We spend almost half our lives sleeping, this in the best of cases, or unfortunately, sleeping badly, in many others. We do it almost mechanically and we are not aware of what is behind the act of getting into bed every day and the repercussions it has for us the next day and the following ones. Maybe you are one of those people who consider it a waste of time because it seems unproductive and you usually prefer to gain time for the day by extending your working hours late into the night or, early in the morning, stealing hours of sleep.
You are probably unaware of how harmful these practices are and I hope to convince you, in these few lines, how productive it is to make the necessary changes to give quality to your sleep. If you were told that there was a product with which you could feel energized throughout the day, have greater attention and concentration, be more creative, improve your long-term and working memory, and even improve your mood, would you buy it? I am convinced that many people would invest time in finding it and money in buying it. Well, this product is quality sleep.
Sleep has been until not long ago a great unknown to science, a great biological mystery whose foundations and functions we have not begun to know until the middle of the last century thanks to a scientist, Nathaniel Kleitmen who in his laboratory in Chicago, made discoveries as important as the phases of REM AND NON REM SLEEP. Today, and with the advantage that technology gives us because it allows us to see in real time what happens in our brain and our body when we sleep, we have a broad knowledge (although much remains to be discovered) about its impact and significance, so that we can ensure that it is essential for physical, mental and emotional balance.
We can affirm that the less sleep we get the shorter our lives will be, that’s for starters, and that the WHO considers sleep loss in industrialized nations to be an epidemic. However, there is a generalized social disinterest in alleviating this situation, which is combined with the disinterest of the health authorities in solving or minimizing it. The only alternative seems to be pharmacological, which, in the medium to long term, becomes more of a problem than a solution, although, incidentally, it is big business for the pharmaceutical companies.
Having said that, let’s go back to the initial question, why and for what purpose do we sleep? Sleep is a physiological process that helps our body and mind to recover from the daily wear and tear in order to face the next day’s activity with energy and with our full potential.
Sleep conditions many of our abilities, such as learning, you remember that old phrase “lesson learned when you sleep, lesson learned”, because science has shown that it is absolutely true, what you have studied or learned during the day is not consolidated properly if you do not have a good sleep; as for long-term and working memory, when we do not sleep well the memories are not archived or ordered in our cortical store and that causes or loss of information or that we have a hard time retrieving it for use; Decision-making is another of the cognitive processes affected because poor quality sleep weakens the prefrontal part of our brain which is responsible for this work, resulting in indecision and lack of motivation for action; emotional imbalance and irritability, precisely because the prefrontal area of our brain is weakened, it loses the connection with the amygdala (emotional center of our brain), and its ability to inhibit disproportionate reactions, which can affect our social and work environment.
In addition, sleep helps us to recharge our immune system, lowers blood pressure promoting the health of our heart, balances the metabolic state of our body, insulin and blood glucose levels and maintains the health of our intestinal microbiota. A whole PACK not negligible! It is difficult to imagine a resource that can provide us with so many benefits and that is so little recognized and cared for.
Because of these benefits, and because it is in our hands to achieve changes that improve the quality of our sleep, I encourage you to invest in it because you will get a significant return.
And to start investing, change the chip! and consider sleep as your great ally and give yourself every night between 7 or 8 hours of sleep that are necessary for it to fulfill its function because the next day you will gain in productivity and, in the short or medium term, in health. If you think that with less hours you are in top shape, surely you have not had the opportunity to check how your performance would be if you really slept the recommended and necessary time. Dare to try it!
Remember that, if you are determined to do so, you can find professional sleep experts to advise you and accompany you in a personalized recovery program that will undoubtedly give you good results.
Expert in sleep disorders
