Jack Hopkins Now Newsletter # 95
Boost Your Immunity and Resilience: The Sleep Decision that Changes Everything
Boost Your Immunity and Resilience: The Sleep Decision that Changes Everything
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There are many things you can do that will allow you to handle more stress and minimize the ugly impact it has on your health. None of them are as important as getting enough quality sleep. Sleep...is King.
Countless studies show that most Americans are not doing that. They’re getting less sleep than they need for optimal health and resilience. Many of those same studies tell us about the consequences of insufficient sleep:
It’s shortening lives and making people's years less enjoyable.
Of the things that make up my ongoing “Resilience Project” (supplements, approach to eating, activity, sleep, meditative-like time, reading, etc.), if I could only pick one, I would instantly select getting the needed amount of quality sleep each night. There is no question about it.
Let’s look at some factors that would go into making that selection.
First, a lack of sleep is connected to both short-term illnesses and chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes. This is because a lack of quality sleep interferes with the healthy functioning of the immune system.
When someone routinely gets the needed amount of quality sleep, inflammation levels recede back to a normal level each night before waking up.
However, with those who don’t get enough sleep, this normally self-regulating system collapses, and inflammation endures.
This means your body never gets a break from the inflammation. New findings reveal that chronic inflammation is at the root of almost every chronic disease.
Inflammation has been linked to:
· Diabetes
· Cardiovascular Disease
· Chronic Pain
· Neurodegenerative Diseases
· Depression
· Cancer
Most important, perhaps, is the fact that our immune isn’t capable of “adjusting” or “getting used” to insufficient sleep. This is so important because the idea that we can “get used to” having less sleep is a common belief many people have. “Oh, you just get used to it!” I’ve often been told after commenting on how little sleep someone is persistently functioning on. Here’s the truth:
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