I read once (ok more like three times) in an article from the Guardian that sleep deprivation increases risk for developing cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, poor mental health, and having a heart attack. They interviewed Matthew Walker, a neuroscientist who focused on sleep and how it affects the body, and when he mentioned that one night of less than six hours of sleep lowers the amount of cells that fight cancer in your body by 70 percent I gulped. So when I headed home early Saturday night to finally get a good night’s rest I thought I would be helping my body recover from a long day of sun and rugby. I was fighting off sleep all day after the game and I couldn’t wait to jump into bed and start the recovery process for my body that sleep provides. Yet when I finally got in bed I found I couldn’t sleep for hours and hours. So now what? For athletes lack of sleep doesn’t just mean increased risk of diseases such as cancer but also slower reaction times, increased risk of injury, and more mental errors in practices and games. So there I was laying in bed knowing I didn’t get good sleep the night before the game and certainly wasn’t falling into a deep sleep any time soon. But why? Why was I stuck awake?
Stress and anxiety may be the answer. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the two negatively impact your ability to fall asleep and unfortunately my experiences with anxiety lately have definitely made it harder for me to sleep and almost rare to sleep through the night. So the first obstacle to tackle in bridging the gap between my mental and physical health is finding out how to take back control of my sleep. Hopefully by this time next week I’ll have found and tested out some helpful tips. Stay tuned!
Bridge the Gap 