Look Better
There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that you don’t look your best without sleep. You may have noticed the bags under your eyes or the pasty look to your skin after staying up late one too many nights in a row. Luckily, there is plenty of scientific evidence which shows that sleep is necessary for healthy skin. For example, anti-aging melatonin is produced while you sleep.
Damage to your skin from daytime exposure to the elements can be repaired through the release of collagen and the lack of cortisol (the stress hormone) while you sleep. Once your skin is happier, you’ll feel more like working on other physical improvements such as using BHMD thick and full brow enhancing serum or getting a new haircut to frame your bright eyes.
Feel Better
If you’ve ever used lack of sleep as an excuse for being snappish or grumpy, then you know that the reverse is also true. When you wake up refreshed, your good mood carries over into the rest of the day. While you sleep, your brain has time to process all the minutiae of the day. You often wake up with a new and better perspective on problems that seemed unsolvable just 12 hours before. Lack of sleep over an extended period can lead to depression, anxiety and the inability to handle even the smallest problems.
Work Productively
The better rested you are, the more productive you’re likely to be. Sleep helps you store new information into the right parts of your brain for later recall. If you’ve ever experienced the phenomenon of reading when you’re tired and getting to the end of the page with no memory of what you had just read, then you understand how important sleep is to memory and focus. Give your brain a chance to work smart and efficiently by giving it plenty of rest.
Get Healthier
Sleep can have all sorts of benefits to your health. Everyone experiences varying degrees of stress during the day and cortisol is released into your system. The more stressed you are, the more cortisol is released. When this happens, your blood pressure goes up, and your heart pumps faster. Now imagine operating on just a few hours sleep so that every little thing, from getting cut off in traffic to looking for a lost shoe, shoots cortisol into your bloodstream. Your heart spends the day being just as stressed as you. On a full night’s sleep, you might be able to wave the arrogant driver on and pick different footwear without a blip to your blood pressure.
To add insult to insomnia, another side effect of lack of sleep is higher production of the appetite-boosting hormone, ghrelin, and lower production of the “I’m full” hormone, leptin. In other words, it will be easier to stick to your diet and make smart food choices when your mind is rested.
The last time you got sick was probably a time of high stress in your life. It’s unfortunate, but you often get kicked when you’re already down. Quality sleep helps your body fight off viruses. There is even evidence that shows that your body develops more antibodies after receiving a vaccine if you have effective sleep patterns.
Finally, it’s super easy to convince yourself to skip exercise if you got a bad night’s sleep. This creates a pattern that’s difficult to get out of. Exercise helps you sleep better, and when you use lack of sleep as an excuse not to exercise, you set yourself up for failure over and over.
Plan to focus on sleep this year. Set a goal to do whatever it takes to get your 8 hours of Zzzs. You’ll likely be amazed at the ways you feel and look better.
It’s your turn. You deserve a good night’s sleep and with this, you have a blueprint on how to accomplish it. Now you can fall asleep faster, sleep better and wake up with all the energy in the world.
Some techniques might be easier to include in your day and night schedule as compared to others. Try and test and see what works and stick to it.
It’s time to put these techniques into practice and make sleep your top priority. The first step is to go see your doctor or give Alaska Sleep Clinic a call.
Improve Your Sleep! Improve Your Life!
