Sleep Matters, Too!!!

I have been suffering a lingering head cold.  Nothing serious, just a drippy nose and a dry, scratchy cough.  And I keep getting those catches in the back of my throat that causes a coughing and snorting fit in order to evict the tickle.  The tickles come at the worst moments; reading with grade schoolers, as we sit down to dinner, and right when we go to bed.  Because of the nightly tickle/cough/snort attack, sleep has been chased into the midnight hours.  As I sit here now, after water, after breakfast, while enjoying a chocolate smoothie, I am feeling over tired and sluggish.  Sleep Matters!

While we are awake, many of our organs and systems can rest.  While we watch a movie our muscles recover and repair themselves.  While we perform mental tasks our respiratory system rests and recovers.  While we enjoy laughter and elation our circulatory system rests and recovers from stress and dis-ease.  But, while we are awake, our brain is functioning at 100%, 100% of the time!  Breathing, blinking, heart pumping, and sight are all functions of the brain.  Interpreting that movie, organizing our office, completing our daily tasks, decoding humor and succumbing to love or anger are all functions of the brain.  Just as our muscles and lungs need rest and recovery, so do our brains!

We already know that our ten functioning systems are directed by the brain, and we already know that the brain has 8 lobes, four in each hemisphere.  Frontal lobe for cognitive thinking, speech, problem solving and emotion; parietal lobe for touch, temperature, pain, and pressure; temporal lobe for hearing, and memory; occipital lobe for the multifaceted function of vision.  The left hemisphere (typically dominant) controls language, speech, motor skills, and right sided body movements; the right hemisphere controlling left sided movements. (If left handed, speech and fine motor skills can be directed by the left hemisphere.)  What we may not consider is even in sleep, our autonomous nervous system is still being directed by the brain so the brain never is fully at rest!

If we take sleep out of the equation, our brain does not have time for repair.  Repair occurs through chemical changes promoting neuron production as well as neurotransmitter, receptor, and pathway repair.  The chemicals needed are found within the foods we eat.  Blood viscosity and tissue quality are regulated and maintained by the food and water we consume.  Our hormones are directed by not only the time of day, month or year, but by measured blood sugar levels.  Our hormones are also assembled, maintained, and supported by the foods and water we consume and our hormones are directly responsible for the sleep we do our do not get!  What a complicated circle of food, brain, transmission, interpretation, assembly, assignment, and sleep.

Eat.  Choose real food, ones without labels.  Chase those foods with vitamins to fill the gaps and boost chemical reactions.  Drink water so all nutrition can be absorbed and assigned to the appropriate tissues and chains.  And, today, think of sleep.  Take a hot shower, watch a feel good movie, and go bed 30 minutes earlier than normal.  Give your brain the rest it truly deserves.

Anna~