Sleep

Sleep is the body’s time to rest, repair, and to rebuild. Improper rest and sleep leads to several metabolic imbalances that accelerate the aging and disease processes. The body's metabolic cycles follow light and dark patterns. It is not sufficient to get your sleep hours anytime. For best healing and repair associated with deep and sound sleep cycles, you should go to bed at the same time each night and sleep for 7 to 8 hours. Reducing sleep to less than 7 to 8 hours a night for successive nights or going to bed at erratic times facilitates metabolic imbalances and aging. Less optimally we can shift the entire cycle for our rest, repair, and rebuilding periods to days (as in the case of shift workers); however, it is critical to be consistent. For optimum health and longevity the body needs to be able to go into its deeper cycles of sleep each day.