Sleep makes up part of human's biological need to rest. As you sleep, many physiological processes of the body metaphorically move into an obvious repose and some exploited parts of our system replenish for future use. Let's check out this sleeping thing include sleep and height growth, how it affect Human Growth Hormone (HGH) secretion, does sleeping affect your height growth and how to sleep properly to gain extra height.

Sleep consists of five stages which involve brain movement:

1. Non-rapid eye movement (non-REM) sleep - a transition from wake to sleep
2. An Intermediate level of sleep
3. Deep or slow wave sleep (SWS)
4. Deepest stage of sleep
5. Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep

The key to benefit from sleeping is a good deep sleep. A deep sleep is the one in which you sleep soundly and wake fully refreshed and full of energy. You don't think about your problems or the news and fall asleep within 10 minutes of your head hitting the pillow with positive thoughts in mind.

During a deep sleep, your body and mind can efficiently repair themselves and rejuvenate what has been damaged and worn out from stress during the day. Besides, the body also boosts, builds up and recharges the immune system through a soundly sleep.

Sleep, Height Growth and Human Growth Hormone (HGH)

• Research published in the AMA Journal of August 16, 2000 links sleep disorders to a lack of HGH.
• In an article on research undertaken at the University of Chicago, headed by Professor Eve van Cauter, published in the August 16, 2000 AMA Journal, a link was found between the sleep disorders in 149 men aged between 16 and 83 and the lack of Human Growth Hormone (HGH) in their blood.
• HGH is produced naturally in the body, particularly at night during deep or slow wave sleep, and this component of sleep in the men was found to decrease from 20% for men 25 years or younger when their HGH levels were highest, to 5% for those over 35. By the age of 45, the research found that the men had almost lost the ability to fall into a deep sleep once they had awakened during the night. It found that by 50 years, the amount of sleep had declined by 27% a decade. They also established that growth hormone secretion decreased by 75% over this period.
• There was nothing to link the reduction in sleep to a lack of HGH - this research showed a counter link - that less HGH was produced by the body because of less deep sleep.

Artificial HGH treatments have been linked to various benefits from weight loss, height increase and a better immune system. However, you can start to produce your own natural amount of HGH by getting enough sleep, not a lot, but deeply.

This will reap not only all the advertised HGH benefits, but you will do so naturally, in accordance with your own bodies and without fear of having to pay the price of the side effects later. In the contrary, you are setting up a virtuous cycle of healing and improvement in your physical and mental functions.

So, how much sleep do you need to get all these benefits and probably grow taller and gain some extra height? Well, it depends on many factors, including age.

• Infants generally require about 16 hours a day
• A six to twelve year old will need between 10 and a half and 11 and a half hour of sleep a night.
• A teenager will require a little less sleep, probably around 9 or 10 hours a night.
• An adult should be getting 7 to 8 hours sleep each night, although some people may need as few as 6 hours or as many as 10 hours of sleep each day. For example, a person who eat a healthy diet, exercise properly and have a few mental breaks during the day may only need 6 to 8 hours of sleep each night. While for a person who experience extraordinary amounts of stress each day (mental or physical) such as marathon runner will need more than 8 hours to repair their worn out body and mind.
• Women in the first 3 months of pregnancy often need several more hours of sleep than usual.
• The amount of sleep a person needs also increases if he or she has been deprived of sleep in previous days.
• Sleepy in the daytime often indicate sleep deprivation. A few hours deep sleep is much better than long hour shallow sleep.

In addition, it is better for you to sleep at night than during the daytime. In fact, sleeping between the hours of 10 P.M. and 6 A.M. is considered to be optimal. Studies show that as we sleep, our body temperature drops and allows the neurotransmitter melatonin to be produced at a rapid pace. A 10 P.M to 6 A.M sleep pattern helps your body to restore its needed melatonin levels in a natural way.

Lack of Sleep

Continue lack of sleep will cause your brain and body doesn't have the chance to repair themselves. As the result, you start each and every day a little bit less alerted and less metabolically healthy than the previous day. This will contribute to stress and fatigue. In the long run, it will hamper a person's emotional well-being, mental abilities, productivity, and performance.

Lack of sleep also causes poor physical coordination, short term memory loss, poor concentration, sluggishness, depression, decreased reaction to external stimuli, an increase rate of anabolism (cell synthesis), a decreased rate of catabolism (cell breakdown) and other health problems. Medical studies show that extreme cases of sleep deprivation may result in hernia, weakening of muscle tissues and other disorders related to physical overuse.

Conversely, getting enough sleep boosts one's immune system and concentration while enhancing one's overall physical appearance. It helps one to grow properly, get taller and gain his or her potential height. Studies also point out that people who get enough sleep are more productive compared to their stressed and burned out counterparts.

Sleep and height growth is somewhat related. So, close your eyes at night to gain some extra height, to improve memory function, to strengthen your immune system, to feel better, and to live longer!