Beauty Sleep; it does more than make you look good.

After a long, hard day at work or study, we get home late, have dinner and look forward to that well deserved moment when our head hits that ever more alluring pillow. Sound familiar? It should. Because sleeping is one of the most important parts of our day and, unknown to most, is a very complex process. Fortunately our bodies aware of this and gently take care of it, carrying us through the night whilst we sail away on a sea of unconsciousness.

So why is sleep so important? Well firstly it allows us to wake up feeling refreshed, looking rejuvenated and performing to the best of our abilities. People spend hundreds of pounds a year on anti-ageing products and coffee yet the best performance enhancing product is free and available to us all.

During the night our body works its way through four different stages in order to make sure that we fully recover from the deeds of the day. Stage one kicks off our recommended eight our process and is the initial phase where we are in between sleep and consciousness. It is also where we commence NREM (Non Rapid Eye Movement) which makes up 75% of our state during sleep. The more commonly know REM (Rapid Eye Movement) constitutes the other 25% and occurs on a ninety minute cycle. More will be explained on this later.

Stage two is when we officially begin the sleep process; we disengage from our surroundings, our breathing becomes irregular and our body temperature drops.

Stages three and four occur when we have truly arrived in the land of nod. Blood pressure drops, breathing slows, blood supply increases to our muscles and our muscles become relaxed. At this stage tissue growth and repair occurs, energy is restored and essential growth hormones are released.