Healthy Sleep For The Soul
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FollowDo you find yourself constantly yawning while working, having trouble concentrating with the task at hand, or even having difficulty remembering certain things? This may be a signal to show that you are sleep deprived and it’s time to make some changes to your life.
An average person spends 1/3 of his life sleeping and this is estimated to be around 25 years in a life span of 75 years. The amount of sleep needed for humans differs at different stages of our life. For example, a newborn baby needs at least 18 hours of sleep per day, whereas an adult needs only 7-8 hours.
I am proud to say that nowadays, I sleep 7.5 hours a day; going to bed by 11pm and waking up at 630am and I tell you, this has definitely changed my life for the better. I feel younger and more energized. My days are more productive as I have more time to complete my work and I am able to focus more. And here’s the best part—I seldom fall sick! It has been such a long time since my last visit to the doctor (though I can’t say that I missed him) and being healthy and full of vigor is really a wonderful feeling.
Healthy sleep is crucial in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Many people may think that sleep is a waste of time and sleep as little as possible. But on the contrary, sleep is an important time of rest and it rejuvenates the body and our minds in many different ways. As a matter of fact, when you get less than 6-7 hours of sleep daily, you are at a higher risk of harming your body by developing diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular diseases and other damaging effects. However, sleeping too much (9 hours and more) causes harm to your body too as it will weaken your sleep system. Thus you may still feel lethargic and tired the next morning even after a long nap. What you need is healthy sleep.
Healthy sleeping means that you need to get deep restorative sleep. This is when the brain attempts to recover and restore you immune system.
Sleeping healthily has many benefits. And here’s a few of them: reduce stress, more alertness, higher memory retention, helps the body repair itself (your cells produce more proteins when you are asleep), and it can also help you lose weight! So here are some tips to help you get the rest you need!
1. Create a good sleeping environment
One of the ways to deepen your sleep is to create a suitable sleeping environment. Make your bed comfortable for sleeping and use it for sleep ONLY! Don’t use your bed to do your work or worst, have your meals there. Our bodies are used to routines, thus, if you tend to use your bed for other purposes, it takes a longer time for your body to relax and fall asleep at night. Also, make sure to keep the surrounding noise level down. Too much noise will cause distraction and make it harder to fall asleep. If you really can’t help with the noise, using ear plugs might do the job (however, don’t forget to wake up on time!)
2. Have a sleeping routine
As I said before, the body is accustomed to routines. Thus, make sure you have a consistent sleeping routine; meaning that you sleep and wake up at a consistent timings everyday. If you normally sleep and wake up at erratic timings, using this method might be a little hard getting used to, but definitely not impossible. After the first week or so, your body clock will start to adapt well to your routine and you’ll start to see amazing results after that.
3. Be conscious of what you eat
Try to avoid consuming any stimulus that keeps you awake (i.e. caffeine, nicotine) at least 6 hours before you sleep. This can interrupt your sleeping time when you go to bed at night. Instead of drinking caffeinated drinks, try drinking something warm like milk, or a chocolate drink, or even plain water will do. Also, do make an effort to minimize your food intake (especially fatty and rick food) during dinner times. This is because these kinds of food take a lot of work for your stomach to digest and may again, disrupt your sleeping pattern.
4. Exercise regularly
To put it simply, exercising makes it easier to fall asleep, and what is more, you will tend to sleep better. You don’t need to exercise vigorously to get that effect, but just 20-30 minutes of the activity 3 times a week is enough to send you to la-la land, getting the right kind of sleep.
So start adjusting your sleep pattern today! There is no need to take big giant steps, but start by taking little ones such as not pressing the snooze button when the alarm rings. Just gradually make little changes to your sleeping routine and you will be surprised by how big it transforms your life for the better.
