Sleeping is a vital function for human life.
It is cyclic and recurrent by nature with very limited interactions with the surroundings. By reducing the level of body and mind consumption during its occurrence, it helps replenish the energy used during waking times.
Renew Energy
To renew our energy, we should not neglect to eat, even if our diet is sometimes inappropriate and we should also sleep, however we steal sleep hours for work and leisure time when we deemed them to be more important than our sleep. In some instance, we even use pills to enable us to stay awake for long period of time thus draining our limited reserve of energy. Due to bad sleep habits or abuse of sleep aids, some people develop a chronic fatigue for which they compensate with coffee, energy drinks, cool baths and/or other tricks.
Consequences of lack of sleep are: irritability which affects our social/family relationships, decrease our performance at work, trouble performing physical exercises, inability to concentrate and conduct intellectual activities that require focus. In extreme cases fatigue can cause hallucination, loss of attention and even death.
We need to take care of our sleep the same way we take care of our diet because it is imperative. Children need ten to twelve hours of sleep every night, adults between six to eight, some old people between four to six.
If for any reason we cannot get the normal quantity and quality of sleep required, we can be creative in the way we compensate for it: cutting on television and entertainment hours, taking short breaks after intense periods of work, isolating oneself for relaxation and spiritual renewal and also taking short naps of 15 to 30 minutes during the day.
Special Links
It is important to know that there is a special link between diet and sleep; as well as between sunlight, darkness and sleep. They are as follow:
1.Diet can affect sleep through the types of food that we consume, the time we choose to eat and the quantity of food ingested. Eating a big meal like dinner or even a snack right before or close to bedtime, as well as intake of alcohol and/or caffeine at that time frame, are not recommended. The reasoning behind not eating at night, is that our digestive system should be resting and not called upon to break down nutrients for energy and the nighttime phase (6-8 hours after eating) should be used to funnel the partially digested food to the intestines for further digestion and elimination. Secondly, eating a heavy meal at night adds additional calories to our system that we are not using while our body is supposed to be resting, and those unused calories will transform into body fat, thus provoking a condition called obesity that is conducive to many undesirable health conditions. To reiterate, in order to have a restful sleep, we should alleviate the work of the digestive system by not eating 3 hours before going to sleep thus eliminating the need of the body to be doing work instead of preparing for sleep.
1.Sunlight and darkness trigger the release of hormones in your brain that plays a vital role in sleep regulation. Those hormones are: serotonin and melatonin. So, it is mandatory to be exposed to sunlight five to fifteen minutes at least three times a week (arms, hands, and face) as well as sleeping in the dark at night.
Serotonin, called the hormone of happiness, is a mood stabilizer. It regulates sleep, anxiety, bowel movements, heals wounds, and maintains bone health. Serotonin can be found in some foods such as: nuts, salmon, chicken, eggs, soy, peanuts and peanut butter.
Melatonin enhances quietness at night by sending a clear signal to the body that this is sleeping time. It is worth reminding that it is darkness that triggers its production. Melatonin is produced by the human body during sleeping hours while laying down in darkness and it can also be produced in a laboratory as part of a supplement.
Never forget that in the long run, lack of sleep can affect beauty and life expectancy.
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