We treat sleep as though we can borrow from it indefinitely. But the body keeps its own accounting. Chronic sleep loss can affect metabolism, cardiovascular health, cognition and recovery, and some of what we accept as “getting older” may actually be made worse by inadequate sleep.

We’re very good at pushing through fatigue, stress, poor sleep and the feeling that something just isn’t right. But by the time the body starts yelling, it may have been whispering for quite a while. What if better health sometimes begins simply by paying attention?