Sleep .... glorious sleep

Did you know that when you sleep in deep REM sleep, your muscles, apart from those that you use to breathe, are virtually paralysed??

I did not know this.

Today I met with the doctor at the local Sleep Clinic here in Cairns, and this was just one of the incredible pieces of information he shared with me about sleep. It is also good to know that sleep walking & talking is fairly common in children and that insomniacs generally sleep a lot more than they think they do!! That's the good news :)

What was I doing at the Sleep Clinic you ask? Investigating the impact of sleep on general health and weight loss.

I have many clients in my Personal Training business who have weight loss as a high priority goal. Often these people come to me with a history of having tried many different methods to lose weight and generally have a reasonable level of fitness. A common thread for many who have stubborn weight that will not shift is a lack of quality sleep, either as a result of shift work, interrupted sleep due to children or noisy sleeping partners, or external stressors of one sort or another.

Sleep is so vital to give the body and the brain a chance to rest, recover and repair after each day. Without sufficient quality sleep the body becomes less responsive to all different kinds of stimuli, and in one study the doctor mentioned, shift workers after one night shift showed responses equivalent to having a blood alcohol reading 2.5 times the legal limit. So it's important that we all get our sleep and even more important that if we don't, we take action to fix this.

The good doctor also mentioned that there are lots of methods to improve sleep that do not require medical prescription. As a big believer in the body's ability to heal itself, this is music to my ears.

If you are having trouble sleeping, suffer from insomnia or are waking feeling tired and unrested then it is worth seeing your GP for their advice on whether you would benefit from a trip to the Sleep Doctor.

And on that note, it's almost time for me to go to bed.
Sweet dreams ...