Why is Sleeping so Healthy?

Just the other day I was taking a walk down by the lake at lunchtime with a colleague and she asked me why it was healthy to get a good night's sleep.

Suffice it to say sleep was eluding her.

While I explained it keeps your body in balance and thus creates a stronger immune system that is better able to fight out whatever is going around, it actually helps with more than that.

In a recent article on CNN about healthy habits, Nieca Goldberg, M.D., medical director of the New York University-Langone Women's Heart Program is quoted as saying that, "lack of sleep has also been associated with hypertension, glucose intolerance, and belly fat -- all risk factors for heart disease."


The Washington Post ran an article a few years back pointing out that several reports from the Harvard-run Nurses' Health Study found that insufficient or irregular sleep was linked to a higher risk for colon cancer and breast cancer. The theory is that sleep disruption affects crucial hormones and proteins that play roles in these diseases.

If you seem to have trouble getting to sleep here's a home remedy that has worked for my children. I add essential lavender oil to a cotton ball and then apply it to a stuffed animal. You can apply to a sheet or even place in a saucer by your bed.