Page 12 - Horizon October 2017

articles here as well http://www.oprah.com/spirit/The-
https://www.marsvenus.com/john-gray-
Power-of-Your-Intuition
mars-venus.htm
A SIMPLE PLAN TO LIVE

FULLY CHARGED

Excerpt from Mom Energy; A Simple Plan to Live Fully Charged by Ashley Koff, RD, and Kathy Kaehler.

covery. Cortisol, for example, should be highest in the morning
and progressively decrease throughout the day, with the lowest
levels occurring after 11 P.M. With low evening cortisol levels,
melatonin levels rise. This is the hormone that tells you it’s
time to sleep; it helps regulate your 24-hour circadian rhythm,
Studyng sleep provides alarming insights into alerting your brain that it’s dark outside. Once released, it
the power of sleep in the support of health and slows body function, lowers blood pressure and, in turn, core
energy. Sleep can dictate whether you can fight body temperature so you’re prepared to sleep. Higher melato-
nin levels will allow for more deep sleep, which helps maintain
off infections, and how well you can cope with healthy levels of growth hormone, thyroid hormone, and sex
stress. We’ve already covered how sleep deprivation creates hormones. All good things for keeping up appearances and
an imbalance of hormones that control your appetite and how energy levels.
your body burns energy. That’s just the tip of the proverbial
iceberg when it comes to associations between sleep and well- WHY YOU NEED TO GO DEEP
being.
Lots of hormones are associated with sleep, some of which rely
Sleep is not a state of inactivity. Much to the contrary, a lot on sleep to get released. As soon as you hit deep sleep, about
goes on during sleep at the cellular level to ensure that we can 20 to 30 minutes after you first close your eyes, and then a
live another day. A night of poor sleep or no sleep at all won’t couple more times throughout the night in your sleep cycle,
kill you, but prolonged sleep deprivation can have unintended your pituitary gland at the base of your brain releases high
consequences, also putting you at high risk for an accident. levels of growth hormone (GH)—the most it’s going to secrete
in 24 hours. Growth hormone does more than just stimulate
There’s something to be said for looking refreshed and feeling growth and cell reproduction; it also refreshes cells, restores
smarter upon waking from a good night’s sleep or a nap. Seem- skin’s elasticity, and enhances the movement of amino acids
ingly magical events happen when you’re sleeping that just through cell membranes. Growth hormone aids in your abil-
cannot happen during wakeful hours, and which help keep you ity to maintain an ideal weight, too, effectively telling your
stay energized and quick-witted. Proof of sleep’s profound role cells to back off on using carbs for energy and use fat instead.
in our lives also has been demonstrated over and over again in Without adequate sleep, GH stays locked up in the pituitary,
laboratory and clinical studies. It keeps you sharp, creative, which negatively affects your proportions of fat to muscle.
and able to process information in an instant. Losing as few as Over time, low GH levels are associated with high fat and low
one and a half hours for just one night reduces daytime alert- lean muscle.
ness by about a third. And among the many side effects of poor
sleep habits are hypertension, confusion, memory loss, the Growth hormone affects almost every cell in the body, renew-
inability to learn new things, weight gain, obesity, cardiovas- ing the skin and bones, regenerating the heart, liver, lungs,
cular disease, and depression. and kidneys, bringing back organ and tissue function to more
youthful levels. Growth hormone also revitalizes the immune
One underappreciated aspect to sleep that is especially influ- system, lowers the risk factors of heart attack and stroke,
ential to our sense of well-being is its control of our hormonal improves oxygen uptake, and even helps prevent osteoporosis.
cycles. Everyone has a biological, internal clock called a circa-
dian rhythm. It’s the pattern of repeated activity associated SLEEP ON THIS: The trouble with running up sleep shortages
with the environmental cycles of day and night—rhythms that day after day is that it’s very hard to make up the loss unless
repeat roughly every 24 hours. Examples include the sleep- you’re going on vacation. What’s more, when sleep is skimpy,
wake cycle, the ebb and flow of hormones, the rise and fall of your cortisol levels don’t drop as much as they’re supposed
body temperature, and other subtle rhythms that mesh with to at night, and growth hormone doesn’t rise as much as it
the 24-hour solar day. When your rhythm is not in synch with should, which can undermine muscle strength. Remember, you
the 24-hour solar day, you will feel it. Anyone who has traveled need a daily dose of growth hormone, which gets secreted dur-
across time zones and felt off for a few days can understand. ing deep sleep, to refresh your cells and prepare you for the
next day. It not only stimulates cellular growth and reproduc-
So much of our circadian rhythm revolves around our sleep tion, but it also has strong anti-inflammatory, antifat, and
habits. A healthy day-night cycle is tied into our normal anticortisol effects—all good things for energy (not to mention
hormonal secretion patterns, from those associated with our weight maintenance!).
eating patterns to those that relate to stress and cellular re- ...continued on page 13...

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