Ah...Sleep

I am on a LOT of email lists every day.

Daily Candy, Vital Juice Daily, Hungry Girl, Rodale, Runner's World, Ad Age, Billboard, Cynopsis, Cynopsis Digital, YPulse........ I'm sure there are a few more. Some are for work, some for play. I found it very interesting that two of my Thursday emails were about SLEEP.

The gym was pretty empty this morning. My two guesses as to why: (1) the real temperature was 18 degrees, with wind chill around 10 and (2) people we're just sleeping in!

We all know sleep is important. Our body needs it to rest and recouperate from our hectic lives. Our muscles need sleep to repair from our workouts. Our minds just need sleep to get some time off. Unfortunately, I think we often give up a bit of our sleep time to do other things. I know I do. I've been trying every day this week to have the lights off by 10:15 but that hasn't happened yet. Usually I see 10:30 on the clock and sometime's 11pm, during the week. This doesn't sound bad really, until you take into account that my alarm is set for 5:00am (and it's 8 minutes fast). 6 hours of sleep is not much. Some people say they work best on a few hours of sleep, and I think in some rare cases, that's actually true, but most people need a good 7-9 hours of solid sleep. And that's for adults. Kids, obviously, need more.

I think there's a reason why these were both talking about sleep. Probably because we're all busier than usual during the holidays. Parties, shopping, wrapping, family events, stress, baking. This list, too, goes on and on. Both articles had good tips on why we need more sleep and how to get it. According to the Rodale article, not getting enough sleep can cause us to eat more and gain weight - not just because we're up longer to eat more, but because lack of sleep can increase a chemical signal for hunger while lowering the chemical that signals satiety. Bad news! Other studies have shown that adults who get 7 or more hours of sleep per night may live longer than those who don't (I'm in trouble). The Vital Juice Daily piece gives a few tips that might help you get a little more shut eye.

So, try to get a little extra shut eye every night and you might just live a healthier and longer life! Hopefully you can at sleep in a few days over the holidays! Ask for breakfast in bed for Christmas!















Doesn't this look nice?!

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On another note, this is my 94th post! I feel like I just started writing not too long ago! With the help of a suggestion from Gracela, I have something fun planned for my 100th post, so stay tuned. It might just come on Christmas Eve day!


Have a great Friday!