Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
~ Matthew 11:28
Did you know the word "Sleep" is mentioned 107 in the Bible? Sleep is so essential to life, that laboratory animals deprived of sleep die. And humans don't seem to be immune to the life-threatening effects of sleeplessness either...
A survey conducted by the American Cancer Society concluded that people who sleep 6 hours or less per night, or more than 9 hours, had a death rate 30 percent higher than those who regularly slept 7 to 8 hours. Even those who slept 6 hours or less who otherwise had no health problems had death rates 1.8 times higher than those who slept "normal" hours.
What happens when we sleep? A lot. Scientists used to think that sleep was a period of mental and physically inactivity, just a time for our mind and bodies to recharge. While sleep is how we reenergize, it is anything but inactive. After dozing off, the brain and body go through five stages of sleep, varying in length according to our age. Each stage has an important function for mind and body, and is characterized by measuring brain waves and observing bodily activity.
Another important factor is HOW we rest. Did you know we were designed to sleep at night, when it is totally dark. One part of the human body’s cycle is melatonin production. Melatonin is a hormone that helps us to sleep. The pineal gland, which produces melatonin is very sensitive to light, and shuts down production if there is any light. Even if you get up in the night and turn on the bathroom light, you will shut down production, probably for the rest of the night, because the pineal gland assumes that once it sees light, that it will be light for many more hours.
Just one "pulse" of artificial light at night disrupts circadian cell division, reveals a new study carried out by Dr. Rachel Ben-Shlomo of the University of Haifa-Oranim Department of Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Haifa, Israel, along with Prof. Charalambos P. Kyriacou of the University of Leicester, Leicestershire, UK. "Damage to cell division is characteristic of cancer, and it is therefore important to understand the causes of this damage," notes Dr. Ben-Shlomo. The study has been published in the Journal of Cancer Genetics and Cytogenetics.
...The more time you spend in full daylight, during the day, and the more complete the darkness at night, the better you will sleep. Below are links to additional reading on the subject. While you are at it, take some time to Google the importance of "leisure time." You might be surprise to learn just how essential both a good night's sleep and a little play time will expand your life!
ADDITIONAL READING:
NOTE:
"Completely blind women have a very low risk of breast cancer, probably at least 80 percent less than the average woman. On the other side, women who work night shifts, and flight attendants have a higher incidence of breast cancer. Research is starting to implicate melatonin as the responsible factor. Melatonin has an anti-estrogen effect that may explain these findings."
Turn out the lights, all of them, and sleep well!
Lynne Eldridge M.D.
Author, “Avoiding Cancer One Day At A Time”
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