Nature's essential reset, rest, and repair mechanism
What happens when you sleep, at a cellular level and why it matters
I am running on a second day of less than ideal sleep. I know we’ve all been here—the days when rest proves elusive.
The chirpy skip, joyful glow, and energetic bounce that comes with a restful night of savored slumber are conspicuously absent as I blink awake today.
Was it the late bowl of ramen? Maybe the green tea I had too much of too late? Or simply the universal challenge to surrendering to sleep?
I don’t need an Oura ring to confirm what my body already knows, but a sleep score of 61 and 62 is vindictively validating.
If further evidence is needed, my sugar cravings taking siege of my mind—donut daydreams, bagel begging, waffle wakefulness—signal the sudden, intense, and rather ravenous desire for carbs and sugary treats, telling me my brain is in full rebellion!
“the shorter your sleep, the shorter your life.
(Thanks Matthew!)
“The leading causes of disease and death in developed nations—diseases that are crippling health-care systems, such as heart disease, obesity, dementia, diabetes, and cancer—all have recognized causal links to a lack of sleep.”
― Matthew Walker, “Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams.”
The real question is: why do we have so much trouble falling asleep?
If the $69.15 billion sleep aid market isn’t enough of a signal that something—or rather a collective compound of somethings— in how we live today has gone miserably wrong, then why do we need so much help with one of humanity’s supposedly most basic biological behaviours?
What of our modern existence prevents us from doing what should come naturally? What is it about our modern lifestyles that prevents that which should happen easily?
The irony is sobering: we’ve engineered a world where one of our most basic biological processes now requires serious effort and intervention.
The real crisis isn’t our inability to sleep, it’s why do we need so much help falling asleep and staying asleep?
“Humans are not sleeping the way nature intended. The number of sleep bouts, the duration of sleep, and when sleep occurs has all been comprehensively distorted by modernity.”
― Matthew Walker, “Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams.”
If sleep was not important, evolution would’ve done without it long ago.
But, evolution retained sleep through every iteration of our species for a reason. As we continue on our series— how to treat our cells like royalty— we’ll dig deeper why sleep is essential to master.
Sleep is the daily reset nature engineered.
Sleep is nature’s cellular repair shop, serving as the cornerstone to our overall well-being—a critical system that sustains all biological and physiological functions within us.
Sleep is nature’s indispensable daily reset mechanism, from DNA maintenance, protein synthesis, to toxin removal, and immune protection, research shows sleep’s microscopic restorative prowess. In contrast, sleep deprivation is shown to accelerate cellular aging, degradation towards mortality, and increases our vulnerability to disease.
