Sleep

Sleep is something we all take for granted, but it is one of the most important things in our lives. If your car ran non-stop 24 hours 7 days a week, it would eventually run out of gas and stop working, well, your body is the same way. 

Here is a write up from the Washington Post outlining how a lack of sleep can influence your health in ways that are not so great: 

"A large, new study, for example, provides the latest in a flurry of evidence suggesting that the nation's obesity epidemic is being driven, at least in part, by a corresponding decrease in the average number of hours that Americans are sleeping, possibly by disrupting hormones that regulate appetite. The analysis of a nationally representative sample of nearly 10,000 adults found that those between the ages of 32 and 49 who sleep less than seven hours a night are significantly more likely to be obese.

The study follows a series of others that have found similar associations with other illnesses, including several reports from the Harvard-run Nurses' Health Study that has linked insufficient or irregular sleep to increased risk for colon cancer, breast cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Other research groups scattered around the country have subsequently found clues that might explain the associations, indications that sleep disruption affects crucial hormones and proteins that play roles in these diseases."

Make it a Great Day!