Sleep – A Complete Guide To REM Sleep and Sleep Stages

As many as 70 million Americans have a sleep disorder, with over one-third of young adults (20-39 years old) sleeping less than 7 hours per night. [1,9] What’s more, we actually take pride in our ability to shirk off sleep, saying such crass things as “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” Why do we treat sleep so disparagingly? Probably because we’re an arrogant species that think we’re smarter than we actually are. You see, humans have evolved over 3.8 million years and sleep has been a vital part of that evolution. Related – 25 Tips to Help You Get a Better Night’s Sleep Why else do you think we spend one-third of our natural lives in this passive state? Because sleep is absolutely essential to living a healthy life, and this goes far beyond building muscle or burning fat. Sleep is the time when the body does the majority of its maintenance work, repairing the damage from the previous day and building us anew so that we can tackle the new challenges awaiting us. So, what happens when we don’t get enough sleep? The Consequences of Sleep Deprivation If you’re one of those individuals who so casually casts aside sleep, you might be thinking, “what’s the worst that could happen? I’ll just be a little more tired than usual and need a bit more coffee (and/or pre-workout) to get through the day.” And while all of that is true, being a bit more tired is just the beginning of your problems. Quite simply, when we are sleep deprived, we’re more vulnerable to a laundry list of things, including: Overeating Impaired memory and learning Inability to sustain attention Downregulation of dopamine D2 and D3 receptor availability (which messes with the reward-motivation system in the brain) Diabetes Obesity Anxiety Depression Stroke Heart […]

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