With the end of the year drawing closer and energy beginning to wane, it’s important to remember that there is absolutely nothing wrong with needing downtime and by downtime, we mean more sleep.
Living in a world of hyper-connectivity and curated content, it’s easy to get consumed by the idea of constantly working. This ‘hustle mentality’ is very misleading and dangerously unhealthy. Being able to take time out is key to being able to perform at your best and let’s be honest, the end of the year is not the time to try and out-perform yourself or anyone else for that matter. The more worn out our bodies feel, the more sleep we need.
It's important to know when you can give your best and when it’s time to call it a day. Burning the midnight oil is just not an option right now and we shouldn’t pretend like it is. When we aren’t able to decipher between our peak performance periods and periods when we need to ease the workload off our plates, we heighten our own stress and anxiety which leads to many opportunities to disappoint ourselves and harm our overall self-esteem. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Science has linked sleep deprivation to a number of health and mental risks.
Have a look at the diagram below:
The physical implications of sleep deprivation are definitely undeniable. But let’s zone in on the impact a lack of rest has on our hair. An article from the National Institutes of Health correlates sleep with hair growth. Adult stem cells rely on the internal circadian clock to perform the proliferation of hair cells.
According to evidence gathered, hair follicles and the hair growth cycle is significantly impacted by stress, which can lead to unhealthy hair growth and hair loss.
The Mayo Clinic reports three different premature hair-loss conditions related to high-stress levels. They include:
● Telogen effluvium. This condition accelerates hair from the anagen phase into the telogen phase and then into the exogen phase, doubling or tripling normal daily hair loss
● Trichotillomania. This psychological condition causes an irresistible urge to pull hair from your scalp or other areas of your body
● Alopecia areata. This condition occurs when the body’s immune system attacks healthy hair follicles, causing hair loss
By simply getting enough rest, we can mitigate all these conditions that have been listed in this article, so why not do it? We hope that you will take the time you need to rest and most importantly, that you will give your body the sleep it needs to renew and recharge.
Love MPL!