Living in NY is counterproductive to any attempt we make at sleep or rest. We work long hours, and when we aren't working there is always a plethora of extracirricular activites to engage in, social gatherings to conjour at, and personal errands to run. Forget NY, this is the case no matter where you live, or what you do. We all know it's not a good thing to "burn the candle at both ends". Obviously. Because you run out of wax. But why? I mean, "you're only young once" and you can "rest when you're dead".
Let's start with the obvious reasons. Sleep is not just to give your feet a rest from your heels, or your eyes a break from the computer. Sleep is the time when your body shuts down most of its functions, so that it can spend energy on repair. Sleep can be compared to your body going on vacation. A few of the top benefits:
*Helps to repair your body.
*Helps keep your heart healthy.
*Reduces stress.
*Improves your memory.
*Helps control body weight issues.
*Reduces your chances of diabetes
*Reduces the occurrence of mood disorders.
Full article explains the WHY :)
We all know how much we need sleep, is it truly impossible to fit it into our schedules? Maybe a little bonus lesson to help...
During my short career in professional body building, I learned a valuable lesson about the importance of sleep. I had entered into the figure category of the competition, which involves looking lean and mean, yet feminine and curvy at the same time. During the first few months, I was DETERMINED to cut the body fat early and coast into competition with smooth sailing. I worked out multiple times a day, ate the bare minimum, and still worked 12 hour days in between. Then I would find a few hours a night for sleep. After the first six weeks, I discovered that with all that hard work and suffering, NOTHING was changing on my body. That of course to me meant, eat less, work harder, get up earlier for an extra workout, etc, ridiculousness, etc. Finally, I broke my foot. Super painful stress fracture in my left foot that put me up in bed for a week. Discouraged and exhausted, I started to sleep. And then I started to lose weight. With minimal exercise, strict diet and lots of rest, there came a turning point!! The weight started to fall off.
When you don't rest, your body becomes desperate for energy. Desperate bodies hold onto everything they can, by burning your metabolism low and saving fat for emergency fuel. Same as a dehydrated body, which holds onto as much extra water weight as it can. Our bodies want to always be prepared. Like little Boy Scouts.
So,think about that tonight during your decision between "one more" online episode, and calling it a night ;)
SLEEP HELPED ME CROSS THIS BRIDGE:
