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Ah, a good nights sleep. We all want to get in the recommended 7-8 hours, yet according to the National Sleep Foundation, almost one-third of Americans sleep 6.5 hours or less each night. So, not only are we walking around in a bad mood, eyes half open, giant cup of Joe in hand, but now research shows that we are actually putting our heart at risk! Research by Dr. Alexandros Vgontzas, professor of psychiatry at The Pennsylvania State University in Hershey reveals that even modest sleep deprivation may be associated with low-grade inflammation, which can lead to a number of cardiovascular problems. Vgontzas and his team of researchers deprived 25 men and women just two hours of sleep per night over a six-week period. They measured blood levels for immune-system molecules called cytokines, which are normally secreted during inflammation and infection. Both men and women in the study had increased concentrations of cytokines, which confirms lack of sleep may stimulate an increase in chronic inflammation. This is troublesome, particularly because continuous inflammation has been shown to lead to hardening of the arteries, high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease and even heart failure. Also, lack of quality sleep has a significant effect on your blood sugar levels. If you are sleep deprived, it requires more insulin to balance your blood sugar levels, which, in turn, can lead to heart disease and a host of other health related problems. So, you know you need more shut-eye but getting to bed early and sleeping in later just aren't an option with your busy schedule. Maybe the quantity of hours shouldn't be your main focus, let's try focusing on getting 'quality' sleep. The first option that comes to mind for most people who want to sleep more soundly is to seek out over-the-counter or prescription sleep aids. However, there are several downsides to consider: Risk of tolerance - meaning your body can require more and more of the medication in order to achieve result

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Six Steps to Supersleep 19 June 2007 None of us can live without it. We need it every day. And most of us are deficient in it. It's not a vitamin or a mineral - it's sleep. An alarming 47 per cent of people have difficulty falling to sleep or staying asleep throughout the night, but many more are simply not getting enough for optimal health. Before the electric light bulb extended our days, most people slept for up to ten hours a night. The figure now hovers around seven and continues to fall. Not only are we sleeping less in the 21st century because we've learnt how to extend our daytime, but we also sleep less to get more done. Yet research clearly shows that it's a rare person who can survive on a great deal less than seven or eight hours' kip a night. One of the great mysteries is why we need sleep at all. Without it, even for a night, the body shows clear signs of stress - mood and concentration go, defences drop, vital nutrients zinc and magnesium levels fall, vitamin C is used up at an alarming rate. Sleep both rejuvenates the body and the mind. During the first three hours of sleep, the body goes into rapid repair mode. This is one of the reasons why, if you are injured or sick, nothing is better than a good night's sleep. The Importance of Dreaming After a couple of hours, we enter the dream state sleep, known as rapid eye movement, or REM, Stage 1. REM sleep normally occurs 90 minutes after the onset of sleep, but if we are sleep deprived it may occur within 30 minutes. Dreaming occurs during REM sleep and most of us have four or more REM periods per night, even though many people have difficulty remembering the dreams that occur in them. As well as providing physical rest, sleep may provide the chance to make a 'back-up tape' of the day's events for our large computer, the brain. While Westerners pay little heed to dreams, one African tribe believe 'real life' is lived in dreams and daytime is the illusion. The Bolivian philo

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