Friday, September 24, 2010

Friday's Food for Thought: Need Some Sleep?

From The Great Physician's RX for Health & Wellness, by Jordan S. Rubin:

"Our biological cycles normally follow the twenty-four cycle of the sun, or what is known as the circadian rhythm, During this time, the body does things that we don't even know about, such as an automatic system that carries on functions of cleansing and rebuilding.

The liver goes through a cleansing process between 11:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. If you're awake during that time, your liver will not cleanse properly... In addition, your body will not produce the right hormones if you don't sleep at the right times.

A century ago...adults slept an average of nine hours a night, according to the National sleep Foundation. Care to guess how long the average American adult sleeps each night in the present era?

The answer is a little less than seven hours, which is 20 percent less than our great-grandparents slept...

"Americans sleep the least of anyone in modern countries," Dr. Eve Van Cauter, a sleep researcher at the University of Chicago, said on AVC's 20/20 newsmagazine show.

"And Americans are the most overweight and obese. Perhaps it's worth thinking about the possibility that we don't sleep enough, and therefore our appetites are unregulated."

William Shakespeare wasn't too far off when he wrote four hundred years ago, "Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care... Chief nourisher in life's feast."

Hope you all get some sleep and rest this weekend everyone!

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