Sleep: your body's most powerful recovery tool

We tend to treat sleep as the first thing to cut when life gets busy. But sleep isn't time off. It's when some of your body's most important work gets done.

What happens while you sleep

• Your brain cleans house. Research suggests the brain clears out waste products during deep sleep, including proteins linked to Alzheimer's disease.
• Your muscles and tissues repair.
• Your immune system strengthens.
• Your hormones reset, including the ones that control hunger and stress.
• Your memories are filed away, so you actually keep what you learned that day.

Adults need 7 to 9 hours a night. Regularly getting less than 6 hours is linked to a higher risk of heart disease, weight gain, a weaker immune system, and poorer mood and focus.

The wind-down routine

For many people, the most helpful change is to put the phone down an hour before bed and do something calming instead. Bright screens can delay the release of melatonin, your body's natural sleep signal, and scrolling keeps your mind wired.

Tonight, try one of these instead:

• Read for 15 to 20 minutes (a paper book is best)
• Write down three things you're grateful for
• Spend a few quiet minutes in prayer
• Stretch gently, or breathe slowly: in for 4 counts, hold for 4, out for 4

Light in the morning, dark at night

Your body clock runs on light. Getting outside in natural sunlight within an hour of waking, even on a cloudy day, helps set that clock so you feel alert during the day and sleepy at the right time at night. This is where two NEWSTART principles, sunlight and rest, work together.

Rest is more than sleep

Rest also means stepping back from work on a regular rhythm. A weekly day of rest, a Sabbath, gives your body and mind a full day to recover and reconnect with what matters most. It's one of the habits shared by the long-lived Adventist community in Loma Linda.