Most people have heard that sleep is important. In spite of this, many of us continue to survive on less than adequate sleep. If a problem isn’t immediately apparent, everything is fine right? Not necessarily.

In June of this year Dr. Kirk Parsley M.D. spoke at TEDxReno, covering the importance of sleep. He touched on how it can affect your brains ability to process things both psychological and physiological, as well as it’s importance with regards to blood pressure, blood sugar, and more. With sleep deprivation, even if you feel fine, your cognitive awareness decreases. It’s similar to happens when you have an alcoholic drink or two. Beyond that, sleep deprivation puts you at risk for almost all diseases. It’s not something that should be ignored.

In my area of practice, there are definite problems with someone is sleep deprived. For one, they don’t heal or progress in their treatment as quickly. It’s also common for those dealing with loss of sleep to be more anxious, and less able to make beneficial changes that should allow them to heal faster. And like Dr. Parsley mentioned, most of the people falling within this category say they feel “fine”. However, feeling “fine” is very different from feeling great. Treat yourself well and get more sleep!