This is a guest post by Casey Means, MD, Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Levels
Everyone knows that eating a nutritious diet and exercising regularly is important for health and disease prevention, but most people don’t know that a good night of sleep is especially important in maintaining your metabolic health.
This is particularly important now: when you look at all Americans, only 12% meet the criteria for being metabolically healthy! What does it mean to be metabolically healthy? It means your body is equipped to utilize and store energy properly and can be gleaned by looking at things like weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, insulin, and blood sugar levels.
We want our metabolic metrics on point because our daily lives can greatly suffer when these are off base. Insulin and blood sugar levels not optimal? These two factors alone could mean you’re set up for weight gain, infertility, balding and hair loss, dementia and memory impairment, erectile dysfunction, acne, depression, anxiety, chronic pain, and increased appetite.
What sleep deprivation does to your health
When you’re dealing with something as fundamental as metabolism, dysfunction can lead to a wide variety of symptoms in the short