Sleeping Beauty and Rumpelstiltskin had it good!

For many, it is common sense that to stay healthy and fit you need to have balance and nutritious eating habits as well as an active lifestyle. I think what many of us forgot though, is that even if we are the most healthy eaters ever and exercise every day, we can be ruining our hard work and potentially putting our bodies at risk if we don’t get enough sleep.

Why is sleep a topic today? Well…currently it is 4:03 a.m…I woke up at 3:08 a.m. With starting a new business and leaving a stable job, I think the stress has been keeping me from staying asleep. OR it could totally be that my dog Max is all of a sudden, after 8 years of life, afraid of lightning, thunder and, yes, even rain itself. I mean really? The little guy is now 56 years old (in dog years) and now every time it sprinkles, he cries and barks until my husband Nate or I come downstairs to his room and sit with him. If you live around the Kansas City area, you are well aware of the many many thunder and rain storms that we have had lately…tonight is yet another one of those nights…sigh.

But I digress. Sleep. We need sleep…it’s just not an option to not sleep. Sleep repairs the body, improves our memory, keeps your heart healthy, reduces stress and can help you with your weight loss goals. When we don’t get enough sleep (less than 6 hours a night), there are consequences. Loss of memory and alertness, increased cholesterol and blood pressure, and a decrease of important hormones such as ghrelin and leptin which regulate appetite are just a few sad things that happen when we don’t sleep enough. Let me give you a recent (like 5 minutes ago) example of what lack of can do to a person. I am so tired that I actually had to use a calculator to get Max’s dog age…not okay people!

So keep sleep in mind when thinking of your health. It’s a requirement. No one wants to be more stressed, put their heart at more risk for heart disease (#1 killer of both men and women in US), gain unnecessary weight or have to constantly carry a calculator around with them to do the simplest of math. Get your sleep! Aim for 7-9 hours a night.

Until next time…cheers to better health…I’m going back to bed…