Following on from yesterdays blog, I'm inspired to stay on the topic of sleep after reading an article in today's Evening Standard on the health risks of not getting enough. Apparently having less than six hours uninterrupted sleep a night increases the chance of developing or dying from heart disease by a whopping 48 per cent and increases the chance of having a stroke by 15 per cent.
These are pretty staggering increases in risk and are not based on some flimsy study. The study involved 470,000 individuals and was undertaken by researchers at the University of Warwick medical school.
Cutting the risk of these conditions aren't the only benefits of getting more sleep. Sleep encourages repair in the body to damaged tissues, organs and muscles. It also helps counter ageing, improves mental and physical function and allows proper detoxification.
I love my sleep, as anyone who's woken me up early well knows! But I don't think a lot of people place enough importance on it in relation to their health, especially in the city where work, social life, commuting and fitting in the gym all get in the way.
And that's before you add kids into the mix - I guess children should come with a health warning as getting 6 hours uninterrupted sleep can be quite a challenge with babies and young children at home. Mother of twins, Jennifer Lopez, says in this weeks OK! that she tries to get eight hours a night, but sadly most of us won't have access to the same arsenal or nannies, housekeepers and personal assistants that give her the time to be a working mother and get her sleep!
If, like me, you just need apply a bit of self-discipline to get to bed earlier than this study really should be all the motivation you need.
If, however, you've got kids at home a bit more planning may be necessary - at least making sure you share getting up duties with your partner so that you have a couple of nights uninterrupted sleep a week, and standing firm in establishing sleeping patterns for your kids (admittedly easier said than done!).
------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment