Why lying in bed awake is good for you

Dr. Thomas Wehr at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), studied what happens when we sleep very long nights, mimicking deep winter when night are very very long. Before electric lights we would go to bed early.

"Early to bed, early to rise, make a man healthy, wealthy and wise." -- Benjamin Franklin

In the early morning, it was still dark so we would stay in bed in a half-awake almost meditative state. Modern day brain wave readings of people in this half-awake state were similar to people in a transcendental meditative state. Dr. Wehr states that the hormone prolactin, released at night, "probably facilitates the switch to a 'quiescent wakefulness'." That's a fancy scientific way of saying half-awake. Now how many of you get out of bed to do something "productive" if you enter this phase of sleep?

My advice is don't. Stay warm in bed with the lights out. Daydream. Plan your day. Meditate. Pray. Envision world peace. Then get up when you are supposed to with the sun.

Dr. Thomas Wehr at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), studied the difference between getting a short night of sleep versus a long night's sleep. What he found was that short nights:

• reduced melatonin secretion which impairs your immune cells
• melatonin is a potent antioxidant and low levels reduce your body's ability to repair itself
• shifting of the hormone prolactin (in men and women) to daytime production which increases carbohydrate cravings