The Powerful Ways Sleep Can Heal Your Body

Sleep is one of the most powerful sources of Healing for our mind and body.

Sleep affects everything, including our digestion, energy levels, mental function, immunity, beauty, even your brains ability to produce neurotransmitters of happiness and well-being.

It supports our cells and other bodily systems, it increases the available energy in the body and increases healing.

How do we define HEALING? It is the body’s natural intelligence using available energy to grow, repair and function optimally. All of us are constantly experiencing cycles of growth. Our cells, hair, our gut bacteria, and skin…are all constantly going through cycles of growth. That is why healing and growth are so closely connected.

When it comes to healing, along with growth, it is the ever-constant function called REPAIR. We are continuously experiencing decline or break-downs, and then our bodies repair themselves. Our modern world is filled with toxins everywhere and we are constantly being faced with the need to repair. However, in order to have our body in optimal health, repairing at its highest levels, we need good sleep.

AUTOPHAGY

What is this new word, Autophagy? Well, it’s not all that new, but people don’t really talk about it. It’s the body’s internal recycling and repair program. It is essential for normal cellular existence and activity. Proper autophagy is a sign that our body is functioning optimally which is also a sign that healing is happening as well. It can be regrowth of your hair or nails, the power of your lungs, the strength of your digestion, or any bodily function. Healing touches everything.

There are so many ways to optimize our healing process and the one thing they all have in common is their connection to nature. Staying in line with your circadian rhythm is one way to align your sleep with nature. Our body should rise with the sun and rest with the moon. For right now we are focusing primarily on Sleep simply because it is one of the deepest sources of healing. Every time I feel myself getting sick, I go to bed extremely early…like 6 or 7pm and I am almost new the next morning. It always amazes me.  Literally every aspect of your health is improved by sleep. Our body, brain weight…it is all impacted by our sleep.

STAGES OF SLEEP

Did you know that there are different phases of your sleep cycle? Most people are familiar with REM sleep, but there are three other stages of sleep you go through before you enter the REM phase. There are four stages of sleep cycles.

Stage 1 – Light Sleep – This is where you first fall asleep. muscle, brain and eye movement slow down.

Stage 2 – Lighter Sleep – This stage you fall a bit deeper. Eye movement and muscle activity stops, while the brain waves slow down.

Stage 3 – Deep Sleep – This is where the brain and body’s activity drop to their lowest point and the blood is redirected from the brain to the muscles (recovery).  This is crucial for physical renewal, repair and health. Without this stage, you are more likely to get sick, feel low in your mood or gain excessive weight.

Stage 4 – REM Sleep – This is where your brain processes and synthesizes memories and emotions, which help you learn and think better the next day. A lack of REM sleep ends up impairing your mental function, including problems concentrating and issues with memory.

In order to best help heal your body, make sleep a priority.

There is literally no area of your health or body that isn’t affected, good or bad, by the quality and duration of sleep you get every night. It helps with digestion, absorbing nutrients from your food, having more energy, brain health, immunity and aging! I guess there is a good reason for the name Beauty Sleep! Make sure you get yours!!

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