I have never been, nor will I probably ever be, a good sleeper. I wish I was so much, but I have fought with insomnia, both onset (falling asleep) and middle (waking up a lot), throughout my whole life. So I guess I should back up and define what is a "good sleeper" or more importantly, what is "good sleep"?
Adults should get between 7-9 hours of good sleep a night. There is a very small group of the people who can get by just fine on 5-6 hours of sleep. Everyone claims to be one of these people. You are wrong. How do you know if you aren't getting enough sleep (and the right kind of sleep, which I'll talk about soon)? Have you ever nodded off during a routine meeting after only a couple of minutes? Feel tired shortly after you wake up? Does riding in a car or train (motion) make you drowsy on a regular basis? Without coffee, does your afternoon become non-functioning? (although this might be due to a diet high in sugars and simple carbohydrates--eating cereal for breakfast is the worst thing you can do for afternoon productivity) If you have any of these happen more than once, you are not getting enough sleep.
Scientists have a general understanding, as we all do, of how sleep is restorative to all the functions of the human body. But they are truly limited on the why, what, and how. There is a tragic hereditary disease called FFI, fatal familial insomnia, that shows how important sleep is to the body. There is no cure for the disease, once you stop sleeping it is only a matter of months till you are dead. You don't die of another sickness, like with other degenerative diseases, your other organs a still functioning normally. Why do I bring this up? Because what we know about sleep and how it affects us is still evolving. Sleeping those precious 8 hours might be more important to our health than we all know.
One of the things that they have found out about sleep is this: the less you get over time, the more likely you are to put on weight. There are two hormones, leptin and ghrelin, that have control over our appetites and they are affected by sleep. Simply put, ghrelin stimulates your appetite and leptin signals your brain that you are full. When you consistently sleep less than your body needs, leptins levels go down and ghrelin is more readily produced, meaning your body is saying "I feel hungry, I need food" when you actually don't. (well, I guess evolutionarily, you would have needed food if you were low on sleep because it probably meant you were under real duress. But none of us is foraging for berries and sleeping in caves, so for our discussion, your body is wrong) And you don't crave lean protein and greens, you will naturally desire comfort food, high in fat, salt, and sugars. Getting enough sleep ensures that these hormone levels are at a even, natural stasis.
BUT there is a way to sleep 8 hours and still have your hormones be out of whack. Wicky wicky whack. You could be one of the MILLIONS of Americans with sleep apnea, which even with 8 hours of sleep a night, causes those hormone levels to be off. Sleep apnea causes you to stop breathing/receiving oxygen throughout the night, maybe hundreds of times. This is obviously a bad thing. And more than just affecting dental health (a dry mouth leads to gum disease and tooth decay) and weight loss, sleep apnea can affect memory and cause headaches during the day. Most people are unaware they are affected by it, or by how severely they are affected by it. And it is often misdiagnosed. If you wake up with dry mouth, not feeling refreshed and your partner complaining about snoring, and have random headaches and brain fart memory issues throughout the day--you should look into treatment for sleep apnea. Sometimes its as easy as sleeping on your side and putting a humidifier in your room. Often, it is linked to being overweight. At any rate, it is keeping you from maintaining a healthy weight (among other things--like keeping your wife up at night).
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