What can a good night's sleep do for you? The list is longer than you might think.
Dr. Michael Howell, a sleep medicine doctor and associate neurology professor at the University of Minnesota, can tick off the health benefits: "Your mood is better. You're better able to deal with stress," he said.
"You make sharper, better decisions. You have improved reaction times and you're able to master motor skills better. Better ability to be more successful creatively. For everyone, and teenagers in particular, less impulsive, unhealthy behavior, better ability to retain academic content. Long term, you have improved cardiovascular health, lower blood pressure, decreased risk of heart attacks, strokes, congestive heart failure," Howell continued. "Lower risk of diabetes and obesity. Lower risk of cancer."
Sleep is something we all desperately need, but for too many of us, getting enough of it is difficult. I fight through groggy mornings. You might struggle with being able to drift off at night.
That's why the Star Tribune is hosting a 30-day Sleep Challenge.
The goal is to spend the next four weeks learning about the science of sleep, taking the steps to make sleep a priority and working with your natural sleep patterns so you can get a good night's rest.
Each week, online and in the Sunday print edition, we will have specific challenges and snooze goals, advice from local experts like Howell, and the chance to get answers to your most pressing sleep-related questions.
For adults, doctors recommend seven or more hours of sleep in a 24-hour period. But as anyone who has fitfully dozed through a red-eye flight or been awakened repeatedly by a restless toddler knows, sleep quality, not just quantity, is important. We will look at ways to boost both.
