According to statistics, one in four adults sleep less than five hours a day and women are more likely than men are to develop a cardiovascular disease if they sleep less than eight hours a night. According to a study made by the British researchers from Warwick Medical School and University College London, not getting enough sleep leads to irreversible metabolic disorders in the female’s body.
The study has been published by British Daily Mail and shows that it’s essential for women to sleep minimum seven hours a night and to recover the hours of sleep lost during night watches with extra sleeping in the following days. The study has been made on 4,600 volunteers of age between 35 and 55 and half of them were men. The tests have shown that women’s body reacts differently because it engages an entire hormonal mechanism in order to compensate the lack of sleep. Their carbohydrate and fat metabolism gets unbalanced and this means there’s a greater risk of developing diabetes and stocking more fat cells. These irreversible issues do not appear instantaneously but after the age of 40.
Here are some tips to help busy women get enough sleep and thus avoid these health problems:
Give up the car and go to work by bike. You get to do two things at once: exercise and gaining at least one hour – 30 minute one-way and 30 minutes at return.
Share the responsibilities with your family. You don’t have to be the one who does all the work at home. Send your boyfriend/husband to do the shopping. Put some post-its on the fridge with messages like ‘Who cleans the gas-cooker gets a ticket to football match!’ and one of your children will definitely do the job instead of you. Thus you can win 30 minutes or even an hour.
Do two things at once: cook and do the laundry at the same time or go shopping with your children, having a parent-to-child talk on the way. You win two or three hours a week.
Give up ironing. Iron just the clothes you need and not the sheets. You win one hour a week.
Pay the bills on-line. You can visit your best friend or you can get a nap. You win almost three hours.
Prepare your clothes for the next day in the evening. In this way you can sleep more with at least 30 minutes.
Remember that sleeping less than eight hours a day causes irreversible damages to your body. The time you save can be used for your hobbies but especially for extra sleeping. It’s not a flim-flam, it’s a must!
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