Catching Some ZZZZ

As I sit here, tired, on the train heading to the office I am reminded of how important getting enough sleep every night is to our health. I am sure we all know that if we do not get enough sleep it is harder to function the next day.

Our bodies are more sluggish, so we are not physically able to respond to things as fast as we normally can. We are also more prone to getting sick because chronic lack of sleep alters the immune system, making it less effective.

A good night’s sleep lets our body unwind and reenergize. It is why you feel less stressed when you get good night of sleep. Lack of sleep causes increased emotional reactivity, especially, to negative stimuli. The lack of sleep affects the same area of the brain that bpd affects, the amygdala. The amygdala is one of the primary centers of emotions in people.

While sleep is important for anyone, it becomes more critical for different thinkers whose processing of emotions is affected by the way they think. Failing to get enough sleep on a regular basis will only serve to make it more difficult to process our emotions in a safe and balanced way.

I know from personal experience that getting proper sleep doors have a huge impact on my ability to control my emotions the next day. For me, I need at last five hours of sleep each night to deal with an average amount of stress with relative ease. The more sleep I get, the easier it becomes to handle increased stressors. The opposite is true as well. The less sleep I get, the harder it is to deal with even small amounts of stress.

References

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2890316/

http://www.health.harvard.edu/press_releases/importance_of_sleep_and_health