Better sleep equals better health....
Today's post: Tuesday, 1-20-2009
Recently it was in the online health news that three times as many young people now take sleep drugs as they did just a few years ago. This is understandable given the TV ads for the drugs over that time period; but is extremely bad news for the young people who do it.
It’s also been in the online health news that getting enough sleep helps you avoid catching colds and that it may even help you lose fat and avoid type II diabetes.
The ideal amount of sleep seems to be about 7 hours a night while less than 6 or more than 8 tend to cause or indicate health problems.
While there are people who sleep more than 8 hours, most of us tend to sleep less than 7.
Surprisingly, people who get 6 to 7 hours of sleep a night tend to be healthier than people who sleep more than 8. So that’s partly OK. If you work at something that pays well, you tend to work more hours. And people with more money tend to have better health. Or, if you get up fifteen minutes earlier to help ensure you get regular exercise, that’s good for you enough to be worth it. Similarly if socializing keeps you up a bit, socializing is good enough for your health usually to be worth it. Lastly, if you haven’t enough energy to function on less than 9 hours of sleep, you may have undiagnosed health problems or are impacted by NOT getting any exercise or your life has too few interesting parts or challenges.
But if you rarely get more than 6 hours of sleep and often get less, you’ll likely be healthier if you get a bit more sleep.
Some people have that happen because they watch late night TV. If that’s you, today there is a solution thanks to technology. You can get videos of SOME of the late night shows you like and watch them on a weekend afternoon. THAT will help you lose weight in three ways. Your body will process food better if you aren’t too short on sleep. You’ll see less ads for fattening junk foods. And, the fewer total hours you watch TV, the less fat you are according to actual studies in part because watching TV also burns so few calories, you may be burning more while you are asleep!!
Or you can log on an hour earlier to Yahoo & look at the online news there and or check your local weather at weather.com and get more information in 15 minutes than watching an hour of TV news & weather. Even better, you can skip the details of stuff that doesn’t interest you and find out MORE about that news that DOES interest you.
There ARE other things you can do are to go to sleep quickly when you get in bed and sleep well once you get there besides taking the sleep drugs.
If you have trouble going to sleep quickly or getting good sleep once there, taking sleep meds is less effective than these alternatives for most people. It costs more. And it’s also quite dangerous: from eating while asleep which will make you gain more fat for sure to walking outside while asleep & only in your underwear on a below zero night and freezing to death – which just was in the news as happening, these are NOT the safest drugs at the pharmacy!
Here are some better ways to fall asleep quickly & to sleep well.
Number one is to get regular exercise on most days of the week. Studies show people who exercise regularly get much better sleep and tend to fall asleep more quickly than people who don’t.
Other things that can help include:
NOT having a TV in your bedroom, a practice which can also much improve your sex life studies found. TV’s do NOT belong in bedrooms!
Stopping your coffee consumption at 3 a day most days. (If you drink more than 3, you need more the next day to compensate for the sleep the cups over 3 cost you the night before. So it’s a waste of money and good coffee usually to drink more than 3 cups a day. ) Once you have 3 cups of coffee, try tea or unsweetened cocoa in a hot chocolate drink. That has some caffeine but less than coffee if you need more than 3 cups of coffee.
Usually stop your coffee consumption by 3PM if you have any trouble falling asleep.
Writing down the things you are worried about and what you will do about it when you aren’t trying to go to sleep and tired will make solving your problems or dealing with them more likely. And, reminding yourself of when you’ll do that and refusing any more mental time on them when you are in bed will help give you more energy to solve your problems when you get up.
Taking a small amount of melatonin from a tenth of a gram to perhaps half a gram at bedtime helps some people go to sleep. More tends to make them groggy when it’s time to get up.
If you are under enough stress but can afford to do it, taking valerian at bedtime can help. It smells so bad, you almost have to have its container in a larger one with an airtight lid to stand to have it around. But it has been used effectively to reduce stress enough to let people sleep even in war zones and in similar situations. It does NOT cause sleepwalking; and valerian is cheaper than the sleep drugs besides being safer to take.
(Note that doing Tai Chi daily both gets you a surprising amount of exercise and relieves stress well enough that it reverses stress caused high blood pressure. So for some people, it can be a great sleep aid.)
You may not have complete control over the temperature of your bedroom or how noisy it is. But if you do, make it slightly cool so you can use a blanket and make it quiet. (In many homes with peaked roofs in the summer, you can make a dramatic difference in how cool your bedroom is at night and save a LOT of money on airconditioning if you install enough intake vents and convection powered turbines in your roof -- which avoids having trapped solar heated air roast you all night, for example.)
If your bedroom isn’t really dark because of light coming in the windows, add blackout curtains to put up at night. You’ll not only sleep better due to your own body producing more melatonin, this has been found to help prevent breast cancer in women and may help prevent prostate cancer in men!
At least on weekdays, try to get up at the exact same time each morning or very close to it and go to bed pretty close to the same time each night. This is a huge help in falling asleep quickly and reliably and getting good quality sleep.
This list is not complete as there are other things that likely work. But if you do all the things on this list that fit your situation you’ll likely sleep well and fall asleep quickly.
Today's post: Tuesday, 1-20-2009
Recently it was in the online health news that three times as many young people now take sleep drugs as they did just a few years ago. This is understandable given the TV ads for the drugs over that time period; but is extremely bad news for the young people who do it.
It’s also been in the online health news that getting enough sleep helps you avoid catching colds and that it may even help you lose fat and avoid type II diabetes.
The ideal amount of sleep seems to be about 7 hours a night while less than 6 or more than 8 tend to cause or indicate health problems.
While there are people who sleep more than 8 hours, most of us tend to sleep less than 7.
Surprisingly, people who get 6 to 7 hours of sleep a night tend to be healthier than people who sleep more than 8. So that’s partly OK. If you work at something that pays well, you tend to work more hours. And people with more money tend to have better health. Or, if you get up fifteen minutes earlier to help ensure you get regular exercise, that’s good for you enough to be worth it. Similarly if socializing keeps you up a bit, socializing is good enough for your health usually to be worth it. Lastly, if you haven’t enough energy to function on less than 9 hours of sleep, you may have undiagnosed health problems or are impacted by NOT getting any exercise or your life has too few interesting parts or challenges.
But if you rarely get more than 6 hours of sleep and often get less, you’ll likely be healthier if you get a bit more sleep.
Some people have that happen because they watch late night TV. If that’s you, today there is a solution thanks to technology. You can get videos of SOME of the late night shows you like and watch them on a weekend afternoon. THAT will help you lose weight in three ways. Your body will process food better if you aren’t too short on sleep. You’ll see less ads for fattening junk foods. And, the fewer total hours you watch TV, the less fat you are according to actual studies in part because watching TV also burns so few calories, you may be burning more while you are asleep!!
Or you can log on an hour earlier to Yahoo & look at the online news there and or check your local weather at weather.com and get more information in 15 minutes than watching an hour of TV news & weather. Even better, you can skip the details of stuff that doesn’t interest you and find out MORE about that news that DOES interest you.
There ARE other things you can do are to go to sleep quickly when you get in bed and sleep well once you get there besides taking the sleep drugs.
If you have trouble going to sleep quickly or getting good sleep once there, taking sleep meds is less effective than these alternatives for most people. It costs more. And it’s also quite dangerous: from eating while asleep which will make you gain more fat for sure to walking outside while asleep & only in your underwear on a below zero night and freezing to death – which just was in the news as happening, these are NOT the safest drugs at the pharmacy!
Here are some better ways to fall asleep quickly & to sleep well.
Number one is to get regular exercise on most days of the week. Studies show people who exercise regularly get much better sleep and tend to fall asleep more quickly than people who don’t.
Other things that can help include:
NOT having a TV in your bedroom, a practice which can also much improve your sex life studies found. TV’s do NOT belong in bedrooms!
Stopping your coffee consumption at 3 a day most days. (If you drink more than 3, you need more the next day to compensate for the sleep the cups over 3 cost you the night before. So it’s a waste of money and good coffee usually to drink more than 3 cups a day. ) Once you have 3 cups of coffee, try tea or unsweetened cocoa in a hot chocolate drink. That has some caffeine but less than coffee if you need more than 3 cups of coffee.
Usually stop your coffee consumption by 3PM if you have any trouble falling asleep.
Writing down the things you are worried about and what you will do about it when you aren’t trying to go to sleep and tired will make solving your problems or dealing with them more likely. And, reminding yourself of when you’ll do that and refusing any more mental time on them when you are in bed will help give you more energy to solve your problems when you get up.
Taking a small amount of melatonin from a tenth of a gram to perhaps half a gram at bedtime helps some people go to sleep. More tends to make them groggy when it’s time to get up.
If you are under enough stress but can afford to do it, taking valerian at bedtime can help. It smells so bad, you almost have to have its container in a larger one with an airtight lid to stand to have it around. But it has been used effectively to reduce stress enough to let people sleep even in war zones and in similar situations. It does NOT cause sleepwalking; and valerian is cheaper than the sleep drugs besides being safer to take.
(Note that doing Tai Chi daily both gets you a surprising amount of exercise and relieves stress well enough that it reverses stress caused high blood pressure. So for some people, it can be a great sleep aid.)
You may not have complete control over the temperature of your bedroom or how noisy it is. But if you do, make it slightly cool so you can use a blanket and make it quiet. (In many homes with peaked roofs in the summer, you can make a dramatic difference in how cool your bedroom is at night and save a LOT of money on airconditioning if you install enough intake vents and convection powered turbines in your roof -- which avoids having trapped solar heated air roast you all night, for example.)
If your bedroom isn’t really dark because of light coming in the windows, add blackout curtains to put up at night. You’ll not only sleep better due to your own body producing more melatonin, this has been found to help prevent breast cancer in women and may help prevent prostate cancer in men!
At least on weekdays, try to get up at the exact same time each morning or very close to it and go to bed pretty close to the same time each night. This is a huge help in falling asleep quickly and reliably and getting good quality sleep.
This list is not complete as there are other things that likely work. But if you do all the things on this list that fit your situation you’ll likely sleep well and fall asleep quickly.
Labels: avoid catching colds, better sleep, cold remedies, fatloss, more restful sleep, natural insomnia cures, prevent type 2 diabetes, stress relief, valerian
posted by David at 1:44 PM
3 Comments:
Very efficiently written information. It will be beneficial to anyone who usess it, including myself. Sustain the nice work – for sure i'll take a look at extra posts.
As a Newbie, I am always searching online for articles that can help me. Thank you Wow! Thank you! I always wanted to write in my site something like that. Can I take part of your post to my blog?
You certainly can post quotes from this post or others.
Simply put what you quoted in quotes and say you got it from Focus on Your Health at www.iehealth.blogspot.com .
This post is 100 % OK to do this. I wrote it all.
(Some posts though I quote other people. You can quote what I write in such posts but NOT the people I quote.)
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