Adds Color?

It was my plan this week to go to the Red Cross office here to donate blood. So I went yesterday, but the lady there asked me what was my purpose of donating it seems that i looked scared when she said that it will take 5 minutes for it to be done. I told her I just want to donate and maybe it is a way to at least loose weight. She laughed and said that it might even make me fat it can boost appetite eating as to some people's experience. I started to doubt whether I will continue with it or not. She picked up sealed needle and cotton with alcohol and rubbed it at the tip of my ring finger. I closed my eyes I knew in few seconds she would hit it then I felt a little pain. She squeezed my finger and a little amount of blood dropped on the container that test my hemoglobin. I did not know what it contains it in. I dont know if I was lucky that the blood did not sink it means that i was not capable of donating blood because my hemoglobin was low. She smiled saying that i was not capable for the mean time maybe she thought that I would not lay and wait for 5 minutes having needle in my arm for the bag of blood that I have to donate. Frankly speaking "Yes" I am scared but I felt sorry too that I could not donate this time. I'm still not sure next time I wish I would be more brave and make sure that my hemoglobin is high. I need a lot of sleep and advised to eat those green and leafy vegetables that are rich in iron to add color to our blood. I would say sleep is really important for our health. I got a quote today that says:

Studies show that people who sleep between 6.5 hours and 7.5 hours a night, as they report, live the longest. And people who sleep 8 hours or more, or less than 6.5 hours, they don't live quite as long. There is just as much risk associated with sleeping too long as with sleeping too short. The big surprise is that long sleep seems to start at 8 hours. Sleeping 8.5 hours might really be a little worse than sleeping five

The recommended daily requirements should sound familiar: eight hours of sleep a night for adults and at least an hour more for adolescents. Yet 71% of American adults and 85% of teens do not get the suggested amount, to the detriment of body and mind. "Sleep is sort of like food," says Robert Stickgold, a cognitive neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School. But, he adds, there's one important difference: "You can be quite starved and still alive, and I think we appreciate how horrible that must be. But many of us live on the edge of sleep starvation and just accept it."

What most people don't realize is that the purpose of sleep may be more to rest the mind than to rest the body. Indeed, most of the benefits of eight hours' sleep seem to accrue to the brain: sleep helps consolidate memory, improve judgment, promote learning and concentration, boost mood, speed reaction time and sharpen problem solving and accuracy. According to Sonia Ancoli-Israel, a psychologist at the University of California at San Diego who has done extensive studies in the aging population, lack of sleep may even mimic the symptoms of dementia. In recent preliminary findings, she was able to improve cognitive function in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's simply by treating their underlying sleep disorder. "The need for sleep does not change a lot with age," says Ancoli-Israel, but often because of disruptive illnesses and the medications used to treat them.

May Help You Lose Weight

Researchers have also found that people who sleep less than seven hours per night are more likely to be overweight or obese. It is thought that the lack of sleep impacts the balance of hormones in the body that affect appetite. The hormones ghrelin and leptin, important for the regulation of appetite, have been found to be disrupted by lack of sleep. So if you are interested in controlling or losing weight, don't forget to pay attention to getting a good night's sleep.