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Notes taken from a Brandon Marcello, Ph.D. seminar:

Not getting enough sleep leads to increased risk of injury and reduced pain threshold; greater susceptibility to sickness; reduced physical and psychological performance; reduced motivation, learning ability, and memory; increased anxiety, irritability, and mistakes; increase in body fat percentage; reverting to old habits; poor justment of distance, speed, and/or time.

Most of the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) cycle occurs in the final 2-3 hours of a night's rest. Missing ~25% of your total sleep one night may have a larger than 25% negative impact on your mind and body.

Getting enough sleep improves motivation; recovery of muscle strength; sprint speeds; muscle glycogen (stored energy in muscle); cortisol (stress) regulation; motor skill development; memory consolidation.

Sleep debt simplified: if you need 8 hours and get 7 hours, that means you accrue 1 hour of sleep debt. Need to get 9 hours to repay that 1 hour of debt. Sleep debt can build up over time to (30 hours? I failed to write this down).

After extending time in bed to 10 hours per night for several weeks, collegiate swimmers showed improvements of +8% 15meter sprint speed; +20% reaction time off the block; +10% turn time efficiency; +19% kickstrokes.

During sleep, the brain will get rid of waste products and clean out toxic proteins which can impair healthy aging of the brain and cause brain related diseases such as Alzheimer's and other neurological disorders.

Sleep Myths: you can get too much sleep; naps are bad; 8 hours of sleep is ideal (everyone is biologically wired to require different amounts of sleep); older people don't need as much sleep (they need more because they usually awaken more frequently); storing up sleep for the week ahead; alcohol helps you sleep.

Sleep/Nutrition Interaction: sleep deprivation alters the ability of the body to metabolize and store carbohydrates for recovery, as well as use for a later time; reduces glycogen levels.

Ask yourself: what is detracting from your sleep quality? Noise? Light? Pain? Temperature? Priorities? Stress? Alcohol/Drugs/Food?

Studies: Predicting Major League Baseball (MLB) Player Career Longevity via Sleepiness Measurements, Validation of a Statistical Model Predicting Possible Fatigue Elementas in Major League Baseball, Chronic lack of sleep is associated with increased sports injuries in adolescent athletes, Sleep patterns of U.S. Military academy cadets (2003), Effect of 1 Week of Sleep Restriction on Testosterone Levels in Young Healthy Men

Seminars: One More Reason to Get a Good Night's Sleep (Jess Iliff), Why Do We Sleep? (Russell Foster)

Books: The Promise of Sleep (William Dement, M.D., Ph.D.), Take a Nap! (Sara Mednick, Ph.D.), The Sleep Revolution (Arianna Huffington)