Introduction

Did you know there are only four things our body needs to stay alive? Only four! And, did you know that we aren't very good at getting three of the four things? We literally get signals from our cells, crying out in distress, when we do not get enough. So, how do we get more and how do we know?

Only Four Things Needed To Live

To stay alive, humans only need air, water, food and...can you guess the last one? Sleep! We can only survive a couple of minutes without air. We can live for a week or so without water. And we can live about a month without food. We have already discussed food and we will learn about breathing in another section. How long do you think we can survive without sleep? It seems that we can only live for about a week without sleep and then the body just can't go on.

Air, water, food and sleep. People can easily get enough air into our bodies (though sometimes it's polluted!), but most of us have a hard time getting in enough water, healthy food and restful sleep. No wonder our bodies are stressed out! Three of the four things we need to stay alive don't feel very important to us; we tend to ignore them until we get sick.

People who get poor sleep night after night feel frazzled and foggy in the head. This is a real change going on in our brain. Since our brain is sleepy, it decides to focus on doing the really important things to keep us alive like keeping us breathing and keeping our heart beating. The brain doesn't send as much energy to the parts of our brain that aren't as important, like the parts that help us concentrate, use willpower or keep our emotions in check. So, we basically can't pay attention very well, fall off our diets and yell more when we are tired! That isn't a very fun way to live!

What Should I Do To Get Better Sleep?

Our body has ten trillion cells in it! Ten trillion written out looks like this: 10,000,000,000,000. A lot of zeros, right? When any of our ten trillion cells get stressed out, it can send out a signal saying, "I'm stressed out." It's kind of like whining and complaining, but since cells can't talk, it pumps out a chemical signal instead. We can measure the chemical whining that our cells are doing by taking a blood sample. When they test people who have not had a good night of sleep they find much more chemical whining going on in the body! Cells are sending out signs of stress after just one night of poor sleep! Imagine what is happening in our body when we get poor sleep night after night!

What can you do to help your cells and your brain feel less stressed? It's simple...you need to be your own Mom! The things that help us get better sleep are the things a Mom tells kids all the time:

1. Get in bed! Can't you hear a mom telling a kid this? If you don't go to bed early enough, you simply can't get enough sleep! Not allowing yourself to sleep is called sleep deprivation. Be in bed (with the lights and TV off) 8 hours before you have to be up.
2. Shut off that computer! Moms harp on kids about this too! Turn down your lights and shut off your screens (TV, computer, iPad, phone, everything!) an hour before your bedtime, otherwise your brains won't dial down into "sleepy mode" very well because of the bright lights and computer screens.
3. Moderation with caffeine & alcohol! Don't have more than two servings of caffeine a day and never later than noon. If that doesn't work, try going "cold turkey" and cutting out caffeine all together at night. Also, it has been shown that large amount of alcohol in the evening actually cause insomnia, so if you choose to imbibe, be sure you do it in moderation!
4. Stretch and breathe! Remember the beginning of this chapter when we said air was necessary to live? A great way to prepare for sleeping is to take a few minutes to take deep breaths and stretch. See our website for great demos!
5. Check your hormones! If the other four things mentioned don't help with your sleep issues like insomnia, night sweats or lack of deep sleep, you may have a hormone imbalance. Seek a metabolic specialist to work this problem.