Video Transcript

Hi Ant & Ali here with our Wellbeing Words of Wisdom.

Today we want to discuss the power of sleep and how getting as much high-quality sleep as possible, is one of the healthiest things you can do.

I’m sure we can all relate to how loss of sleep can take its toll on our energy, mood and ability to handle stress. Sleep should therefore be a top priority. We know that exercise and nutrition are important to look and feel our best, but sleep is often overlooked, even though no other activity delivers so many benefits, with so little effort.

It can often be viewed as a badge of honour to survive on only a few hours of sleep a night, but sleep has a direct correlation to the quality of your waking life. Over time, lack of sleep can lead to mental and physical breakdown.

Here’s a few little sleep stats:

Sleeping less than 6 hours per night can increase the risk of heart attack and stroke

Just 1 sleepless night leaves you performing like you are legally drunk

Men who regularly sleep 5-6 hours a night will have testosterone levels of a man 10-15 years their senior.

Now, while we sleep, our bodies don’t just shut down and switch off. In fact, a huge number of biological processes take place to aid recovery and improve our health. Let’s touch on some of them now.

Memory Processing:

While we sleep the brain helps convert short term memories into long term memories and erases any unneeded information that might cause clutter.

Think of it like this, the hippocampus is like a USB stick and your cortex is the hard drive. During the day info is stored on the USB and during deep sleep this info is transferred to the larger hard drive. That way, the next day, the USB is clear and ready to use again to store more information.

Next up – Brain Function:

Sleep also supports higher-level cognitive functions such as decision-making and reasoning, two very important aspects in the business world.

Then there is Immunity:

Lack of sleep can impair our immune function. During sleep the immune system creates certain antibodies and proteins to help fight off harmful germs, inflammation, infection and prevent sickness.

And lastly let’s look at Hormone Regulation:

Sleep plays an important role in regulating the production of numerous hormones, such as:

Growth hormone, which supports bone and muscle development

Cortisol, which is part of the body’s stress response system

And Leptin & Ghrelin, which help control our appetite

It’s fair to say, sleep is hugely important so we’ll leave you with a little tip.

One of the best things you can do, is create a sleep routine. This means going to bed and getting up at the same time every day, even on the weekends.

There is however a little bit of wiggle room of about 30-60 minutes each side.