Zzzzz....

Lately, I just can't get enough sleep, but even when my body is in the supine position, I find that the comatose state eludes me. Perhaps it's due to the large child near his birth time or perhaps it's my mind running laps. Either way, sleep is something I've always loved. As a child, getting me to bed wasn't a challenge; I looked forward to it. Still do.

I thought it was funny to get an article about the "Lazy Person's Way to Slim Down." Seriously? Well, it's just about sleep.

According to CNN Health, research from the University of Chicago showed that dieters who slept for 8.5 hours lost 55 percent more body fat than dieters who slept 5.5 hours

"The dieters who slept less reported feeling hungrier throughout the course of the study," CNN said, even though "they ate the same diet, consumed multivitamins and performed the same type of work or leisure activities."

The study authors concluded that "Lack of sufficient sleep may compromise the efficacy of typical dietary interventions for weight loss and related metabolic risk reduction," CNN said.
interrupted or impaired sleep can:

•Dramatically weaken your immune system
•Seriously impair your memory; even a single night of poor sleep—meaning sleeping only 4 to 6 hours—can impact your ability to think clearly the next day
•Impair your performance on physical or mental tasks, and decrease your problem solving ability
•Raise blood sugar levels and increase your risk of diabetes
•Accelerate aging -- Sleep deprivation prematurely ages you by interfering with your growth hormone production, normally released by your pituitary gland during deep sleep (and during certain types of exercise, such as Peak 8 exercises). Growth hormone helps you look and feel younger.
•Lead to hypertension (high blood pressure)
•Cause or worsen depression
•Increase your risk of cardiovascular disease – One recent study found that sleeping fewer than five hours a day more than doubles your risk of being diagnosed with angina, coronary heart disease, heart attack or stroke.


But sleeping more than seven hours also increased the risk of cardiovascular disease; more than nine hours of sleep resulted in a 50 percent increase in risk.

(Dr. Mercola-- http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/10/20/sleep-more-lose-weight.aspx)

So, if you can, say 'no' to something else and say yes to a full 8 hours tonight. It does a body good. :)