Nicole Ceil is not a medical doctor, and nothing herein constitutes medical advice or a patient-provider relationship. Please consult your healthcare provider before undertaking a healthcare regimen. Never disregard medical advice or delay seeking treatment.

This post contains affiliate links which you may use to support my work at no extra cost to yourself.

For personalized care please inquire as a new client.

Lately I’ve seen a lot of interesting “sleep facts” being shared on social media. One that caught my eye announced that the impairment resulting from sleeping 6 hours or less each night could be compared to the impairment caused by drinking 2-3 beers. Whoa!

While I’m not sure if this comparison is exactly scientifically valid, I think some of these memes were generated based on sleep research that measured performance on tasks of memory, attention, coordination, and vigilance after increasing lengths of sleep deprivation compared to increasing amounts of alcohol consumption. The researchers found that after 17 hours of sleep deprivation, subjects performance on the tasks was equivalent or worse than having a blood alcohol content of .05%, and after longer periods of sleep deprivation, performance was equivalent to a BAC of .1% (over the legal limit).

The dangers discussed in this study are of physical and cognitive impairments. It raises serious concerns about the safety of participating in activities such as driving after a night of poor sleep. What this study doesn’t discuss are the long term effects that sleep deprivation can have on health even if our drowsiness doesn't cause cause an accident.

As a nutritional therapy practitioner, I talk to my clients about sleep almost as much as I talk to them about food. Everyone I work with wants to improve their health in one way or another, and sleep is an essential part of that process.

In fact, I think that getting enough sleep is the most important thing you can do to improve your health.

More important than eating a balanced diet.
More important that getting adequate physical activity.
More important than any supplement you could ever take.

You’re body uses the time you spend sleeping to engage in the dynamic processes of cellular renewal, detoxification, and metabolism. Without enough sleep these processes backlog and we become more than just fatigued, we become worn out.

This means that even if you’re eating the perfect diet, and taking expensive high quality supplements, a lack of sleep can interfere with you body’s ability to break down those nutrients and use them to heal.

If you’re doing everything right but still ignoring your sleep, you’ll never reach your health goals.

I also find it common for people to underestimate the amount of sleep that they need to maintain health. According to the American Sleep Association healthy adults need 7-9 hours of sleep each night. That means that if you’re dealing with any kind of health problem at all, you should be aiming for the high end of that range, or more, to allow your body the opportunity for regeneration. And fatigue, while a common symptom of many health problems, is also a normal signal from the body that you’re not getting enough sleep.

So how can you improve your sleep? Well, there are hundreds of tips and tricks for optimizing sleep, and I’m including some of my favorite in a download for you at the end of this post. But, if you’re serious about getting enough sleep there’s one non-negotiable. You have to create the opportunity. If you want to get 8 hours of sleep each night, you have to provide yourself with 8 hours of uninterrupted time each night during which to sleep. This might mean rearranging your morning or evening routine. It might mean forgoing pleasant activities such as watching TV, or drawing a hard line with your furry family members who want to sleep in bed with you.

These changes can be difficult, but after a few nights of excellent sleep, they’ll feel well worth it. Download the free sleep tips guide below for more in-depth strategies for improving your sleep and enhancing your health.

How's your sleep?