My Journey With Health And Fitness – The Importance Of Sleep

So the past 2 days have thrown me completely off kilter. Yesterday I had to drive downtown to meet a client. Unfortunately the normal route I would take was closed due to a multi-vehicle accident so I took and alternate route. Apparently so did everyone else because what should have taken me under an hour took me 1 1/2 hours. Coming home it was even worse, huge accident on the bridge so 2 1/2 hours to get home. Then today while I was on the dreaded treadmill the power went out (note to self, no using the treadmill during a massive wind storm because when the power goes out the treadmill slams to a stop). We then went 8 hours without electricity so basically nothing I planned on got done today. Hoping to get fully caught up tomorrow.

For 2 weeks my sleep scores have sucked. They occasionally inched into the ‘fair’ zone but normally were sitting at ‘poor’. I get this is because I have been sick and in particular have been extremely congestion meaning I barely sleep. Fortunately this week my sinuses (note not my ears) have cleared up and since I have been skipping early morning fitness classes all of a sudden my sleep score has gone into the ‘good’ range. That makes me so happy because I know it is helping my body to heal.

They say there are 10 reasons why a good night’s sleep is important. Here is what I found on healthline

1. May help or maintain weight loss (I like this one)
2. Can improve concentration and productivity (ok, right now I still suffer brain fog so this one isn’t really working)
3. Can maximize athletic performance (I’ll find out Monday when I am back at the fitness center)
4. May strengthen your heart (have I mentioned my resting heart rate has dropped to 75?)
5. Affect sugar metabolism and type 2 diabetes risk (as in more sleep lowers the risk)
6. Poor sleep is linked to depression
7. Supports a healthy immune system
8. Poor sleep is linked to increased inflammation
9. Affects emotions and social interactions (you know, makes you cranky if you don’t have enough sleep)
10. It can be dangerous (such as inability to focus on tasks, decreases reflexes and reaction times)

I have to admit up until 10 or so years ago I always slept well even when traveling to Europe. Then one day I hit a wall and just stopped sleeping. Really, I was lucky to sleep 3 solid hours a night. This ultimately lead to me doing things like closing my eyes when stopped at red lights. My family doctor tried putting me on sleeping pills but they didn’t help much and quite frankly the dreams I had while taking them scared the crap out of me.

Still, even now I often struggle to get a good nights sleep. Even when I am at the condo which is where I tend to be most relaxed I often can only get a ‘fair’ sleep score. However, I think right now my body has recognized I need to be in full recovery mode and I am getting in far more deep and REM sleep than I normally do. I like to think it is working because the cold is slowly lifting.

So test yourself, see how much sleep you actually get when you are on a vacation and not tied to alarms and schedules. That might indicate to you how much sleep your body actually needs rather than how much you allow it to have.

So sleep, it’s a good thing,