Would you tell Einstein he was stupid if he told you that taking a daily 20-minute snooze helped him come up with his revolutionary equations? Would you call JFK indolent because he spent some afternoons sawing logs in the Oval Office? Would you tell Salvador Dali his paintings were boring and needed more work? No, you wouldn’t question these men, especially not if you had any understanding of the importance of taking naps.

While many understand the ill health effects of getting too little sleep, few exalt the benefits of squeezing in a little shuteye in the middle of the day. In our culture, taking a siesta is neither a saluted nor a regular part of our daily schedule. Too many of us have pending agendas, deadlines, and a mile long to-do list, so sleeping mid-day, to some, seems like a lazy or careless activity. We are way too ambitious and competitive to think lying on the bed or on the couch to catch up on some much needed sleep is a good thing.
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Social jet lag may be making you fat, and you don’t even have to be a frequent flier to be at risk.

German researcher Till Roenneberg believes that there’s a conflict between our busy lives and our biological clocks, and it’s creating a type of jet lag that he refers to as ‘social jet lag.’

He says people who might fall in the category of socially-jetlagged include those whose weekday work schedule is drastically different from their weekend schedule, causing a major shift in sleeping patterns.

One good way to measure if you’re socially jet-lagged might be if you wake up at 4 and 5 a.m. during the workweek, and then take full advantage of your rest on the weekend by sleeping in past, say, 10. Roenneberg says this sleep pattern may have the same effect as switching time zones, which can have a nasty affect on the body.
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More and more research is coming forward in support of sleep for good health.

The latest research published in in the journal SLEEP shows that sleeping at least nine hours per night can have more control over your weight than genetics. Getting plenty of sleep gives you an edge if your genetics position you with a tendency to be overweight.

For this particular study, 1,088 sets of twins, both fraternal and identical, had their sleep habits examined along with their body weight. The conclusion of the study was that those who get plenty of sleep actually have more control over their weight through their behavior. Those in the study who slept less than seven hours each night showed a 70% difference in their body mass index (BMI) due to their genes, while things like diet and exercise were responsible for only 4%.

In contrast to that group, those who slept nine or more hours per night had a 51% difference in their BMI due to diet and exercise with only 32% of the difference coming from genes.
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A new study conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has revealed some fairly obvious information – the more people work, the less sleep they are likely to get.

The information in the study shows that about one third of the workers surveyed said they sleep six or fewer hours each night. This is a pretty stark contrast to the good health amount of sleep which is between seven and nine hours each night. Those with multiple jobs or clocking more than 40 hours seem to be sleeping the least of all.

Another observation that comes as no surprise is the fact that those who are separated or divorced are missing out on sleep too, which includes single parents. Employees in the mining industry have about 41 percent sleeping less than six hours per night while 38 percent of utility workers sleep less than six hours.

Perhaps the scariest of the statistics within this sleep-deprived study relates to those working in the transportation and manufacturing field. As high as 70 percent of people in that field who are working the night shift are getting less than six hours of sleep, including train operators, bus drivers and semi-truck drivers.
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Sunday Night, Oprah‘s network aired her show, “Next Chapter.” The show went into depth covering Transcendental Meditation or TM. The Huffington Post says that Winfrey, while speaking with Dr. Oz last year, described having more of a spiritual than bodily fulfillment, and that the practice of Transcendental Mediation was part of her overall attempt to “connect with that which is God.” 

If you are not aware of TM, it is a simple form of meditation practiced 20 minutes twice a day. It is based on the ancient Vedic tradition of enlightenment in India. It was created by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi about 50 years ago.

It is not specific to a religion or lifestyle and many celebrities practice TM, including Oprah. There are more than five million people worldwide that practice this form of meditation, making it one of the more popular versions.

It is unique from other forms of meditation because unlike other styles that have you focus on your breathing or a single thought, it allows your mind to naturally transcend without forcing it to go somewhere in particular.
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