To Recap…

So in the last post, I discussed the Insulin Theory of Obesity, and why it’s a much better model for thinking about and treating weight gain, hyperinsulinemia, hyper and hypoglycemia, and the host of health problems related to the way we take care of ourselves. What I didn’t discuss however, is how the hell a person, living anything resembling a productive life in 2019, can alter diet and lifestyle factors to effect positive change. With how busy people stay these days, it seems that having a full time job and any kind of social life pretty much precludes a person from being able to take care of themselves. This post, and the next 4 to follow, are going to focus on things a person like you or I can do to help mitigate insulin issues, clear up brain fog, get rid of that gut, boost productivity, and just generally feel like a fully functioning human being again.

And The Greatest of These is Sleep

Why is it that adults and children alike seem to have this intense aversion to checking out for 8-10 hours and getting some freaking sleep? I mean, you expect this thing out of kids, right? Wriggling away as their parents do their best to corral them into their beds so that they can steal a few quiet minutes of peace alone with a bottle of wine before the whole thing starts all over again. You’d think though, that by the time these kids hit 30, and 40, and 60, that they would’ve learned their lesson. It’s quite clear though, that they haven’t. The *CDC and the *American Sleep Association report that somewhere around 35% of adults are getting less than 7 hours of sleep a night. That statistic alone is worrisome, but there’s a bigger question here. How many people aren’t even really sleeping during that time? How many of us “sleep” with TV’s blaring, light pouring in the windows, and a phone 8 inches away from the head of the bed just in case some self-absorbed social media sap posts a pic at 2 in the morning? Hardly conditions conducive to getting the most out of what little sleep we are getting.

In a culture where we prize an unrelenting work ethic above all else, it’s hard to convince people that they just might be better off getting some rest once in a while. You’ll sleep when you’re dead, right? Problem is though, that if you don’t get any sleep now, the long nap in the sky’s probably going to come along a lot sooner than expected. When it comes to trying to live a healthy productive life, sleep is a great deal more important than most people realize. So what happens when we don’t sleep? Well for starters, our hormonal profile goes crazy. Cortisol and adrenaline production both go through the roof. We almost immediately begin to become insulin resistant. Physical and cognitive performance are significantly impaired. And if that wasn’t enough, we find ourselves at the mercy of a host of less than healthy food cravings.

But it’s okay right? I mean the amount of people who have told me that they get less than 6 or 7 hours of sleep at night is solidly in the triple digits, and most of them swear that they feel fine. But they’re not fine. Not really. They’re coping at best, and probably not even that. The crazy thing about the human brain though, is that it doesn’t enjoy feeling like a pile of overcooked oatmeal. After just a couple nights of inadequate sleep, our brains come to term with the fact that this is the new normal, and as a consequence, we feel “fine.” More’s the pity, because feeling like a potato that’s just been run over by an 18-wheeler might just be the push some people need to get some sleep. The sad fact is, however, that even though cognitive and reaction response time tests say otherwise, people “feel” just fine. Never mind the fact that they’re chronically fatigued, hormone levels are wacky, their spare tires seems to have re-inflated, and they have all the warmth of a pissed off cactus in winter. But they’re fine, they’re just fine… at least once that coffee, energy drink, and mid-morning sugary snack finally kick in.

There’s no way we should need all that to make it through the day though, much less the morning. We need to realize that we really don’t feel or perform as “fine” as we say we do when we don’t sleep, and that it’s finally time to strip down, climb in bed, and admit something important: Sleep needs to be a priority. Not just because it makes you look better, feel better, and a lot less painful to talk to. Your health quite literally depends on it. You want to get that project done at work that’s coming due crazy soon, get some sleep. Have a paper due next week that’s a doozy? Get some sleep. Have a big game tomorrow? Get some freaking sleep. There’s almost nothing else out there that affords us the same immediate cognitive, performance, and health benefits as a full nights rest. Readjust your schedule. Ship the kids off to Gam-Gam’s house for a night. Say no to friends. Do whatever you have to do, but please, for the love of yourself, and the people who have to deal with you on the daily, get a good 8-10 hours of uninterrupted sleep in a pitch black room every night. Your boss, spouse, the barista you yelled at yesterday, and all the other people in your life will thank you for it.  

*Article Sources:

CDC- https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/data_statistics.html

American Sleep Association- https://www.sleepassociation.org/about-sleep/sleep-statistics/