Sleeping Well online course

Four week course

Poor sleep affects us more than just feeling tired

You might remember that I recently offered a workshop on sleep as I recently have spent a lot of time on reading and researching sleep, I even took a uni module on different consciousness states including sleep. And when I was planning for the workshop I realised just how passionate I am about helping people with their sleep. It is something that so many of us struggle with and can have a huge affect on all aspects of our lives.

Not sleeping well decreases memory, creativity and problem solving, we feel more negative and can interpret neutral situations/faces/tone of voices as negative, it impairs our cognitive function such as balance and coordination making us more prone to injuring ourselves (which has the double effect of healing being slower when sleep-deprived) or having car accidents (did you know that a week of sleeping less than 7 hrs a night makes our driving as impaired as if we were just on the legal limit of drink-driving?).

Our sleep habits also affect us long-term and make us more susceptible to all neurodegenerative degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer and Parkinson, it makes it harder to keep a balanced weight both due to causing an imbalance in our hormones that make us feel hungry and full, and the body’s desire to top up on energy reserves. Irregular sleep also severely impairs our immune system and the body’s opportunity to heal itself, working a shift-job is now a recognised and proven carcinogenic for example. This obviously alls sounds a bit scary and I do think it is important to understand the severity of poor sleep.