8 Hours to a Healthier Body

Want healthier cells in just 8 hours? All you need to do is go to bed. Your body will take care of the rest -- if you let yourself sleep long enough.

Important things are happening while you snooze -- and we don't just mean those dreams where you're married to the celeb of choice. What's happening in your cells is so important, in fact, that just 1 night of tossing could trigger cell-damaging inflammation.

Sleep-deprived people, especially women, show a big jump in their levels of a protein called NF-kB, an essential player in your body's inflammation response. Like a school-yard bully, you know that if it's around, so is trouble. In this case, the trouble is the inflammation that's linked to disorders including heart disease, arthritis, diabetes, cancer, and obesity.

If you've spent more than your share of nights watching the clock tick, use these strategies to sleep better:

• Get your sleep-den ready. Cool and dark sleeping quarters signal your pineal gland to kick up melatonin production, a hormone that knocks you out.
• Buy a bathroom light. A soft one in red or blue won't stimulate your pineal gland to think it's daylight the way other parts of the light spectrum do.
• Put your laptop and TV to sleep first. Ideally, the bed is for two things only. (You know what we mean.) If you have any other type of stimulus, such as work or TV, you're not sending your body the message that it's time for sleep.
• Don't reset your alarm clock. Stick to one wake-up time, even on weekends.