Does it REALLY matter whether I get 7-8 hours of sleep every night?
The answer is …. YES!
If you get enough sleep, you’ll actually get MORE done – and do it better! PLUS, you’ll feel better doing it.
✅Here’s a quick rundown of WHY sleep is important:
- Your brain forms new pathways to help your memory while you sleep.
- Being rested helps you control your emotions and behavior.
- It improves your recovery from workouts.
- It keeps your hormones balanced (including those that control stress, blood sugar control, and food cravings).
- Plus, it triggers the release of growth hormone, which helps your body build muscle and repair cells.
- Getting too little sleep (in the long term) is linked with a higher risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and kidney disease.
- Getting too little sleep increases the risk of obesity.
- Your immune system performs better when you are rested.
- Getting enough quality sleep helps you be more productive and efficient during the day.
While it’s really tempting to finish that episode on Netflix or play Candy Crush until you run out of lives (guilty!), use those extra minutes to snooze some more.
Quality of sleep is important too. We often hear – avoid eating at least 3 hours prior to sleeping. Reason is simple. If the body is busy with digestion of food, it won’t rest and your quality of sleep gets affected and you wake up feeling tired.
As you can see, your body isn’t asleep on the job when you’re sleeping – it’s actually working hard to keep you healthy, strong, and productive!
So how many hours of sleep did YOU get last night? Do you give importance to your sleep? Drop a comment below.
