Why Is Sleep Important?

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While we know sleep is important for our health and well-being, getting a good night's sleep can be evasive.

Changing the way we think about sleep can help create the conditions for better sleep.

Shift to focus on helping your nervous system find its way to "deep rest" versus trying to fall asleep.

This post is Part 1 of a series.

Ah—the treasured sleep. We know it’s good for us. In a 2026 study, sleep was found to be the number one factor to buffer against the health costs of work stress. In reviewing 10 years of data from the Canadian National Population Health Survey, researchers found that sleep quality was the biggest buffer to protect health in the context of prolonged work stress, above nutrition, alcohol consumption, smoking, and exercise.

The importance of sleep is something that has been studied extensively, and the effects of lack of sleep on our physical and mental health have been well documented.

While we know sleep is important, what do we do about it when we struggle to get good sleep? (I’ve been there myself, as so many of us have from time to time.)

Some of the common suggestions for improving sleep include having a consistent bedtime and wake-up time, keeping the temperature of the room cool, avoiding screens and blue light before bed, and having a three-hour window between eating and bedtime.

While all of these can be helpful, I believe there is something more........

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