We all know that sufficient hours of sleep during the night, coupled with a healthy diet and an active lifestyle, is essential for the maintenance of physical and mental health in our bodies.  Did you know, however, that a good night’s sleep is also essential in your efforts to protect and conserve the environment?  To all conservationists and environmentalists, you must devote at least 8 hours of your time to sleeping instead of devoting your lives to saving the Earth 24/7.  Find out why.

Early Onset of Diseases

To simplify the technical jargon of studies made by the Chicago Medical Institute, University of California at Berkeley and Harvard Medical School, you are placing yourself at a greater risk of contracting heart disease and diabetes when you are constantly deprived of sleep.  You must take note that these two diseases place considerable strain on the national economy and, hence, the environment.

Just imagine the resources that must be expended in order to treat your heart disease and bipolar disorder - medicines, medical equipment and hospital facilities, to name a few - all of which will either require Earth’s resources or be thrown into the Earth as waste.  The point is: If you will get a good night’s sleep every night, you can delay your impact on hospitals and clinics, thus, delaying your negative impact on the environment.  It’s simple, really.

Loss of Ability to Think Clearly

Studies have also shown that sleep deprivation results in mental illnesses like psychosis and bipolar disorder.  And even if you don’t get these illnesses, you have to agree that you lose the ability to think clearly, to respond to situations in an acceptable manner and to feel emotions at the right time.

In turn, you can make small crimes against the environment such as:

* Dining out in restaurants instead of eating in the home simply because you are too tired to cook.  You will increase you carbon footprint, thanks to your use of the car.  And restaurants are not exactly the greenest places in town.

* Purchasing items at the supermarket that you normally would not buy had you been thinking clearly.  Think of the wastes you will generate in the process.

* Forgetting to turn off the lights and appliances because you were too tired to do so.  Again, you are wasting Earth’s energy and increasing your electricity bills, to boot.

* Using the washing machine and dryer in a wasteful manner like instead of cold water, you used hot water to wash and rinse your clothes.

* Driving your car in an inefficient manner because you wanted to speed home to finally get a little rest before the madness begins again.

Speaking of driving, did you know that over a hundred thousand accidents in the United States are caused by drowsiness and fatigue as a result of sleep deprivation?  You can just imagine the excessive strain these avoidable accidents exert on our medical resources and, hence, on the environment, not to mention that yet another car will be prematurely thrown into the trash heap.

So, starting tonight, do yourself and the environment a big favor by sleeping a good 8 hours of sleep.

Photo by: olly -
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