SLEEP
According to the National Sleep Foundation, most adults need at least 7-9 hours of sleep a night and adults over 65 require 7-8 hours. However, it is important to pay attention to your own needs by observing how you feel on different amounts of sleep.
Are you healthy and productive on 7 hours or do you need 9 hours of sleep to get you into gear? 
Scientific studies have shown that just a very small group of people require less sleep than mentioned above.
We sleep for many reasons:
- Enriches our ability to learn, memorize and make logical decisions
- Improves our psychological health. Dreaming also has benefits
- Supports our immune system and metabolic systems
- Fine tunes the balance of insulin and glucose
- Regulates our appetite and supports intestinal and cardiovascular health
- Lowers blood pressure
- Can prevent infection and ward off all kinds of illnesses
- Can lower cancer risk
Given the above, imagine what lack of sleep can do! Here are some examples:
- Regularly sleeping less than 6-7 hours a night demolishes your immune system increasing the risk of cancer, disrupts blood sugar increasing the risk for pre-diabetes and weight gain, and increases the risk for heart disease.
- Lack of sleep leads to irritability during the day, impairs concentration, hinders memory and reaction time.
- Sleep loss can kill if you fall asleep at the wheel when sleep deprived.
- Lack of sleep is a major cause of depression and contributes to the development of Alzheimer’s disease.
- Chronic pain is aggravated by lack of sleep and insomnia. If you suffer from migraines you know this to be true. If you have arthritis perhaps you notice that you wake up with more stiffness and or muscle pain when your sleep is disturbed.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, chronic pain disturbs the slumber in one in 5 Americans at least a few nights a week. Chronic pain can put you in double jeopardy because the pain robs you of restful sleep and makes you more fatigued, thus more sensitive to pain. The good news, however, is there are many ways to improve sleeping hygiene if you have chronic pain. This will be addressed on the handout, linked below.
References: Supplement to Mayo Clinic Health Letter, Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, PhD, Harvard Health Publishing-Harvard Medical School
Click link below to download a helpful PDF handout: