People who regularly get between 7-9 hours of sleep see significantly lower rates of obesity, high blood pressure, stroke, infections, depression, diabetes, inflammation, hypertension, heart disease, heart attacks, and heart failure. They also report higher satisfaction with their sex lives, better performance at work, and take fewer sick days than people who typically sleep less than 7 hours a night.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m a firm believer that feeding our kids a healthy, balanced diet is essential to their well-being. I might even agree that it’s the single most important factor when it comes to our children’s health.

But sleep is, if not equally as important, a very big contender.