Please, go to sleep..!

This is not a strongly worded request to an infant or a teenager who's day is turned into a different schedule than most.  This is directed at all  - or at least a lot - of you.   Every year, millions of people resolve themselves to change something about their life. Reassuringly, a lot of people decide it should be something to do with their health. The most popular New Year's resolutions are: eating better, exercising more and losing weight. May I suggest you aim for something much easier than any of those and which, in fact, will be better for you than almost anything else you can suggest?  "Aim to get 7 to 8 hours of sleep every night". Allow me to throw a bit of science in here: Sleep impacts growth hormone, ghrelin, leptin, cortisol and often blood glucose levels.  That means, that if you sleep more you will not only be less sleepy(!), but also have better appetite yet be more likely to lose weight, be less stressed by in every sense of that word in every part of your body, and be less likely to develop all the so-called lifestyle illnesses of our modern-day living. More years in your life and more life in your years! And yet, we still seem to see our lack of sleep as a badge of honour and proof that we are striving for the best things in life.   Foolish and false! In fact, sleep is such a big part of the foundation of health that you should re-write your New Year resolution around anything that can give you more shut-eye!