Importance of Rest
Importance of Rest
According to Richard Giorla, author of “Raise the Barre”, the revolutionary 8-week program for total mind/body transformation, there are 3 keys to maintaining optimum health. The first two are pretty easy to guess- exercise and diet. But I bet you don’t know the last one. Rest.
If you are like me, you are struggling to find enough hours in the day as it is. You are shaving hours of sleep off here and there to try and fit in other activities. For example, getting up an hour earlier to try and squeeze in some gym time before work. We are all guilty of this one.
The following is an excerpt from “Raise the Barre” on the importance of rest.
In order for your body to perform optimally each day, it needs time to repair and rest each night. You may feel relaxed, but as you sleep, your muscles are growing stronger, healing themselves from the day, particularly if you strength train. Though your eyes may be closed, your mind is not completely at rest; it is filing away learned lessons of the day. Problems are being sorted out, answers to questions that you wracked your brain for hours earlier that afternoon are being found. When you finally wake up, after a good night’s sleep, your body is rested and ready to go, your mind is sharp and buzzing with information, and a few years seem to have reversed themselves from your face. But if you want your muscles, body, and mind to adequately heal, you need to give it enough time. Though everyone’s rhythms and needs for sleep are slightly different, on average 8 hours of sleep is recommended each night.
Unfortunately, not everyone has the ability to lay their heads on a pillow and drift away for eight hours. Why? Our waking lives sometimes seem to get in the way. Late-night activities and early morning appointments leach hours from our much-needed shut-eye. Once you finally get to sleep, a partner’s snoring, a child’s nightmare, or a neighbor’s unnecessary noise can keep you wide-eyed and frustrated. Once you finally get to sleep, your alarm blares and it’s time to attempt to peel your exhausted body from your bed and hit the shower. This consistent sleep deprivation is doing more harm than merely leaving you with dark circles under your eyes and a fuzzy head. When you are tired, reaction times are significantly slowed and performance ability is reduced.
It is important to note that sleep deprivation can make you gain weight. Even if your stomach is actually full, you may feel hungry when you are sleepy. This confusion is caused by leptin levels. When leptin levels are low, as is what happens when we don’t get enough sleep, we feel hungrier. Getting enough sleep is considered crucial to a successful weight-loss plan, and to general health and well-being.
May 28, 2009 at 12:44 pm
That is very informative, cause I thought all you needed was rest for your muscles to heal properly. Now I know and knowing is half the battle.