The benefits of sleep

(MSN Women: Health & Wellness) - How a good night's rest can help you lose weight, protect your heart and more...

Getting a solid eight hours of sleep each night is like putting money in the bank, providing you with a stash of valuable spending power for the days to come. While you slumber, your brain is as busy as a little power plant, keeping electrical currents flowing and essentially recharging your batteries. Cheat yourself of rest, and it will cost you plenty. Studies show that sleep deprivation negatively alters brain activity, slowing reaction time in certain cellular and chemical activities. For example, during the brain's night shift, hormones help repair tissues, preparing them for a new day of movement; sleep deprivation can leave you prone to injury. A slumber debt also interrupts the brain's electrical patterns, producing a spacey, groggy feeling when you wake up.

"Think of your brain as a symphony in which every musician has a role," says registered nurse Joyce Walsleben, Ph.D., director of the New York University Sleep Disorders Clinic and author of "A Woman's Guide to Sleep." "If certain cells aren't firing on time, it throws everything off, like somebody playing out of tune." When you lack sleep, your entire body performs at compromised levels, meaning you can't be your best at work, in relationships, creatively, mentally or physically.

So, while we know you're busy women with too much to do and not enough hours in the day to do it, we've got five reasons you might want to consider making sleep more of a priority:

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