Time for your Health and Beauty Sleep!

Sleep can be a wonderful thing. Our bodies and and minds can relax, recover, rejuvenate.
Lack of sleep can be horrible - even painful at times (memories of sleep deprivation during residency still make me shudder.)

A new study shows that lack of sleep can also lead to illness - specifically a problem called "pre-diabetes." Check out this article on msn:

http://diabetes.webmd.com/news/20090312/sleep-deprivation-linked-to-prediabetes

To summarize, a study was presented this week at the American Heart Association's Annual Conference which showed that "short sleepers" - people who slept 6 hours or less per night - were more likely to develop elevated fasting blood sugars than people who slept 6 to 8 hours per night. Once people develop pre-diabetes, they are much more likely to go on to develop full blown Type II diabetes.

Previous studies have shown an association between lack of sleep and weight gain:

http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/news/20041118/sleep-more-and-you-may-control-eating-more

This article talks about a 2004 study in the The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism which showed that sleep deprivation can cause the lowering of a "fullness" hormone called leptin. After sleep deprivation, the low leptin levels "tell the brain there is a shortage of food and increase appetite...some volunteers were asking for up to 1,000 calories more per day..." Other studies have shown an association with higher BMI and getting less than 7 hours per night of sleep.

So, back to your Health and Beauty sleep. How much sleep should YOU get? According to a number of studies, many people seem to benefit from around 7 to 8 hours of sleep - but individual needs will, of course, vary.

In general, in an ideal world, you should wake and feel refreshed; you shouldn't have to hit the snooze button 10 times! If you are not feeling refreshed, and you HAVE gotten regular sleep, lasting 7-8 hours per night, then you should contact your primary care physician to make sure there isn't a problem, such as sleep apnea.

If you are like me, on the other hand, and tend to web-surf into the wee hours - cut it out, for your health's sake!