Tips On Better Sleep (not related to OSA)

[Joe_0206]

10 Unconventional (But Great) Sleeping Tips You’ve Probably Never Heard
January 8 by Trish Allan - LifeHack.org

Increasingly, science is showing that sleep is a basic building block for sustaining life and that sleep, like digestion, respiration and meaningful relationships, is one of the most important processes for the human body. During sleep the body heals, grows, and replenishes itself so that people can thrive with abundant, vibrant lives.

When we are children, sleep comes very naturally. The body demands it and it occurs. Children can sleep in almost any circumstance—driving in a car, with a TV on in the next room, with the dog barking. Children, teens and even young adults fall easily into sleep providing their circadian rhythm has not been disrupted. Unfortunately for adults, sleep is too often an elusive state that escapes us, causing a myriad of problems with health, happiness and productivity.

Sleep issues can arise for many different reasons, and for different reasons at different times in one’s life. Physical or emotional stress, changes in schedules and routines, dietary changes and disruptions to our natural circadian rhythm are the most common reasons that sleep problems arise. Unfortunately, when sleep problems do develop, they can become the norm rather than the exception for many people, and reversing these patterns takes some time and effort.

Next time you’re struggling with sleep, experiment with any of the following 10 unconventional but great sleeping tips to determine what will work best for you:

1. Strategize Your Day Plan
Plan your day as closely as you can so that you follow the same pattern and routine each day. Although this may sound boring, as it lacks spontaneity, when it comes to improving your sleep, your body thrives on daily rhythms and schedules. Wake up and go to sleep at the same time and try to have your meals at the same time as well. This will allow your body, hormones and other brain chemicals to function optimally, and this will allow your body to produce the hormones needed to fall and stay asleep.

2. Move Your Body Daily
Exercise has numerous benefits, and research finds new benefits every day. Regular exercise improves heart health and blood pressure, builds bone and muscle, helps combat stress and muscle tension, improves mood, and improves sleep. Exercise helps you sleep sounder and longer and feel more awake during the day.

When engaging in physical activity, it’s important that you choose activities that resonate with you and bring you happiness while participating. If you love dancing, try a Zumba class, if you like being outside, try running, cycling or skating. An additional benefit to exercising outside is exposure to sunshine. Twenty minutes per day of sunshine helps produce vitamin D, an important vitamin to your overall health and hormonal system. Also consider the time of day you are engaging in physical activity. Earlier in the day is better when it comes to sleep. Exercise excites the body and creates new energy, when you do this too close to bed time it could interfere with sleep.

3. Sleep Naked
The body naturally cools down as it produces melatonin and prepares the body for rest. Among other things, this process requires the body temperature to drop. When you sleep with heavy pajamas and blankets, the body has a difficult time lowering your temperature and this will wake you up. Try sleeping naked in good quality, comfortable sheets, and keep the temperature down in your bedroom.

4. Understand You Have a Circadian Rhythm
The body’s system and functions are based on rhythms. Humans have a circadian rhythm and a circannual rhythm. These rhythms control many things. The circadian rhythm—our daily time clock—is particularly important when it comes to sleep. Hormones provide signals to the body all day and all night long that control sleep and eating patterns. For this rhythm to function optimally, there are environmental components we can control to support this important process. When your sleep is compromised by work or stress, for example, you will lose this rhythm and re-establishing it can be difficult.

5. Turn Off Your Screens
Your circadian rhythm is strongly signaled by light. The bright light of the morning produces certain hormones and signals and the darkness of the evening and night produce others. The access to 24-hour lighting has largely influenced our exposure to light and therefore our daily rhythms. The one key thing you can do is limit your exposure to light in the evening, particularly the light emitted by TVs and computers. The light produced by these devices significantly interferes with the production of melatonin, the sleep hormone produced in the pituitary gland that signals sleep to the body. It’s crucial that the amount of light the body is exposed to decreases slowly over the course of the evening. Ideally, you would turn off all screens one to two hours before you’d like to sleep.

6. Do Something Relaxing
Avoid activity that is too stimulating in the evening. The brain is wired to respond to your physical and emotional needs at any time of day. When you engage in stimulating activity such as a dramatic TV program, a heated discussion with a family member, or work-related emailing, your brain’s awareness is heightened and bringing yourself down from that will take time. Avoid that by winding down. Have a cut-off time, perhaps one to two hours before bed, in which you will not engage in anything too stimulating. Make this a daily practice and tell the people you live with that it’s a goal you have. Try something relaxing like reading a book, meditation or gentle stretching.

7. Have Sex
After a day of work, commuting and children, the last thing many people want to consider is sex. But there are many health benefits to having sex, including better sleep. Weekday sex can be a simple quickie if time and energy are concerns, and that too will provide benefit. You’ll fall asleep faster after orgasm and there’s good reason for that. The hormone prolactin is released after orgasm. Prolactin is responsible for feelings of relaxation and sleepiness. As well, following orgasm, the body produces oxytocin, the feel-good hormone that reduces stress and helps us bond with others, so the benefit extends to your relationship and your overall health.

8. Watch Your Food Intake
The body is sensitive to all of the things you do to it, expect of it and feel throughout the day. Food digestion is a key function of the body that influences many things, including sleep. Keep your consumption of caffeinated beverages, including coffee, to a minimum and consume them before 3 p.m. if possible. Caffeine is very stimulating and interferes with the hormones required to relax the body and produce sleep.

Also, consider the type of food you’re eating. Having simple carbs in the evening has a relaxing effect on many people and helps with relaxation and sleep. Keep in mind how close you’re eating to bedtime. Ideally, you should stop eating three hours before bed. Digestion requires a lot of energy and time. If the body is busy digesting your last meal, you will have problems falling and staying asleep. Give your body the break it needs during the night to heal and repair you by allowing it to be free of the job of digesting food.

9. Drink Calming Tea After A Warm Bath
Magnesium is a mineral responsible for many functions in the body. One of its most important functions is calming muscles. By adding magnesium to a warm bath with some essential oil, you will be able to relax and drift into a deep sleep. Having a cup of herbal tea in the evening is calming and when done regularly (like turning off screens, taking a bath or reading a book), functions as an important signal to the brain and body that time for rest is near, allowing the required systems to begin their work. Chamomile tea has long been thought to be a helpful sleep aid. There are many companies producing blends that help relax the body and aid with sleep.

10. Keep Your Room Dark
Even the smallest amount of light hitting the eyelid (some research says the size of a pinhole will do it) can interfere with the production of melatonin, which would result in poor quality sleep or lack of sleep. Keeping your room both dark and cool have been shown to be imperative in regulating sleep. Invest in blackout curtains to ensure that your room is dark all night. Turn off and block the light from all electronic appliances, such as clock radios and cell phones. Better yet, remove them from your bedroom if possible. If blocking out the light is problematic, purchase a soft eye-mask that you can wear comfortably throughout the night.

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifest ... heard.html

[Joe_0206]

10 Ways To Have Quality Sleep That You Probably Don’t Know
by Piotr Nabielec - LifeHack.org

You probably spend 25-40% of your life sleeping. During that time your brain and body are busy overseeing biological maintenance that will enable you to reach your full potential.

Many of us, however, perceive sleeping as a waste of time and try to limit it as much as possible. This impacts our long term functioning. Here are some hints on how to improve the quality of one of the most basic necessities in life.

1. Make quality sleep a priority.
There are countless demands nowadays that make our life busy, and the easiest time to cut is sleep. However, to improve its quality you need to make it a priority. It won’t happen overnight and it won’t happen if you don’t perceive it as an important factor of the quality of your life. The first step to have quality sleep is to put it close to the top of your priority list. You can also start building positive habits around your dreaming.

2. Build a quality sleep environment.
In most articles about quality sleep, you will find the usual set of rules, such as keeping your bedroom dark and quiet, having a comfortable bed, keeping the temperature low, avoiding caffeine and alcohol before bedtime, avoiding TV etc. Let’s just mention it all once – these things are very important and it really matters for your relaxing bedtime routine!

3. Observe and experiment.
Everyone is different and this is why observing yourself is so important to have quality sleep. Start a diary. Install an application on your mobile phone for sleep tracking. Try experimenting with your pre-sleep routine, timing, exercises, room temperature, and sleep length to see what works best for you. If you make it fun set of experiments, you will soon find your own, natural style and not “one fits all” solution.

4. Don’t nap for too long
Napping is actually very healthy if you do it right. There is just one rule: keep it under 25 minutes, where 10-15 minutes is best.

Sleep unfolds in a series of recurring sleep stages: N1 (transition to sleep, usually few minutes), N2 (light sleep, usually 10-25 minutes), N3 (deep sleep, usually 20-40 minutes), REM (rapid eye movement) and then the cycle repeats itself. The average length of the first sleep cycle is usually between 70 and 100 minutes and later cycles are about 90 to 120 minutes.

The worst thing you can do is to take a nap to enter the deep sleep and then be woken up in the middle of it. You will probably feel much worse after the nap than before! Understanding your sleep cycle is also important for experimenting, because you can plan your alarm time based on the sleep length, rather than specific hour. You can also try installing an application that analyzes your sleep patterns and tries to wake you up when you should feel relaxed the most, or invest in a special device like Jawbone UP or Fitbit One.

5. Expose yourself to light wisely.
Light exposure controls melatonin, which is a naturally occurring hormone that regulates your sleep-wake cycle. If you have problems getting up early, try exposing yourself to strong light in the morning and use dimmed light and sunglasses in the evenings. You may also like to rearrange your space to let as much light in as possible. Spend more time outside during daylight, avoid computer, TV and backlit devices at night. The opposite will also work if you want to stay awake in the evenings – just avoid the light in the morning and expose yourself to it in the evenings.

6. Establish a pre-sleep routine.
Establishing a pre-sleep routine can prepare you mentally for the next few hours and your body will feel it. The whole day could be crazy, but if you regularly take a short shower, make few physical and breath exercises and then go to bed, your body will start relaxing during the first moments of your shower, a long time before you are actually ready to sleep.

7. Anticipate wake-up.
Have you ever tried to wake up early in the morning to catch a flight or bus? Your sleep was probably quite short and yet the morning was energized. It is all in your head. When you anticipate wake-up and there is something important waiting for you in the morning, your energy level will be much higher. Plan a quick activity or task early in the morning that will help you achieve quality sleep.

8. Boost your morning.
Music, dance and fun will greatly help you wake up. They are very powerful mood-enhancing tools that will determine your morning state of mind. Try your best tunes, few crazy moves and some good set of jokes that will pump your blood full of positive energy to your whole body. First few moments during the day will impact the way you think about your sleep.

9. Exercise during the day.
The worst thing that can happen when you want to go to sleep is that your mind is worried and tired, but your body has not exercised that much during the day. Physical activity is so important for your health! By exercising for as little as 30 minutes a day, you can have quality sleep, reduce your risk of heart disease and many more.

10. Take a sleep vacation from time to time.
Life is life, we don’t always sleep as much as we should and over time, we tend to create something called “sleep debt,” which is simply a cumulative effect of not getting enough sleep. Sleep debt is dangerous, resulting in impaired memory, concentration, and motor skills. Your immune system and healing process also suffer. This is why from time to time, you should take a sleep vacation and return to your quality sleep. You simply have to pay your debt back before your organism asks for it!

Sleep affects many aspects of our life. Having a quality sleep is very important to have a quality life.

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifest ... -know.html

[Joe_0206]

See How To Get More Restful Sleep That Leads To Increased Productivity

April 21, 2014 - If you are like me your brain is always on, whether it’s thinking about your job, coming up with new business ideas, getting excited for vacation, your relationship, your mortgage, and on and on and on. You may notice that some mornings you are on fire with motivation and others you are groggy and slow. What gives?

It’s totally frustrating but it could be something so small that you did the day before that can mean the difference between having a productive day and having one that is unproductive, slow, and boring.

Again, if you are like me you know the importance of getting a good night sleep and waking up refreshed and invigorated, ready to take on the day. So, with that being said it is imperative to learn how to turn your body and brain off at night for you to be super motivated and productive the following day.

I am going to show you just how to have more frequent good night sleeps that will translate to more productive days. Lets call it the “pre bed boot camp” and the key is consistency.

Read the rest here...

http://www.getmotivation.com/motivation ... ductivity/