Sleep. Getting Enough Is Only Half The Story!

We all know that we feel better when we sleep well, and every health pundit tells us that getting enough sleep is extremely important to your health. But when you sleep, are you getting all of the benefit that you COULD be? We hear a lot about getting enough sleep, but rarely do we hear about the TIMING of your sleep- and the TIMING is AT LEAST as important as getting enough sleep. Humans evolved as diu al animals. That means that, as a species, we evolved to sleep at night as opposed to the daytime. For thousands of years, we had no light except firelight after dark and therefore we SLEPT after dark. With the advent of the electric light, we have learned that we can manipulate this rhythm and stay up all night if we desire. But our manipulation of the environment, in this particular case, is to our detriment. We NEED to sleep at night and I’ll show you why...nnn The adrenal glands, a pair of small glands that sit on top of each kidney, produce the hormone cortisol - among other hormones. Cortisol is one of the main hormones responsible for the stress response in our bodies. It goes up when we are stressed and ideally it returns to normal when stress is reduced. Some people are stressed so much that their cortisol level is continually high. Others have had so much stress in their life that their adrenals are unable to produce enough cortisol to remain at normal levels even when the stress is removed. These people have chronically LOW cortisol levels. Interestingly, cortisol has a daily rhythm of ups and downs. Levels are generally highest in the morning and lowest around 10:00 pm. This gives us the energy we need to function throughout the day and allows our bodies to rest and repair during the night as we sleep. This rhythm is MOST effective if we go to bed around 10:00 to 10:30 at night and wake up around 6:00 to 6:30 in the morning. We are hardwired to these cortisol levels based on our exposures to light and dark from thousands of years of evolution. These levels are OUTSIDE OF OUR CONTROL and we cannot change them based on when we work and when we sleep. People who consistently work at night and sleep during the day do NOT reset this rhythm, they go AGAINST IT - and it will eventually catch up with them. To back up this fact, studies show that workers who do shift work, and therefore go to bed at unusual times, have higher levels of certain diseases, notably breast cancer and cardiovascular disease, than people who work daytime hours. ANY amount of time that you go to sleep after 10:30 PM, your body perceives as stress -and your cortisol level goes UP. To make matters worse, the late night DROP in cortisol levels that occur when you go to bed in an unstressed state around 10 pm is what triggers the release of Human Growth Hormone. Human Growth Hormone (HGH) is directly related to the regeneration and repair of the body. It is SO effective that a relationship has been observed between the vitality of elderly adults and their HGH levels. There is a whole industry out there trying to make effective HGH supplements so that people can feel more vital and have more energy. Most of these supplements have been largely ineffective, and the studies that have shown these remarkable effects from HGH have mostly been done with injections. But you can naturally boost the levels of HGH in your body and reap the benefits that so many people are trying to get in supplement form. Just go to bed between 10 and 10:30 PM and get about 8 hours of sleep and you will MAXIMIZE the amount of HGH that you produce. The hours between 10 pm to 2 am are PRIME hours for rest and repair where the highest amount of HGH is produced. You can NOT make this up by sleeping in later. Your body ONLY produces these hormones during these particular hours. If you miss it, it’s gone forever! Coming in second only to dietary changes, sleep is the most effective lifestyle change that you can make. If you get to bed later than 10:30 regularly, you can make PROFOUND changes in your health just by getting enough sleep and getting it at the right times. In Good Health, Kerri Knox, nwww.easy-immune-health.comnn