Know Why Sleep is Important to
YOUR Goals and Health

Understanding why sleep is important is a critical component to your confident and healthy life success. It’s an absolute foundation of good health, but one that often gets overlooked, ignored, or shortchanged. Too often in our busy lives we figure we can cut our rest a bit shorter to get other things done. And we fool ourselves into thinking that we're "getting away with" less.

But recognizing why sleep is important is non-negotiable. You can’t arrive at the confident life of your dreams with dark circles under your bleary eyes, tottering, and ragged around the edges. There’s nothing healthy or successful about that.

What does sleep do for us?

Numerous studies indicate why sleep is important:

• Reduces inflammation
• Reduces the risk for some cancers
• Body cells repair and renew themselves
• Body heals, replenishes, and restores balance
• Increases energy, mood, and memory
• Clears your mind – so you can make better choices about your diet and exercise
• Calms you and reduces stress
• And, of course, it's when we dream - utilizing our subconscious to solve problems and to "practice" life through our dream scenarios (even if we don't remember them)

It short, bedtime “recharges our batteries.” We boost our immune system and allow our body to function optimally — to do what it is supposed to do to help us operate correctly and thrive.

Chronic lack of rest can have serious health consequences. Lack of, or poor-quality, snoozing is linked to almost every ailment and disease out there. When you’re run down, your body isn’t capable of healing itself nor in fighting off intruders like bacteria and viruses. It robs us of our quality of life at its core and leaves us as sub-functioning humans. Not getting enough rest is even linked with hormonal imbalances which can make you gain weight. (Yikes!)

Although it varies by person, many reports say we should get at least 7 or more hours sleep. Some folks need much more than that, depending on their lifestyle, stress levels, activity levels, diet, etc.

How can you tell if you're getting enough? You’ll know why sleep is important firsthand if you're very tired when you wake up. And that sure sounds like a bad start to a new day! I've heard it said that if you NEED an alarm clock to wake up, you need more rest — that may be true, but it may also be that your current schedule is not suited to your body's normal waking pattern. In my opinion, the bottom line is that you should feel RESTED when you awaken. Anything less than that indicates that something is wrong — either you need more rest, are on a schedule that does not work for you, or that you are run down (possibly indicating a medical problem).

Give yourself the best chance of success but being fully rested as often as possible. You will be all the more confident and healthy by resting deeply and awakening with your full energy and vitality. Make adequate downtime and rest a top priority in your life. Cutting corners with your downtime means cutting corners in your life — undermining all of your hard work and goals.

Check out these sleep tips to ensure you get that deeply restful battery recharging you need.

Sweet dreams!

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