Why Sleep Is So Important To Keep Active & Healthy

I write a lot about living a healthy lifestyle, tips on how to keep active and mobile, why it’s important to look after your body, and how to ease things like back pain, knee pain, shoulder pain, etc, etc…

So you can live an active life free from pain!

But when it comes to health, there is one, simple thing that you can do (as soon as tonight) to boost your health…

And that’s sleep!

In fact, sleep is important for ALL areas of health, and I’d even go as far to argue that it’s the most important thing you do each day.

When you browse the internet and read magazines, you’ll see that sleep is the one thing that all the ‘health gurus’ keep talking to us about.

Some advocate eating no meat or eating a diet full of it.

Some say no dairy.

Some say to eat plenty of raw vegetables, or only cooked, but if there’s one thing they all agree on, it’s sleep, and there’s a good reason why.

I’m yet to see a nutritionist or health expert suggesting that the way to achieve our best health is through not getting a solid sleep or finding ways to sleep less… but the shocking truth is that is exactly what many of us do too often.

People really don’t get enough of it anymore.

On the flip side, if you want to gain weight, shorten your life, age quicker, feel more stressed and increase your likelihood of injury, you can experience all of that (and more) by not sleeping enough!

And I think you’d agree, that doesn’t sound like something anyone would want.

So, let’s take a look at what happens when you don’t get enough sleep…

First off, poor sleep is strongly linked to weight gain.

There’s been plenty of studies done on it. And people who don’t get enough hours of sleep each night have been found to weigh significantly more than those who do get a good nights sleep regularly.

Why is this?

Because we sleep to repair our bodies and balance our hormones.

So when we don’t get enough of it, our bodies are put under stress, causing them to go into ‘fight or flight mode’, clinging onto every bit of body fat we have and making our hormones go out of balance, which is why we’re more likely to gain weight (or struggle to lose it), because our body isn’t working in balance.

Sleep also plays a huge role on our physical health. It’s involved in healing and repairing your heart and blood vessels.

Ongoing sleep deficiency is linked to an increased risk of heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and even strokes.

Like I said above, sleep plays a big part in maintaining a healthy balance of the hormones that make you feel hungry or full.

When you don’t get enough sleep, your hunger levels go up! And your ‘feeling full’ levels go down. This makes you feel hungrier than when you’re well-rested.

So if you find yourself always feeling hungry and never satisfied, ask yourself if you get enough sleep?

Do you ever get mood swings? You can blame a lack of sleep for those moments too.

Sleep loss can make you feel irritable, impatient, unable to concentrate and feel irritated when you don’t mean to be. And none of us like to be around that person when mood swings strike.

We spend about one third of our life sleeping, so why is it we struggle to make it a priority?…

I know, you probably know you should get more of it (me included), and the truth is when we’re in a habit of not making sleep a top priority, it’s difficult to fix it without knowing where to begin.

Let me explain, a lot of us think getting tucked into bed early with the TV on is getting a good nights sleep. It isn’t.

Though you might be ‘winding down early’ (or so you think), sleeping with the TV and being awakened by an alarm clock, is not quality sleep.

On a personal level I know that if I don’t get enough quality sleep I can NOT concentrate and don’t feel motivated to get up and exercise like I know I should.

So getting your environment right is key to setting yourself up for success.

Here’s a few things I’ve found that help me the most personally…

Sleeping in complete darkness – covering anything that has a light on it, and investing in a blackout blind.

Sleeping on a good quality mattress.

Sleeping as much as my body needs – usually about 8 hours.

Eating healthy the majority of the time and daily exercise, even if that just means a brisk walk outside in the fresh air.

So I implore you, please make time to get enough sleep. It’s important for your health and it doesn’t cost a thing!

I understand how tough it can be, especially if you have kids or grandchildren when those precious hours in the night are sometimes the only ones you get to have a bit of ‘you time’ to unwind.

But in the long run, the extra hours of sleep will equal a more happier, patient you, feeling more alert all day long, leaving you with more energy to do the things you enjoy.

So, are you getting enough sleep?

Have a think about it, and start making the change today to kickstart your new routine and give your health a boost.