Head coach Dabo Swinney leads his team onto the field before the start of their game against the Florida State Seminoles at Memorial Stadium on September 24, 2011 in Clemson, South Carolina wearing 8ight band.
(Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

The Clemson Tigers have secured head coach Dabo Swinney for the long haul, giving him a contract through 2017 that will pay $1.95 million plus bonuses per year.

Since being named the interim head coach in 2008 after Tommy Bowden’s departure, Swinney’s gone 29-19 and won the 2011 ACC title, also winning his division in 2009.

At 8ight we are proud of Coach Swinney and proud that he wears the 8ight band.

Clemson fans keep sending us photos of your head coach wearing the 8ight Tiger paw band.

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Head Coach ‘Dabo” Swinney wears 8ight Clemson band

Head coach Dabo Swinney of the Clemson Tigers celebrates after a touchdown against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons during their game at BB&T Field on October 25, 2012 in Winston Salem, North Carolina.

At 8ight we are celebrating with Clemson fans as they send us photos of Coach Swinney wearing our 8ight Tiger paw band.

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Head Coach Dabo Swinney is wearing the Clemson 8ight band. Photo by Rex Brown

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney holds the Atlantic Division Championship trophy after the Tigers beat Wake Forest.

Coach Swinney has found a way to bring some consistency to the football program, as Clemson has won or tied for the ACC’s Atlantic Division championship in three of the past four seasons.

They are looking to win the Atlantic Division in 2013

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Coach Dabo Swinney is wearing our Clemson 8ight band

Clemson coach William Christopher “Dabo” Swinney gives his players the ‘watch me’ sign during the 2012 Chick-fil-A Bowl.  The Tigers upset LSU 25-24.

The Tigers finished the year at 11-2, ranked 9th in the Coaches Poll and 11th in the AP poll, but lost to the South Carolina Gamecocks for a fourth straight season.

Swinney was the 2011 winner of the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award,  which was established to honor the NCAA Division 1 football coach whose team excels on the field, in the classroom, and in the community.

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Marcell Dareus has the Alabama 8ight band on both wrist.

Marcell Dareus was a defensive tackle for the NFL Buffalo Bills and was the 3rd overall pick in the 2011 NFL draft.

In college he played as a defensive end for the University of Alabama   Dareus led the Southeastern Conference in quarterback sacks in 2009.   He totaled 33 total tackles, 9.0 tackles for loss (−49), seven quarterback hurries, an interception and two pass breakups

For his performance, including a 28-yard interception return for a touchdown, Dareus was named defensive MVP of the 2010 BCS National Championship Game.

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• Trent Richardson wears the 8ight band (8ightnews.com)

Trent is wearing the Alabama 8ight band on both wrist.

Trent Richardson  is a running back for the Cleveland Browns in the NFL.

When he played football for the University of Alabama 2009 to 2011, he was recognized as an All American and was on two BCS National Championship Teams.  He was the first Alabama player to win the Doak Walker Award.  He finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting.

The Cleveland Browns selected him with the third overall pick of the 2012 NFL draft.

He was the first Browns rookie ever to rush for over 100 yards and score rushing and receiving touchdowns all in the same game.

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Portrait celebrating the National Title game

Check out the portrait of the key University of Alabama players in the National Title Game.  Note running back T.J. Yeldon’s left wrist with our band on as he is scoring a touchdown.

In his freshman season, Yeldon rushed for 1,108 yards on 154 carries and 12 touchdowns. His season high for the year was 153 yards on December 1, 2012, against the Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC championship game.

He set the freshman record with 1,108 rushing yards, and also tied the touchdown record set by Mark Ingram, Jr.in 2008 with 12.

We are honored that he wears the 8ight band.

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Natural restful sleep from 8ight

We all complain of taxes. Federal, state and local taxes will take an average 28.9% of income in 2013.  According to the Tax Foundation it will take us from January 1 until April 17^th in 2013 to pay the taxman before we start working for our own needs.

In addition there is one more tax that leaves us really cranky.  It is the fatigue tax. 92% of Americans polled by MSNBC are tossing and turning over the nightmarish state of the U.S. economy as well as how to pay for everything.  As a result we are becoming a nation of insomniacs.

The fatigue tax is high…sleep deprivation/disorders cost us approximately $150 billion according to the National Commission on Sleep Disorders.  That includes lost productivity, absenteeism at work; people getting into accidents-all these things have an impact on cost.

The nation’s bedroom woes have two-out-of-every-ten Americans sleeping less than six hours a night. People sleeping too few hours report being too tired to work efficiently to exercise, or to eat healthy.

The Effects of Lost Sleep Taxes Us All

Lost sleep is a serious matter. The United States Department of Health and Human Services says sufficient zzzz’s is recognized as essential in maintaining health and is as important as healthy eating and exercise.

The impact of the sleep deficit is cumulative. Sleep deprivation is often associated with a number of diseases and conditions, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and cancer. Additionally, lack of sleep can negatively affect your job performance; create relationship problems; and mood problems like anger and depression.

In the wake of the National Health Care Bill we will all be impacted by each others health.  The cost of medical resources used to treat avoidable illness, the impact of these illnesses on productivity and in turn the country’s gross domestic product and effect on long-term growth of the economy, according to a report by the Milken Institute titled “An Unhealthy America: The Economic Burden of Chronic Disease.”

Seven of the most common chronic diseases, including diabetes, stroke, heart disease and obesity, are preventable and most have been linked to not getting enough sleep.

Beyond the collective increased productivity and reduction in heath care related taxes that comes with staying healthy, our own individual health, boost in productivity, and quality of life comes with getting enough sleep.

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HEART TAX:

• The cost of heart disease and stroke in the United States, including health care expenditures and lost productivity from deaths and disability, is projected to be more than $500 billion in 2013.
• Cardiovascular diseases, including heart disease and stroke, are the first and third leading causes of death for both men and women in the United States. They account for more than one-third (35.3%) of all U.S. deaths.
• By 2030, 40.5% of the US population is projected to have some form of cardiovascular disease.
• People that sleep approximately five hours a night have about a 40 percent higher rate of having a heart attack than people who sleep eight hours.

Harvard researchers found that blood levels of C-reactive protein, a marker of heart-disease risk, can spike if you skip the sheets for just a few hours. There is still debate whether poor sleep is the cause of heart problems or just an early sign of the disease. However studies show that people who aren’t sleeping enough, who are sleep deprived, tend to have higher levels of cortisol, and so again, this puts a stress on the heart. Cortisol regulates blood sugar levels and helps the body manage stress.

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Sleep can help you lose weight

We all complain of taxes. Federal, state and local taxes but now there is talk about a fat tax. 1 in 3 Americans believe that obese people should pay more in taxes than healthy weight people according to one national survey.

There is the cry. “Put down that junk food and hit the treadmill.” But few are shouting, “Put down the junk food and get eight hours sleep.”

Dramatic weight gain is a common effect of sleep deprivation. The amount and quality of the sleep we get affects our hormone levels namely leptin and ghrelin. Leptin is a hormone that affects our feelings of fullness and satisfaction after a meal, and ghrelin is the hormone that stimulates our appetites.

• A 2007 Canadian study found that people who sleep only 5 or 6 hours a night increase their likelihood of being overweight by 69 percent, compared with those who habitually sleep 7 or 8 hours.
• Obesity has been cited as a contributing factor to approximately 100,000-400,000 deaths in the United States per year.
• Reuters is reporting that obesity in America is now adding an astounding $190 billion to the annual national This exceeds health-care costs associated with smoking or problem drinking and accounts for 6% to 12% of national health care expenditures in the US.
• National Center for Health Statistics shows that 34% of U.S. adults 20 years of age and older—over 72 million people—are obese. If current trends continue, 75% of adults in the US are projected to be overweight and 41% obese by 2015.

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