Sleep deprivation destroys your immune system.
And no, that’s not an exaggeration.
I don’t mean that long periods of sleep deprivation will eventually weaken your immunity…
I mean that a single night of 4 hours of sleep cripples your immune system for the following day, leaving you defenseless against whatever flu or other bug is floating around at the time.
See, I read Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker last week.
He’s a sleep researcher who recently published all his findings from the last 20 years.
And they’re all terrifying:
- One night of 4 hours sleep leaves you with a 30% functioning immune system the next day.
- Prolonged sleep deprivation almost guarantees that you’ll get sick.
- Chronic sleep deprivation can double or triple your risk for cancer.
- A lifetime habit of short sleep inevitably leads to Alheimer’s (Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher always bragged about how little sleep they needed).
- If you’re dieting to lose weight, but not getting sleep, you’re only going to lose muscle and not fat.
- Studying all night is a waste of time because you’re guaranteed to forget almost all of the new info.
So if you’re like me, one of those “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” people, I’d suggest you check out his book.
Because, apparently, we’ll be dead sooner than later if we don’t change our ways.
We need more sleep than we’ve been led to believe.
And if you need help getting to sleep and staying asleep, you might like my Sleep Aid session.