Your Body on Lack of Sleep

Seven hours seems to be the magic number of hours for a fully functioning human.  If you fall short, these are some of the symptoms you may experience:

• weight gain-sleeping fewer than 6 hours increases obesity risk by 30%!  One study found that women who slept less than 5 hours a night ate an average of 329 more calories the next day.
• poor immunity-fewer than 7 hours of shut eye results in nearly 3 times the liklihood that you will catch a cold.
• brain fog-missing out on as few as 1 1/2 hours of sleep can reduce daytime alertness by up to 32%.
• lousy heart health-getting fewer than 6 hours of sleep over the long term increases your risk of developing or dying of heart disease by 48%.
• blood pressure problems-snoozing just 6 hours a night makes you 20% more likely to develop high blood pressure.

Try small adjustments to your sleep pattern by hitting the pillow 10 minutes earlier every night, slowly working your way up to a full 7 or 8 hours.  Sleep your way to health!!!