Madness Monday - Are you chasing rest?

Have you ever felt like a beast of burden that is allowed no rest? In this day it would seem that people are so busy there is not time to stop and rest, to rejuvenate, to sleep. To all appearances we are always chasing rest.

But our Heavenly Shepherd, pleads with us to in Matthew 11:28 to "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." And He will give us rest, true rest can not be found any other way. In this text Jesus is speaking of a Spiritual or mental rest, but He can also provide physical rest to our bodies.

Rest and more importantly sleep, is vital for us to be able to complete our daily tasks, but it is also very necessary to our immune functionality, as it becomes weaker with a deficit of sleep. Beyond that it has a big affect on our body and mind.

A study was done at Warwick University to find out the effects of sleep or lack thereof on our bodies:

The risk of developing heart disease can increase by as much as 48% if a person does not get enough sleep, University of Warwick scientists say.

A long period of sleep shortage increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes, according to scientists.

They found most people need between six and eight hours of sleep a night to protect their health.

Professor Cappuccio and co-author Dr. Michelle Miller, from the University of Warwick, conducted the research.

They said they followed up evidence from periods of seven to 25 years from more than 470,000 participants from eight countries including Japan, the USA, Sweden and the UK.

Professor Cappuccio said: "If you sleep less than six hours per night and have disturbed sleep you stand a 48% greater chance of developing or dying from heart disease and a 15% greater chance of developing or dying of a stroke.

Society very often does not take the importance of sleep seriously. Routinely people get very little sleep because they are too busy working, watching TV or engaging in social media. But according to what we just read above, if you don't get enough sleep you are increasing your risks of heart disease by almost 50%!! That is life and death serious!

So let's take a look at sleep and break it down. There are stages of sleep and each has a very important function. If we do not reach or experience all of these stages, we may not be as rested as we need to be.

Sleep Stages

There are two basic types of sleep: rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-REM sleep (which has three different stages). Each is linked to specific brain waves and neuronal activity. You cycle through all stages of non-REM and REM sleep several times during a typical night, with increasingly longer, deeper REM periods occurring toward morning.

Stage 1 non-REM sleep is the changeover from wakefulness to sleep. During this short period (lasting several minutes) of relatively light sleep, your heartbeat, breathing, and eye movements slow, and your muscles relax with occasional twitches. Your brain waves begin to slow from their daytime wakefulness patterns.

Stage 2 non-REM sleep is a period of light sleep before you enter deeper sleep. Your heartbeat and breathing slow, and muscles relax even further. Your body temperature drops and eye movements stop. Brain wave activity slows but is marked by brief bursts of electrical activity. You spend more of your repeated sleep cycles in stage 2 sleep than in other sleep stages.

Stage 3 non-REM sleep is the period of deep sleep that you need to feel refreshed in the morning. It occurs in longer periods during the first half of the night. Your heartbeat and breathing slow to their lowest levels during sleep. Your muscles are relaxed and it may be difficult to awaken you. Brain waves become even slower.

REM sleep first occurs about 90 minutes after falling asleep. Your eyes move rapidly from side to side behind closed eyelids. Mixed frequency brain wave activity becomes closer to that seen in wakefulness. Your breathing becomes faster and irregular, and your heart rate and blood pressure increase to near waking levels. Most of your dreaming occurs during REM sleep, although some can also occur in non-REM sleep. Your arm and leg muscles become temporarily paralyzed, which prevents you from acting out your dreams. As you age, you sleep less of your time in REM sleep. Memory consolidation most likely requires both non-REM and REM sleep.

Ok, so how much sleep do we need to be fully rested? Well this varies by age. The following chart was published by the CDC and shows their recommendations:

Warwick University said a minimum of 6 hours so anything less than 6-7 hours of sleep increases our chances of heart disease by 48%! We should take this to "heart" and make bedtime a priority.

- Mystina Zummach