How Much Does Lack of Sleep Cost?

We used to sleep at night. No more. Now we stay up to watch late night TV, work on reports due the next day, and finish what we started earlier in the day. Sleep almost seems a burden. There is so much to do, and not enough time. Sleep can wait.

Wrong!

We should probably rethink that attitude if we want to live a long and healthy life. We have become victims of sleep debt. We know that we should get more sleep……………but we don’t. Sleep debt is the difference between how much we actually sleep, and how much we should sleep. Waiting for the weekend to “catch up’ on sleep is dumb. And it doesn’t work. There’s a toll for non-sleep and sleep deprivation: foggy thinking, worsened vision, issues with remembering, and impaired driving. Increased eating stems from the frontal lobe not functioning, so in a round about way, excess weight gain is also a result of sleep deprivation. William C. Dement, founder of the Stanford University Sleep Clinic (really? They have a clinic for that?), did studies that show long term effects include obesity (there it is), insulin resistance, and heart disease.

And no big surprise, more Americans than not suffer from sleep deprivation. Which may help to explain why we are stressed to the sky, and carry too much weight. More than 50% of the American population is overweight. I am not saying that lack of sleep is the primary cause, but it doesn’t help.

Additionally, we feel more pain when we are tired. That cranky lower back complains more, and more loudly, when we are not well rested. Shoulders tense, eyeballs hurt. It’s an ugly picture. When we sleep poorly, everything hurts in the morning. It’s hard to get going. Muscles feel tight. Exhaustion ensues.

Do yourself a favor. Get some sleep, and stop trying to do everything today. Most things will still be there, waiting for attention, tomorrow.

That’s Aging Intelligently.