Good Sleep and Rest: Crucial to Good Health

You hear alot about the benefits of exercise to good health, but did you know a full night's sleep and naps when needed can be just as important? Sleep has been a neglected health topic until just the last few years. Maybe it's because doctors and the yuppies who wrote and read health publications just didn't want o admit what they were doibng to their own bodies an minds. There seems to have been a sleep-guilt aspect of American culture - maybe sleep is seen as lazy, indulging or apathetic?

Now that it's "OK" for the medical research community to study the adverse health effects of poor sleep, the floodgates are open. There are a ton of studies now that reveal the reality of how healthy good rest is.

Studies is recent years have found the following.

• A full night's sleep lowers blood pressure.


• A full night's sleep increases cognitive performance.


• Naps can help recover cognitive performance.


• A full night's sleep improves heart health.


• A full night's sleep increases immunity.


• A lack of sleep increases stress hormones, causing weight gain and other health problems.

I believe this will be the tip of the iceberg, as researchers are finally culturally "allowed" to look at sleep objectively.