Are You Getting Your Sleep?
How good is your sleep each 24 hour cycle?
Are you a light sleeper?
Are you able to lay down and drift right off to sleep?
People lose sleep worrying over life problems. Shift workers lose sleep when having to be up late or rising very early for work. Medications and prescription drugs can cause people to lose sleep.
Why Do We Sleep?
Sleep is a very important part of our overall health. The sub conscious mind takes over once your sleep cycle begins. Our conscious mind needs rest in order to perform when you are awake. Here are the main reasons humans as well as animals have built in clocks that require rest.
Build up energy for the next day.
Keep a regular balance between organs in the body.
Keep a regular body temperature.
Our bodies immune system repairs itself during sleep.
Repair cells and tissues in the body.
Insomnia
According to the Veterans Administration in Phoenix Arizona, one out of three people have an issue with insomnia at some point in their life. Around 10 percent of people have persistent insomnia. There are some actions you can take to help improve your sleep.
1. Develop regular daytime activity.
2. Go for 30 minute walks on a daily basis. If you live in an area where the weather is not conducive to being outdoors during winter, try and find an indoor place that you can still get your walking done.
3. Make your sleeping environment as dark as possible. Also make the temperature comfortable but not extreme. Reduce noise as best as possible. The ideal sleeping environment would be a quiet, dark bedroom around 68 degrees.
4. Eat your last meal at least 3 hours before bedtime. You want your digestive system to be finished digesting your meal so the whole body can rest better.
5. Avoid alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine. Drugs are not conducive to good sleep hygiene.
6. Get regular light exposure during the day.
7. Relax for 60 to 90 minutes before bed. Don’t watch movies or programs like newscasts showing murders, robberies, or other violence. Some people enjoy listening to relaxing music, taking a warm bath or doing a meditation practice. I enjoy reading for an hour before bed. This helps make me sleepy.
8. Go to bed at the same time every evening. Wake up at the same time each morning.
9. Don’t have your bedroom clock in view or where you may hear noise from the clock ticking.
Some of the information from this blog post is from a booklet by Dana Epstein of the VAMC in Phoenix, Arizona. I attended a Sleep Improvement Group in 2011 and felt this information is valuable for my readers.
I am a shift worker and I often work until morning. One of the problems I often feel that is my body feels hot like I have a fever. If I go to bed my body temperature gets back to normal.
Hello Daniel,
In case I am not able to spend time to sleep at night, can I take any supplements to help me sleep when I have enough time to lay down?
Hello Health Ace,
Melatonin is a supplement available in the USA. I use a product that contains 250 mg of Kava Root, 3 mg of Melatonin and 10 mg of Vitamin B6 each night about an hour before bed. Check with your local vitamin shop there in the United Kingdom!
Hello Daniel,
Wonderful tips about how to get better sleep! It is good advice for me to have a nice sleep at night.
Hello Clemence,
Never will forget how much better and deeper my sleep was once I got all of the caffeine out of my body! Glad I could help!
Great advice here Daniel. Stress can be a major cause of insomnia and the above points will go a long way towards reducing stress.
Hello Neil,
Think we all need stress reduction techniques and better sleep to help our bodies deal with the fast pace world we live in.
Hello Daniel,
Exercise is key, but it can be difficult to sleep if you exercise imediately prior to bedtime. Contrary to expectations, the exercise won’t tire you out and make it easier to sleep. It ramps up your bio functions, and sleep is difficult until everything calms back down.
Hello Steph,
I have always done my exercises in the morning or early afternoon. That way I can lay down at night and fall asleep without too much difficulty.
This is a great article dedicated to “How Sleep affects our immune system”. We need at least 6 hours of sleep and it is very important for our eyes and body. Thanks Daniel for this great informative post on sleep.
Hello Firdosh Joy,
If I do not get 7 hours of good sleep, the whole next day is a struggle to get through. The Better Sleep tips on my page help get me ready to rest better.
Great tips. It’s important to set in place a schedule when it comes to getting adequate sleep – and to stick to it! We fool ourselves into thinking that lack of sleep doesn’t affect our productivity. But, as you know, it most definitely does – along with our health!
Hello Elena,
I know my immune system gets weaker when I do not get my rest. It is also not always convenient to stick to the same schedule as there can be events or meetings that you must go to and you may be out later than normal.
Wonderful tips about getting enough sleep! It’s important to set in place a schedule when it comes to getting adequate sleep. It is good advice for me to have a nice sleep at night.
Hello Clemence,
I know I always feel better and have more energy when I am getting a good night’s sleep!
This is all part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, I do agree with your points, it is funny how following these can make you feel so much better! Although sometimes it can be hard, it is important that you get a good night sleep, I definitely agree that you should be in a relaxed state of mind before actually going to sleep- Thank you for sharing!
Hello Shawna,
Our body is NOT a machine. For good health, we need proper nutrition, pure water, exercise and rest. Thanks for stopping by!
Thank you for sharing this post. I have a lot of problems with my sleeping patterns, and this is mainly due to stress. These tips are great, I always have cups of coffee before bed due to stress which is really bad, so I am definitely going to stop, because I feel like I can not function the next day.
Hello Tania,
I am positive that you will sleep better once you remove the caffeine from your diet and get some daily exercise! I remember how much different I felt after having my first few deeper sleeps!
I know and have realized the importance of sound sleeping habits, yet modern lifestyle often makes it a difficult task, late nights are a regular feature as today our life isn’t only dependent on nature but technology and several other factors which are beyond our control.
Anyway thanks for this post.
Hello Natural,
The best advice about getting a good night’s sleep was making a dark and quiet place to lay down that is free from technology or media. If you need earplugs, you can get some to help make your environment quieter. The earlier you go to bed before midnight the better. Research shows that our bodies are designed to slow down after sunset. So burning the midnight oil is not conducive to your good health. Of course if your job requires you to do shift work, try and get on a schedule that you can keep on a regular basis.
Yes, I understand that we must follow the footsteps of nature in order to get most health benefits for free. Thanks for the personal reply, it really feels good.
These are great tips and I’m glad I’m reading this post at a time like this. I’ve been having trouble sleeping lately. Now I know to switch up a few things I do before bed so I can relax my mind and body.