The secret to staying young could simply be a good night’s sleep.
sleep rejuvenates and revitalizes your body. Human growth hormone (HGH) is produced only during
deep sleep. The amounts of deep sleep you get, and the amount of growth hormone you make, decrease with age. If you could get more deep sleep and, therefore, produce more HGH, you might be able to slow down the aging process.
As you drift into sleep, late evening thoughts and dreamy images begin to fade. Blood flow to your
brain drops as it flows out to meet the needs of your
muscles and internal organs. Like a house settling down for the night, your central nervous system rests so you aren’t bothered by sounds, smells, and other distractions of the senses. Your
body temperature drops. You just let it all go as respiration, blood pressure, metabolism, and heart rate slow.
The, like the thermostat in your house, deepest sleep kicks on the mechanisms in your pituitary gland to release human growth hormone (HGH) in precise amounts. Deep sleep, with the aid of HGH, enables your body to repair skin, organs, and bones. It replenishes blood cells needed to ward off disease and infection. And it builds and repairs muscles. According to Dr. Michael Thorpy of the Sleep-Wake Disorder Center in New York, muscle tissue regenerates only when you sleep. Therefore, deep sleep may be the real fountain of youth, and HGH, the revitalizing spring.
Sleep consists of two types – rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-REM sleep. When you settle down for the night, you move through the four non-REM stages. They last 80 to 100 minutes altogether. Stage 1 sleep is the lightest. In the slightly deeper stage 2 sleep, brain activity slows. Finally, you enter stages 3 and 4, marked by slow brain waves known as delta waves. This is deep sleep.
Afterwards, brain activity kicks back on as you enter
REM sleep. Here, you dream. Your eyes race back and forth under closed lids. Your muscles go limp to prevent you from acting out your dreams. After approximately 30 minutes of REM sleep, you begin again. Your cycle through non-REM and REM sleep four or five times a night. Each time, deep sleep grows shorter and REM lengthens.
Without REM sleep, you may suffer behavioral or psychiatric disorders or have trouble learning and remembering. But without deep sleep, your body weakens.
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