Editor,
I treasure good sleep. Early to bed and early to rise truly helps to make us healthy and wise.
Years ago, I foolishly stayed up late many nights and then felt like crap the next day. Now I like to go to bed between 9 and 10 p.m. and to get up between 6 and 7 a.m.
Each hour we sleep before midnight benefits us more than each hour we sleep after midnight. Rest and sleep are the most important way our bodies restore our energy and restore our battery.
When we get enough rest and sleep, we feel better, look better, think better, remember better and cope with stress and problems better. We enjoy better health, and we are more alert.
Not enough sleep can make us hard to live with, ornery and even violent. When we rob ourselves of sleep one night, we cannot make up for our loss with extra sleep the next night. Many nights of sleeping too little may be a cause of diabetes, high blood pressure, aches and pains, low energy, heavy stress, colds, fever, diarrhea, sore throat, indigestion, headaches and early aging. Because it makes you feel bad, you will exercise less, so it can make you fat.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
The United States and other brutal regimes torture prisoners by not allowing them to sleep.
Even exercising vigorously every day and eating only nutritious, raw, organic plant foods cannot substitute for getting enough sleep. A lack of sleep harms all of our organs - our whole body runs down, and we get sick.
Take a nap during the day. Instead of a coffee break, find a quiet spot, lie down and take a short siesta. Why drag through the day feeling rotten and acting crabby?
Never consider yourself lazy for getting as much sleep as you need to be healthy and to feel good. Most of us need at least eight or nine hours of sleep every night. The best sex, deepest conversations and wisest books are not worth robbing ourselves of enough sleep.
Don Schrader
Daily Lobo reader
