Sleep to focus and prevent disease.

Recently Dr. Simon, from Harvard, has written about sleep's affect on creativity, memory and problem solving. Dr. Weil has also recently shown that adequate sleep may help prevent Alzheimer disease.

image from pharmaprojects.com

Why is sleep so important? This question seems to plague many of our smartest researchers. Though there isn't any one single reason on why we need to sleep, there is a plethora of examples of the benefits of adequate sleep.

In the Harvard Health Watch, they explore research that shows the benefits of naps, specifically ones that are long enough to allow one to enter deep sleep. This state of deep sleep, known as REM, was shown to be beneficial to creativity and problem solving. The take home from this research is that when confronted with problems, it may be best to "sleep on it". How fun is that statement? Now we have research to back up a desire for a short nap in the afternoon.

In a press release from the American Academy of Neurlogy, they have shown that disrupted sleep leads to a build up of amyloid plaques, which are a hallmark of Alzheimer disease. They were able to see more plaques in people who woke 5 or more times per hour, or those who spent less than 85% of their time in bed sleeping. The take home of this is that if you find yourself having difficulty sleeping, it might be the best for your health to seek help.

Refer to my blog post regarding ways to increase your sleep here.