Sleep isn't a luxury...It is a necessity!!

I am going to spend the next several posts relaying highlights from the book: "Getting a Good's Night Sleep-A Cleavland Clinic Guide" by Nancy Foldvary-Schafe, OD I found very good information in this book covering many sleep disorders. I will highlight aspects of this book regarding the importance of sleep and then more specifically sleep apnea. I am not going to bother putting quotations marks to site Dr. Foldvary-Schafe because everything in this post is from her book put into my own words. As Americans we all need to learn that we are poor sleepers and that continually loosing sleep is a heath risk. Sleep restores nutrients, replenishes the spirit and refreshes the mind. As Americans we have adopted certain views at too much sleep.

• It's my personality, I have never slept well and that's how I am
• We need to be ambitious: we can sleep when we are dead
• Sleep is regarded as optional
• Coffee cures will give us the boost we need

In reality, lack of sleep may find us dozing at the wheel or during meetings at work. Our work performance can actually suffer because we are too tired during the day. The one that hurts the most...we are often too tired to do things with our family and children.

So if your morning goes like this: you feel the alarm goes off WAY to early, you hit snooze several time, you feel drowsy, you may be grumpy (even after several cups of coffee) then you are probably like 70 million other Americans who are sleep deprived. Not sleeping well effects our relationships, work, education, appetite and motivation. So we need to explore what sleep is, how come it can be poor sleep or not enough sleep, and specifically for us here - what sleep apnea is and how to live better with this condition.