While we need no science to tell us sleep matters, science can enhance our understanding of all the reasons why. Over recent years, no doubt due largely to our preoccupation with the epidemic obesity we keep choosing to lament rather than fix, the links between sleep and weight have received particular attention.
Lack of sleep tends to mean lack of energy, which is apt to discourage exercise. Sleep deficiency also tends to produce irritability, and all the wrong foods tend to provide, albeit briefly, all the right comfort to dull this pain.
There is an important argument here for approaching our health holistically. Perhaps you want to lose weight, or avoid diabetes- you could decide, reasonably, to focus on diet and exercise. But if you ignore other aspects of your health, such as sleep, your own daily routine may conspire against your objectives. A culture widely prone to both obesity and sleep deprivation may be a quintessential case of meeting the enemy, and finding it is us.
I have seen just such patterns in my practice over the years, and a holistic view of health, orchestrating into a logical sequence of tweaks, can be just the fix. Often, with the requisite insights and skillpower, you can oversee just such troubleshooting on your own – no docs or drugs required.
Continue Reading
-- David L. Katz, MD, MPH
