Sleep Deprivation: It’s Hazardous to Your Health.

As I am writing this, I am home on sick leave.  I see great wrong in this, because I take great lengths to keep myself healthy.  I eat right, exercise (which hasn’t happened much lately because of the darn rain), and take supplements.  But why am I sick nonetheless?  There’s an easy answer to that: I have been violating another essential habit for good health.
I have been abusing my body in terms of sleep, or the lack of it being more accurate.  Sleep deprivation: it’s hazardous to your health.  In fact, the lack of sleep is one of the most epidemic health hazards today.  Even if you do everything else right, you will still be a wreck if you do not allow your body to rest.  It’s that simple…and this blog article will talk about that.
For a much better explanation on why we need sleep (or what is the effect of sleeplessness on the body) and how to sleep better, I suggest you visit this article here.  The article just nails it, and it made me realize how foolish I was (or still am, as I’m now paying for my sins) for thinking that skimping on sleep is no big deal.  It is a big deal, and you’d be wise to learn from my mistake.
In a nutshell, here are just a few of the hazards that sleep deprivation can bring to your body:

• Dramatically weaken your immune system.
• Interferes with growth hormone production and ages you more rapidly.
• Seriously impairs memory, physical and mental tasks.
• Aggravates stress related disorders like heart disease, constipation, and depression.

If you have trouble sleeping, in the article you'll also learn some nifty ways to sleep better, a few of which are:

• Listening to white noise or relaxing melodies to soothe you to sleep.
• Not watching TV right before bed (it will get you all wired, and you need to be relaxed)
• Take a nice hot bath before sleeping.
• If all else fails, take melatonin.

I also learned a while back that the time you sleep is also important.  Have you ever told yourself that it’s okay to sleep late because the next day, you’d sleep in and wake up late as well?  Well, that is false.  Check out this clip from one of my favorite speakers, Dr. Wayne Corderio, in his talk Dead Leader Running.  He gives a VERY good tip about the time we should sleep.

So, as a teacher by profession, I would often wake up extra early to check papers, instead of sleeping late to do the same task, and lo and behold, I would be fine.  It’s just that the past few days, I, in epic fashion, broke that rule and now I’m paying for it dearly.  What a dummy.
I’ll learn from this…or shall I say, re-learn.  I hope you got some wisdom from this blog entry, too.  Remember friends, that sleep deprivation is hazardous to your health.
Recommended reading:
Dr. Wayne Corderio's books:  Click here.