Night-Night Time

That's what we call sleep in our house, and no we don't have kids... yet. "I can sleep when I'm dead!" is a phrase I hear constantly in today's society and in fact I even used to use it myself. That is until I found out how important sleep is to your health, cortisol levels, and healing your own body. Did you think our human diet is the only thing that's changed since Paleolithic times? Think again: sleep has definitely changed for the worse I'm afraid.

In today's fast paced, multi-tasking, always gotta be on the go society, lack of sleep is just something that happens. However, this lack of sleep can seriously elevate your cortisol levels. Yep there's that cortisol hormone again! I know we've covered some causes and effects of it already, but like I've said anytime I come across new/additional information I'll pass it on. Are you ready for this:

• Just a refresher: when we are stressed our bodies make more cortisol to give us more energy to handle it.
• Now since we have more energy because of this increased cortisol it makes it harder for us to sleep.
• Lack of sleep has been nationally recognized by the CDC as a public epidemic. Yes really, and for more information on the effects feel free to visit the link.
• When we are sleep deprived or have poor sleep quality (getting up and down during the middle of the night, snoring, etc) we put stress on our bodies. Thus, making more cortisol.

Cortisol in our bodies:

• It controls our connective tissue strength, but too much cortisol can weaken the tissue. Which means irregular amounts can cause premature aging and wrinkles. Yikes!
• It also controls how much sodium is in our blood. More cortisol = more sodium = higher blood pressure = not healthy.
• Cortisol (as stated in my previous blog post) can release excess amounts of sugars and fats from your liver and decrease your insulin sensitivity. This is a whole other issue in and of itself, but for this instance decreased insulin sensitivity can cause you to feel hangry. This hangry feeling can lead to overeating which leads to obesity! 

Wow, how crazy all that can happen from lack of sleep. So with this new found knowledge let's implement:

During the Paleolithic era our ancestors slept from about sun down to sun up. Since this is near impossible in a modern world with our 40 hour work weeks, let's aim for 8-9 hours of solid sleep a night. I'm sure for a lot of you this has been an eye opener. It certainly was for me! When I was working 2 jobs I would only average 20-24 hours of sleep a week which is less than half the recommended amount (based on 8 hours of sleep a night). Even up until I learned about all of these damaging effects that sleep deprivation has, I would stay up late to visit with friends/family and sacrifice my sleep because I thought I could always just catch up on it later. Uh-uh! From this moment on I'm making it a goal to get at least 8 hours of sleep a night and I hope you will too. 

One more very important cortisol fact before we break for today: caffeine can also elevate your cortisol levels. So for those of you, like my former self, who fake it to make it with coffee,soda, or tea all day you're adding to your sleep deprivation by elevating your cortisol levels with caffeine.Cut it out! Try drinking decaf  instead and see what kind of effects you notice with your sleep pattern. Hey, I'm not saying you have to give up caffeine all together (I love my morning caffeinated coffee), but let's keep it to one or two cups in the morning when our cortisol is naturally higher.