Not getting enough sleep?

Not getting enough sleep may damage your brain.

We are all busy people and often sleep comes second to everything else we have to and want to do. What you don’t know is that those few hours of sleep we sacrifice to get those final reports done or to watch our favorite show on Netflix in an all-night marathon, is actually damaging our brain.

Research performed by Dr. Sigrid Veasey, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and collaborators from Peking University, confirms that mice, when deprived of sleep, lose neurons (brain cells) due to cell death. The neurons that die are responsible for alertness and optimal ability to think. The research also shows that we cannot reverse the damage caused by lack of sleep, so the idea that we can “catch up” on our missed sleep is, in reality, just a dream. In addition, many individuals who live to be greater than 100 years of age speak of taking an afternoon nap!

We all know that we function better when we get the optimal amount of sleep, so instead of sacrificing sleep to burn the midnight oil and being less productive for it, why not get the proper amount of sleep, be more productive and live a little longer.

Action Item:
– Get 8 hours of sleep each night. You’ll wake up feeling rested and more productive.

For more information:

• http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2014/03/veasey/