“Sleep is a waste of time.” – Thomas Edison (Inventor of the lightbulb, possibly the single item most responsible for messing up our Circadian Rhythms.)
Nah.
Though researchers don’t know the exact mechanism, it seems that chronic lack of sleep causes inflammation, elevates blood pressure and heart rate, and affects glucose levels, leading to a much higher stroke risk in the sleep-deprived. Sleep increases the ability of the four main healthy lifestyle habits (a healthy diet, exercise, moderate alcohol consumption and not smoking) to protect the body against cardiovascular disease.
So, what can we do...?
Poor sleep can increase your risk of a stroke by 400%. Ineffective sleep makes you less productive immediately, not at 3pm the next day. If you pour red bull into your laptop, it doesn't work as well. The same goes for your body and brain.
A few tips and techniques on getting the right amount of sleep consistently and optimising its quality, plus a breakdown on some consequences longterm for not doing so :-(
John Manning's research on relative finger length provides some insight into one of the genetic cards we get dealt over which we have no control. How does the difference in length between your ring and index fingers requate to your odds of having a heart attack?