I recently had one of my corporate wellness clients ask me to do a presentation on sleep and stress as that was a common theme issue with folks in their office.  I agreed and started digging into the research, like I always do, to make sure I was bringing the latest and greatest.  I started noticing a lot of crossover with these and the topics of routine and productivity.  I realized that they all actually work in feedback loops with each other.  According to the businessdictionary.com a feedback loop is defined as “a channel or pathway formed by an ‘effect’ returning to its ’cause,’ and generating either more or less of the same effect.”  Consider productivity and stress for example.  Good productivity generates lower stress, which generates more productivity, and so on. This would obviously be a good feedback loop to be stuck in.  But you can also get stuck in a poor feedback loop.  Using productivity and stress again, you could have a high amount of stress which could cause low productivity, which in turn could cause more stress, and so on.  Interestingly you can apply this type of better makes better and worse makes worse feedback loop to any arrangement of the topics of sleep, stress, productivity, and routine.  With this in mind I will cover the latest and greatest research in each of these topics with regard to your health.  As we go through each you will notice the common ground and why getting one area under control can help prevent a domino effect in other areas.SleepEven as we are learning more and more about the importance of sleep on overall health and longevity, it seems to still be grossly underestimated.  I get lots of giggles when I say my bedtime is 8:30.  Why is that?  Why is it silly or uncool to go to bed early?  Nobody laughs when I say I woke up at 5am.  That is tough.  That is cool.  I think we need to remove this shame around getting to sleep early and getting enough sleep.  The old saying, “I will sleep when I am dead” is similar to the Marlboro man ads in my opinion.  We used to think that they were tough and cool but now realize they are killing us.  Sleep is important, sleep is cool, and as we will discuss, more quality sleep will make you live longer.2 Sleep SystemsBefore we dive into all the amazing research on sleep to get you inspired to sleep more, it is important to understand how our sleep systems work.  2 major systems in our body cause sleepiness: homeostatic and circadian.The homeostatic system basically works on time that you are awake creating more sleepiness.  Your brain builds up a chemical called adenosine that makes you sleepy the longer you go without sleep.  Basically being awake longer creates a drive to get more sleep and balance out your system.  It should be noted that caffeine temporarily blocks adenosine, hence the lack of sleepiness when you drink coffee.  Also exercise increases adenosine.  As many of you know I recommend getting some sort of exercise in daily, and now we can add good sleep quality to the list of reasons why.The circadian system works with the sun’s day-night cycle and it is linked with our biological rhythm. Biological clocks are part of this circadian system as our innate timing device.  These clocks are found in nearly every tissue and organ in our bodies for regulating timing and rhythm.  All of these individual clocks are managed by a master clock in our brain which is a large group of 20,000 neurons.  The main cue for influence of our circadian rhythms is light.   When the master clock perceives less light through the biological clocks it will tell the brain to make more melatonin,