Many people don’t get enough sleep at night because they are “too busy” doing other things. Getting enough sleep is vitally important to maintain good health and to help you heal if you have health problems. It is also an important factor in preventing future health problems.

Sleep data

More and more scientific research is emerging that shows the importance of sleep and how detrimental lack of sleep is for health. Recent research has found that people who habitually sleep less than seven hours a night are 21-26% more likely to die from any cause than people who habitually sleep more than eight hours a night.

Every animal sleeps. There are no animals that do not sleep. Biologically, that means sleep is just as important as breathing and eating.

Fascinating brain research has recently been conducted that has discovered more about how the brain works and what it does at night. I was flabbergasted when I read it. When we are active throughout the day, working, exercising, and going about our daily activities, we are using our brain functions a lot. This causes a buildup of naturally occurring toxins and chemical byproducts as part of that process. When we sleep at night, the brain actually pumps through a nightly “wash cycle,” much like a dishwasher, flushing out those toxins and byproducts built up during the day. Just stop and think about that for a moment. What happens if you don’t wash the dishes well? A lot of dirt accumulates. Now think about what happens in your brain. What do you think happens when a lot of toxins and crap build up in the brain? Is it going to have an impact on brain function and health? Absolutely. If you don’t get enough sleep at night, the wash cycle doesn’t work properly.

Decades of sleep research shows that eight hours of sleep a night is the magic number. Children and adolescents need a little more.

The Chinese medicine perspective

In Chinese Medicine, we want to balance the yin and yang in the body to restore and maintain health. Yang energy provides heat, fire, and functional activity in the body. The day is yang time. It is warm, light and the time when we are busy with our daily activities. Many of us end up acting “too yang,” meaning we go, go, go all the time, without enough “downtime,” or time to rest and rejuvenate the body (and mind and spirit, for that matter).

Yin energy is the cooling, moisturizing and nourishing energy of the body. Night is yin time, when it is coolest, darkest, and most peaceful. During yin time, our body naturally needs to be quiet and rest to recover from the day’s activities. What happens when you stay up too late, do too much and don’t stay long enough? You work too much, you burn yin energy and you feel tired. Yin/night/rest time is just as important as yang/active time! Unfortunately, all of our great technology to make us more efficient, instead of giving us more free time, has made us do a lot more things in less time. We’re always trying to include one more thing we can do before we go to bed.

If you think getting more done is more important than sleep, consider the research mentioned above. And, research has shown that those who don’t get enough sleep (less than 8 hours) gain more weight, and there is an increase in heart attacks in those who don’t get enough sleep.

How to get control of your sleep

As you can see, eight hours of sleep a night is really important. Tonight, consider whether you really need to do one or two more things before bed. Do you really need to stay up and watch the end of the movie or finish reading the book tonight? Plan your time at night, like during the day. What time do you have to go to bed to sleep eight hours? If you start watching the TV show or movie, will it finish with enough time for you to go to bed at your desired time? Set an alarm if you need to, so it tells you to stop what you’re doing and get ready for bed. It’s a matter of creating good clothes and training your body when it’s time to stop and go to sleep. Never work in bed.

Also, consider whether you are simply doing too much. What can you cut or say “no”? It’s easy to do too much. It happens to everyone at some point. Take charge of your life and balance your work and rest time to maintain your good health. And of course, if you have any difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep through the night, acupuncture and Chinese herbs work great for insomnia.