Get Your Snooze On!

Most of us have taken sleep for granted at one point or another. Getting enough rest isn't always something we factor into our quest for a healthier lifestyle. Most of the time we tend to focus on the importance of diet and exercise when beginning a fitness program but getting an appropriate amount of sleep is essential in order to render optimum results.

Our bodies recover and repair muscle tissue while sleeping. Growth hormone output takes place at this time allowing for sleep to be anabolic (characterized by or promoting constructive metabolism).

While we slumber critical neurotransmitters including dopamine, adrenalin, acetylcholine, and more are replenished as well. These neurotransmitters have a big job as they are responsible for focus and energy - stabilization of mood, and they are essential in safely building muscle.

The below listed consequences of sleep deprivation are borrowed from Web MD:
http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/important-sleep-habits

• Decreased Performance and Alertness: Sleep deprivation induces significant reductions in performance and alertness. Reducing your nighttime sleep by as little as one and a half hours for just one night could result in a reduction of daytime alertness by as much as 32%.
• Memory and Cognitive Impairment: Decreased alertness and excessive daytime sleepiness impair your memory and your cognitive ability -- your ability to think and process information.
• Stress Relationships: Disruption of a bed partner's sleep due to a sleep disorder may cause significant problems for the relationship (for example, separate bedrooms, conflicts, moodiness, etc.).
• Poor Quality of Life: You might, for example, be unable to participate in certain activities that require sustained attention, like going to the movies, seeing your child in a school play, or watching a favorite TV show.
• Occupational Injury: Excessive sleepiness also contributes to a greater than twofold higher risk of sustaining an occupational injury.
• Automobile Injury: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates conservatively that each year drowsy driving is responsible for at least 100,000 automobile crashes, 71,000 injuries, and 1,550 fatalities.

The good news for many of the disorders that cause sleep deprivation is that after risk assessment, education, and treatment, memory and cognitive deficits improve and the number of injuries decreases.

In the long term, the clinical consequences of untreated sleep disorders are large indeed. They are associated with numerous, serious medical illnesses, including:

• High blood pressure
• Heart attack
• Heart failure
• Stroke
• Obesity
• Psychiatric problems, including depression and other mood disorders
• Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
• Mental impairment
• Fetal and childhood growth retardation
• Injury from accidents
• Disruption of bed partner's sleep quality
• Poor quality of life

So be mindful of getting your Z's ... get your snooze on for optimum daily performance and wellness.