Somehow, in the last 20 or so years, the notion of working hard and playing hard, at the expense of our own health has become the supposed tagline of successful, motivated people.

We proudly declare how little sleep we got the night before, as if it’s a badge of how hardcore and dedicated we are.  Truth is, by robbing ourselves of sleep, we are in actuality robbing ourselves of health and longevity, which is quite a sacrifice to make in the name of dedication to our work.

Good quality sleep is a major foundation of health, equally important as nutrition.  You can eat all the organic fruits and vegetables in the world, exercise like clock work, and drink ounce upon ounce of water, but if you’re not getting enough sleep, all of that is for naught.  Weight gain, skin problems, inability to manage stress and emotions, high blood pressure, and increased risk of developing cancer, heart disease, and other life-threatening illnesses are just some of the negative effects that too little or poor quality sleep can have on your body.

All this in addition to the simple fact that insufficient sleep makes it impossible for you to perform at your best.. at work, on stage, in bed, or simply as a human being.   The old adage, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” takes on a creepy ring of truth when you consider that  neglecting your sleep will bring on that rather final state sooner than you think.

We go through our 20’s and 30’s thinking that we’ll have the rest of our lives to be lame and go to bed early, that we’re young and our bodies recover more easily from the stressors lack of sleep create.. right?  Wrong.  This is the time when we really create the path our bodies will be on for the rest of our lives.  Risk of disease, strength and speed of metabolism, signs of aging, propensity to gain weight — all of these factors are in part determined throughout these pivotal years.  It may be especially hard to get 7-9 hours of sleep while managing a social life on top of our careers, and still having some time to ourselves, but to ensure that we live a long, healthy life of performing at our absolute best, it is a MUST.

Sleeping at night, in the dark, somewhere between the hours of 10pm and 8am ensures that your body will produce enough melatonin to ward off disease and regulate your bio-rhythms.

Recent research has found that people that work the night shift and sleep during the day, have a marked increase in risk of developing breast and colon cancer, in addition to a broad spectrum of other undesirable health issues.  Your body works according to a specific rhythm, and try as you might to retrain or reverse it, we are meant to sleep when it’s dark and be awake when it’s light.

When we sleep at the right time, our body maximizes the production of melatonin, which fends off diseases like cancer, and keeps our hormone levels in check.  When we go to bed and wake up at roughly the same time, our melatonin production becomes regular, which encourages good, restful sleep and protects our bodies.

This ideal sleep time is also when our liver detoxifies the body, when we burn fat and sugar, and maintain optimum levels of appetite controlling hormones.  To wake up refreshed, cleansed, and ready to digest food and take on the day, we need to give our bodies the optimum amount of support, and get out of our own way.  The body’s system of detoxification and healing is super sophisticated, and given the chance, our bodies will maximize healing, immunity, energy, and our ability to perform

Several recent, nationally representative studies have found that people who sleep less than seven hours a night are more likely to have elevated blood pressure, experience food cravings, a tendency to overeat, and are generally more likely to be overweight.

Not getting enough sleep causes your body to enter into a pre-diabetic state, so you feel hungry even if your body doesn’t need to eat.  It also causes a marked decrease in the hormone, leptin, that sends signals to your body that you are full, and a marked increase in ghrelin, the hormone that tells you that you are hungry.  A study at Columbia University found that men and women of normal weight ate an average of 300 more calories a day when they were sleep deprived, compared to when they slept an average of 8 hours a night.

We have all heard that 8 hours of sleep is ideal, but research has also found that that is not enough for many adults, who may need more like 9 hours of sleep to feel truly rested and experience maximum healing and health.  People who get less than 7 hours of sleep continually also have a significant decrease in their ability to solve complex mental tasks, manage their stress levels, and balance their mood.

People also have a tendency to calculate the amount of sleep they’ve had by counting from when they went to bed, as opposed to when they actually go to sleep.  Going to bed at 10pm is meaningless if you read, check your email on your phone, and chat with your significant other until a quarter to 12.  What to do?  Easy:

1.  Start your before bed routine earlier.  We all have DVR for a reason… use it!  Don’t let finishing your favorite show or waiting for something to come on be a reason to put your health at risk.  Check your email, wash your face, finish your work, and get your freak on earlier.   These are all stimulating activities that can actually make it harder to get to sleep.  So no computers or TVs in the bedroom!  Period.  Get all work and stimulating activities done at least an hour before bedtime, so that once you are actually in your bed, you are there to sleep.

Getting enough quality sleep is an incredibly important component of total body health and longevity.  Whether you are a performer, athlete, or simply a busy person trying to look and feel your best, your sleep is non-negotiable to be able to keep doing whatever it is that you do… and to keep doing it well.