As I am up once again with more to do than I have time to do it…I started thinking about sleep…not only because I am wanting to go to bed and SLEEP but because it is a topic that has been fascinating to me ever since I woke up ill one morning back in December of 1985.

Prior to this point…I really thought I was invincible in a way. I was a senior at UC Santa Barbara working 3 jobs, doing 2 full time intercollegiate sports (I was a decathlete and I raced bicycles…try and figure out how those two go together), taking a full slate of classes and having a full-time girl friend…not to mention the almost non-stop game of beach volleyball that my roommates and I indulged in.

You guessed it…there is something missing in this picture…SLEEP! I was literally getting 2-4 hours of sleep/night. I was doing okay at it. I was incredibly fit…but realized later…not very healthy. I never felt too sleepy (except in some of those English Literature courses I was taking).

Something happened to me though that I will never forget. One night over Christmas break a good friend was visiting my parent's house and we visited for awhile. When it was time for him to go I walked him out thinking it would only be a moment or two. We ended up talking for another 90 minutes. It was about 1:30 in the morning when he left but I was outside on a cold Northern California winter night in shorts…no shirt, no socks, shoes or anything else. Hey I lived in Santa Barbara…that's how I lived most of the time.

Anyhow…I got up the next morning sometime mid-morning not feeling well. To make a long story incredibly short…I spent the next eight years of my life sick.

This illness changed my life. I visited dozens of doctors. I received dozens of diagnoses. One doctor told me I have so many infections in my body he didn't know what to do because they all seemed to be viral in nature. I was sleeping 20 hours/day and could barely be alert for more than about 20 minutes at a time.

I had 2 more quarters until I graduated but I could not stay awake during class…EVER! In one of my English classes I tried going a time or two but learned nothing. I didn't even go in to take the mid-term. My professor told me to drop the class because it was impossible for me to pass.

Well…even in my sickly state I couldn't pass up a good challenge. "How about if I Ace the final?" I asked him. He said it was impossible since I had never been to class. I guess the couple of times I napped there didn't make much of an impression on him.

Anyhow, I actually read all of the books, Aced the final and ended up with a "C+" in the class. Boy did it completely exhaust me to go through finals though. I think I slept for three weeks after that. I did manage to get at least a "C" in all classes…some "Bs" even.

It made quite an impact on me though to have my body require so much sleep after seemingly needing very little for so long. I learned something about health and balance…especially regarding sleep patterns.

Since that point I have learned amazing things about the body, health, sleep and so many other things related to these issues. The sleep thing keeps coming up though.

Back in the 90's Dr. Archibald Hart did a large sleep study with something like 11,000 people. I remember hearing it on the radio back then. I don't remember exactly when it was done but the  results very much stuck in my mind.

He concluded that everyone (yes you read that right, everyone) does better on 8-1/2 hours of sleep per night. Some people took weeks to adjust but once they adjusted, they felt better, were more alert, more productive and a whole host of other things.

Then in 2004 a German study issued findings about a study done looking at how the brain functions in relation to sleep patterns. They found first of all that most people are sleep deprived. Secondly, that the brain goes through certain cycles when you sleep and if you don't sleep long enough…your brain doesn't finish its work.

So…in essence, you are not as smart (you cannot problem solve nearly as well), creative or alert when you do not get enough sleep. A gentleman by the name of Jan Born led the study and concluded that the results of the study matched biochemical studies of the brain in that it appeared that memories actually are restructured by the brain before they are stored. In this process, the creativity of the brain seems to be enhanced.

Mr. Born said the following at the end of the study: "This restructuring might be occurring in such a way that the problem is easier to solve." They couldn't explain much beyond that but it is intriguing to think about nevertheless.

In my nearly 20 years of consulting in the natural health field I have found numerous links to people's ill health and a deficiency (there's that word again) in sleep.

So my question to you is…are you cutting off the ability for your brain to fully go through the process of restructuring your memories and thus enabling you to think more clearly and more creative in the morning?

Why don't you leave a comment below and we can all be the judge of how much sleep you had last night?

Also, please retweet this info. and share it, digg it…whatever you do…because I believe it is incredibly important. Don't lose 8 years of your life like I did by trying to cheat sleep. Your body is looking for balance and it will find it…even if it has to take you down to do it.

Blessings…