Where is your safe spot? Where you feel the most relaxed and comfortable? For many of us, it’s our bed! Besides being soft, warm, and comfortable, it’s the place where we lie down to do arguably the most important part of our existence. SLEEP!
Sleep is essential to every process in the body, affecting our physical and mental functioning the next day, our ability to fight disease and develop immunity, and our metabolism and chronic disease risk.
Getting good, quality sleep is important no matter your age. It is especially important for young children as their bodies and minds develop. In young children, lack of sleep or poor quality sleep can be associated with difficult behaviors, lower capacity to learn and retain information, and a propensity for poor eating patterns and weight gain.
As we grow beyond childhood and begin entering the stress of adulthood, sleep and mental health go hand-in-hand. Good sleep is essential for maintaining our baseline mental health, as one night of sleep deprivation can dramatically affect mood the next day. Chronic exposure to poor sleep quality is associated with depression, anxiety, and other conditions.
A recent article by CNN reveals some key findings on poor sleep and the habit of napping, some people may develop because of it.
“People who often nap have a greater chance of developing high blood pressure and having a stroke, a large new study has found.
This may be because, although taking a nap itself is not harmful, many people who take naps may do so because of poor sleep at night. Poor sleep at night is associated with poorer health, and naps are not enough to make up for that,” said clinical psychologist Michael Grandner in a statement.”
- “Study participants who typically napped during the day were 12% more likely to develop high blood pressure over time and were 24% more likely to have a stroke compared with people who never napped.
- If the person was younger than age 60, napping most days raised the risk of developing high blood pressure by 20% compared with people who never or rarely nap, according to the study published Monday in Hypertension, an American Heart Association journal.”
The AHA recently added sleep duration as one of its eight essential metrics to optimal heart and brain health.
There are plenty of things you can do to help improve your sleep. We’ve found creating a solid sleep hygiene routine is an excellent start- Good sleep hygiene is all about putting yourself in the best position to sleep well each and every night.
An excellent addition to your routine would be introducing LunaGen! Taken in the evenings to help you relax and prepare for sleep, LunaGen can also help you stave off evening food binges*.
If you need tips beyond LunaGen, check out The Sleep Foundation’s Guide to Sleep Hygiene here.
Sweet Dreams!
LunaGen Fact Sheet – Learn more here.
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Terry Kempfert Creative 