There is a saying that anesthesiologists are taught…”A time to sleep is a time to heal.” They are quite right! The only time the body heals and repairs is during sleep. During the waking hours, your body is simply reacting and adapting to its environment…there is very little time to repair and heal.

The biggest risk factor for chronic disease; especially cancer, is lack of sleep.

How would your car function if you drove it all day, put low grade fuel in it, never changed the oil or lubrication, and simply didn’t do any maintenance or repairs. It would not take long for your car to die on the side of the road. The same is true with your body. The only difference is that your body has something your car will never have…an innate will to survive that will “Rob Peter to pay Paul” in order to keep you alive. Your body will perform all sorts of heroics in it’s’ drive to survive. The problem is that you don’t notice these major shifts in function until something is drastically out of balance. That’s when you experience symptoms or disease. Even then, most people continue to drive on saying the seven most inaccurate words uttered in the English language….”Oh, it’ll get better on its’ own…”

Keep in mind, the body will fix what it can. If it can not fix it, it will find a way to compensate. When it, “Gets better on its’ own” it is usually creating a state of compensation. As explained in the Structure section…if you are experiencing pain, it is due to a bone, or bones, being out of position in a direction the body can’t fix because there is no muscle pulling in the direction that the bone needs to move. The only thing the body can do is compensate. (The only exceptions to this rule are if you have a fracture, infection, or tumor. Even visceral pain has a skeletal component to it because of the various viscero-somatic neurological reflexes of the body)

Physical, chemical and emotional stressors will cause compensations in the body, on a cellular level, if those stressors exceed the body’s ability to adapt. When you sleep is the only time that the body can repair cellular damage. If you don’t give it enough time to complete the repair, you are forcing it into compensation. Compensations accumulate over time and the systems of the body become so imbalanced that you end up with sickness and disease.

Adequate sleep is not the only form of rest that is important. Time for relaxation and leisure are also crucial for proper health. Your body is designed to take action and to adapt to your environment. It is set up to meet the challenges of physical, chemical and emotional stress. If, however, these stressors are constantly high, your body has to remain in a state of high alert constantly. This pushes the level of stress hormones up. Unless these hormones are allowed to re-set, your body will simply compensate by establishing a new “set point” for those hormones. It’s like having your car idling too high. Rather than correcting the problem, you simply set the carburetor at a higher idle. Repeat this process over time and you end up running at a higher temperature, wearing out parts sooner, and becoming very inefficient with energy expenditure. Again, apply this analogy to the human body, with its’ innate drive to compensate to survive, and you can guess the outcome.

The following are strong suggestions to help your body repair and recuperate so that your resistance and adaptability to your environment increase.

1. Get regular sleep. Eight solid hours on uninterrupted sleep is optimal for most people. If you are in the process of “re-building” you health, 9-10 hours will be necessary. Make sleep a priority. Go to bed and wake up on a set schedule. The more you deviate your sleep schedule, the more you increase your stress hormones. This works against regeneration and repair.

2. Take a 10-20 minute nap daily. Thomas Edison, a famously short sleeper, had a policy of taking multiple “cat naps” of 10-15 minutes through out the day. By simply “powering down” for a few minutes with out going into a deep state of sleep, you will find your body and mind will relax, your ability to utilize oxygen will increase, and mental perception and awareness will improve.

3. Make time for your friends and family. It has been proven that taking time for social interaction and communication with loved ones reduces stress hormones.

4. Laugh often. Another proven method of stress reduction is laughter. This releases endorphins, your body’s anti-stress hormones. This will help your body prepare for regeneration when you sleep. You will also find that the anxious energy that surges through the body and prevents you from getting a good night sleep will be reduced.

5. Exercise. Yes, exercise can fall under “Rest”. It helps release tension, produces anti-stress hormones, removes toxins, increases oxygenation of tissues and helps prepare the body to sleep more deeply. Deeper sleep equates to better repair.