Importance of Sleep

Do you feel energized in the morning? Do you feel groggy when you wake up? Do you feel refreshed and ready to take on the day? Do you suffer from daytime sleepiness? If you said no to any of these questions, you may not be getting enough sleep at night. According to the National Sleep Foundation, there are over 70 different types of sleep disorders and at least 60 percent of adults and 69 percent of children are not getting enough sleep.

Sleep is very essential to our health. Research has shown that sleep deprivation can affect different aspects of your life including your physical self and mental self. More specifically, it can affect your ability to remember certain things, the inability to lose weight, or maybe you’ve even noticed some weight gain. Sleep deprivation can be serious and cause fatigue during the day where you need to be alert. For example, when you’re driving, or sitting in an important meeting or lecture. Your body needs the time to recuperate and regenerate.

So how can you get better sleep? Here are a few tips:

1.                    Turn off the television, phones, and laptops. The light from these sources have been found to suppress melatonin, the hormone that helps you sleep.

2.                    Stop staring at your clock. Constantly checking your clock increases stress that you have yet to fall asleep.

3.                    Cool your room down. Your core body temperature decreases as the night progresses and the coolness triggers your melatonin to be activated, according to Harvard Medical School and the National Sleep Foundation.

4.                    Breathe. Close your mouth and inhale quietly through your nose. Start by inhaling to a count of 4. Hold your breath for a count of 7, then exhale through your mouth for a count of eight. Continue this for a few cycles.

5.                    Watch your caffeine intake. Caffeine takes hours to run through your body. Make sure you aren’t drinking too much caffeine at the end of your day. This could also be keeping your body up.

6.                    If you find that you go to bed with a lot on your mind, keep a pen and a pad of paper next to your bed. Write down everything that is going on in your head so that you can deal with them the next day.