Sweet Swim Dreams

Here are some interesting sleep facts:

1. Enough sleep (which is actually 8-10 hours for most adults) aids in the repair of your body's tissues. Muscles rebuilt, wrinkles smooth, and your mind sorts through the stimuli of the day. Without enough sleep, our muscles cannot grow and our brain cells cannot recover. We have trouble with agility, memorizing, coping with stress and being creative on low sleep.

2. Beauty sleep is for real. You've seen the bags, deeper wrinkles and circles on too little sleep. Before you reach for botox, reach for your pillow.

3. Olympic athletes are required to get at least 9 hours of sleep a night.

4. Going to bed at the same time every night and waking up at the same time will help you sleep deeper and begin to repair your body.

5. Eating a big meal,salty or sugary or ice-creamy snacks before bedtime will interrupt your sleep and add pounds.

6. Your brainwaves are more active when you are asleep when you are sleeping than when we're watching T.V.

7. Sleep is not valued in American culture. Many times in the business world you are looked down upon if you retire early and don't pull crazy hours. Keep this obstacle in mind and realize that this perception is incorrect. It is OK to sleep.

8. Sleep deprivation is robbing us of our health, our energy, a healthy appearance and greater cognitive ability.

9. Long naps disrupt the nightly sleep cycle, but if you do swing shift or have a baby, nap until you've caught up to eight hours.

10. If waking up is hard for you, throw open the curtains and expose yourself to a lot of light. Realize that poor nutrition may be playing with your sleep.