Importance of a good night's sleep

By Virginia Winder

Have a new swimming goal - to beat my niece in a one-length sprint.
Tonight Rebekah's cheeky face popped up at the end of the outdoor pool and so I joined her lane. Rebekah is a machine in the water. She lapped me a few times, but when we did a 50-metre sprint, I wasn't too far behind her.
She swam 70 lengths tonight and I swam 30, which is equivalent of 60 inside.
Gosh it's great to be outdoors - so fresh and clean. Way less cramped too.
Am still focusing on my new style, which means I'm not yet as fast as I used to be. Elbows, elbows, elbows!
Next week is looking great for lots of training and I feel excited about having a few days of double doses.
The good news is I've lost more weight and am now down to 106.3kg.
So, my training is going well, eating is good, work hours are slowing down, but my big challenge is getting enough sleep.
Feel like I've had days of broken sleep, mainly because I have. This is for a whole variety of reasons, 99% of which have been out of my control.
Lack of sleep or disturbed sleep is no good for training, working and health - both mental and physical.
The Harvard Women’s Health Watch suggests six reasons to get enough sleep:

1. Learning and memory: Sleep helps the brain commit new information to memory through a process called memory consolidation. In studies, people who’d slept after learning a task did better on tests later.
2. Metabolism and weight: Chronic sleep deprivation may cause weight gain by affecting the way our bodies process and store carbohydrates, and by altering levels of hormones that affect our appetite.
3. Safety: Sleep debt contributes to a greater tendency to fall asleep during the daytime. These lapses may cause falls and mistakes such as medical errors, air traffic mishaps, and road accidents.
4. Mood: Sleep loss may result in irritability, impatience, inability to concentrate, and moodiness. Too little sleep can also leave you too tired to do the things you like to do.
5. Cardiovascular health: Serious sleep disorders have been linked to hypertension, increased stress hormone levels, and irregular heartbeat.
6. Disease: Sleep deprivation alters immune function, including the activity of the body’s killer cells. Keeping up with sleep may also help fight cancer.

Now you know why my big focus is to get enough shut eye.
Am getting tired just writing this!
So, hi-ho, hi-ho, off to bed I go...

Today, I:
Missed breakfast (not ideal) and had fresh Mexican food for lunch and dinner (mmm)
Drank 3 cups of coffee
Two few glasses of water (again)
Swam 30 lengths of a 50-metre pool
Worked for 8 hours
Slept for about 7 hours, but it was broken sleep so probably managed about 3 hours straight