Obligations at work, responsibilities at home, one should periodically visit the parents and meet with friends … In order to avoid our life to be reduced only to work and home (an extremely depressing variant), there is an occasional hobby, interest in this or that … vacations are practically nonexistent.
Sleep is usually not enough – has anybody still got time to get some sleep? There is a rush, the imperative to live as much as possible -- how to do it while you sleep?
We will not talk about the harmful effects that lack of sleep causes to the body, such as chronic fatigue and stress.
Did you notice that the chronically sleep deprived people appear not only tired but also older?
It is no coincidence; it is proved that sleeping, if you sleep long enough and well enough, slows the aging process of the body.
In fact, every night the hormone melatonin helps us to fall asleep (it is triggered by the lack of daylight, so that the afternoon nap cannot “refresh” you as a night’s sleep) and activates a program for energy saving in the body.
This leads to a decrease in body temperature, to reduction of the bodily functions to minimum -- which means that it slows down the aging process of cells and organs.
The higher the level of melatonin in the blood,the stronger its effects will be; people who suffer from a lack of this hormone (this is especially typical for the elderly), can restore the shortage by injecting artificially produced melatonin.
What you should pay attention to is that this positive effect of melatonin is only possible if the stomach is not constantly loaded -- otherwise the body must remain more or less up, so the stomach could do its job, and you cannot slow down the aging process.
This means that at least a few hours before bedtime, you should not eat at all (if you cannot endure it, try to drink a warm herbal tea without sugar), and you should also give up cigarettes and alcohol.
source: http://www.goodmorningcenter.com/
