5 reasons to stop skimping on sleep

1. Cognitive Decline + Alzheimer's Disease. 

When we sleep there is a special system in our brain called the glymphatic system (I love that word) that cleans up debris. It's kind of like a special immune system for your brain.  Well, when you get under 6 hours of sleep routinely studies are finding that these clean up cells get confused + start "cleaning up" the wrong stuff.  They end up chewing on the ends of your neurons (cells in your brain that help you form connections) Over time, this leads to brain matter loss, memory problems and even Alzheimer's Disease-- this was so wild to me when I learned about this. 

2. Blood Sugar Control. 

Wonky blood sugar can cause a whole myriad of issues from diabetes (in the extreme) to feelings of anxiousness, energy crashes, fatigue in general + even... yes PERIOD ISSUES (hello PCOS and/or missing periods). When we don't get enough sleep we tend to have more swings in blood sugar control as well as higher glucose levels in general.  

3. Mood Regulation. 

Ever get a bad night sleep and see that your partner left a bunch of crap all over the kitchen and you're ready to file for divorce immediately.  But then you wake up the next morning + you're like "Oh, ok this is annoying but also maybe not divorce worthy . It's because sleep plays a HUGE role in our ability to modulate our moods.  From feeling depressed, experiencing feelings of anxiety, irritability + more.  

4. Hormone Health. 

I wouldn't be me if I didn't mention this.  Without getting to nerdy just know that the mechanisms that need triggered to properly secrete hormones for healthy menstrual cycles largely occur while we are sleeping.  Not to mention sleep helps our body repair + restore to reduce stress levels which ALSO play a huge role in hormone health. Heavy, painful or missing periods? Catch so more Z's (also I know it isn't THAT simple y'all but it IS PART of the puzzle). 

5. Body Composition. 

Ok I BET I have your attention now. Sleep is when our body repairs itself + restores.  This includes muscle synthesis (building those muscles). So, if you're trying to change your body comp you best not be ignoring sleep quality! 

I'm sure a lot of you are saying "well how much sleep is enough". I'll leave you with this. 

IT DEPENDS. Sleep is kind of like a shoe size + everyone's a BIT different.  However, the average human needs 7-9 hours of sleep (quality also matters). 

OMT (one more thing). If you are one of those people getting 5 hours of sleep who thinks they are functioning great-- you aren't.  It's just that you're so used to that you don't know any better.

I challenge any of you getting less than 7 hours to do your best to add 30 minutes of sleep on average to your night + see what improves.  Shoot me a DM if you have questions or let me know how getting more sleep is going for you!