Sleep is one of the most under appreciated areas of health. Research over the last decade has shown that good quality sleep in children leads to:
- less adult obesity
- greater bone density
- increased height, growth and development
All these studies talk about what will happen in the future if kids sleep well. A recent study showed that quality of sleep is directly related to longevity. But the quality of sleep is more related to quality of health than anything else. You need to sleep well to live long but you need to be healthy to sleep well.
So not so ground breaking. The healthier you are the longer you will live.
The intent is not to burst the bubble of some researchers or to be a wet blanket on something that really might get you excited but really… do we need a research study to tell us what we already know? I hope not.
Setting the alarm later or going to bed right after supper is not going to do it. You need a healthy spine and nerve system and the only way that can happen in today’s society is to have specific, scientific, chiropractic adjustments until your x-ray’s become normal again. Then do whatever it takes to make sure your nervous system is fantastically efficient and working at 100% for the rest of your life.
One finding that is genuinely interesting is that centenarians (people that live to 100) are 3 times more likely to sleep upwards of 10 hours every 24 hours as opposed to the widely recommended 7.5 hours (including naps) that doctors have been preaching for the last decade.
So like Grandma recommended, try your best to get as many hours of sleep before midnight as possible and then be careful not to rob your body of the necessary sleep into the morning hours. We know this isn’t possible all the time but as a general rule see what it’s like to have an earlier than usual bedtime and give yourself an extra 15 min in the morning too just to see how your body responds. Find your personal balance. Longevity drastically declined with sleeping longer than 10 hours – that means you die early if you sleep too much. Again the researchers felt that sleeping longer than 10 hours was more a reflection of poor health. Not a big surprise.
Pleasant dreams!
