, saps energy, increases irritability and depression and makes people more accident-prone. But it also can cause weight gain. That gradual fat padding building up around our waistlines might be triggered by a lack of good sleep every night.

Want to shed some fat? Get more sleep every night. How much? Although we’re all different, around eight hours is suggested.

Sleep loss elevates the level of the stress hormone cortisol, the “flight-or-fight” hormone. When our body’s levels of cortisol are continually elevated, the results can impair cognitive function, suppress thyroid function, create blood sugar imbalances, decrease bone density, decrease muscle tissue, elevate the blood pressure, lower our immunity, create inflammation and increase abdominal fats.

And, our old enemy, insulin resistance. Sleep deprivation seriously impairs the body’s ability to process blood sugar, impeding the action of insulin. So missing our “beauty” sleep is an important contributor to obesity – especially that aforementioned fat which loves to collect around our bellies, and which can lead to diabetes.

Who knew?

Our modern lifestyle is a major culprit here. There’s just more to do than we can possibly accomplish in a day’s time. The result? Our chores keep us up too late at night, impinging upon our sleep time.

While we’re in bed cutting those zzz’s our brains are not just “on hold.” The brain is very active during sleep, and its biological clock has its own schedule, or cycles, during which it replenishes hormone levels, organizes the information, actions and skills we learned during the day.

When we hit the hay too late at night and get up too early the next day, we miss the late stage of sleep, the very time in which our coordination and fine motor control is replenished and enhanced. Although getting about eight hours of sleep every night, is important, so is staying on a sleep schedule.

If we try to make up for lost sleep by sleeping longer during the weekends, we further confuse our body clocks. Establish a regular sleep schedule and get and adequate amount of uninterrupted sleep each night. If you miss some sleep, catch up by going to bed earlier the next night so you will still wake up at the same time in the morning.

The National Sleep Foundation’s surveys report that most adults get less sleep than they need. When Edison turned on that first light bulb he changed us forever. Artificial light extended the number of hours of light to which we’re exposed daily, thus disturbing the natural cycles of night and day to which our bodies are attuned. This makes getting the right amount of sleep and staying on sleep schedule all the more imperative.

Even one week in which we don’t get enough nightly shut-eye can set in motion the body’s process of inflammation, causing chronic inflammation.

Chronic inflammation? Listen up. Dr. Nicholas Perricone, author of the book “The Wrinkle Cure,” later wrote “The Perricone Promise.” This book goes beyond removing wrinkles and looking younger – it offers a revolutionary program incorporating the biggest breakthrough in anti-aging medicine in years. Perricone had this to say about inflammation:

“Years of research have shown that the inflammation-aging connection is the single greatest cause of aging and age-related diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s Disease, arthritis, certain cancers, diminished mental and physical energy, loss of muscle mass and wrinkled, sagging skin.”

I rest my case. Get more shut-eye … starting tonight.