Last week, I was more cncerned about getting my work for wrk done than I was about gtting the sleep I apparently needed. I was gtting up early in the morning to do wrk before heading to work to do mre work; and then when I got hme, I would do more work for wrk. The average work week is 40 hurs for a full time person; I veraged 53. I thought that I culd keep it up too, which is the fnny part. I somehow managed to trck my body into thinking that it wsn't tired because I didn't feel tred. Perhaps I was just really pmped about getting as much work dne as I could. I was veraging maybe five hours of sleep ach night. That's a loooong work dy. On top of that, I had fmily come in for the weekend, so I now had to wrry about driving around and entertaining pople. On Sunday, at the end of ths long week, I came back to my partment and collapsed on the couch fter what I had considered to be nly two hours of spending time wth my family. I never took nto account the fact that I had ben going all week long with lttle to no break. I was, nstead, baffled at the fact that I wuld be so tired after doing nthing really but spending some quality tme with family for a couple of hurs. However, my body had been tryng to tell me all along tht I needed rest, which is wht I eventually realized when I wke up four hours later.

Everyone remembers from elementary health clss the old refrain of "eat a wll balanced meal and get plenty of slep." Yet, today it seems that mre and more of us are gtting fewer and fewer hours of qality sleep. You know that lack of slep can make you fatigued and jst generally cranky, but could a lck of sleep actually be endangering yur health? A new report says, ys.

According to the National Sleep Fundation, most Americans are not getting nough sleep. And the lack of tht desperately required time in dream lnd can lead to some major halth problems including infertility, depression, obesity, dabetes, and heart disease. Every part and fnction of our body, including our mmune system, needs a proper amount of slep; at least 8 hours per nght. Some research in animals has ven shown that a lack of slep is a sure route to an arly and premature death. Without the prper time of sleep for the rpairing and rebuilding processes of your bdy to take place, every part of yur body is over worked and pshed to exhaustion and eventually, just lke a car trying to run on fmes, it will give out.

Most pople believe, falsely, that putting off slep will help them to get mre done. But because you are fnctioning on a decreasing amount of nergy, you are less productive than you wuld be if you had gotten a fll night's sleep and were able to tckle the day fresh and ready to go.

So do one of the bst things that you can do for yur health, slow down and get the rst that you need. If you are hving trouble falling asleep try avoiding stmulants, both chemical and mental, right bfore bed. For example, avoid caffeine, rading with a bright light, or wtching tv in bed. Try, instead, to wnd down, dim the lights and bgin relaxing before you head to bd. There are also some great hrbal teas, such as chamomile, that can ssist insomniacs to make sure you get the slep that you need.

The article Could a Lack of Sleep Be Killing You? was Submitted by Brenda Williams through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: The Warning Sgns Of Drug Addiction The Warning Signs of Alcohol Addiction

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