A common misperception about sleep is that is an idle time for your body and mind to rest and regain strength. While this is partly true, your mind and body are not idle, they are actually hard at work.


The critical "System maintenance" your body performs while sleeping includes:

• Growth hormones are released, for healing and development.
• Discs re-hydrated.
• Blood flow directed to areas needing healing.
• Memories are catalogued for later use.
• Motor skills are fine tuned.

New studies indicate that improving the quantity and quality has a more significant effect on overall health than either diet or exercise! To understand sleep, one must first understand the importance of sleep to overall health.

"A substantial number, perhaps the majority, of Americans are functionally handicapped by sleep deprivation on any given day".

People still rarely associate sleep with their overall health and well being.

"A good mattress is critical to both prevention and care of a bad back" Dr. Stephen Elsasser, American College for the Advancement in Medicine". National Commission on Sleep Disorders Research.

Drowsiness contributes to an estimated 600,000 automobile collisions annually and as many as 12,000 fatalities a year". American Automobile Association. "Half of adults polled get less sleep than needed. Two thirds believe that sleep loss is bad for health". Better Sleep Council.

These issues are just a few of the consequences of sleep loss. Sleep loss can be attributed to the actual time spent sleeping being shortened, or adequate sleeping time that is interrupted or otherwise disturbed.

The average adult requires 7.5 to 8.5 hours of sleep per night. You may have heard someone tell you that they only need 5-6 hours, and that they learned to operate on that level of sleep. The truth is that at 5-6 hours per night, this individual's performance on the job, and in life are suffering, period!

In a recent study several men in their twenties, were allowed to sleep only 4 hours per night for one week. At the end of the week, they were tested extensively. It was found that the rate of aging had increased to that of a man in his 60's. This was after only one week!