How many times have you said that? I bet more than you’d like to admit. Most of us don’t get enough sleep to meet our health needs. We are so busy with work, play, kids, and just stuff in general that we get to bed late and wake up early. And that’s if we can sleep at all! For most of us a full night’s sleep is about 6 hours, but a healthy nights sleep is at least 8 hours. I don’t think I know anyone my age that gets that many hours of sleep. My kids still get enough sleep, the joy of being young and going to bed early and actually sleeping.

What we don’t always realize is that there are so many side effects to our lack of sleep. Sure, there’s the obvoius fatigue, lack of energy, puffy eyes, the usual. We need to sleep to recharge, our body and our minds. When our body isn’t rested and repaired unpleasant things will happen.

* Inability to properly process glucose. This can lead to high blood sugar levels and other symptoms of type II diabetes. This also causes the glucose to be stored as fat, which can lead to weight gain and difficulty losing or maintaining a healthy weight
* Increased symptoms of aging
* Core body temperature is lowered, which can impair proper functioning.
* Less consistent heart beat.

Mentally we start to get worn out, our brain works hard all day and it needs to rest! Sleep deprivation is comparable to alcohol intoxication when it comes to a person’s driving ability. Did you know hallucinations and even temporary insanity can occur from a lack of REM sleep? I bet you didn’t. I sure didn’t know that. I did know however that sleep deprivation and depression can go hand in hand as if they were best friends. It can cause great emotional stress and anxiety, and that’s one thing we definitely don’t need more of.

How do you know if you’re getting enough sleep? The answer is going to be different for everyone. Some people need more than 8 hours of sleep, some people a little less. You should get enough sleep to feel rested. Remember what that feels like? To wake up and not feel tired anymore and just feel good in general usually means you are rested. An actual “good morning” after a full night of sleep.

If you are having problems getting enough sleep too often, or if you are getting a full nights sleep or feel you are sleeping a lot, but not becoming rested then you should discuss this with your doctor. These may be signs of a sleep disorder that your family physician can help you overcome. The better you sleep at night, the better your day will be.

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