Sleep is arguably the most important thing that we can prioritize for our health. Although we are at rest and our consciousness has gone to sleep, our entire system goes to work repairing itself.
Our brain goes over everything that happened throughout the day and sorts out what is important, logs short term and long term memories. It clears out the junk and removes toxic waste in our brain. Cells go to work, communicating and reorganizing themselves efficiently.
Our body goes to work repairing damaged cells. It detoxes toxic waste. One of the most fascinating examples is that there are cells that go through the gut lining and scan for tears or leaks, and go in and repair them while we are asleep, add a new mucosal protectant lining.
While we are sleeping, our body completely repairs, regenerates and heals. Without sleep, our body deteriorates: our cognitive function and focus declines, our brain becomes foggy, our immune system struggles, our gut lining remains damaged, our cortisol skyrockets, our inflammation rises, our mood changes, our hormones don’t function properly, and we begin to fall apart.
Unfortunately more than ever people are dealing with sleep issues. I believe a big reason for this is our environment, daily activities, diet and lifestyle are putting us into a chronic state of fight or flight. We are getting further and further away from nature, and that is negatively impacting our sleep and our overall health.
I love sleep. I love rest. I think there is absolutely no shame in sleeping. For some reason we are shamed into thinking rest + sleep is unproductive and lazy. Let’s change that narrative. Sleep is one of the most productive things you can do for your body. Rest is essential to have optimal performance during the times you are awake.
However, there is a difference between quantity of sleep and quality of sleep. Of course on average people should get ~8 hours of sleep (this is totally dependent on your genetics, age and lifestyle, for me I need more like 9 to feel good!) but some people are getting a lot of sleep and still feeling exhausted, which is the worst feeling ever.
So I wanted to dive into how I get the most restorative, regenerative and quality sleep. Falling asleep, staying asleep, and waking up feeling refreshed. Lets. Get. Into. It.
Because everyone deserves good sleep.