| Sleep Information Center |
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7:24:04 PM on Saturday, 3rd January 2004
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Deep Sleep
Deep sleep or slow wave sleep as it is called. What exactly is deep sleep? How does deep sleep affect our day to day lives. Believe it or not deep sleep actually affects mens health as they get older at about the age of 35 on up. As men age they typically get less and less deep sleep. A fact that could be connected to the weight gain that often accompanies middle-age.
The link between deep sleep and love handles, double chins and expanding
paunches centers on a growth hormone normally produced during deep sleep.
With less deep sleep, there is less bodily production of the growth
hormone. That deficiency is associated with increased fat tissue and
abdominal obesity, reduced muscle mass and strength as well as reduced
exercise capacity. These results from lack of deep sleep are extreme
in the elderly. We know that if we increase deep sleep, we can increase
growth hormone.
Believe it or not that might enable scientists to slow the signs of
aging through a sleeping pill or even a hormone injection. Now personally
I am agoraphobic and wont take a needle, so it would be a pill for me.
Especially if it could delay the apperance of a paunch belly by a decade
or two. As it is I already take a sleeping pill just to get regular
sleep, somnienis my life saver, I would'nt get any sleep let alone deep
sleep if I did'nt have my somnien, which by the way is a great sleeping
pill. So as you can see deep sleep is a very important type of sleep.
