A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor's book. ~Irish Proverb

Here’s an interesting fact: by the time we turn 50, we’ve spent roughly 16 years, or one-third of our lives, asleep. And yet, with all this experience, tonight, and every night, roughly 70 million Americans will be struggling to fall or stay asleep. We all know that when we don’t get enough sleep. We feel tired and cranky, making it hard for us respond to rapidly changing situations or make sound judgments. Did you know that 17 hours of sustained wakefulness leads to a decrease in performance equivalent to a blood alcohol level of 0.05 percent, the same as drinking two glasses of wine; or that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates there are 56,000 sleep-related road crashes annually in the U.S., resulting in 40,000 injuries and 1,550 fatalities? Sobering.

Inadequate rest also puts tremendous stress on our body, which explains in part why scientists have linked chronic insomnia to diabetes, heart disease, depressed mood, and possibly even breast and colon cancer. For those struggling with weight, research shows that sleep loss increases the risk of obesity because body chemicals involved in controlling appetite and weight gain release during sleep.