For years, busy Type A personalities scoffed that they’d “sleep when they’re dead,” college students would pump themselves full of caffeine and pull “all-nighters” to cram for exams, and executives would boast about how they only needed four hours of sleep a night to maintain their laser business focus.
Not anymore. The pendulum has swung back in the other direction; today, people brag about luxuriating in eight hours of sleep a night, something our doctors have been exhorting us to do since the dawn of the Industrial Age.
It’s an incontrovertible fact that a good night’s sleep is vital to our physical and mental health. According to Lauren Antler, M.D., a psychiatrist in New York City:
“Sleep is important for the restoration of our organs and tissues, and is an important time for hormone release…If we go without sufficient sleep for too long, it can negatively impact performance, impairing concentration, memory and decision-making…. Poor sleep can exacerbate symptoms of depression and anxiety, and lead to increased irritability. In addition, poor sleep quality has been shown to increase the risk of high blood pressure, obesity, heart disease and diabetes, and may be linked to other chronic health conditions.” [1]
Meditation has been shown to have a positive effect on sleep patterns; in fact, one of CCPHP’s affinity partners, Inscape, provides both a meditation/relaxation studio as well as an app to help with your meditation practice and improve sleep patterns. Other holistic methods, such as exercise and turning off the electronics at least one hour before bedtime, can provide a solid night’s sleep without the software interface.
So get some sleep – it’s not just fashionable, it’s good for you.
[1] Antler, L., M.D. (2018, April 10). Telephonic conference.
[2] Green, P. (2017, April 8). Sleep is the New Status Symbol. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/04/08/fashion/sleep-tips-and-tools.html.