As a reformed night owl, I can fully attest to the importance of getting to bed at a reasonable hour. Shem is the type of guy that would go to bed at 7:30 every night, and while I don’t go to that extreme, I have felt the wonderful effects of being early to bed (although I still haven’t quite mastered the early to rise part).

Here are some of the reasons you need to sleep well

• Improved Health: Having good sleep reduces your chances of disease attacks; Research has proven that there exists a connection between lack of enough sleep and diseases such as diabetes, obesity and heart diseases.
• Reduced pain. People who suffered injuries recently are advised by doctors to have enough sleep since it helps with healing and managing pain. Sleeping well acts as a supplement medication when you are in pain.
• Better mood. When you are tired, you might tend to snap at people but after taking time to sleep you wake up fresh and you can easily handle the day’s work.
• Clearer thinking. At times, when you have a bad night’s sleep you wake up feeling tired and you are not able to think in a clear manner. The decisions you make are also fuzzy compared to when you slept well at night
• Stronger body immunity. Most people do not know that sleeping well can help prevent the common cold, among other things. A study that was conducted shows that people who spent seven hours sleeping were more prone to getting infected by the common cold virus that they were exposed to, compared to those who spent eight hours sleeping.
• Improved memory. People who are very forgetful have been found not to sleep well. Our brains processes and stores the memories of the day when we sleep and this doesn’t happen as well when we sleep only a few hours.
• Better control of your weight. Sleeping late leaves you tired the next day and you end up not being able to jog, or prepare a nice meal for yourself. People who don’t sleep well have also been found to be hungrier.
• Reduced risk of injury. Spending enough time sleeping keeps you safe. Lack of sleep has been linked to drowsy driving which causes accidents on the roads. Out of five accidents that occur on roads, one is associated to drowsy driving.

Happy zzzzzzzz……