Sleep and General Good Health

Sleep is fundamental to good health and could be described as the very foundation of good health. Sleep is as critical for our overall good health as drinking, eating or even  breathing.

The times when we are sleeping our bodies are restoring, regenerating and repairing both the microscopic, insignificant wear and damage sustained through the day and also the results of those major mishaps. The sleeping hours are the time of day we unload our bodies of the structural stress and strain of work and movement by lying down and resting, which triggers our bodies repair mode to function.

How much sleep do we need to maintain and support our overall good health? 

This is a question that’s often asked, a simple rule of thumb is the younger we are the more we require; an infant through to toddler age  group requires over ½ the day resting and sleeping (when their sleeping their growing) in the words of a grandmother watching her daughter anxiously fussing over the new-born. 

In middle-age and beyond we require approximately a ⅓ of the day resting and sleeping.