Could Getting More Sleep in 2018 Change Your Life?

Most people know sleep is vital for good health, but are we really paying attention to what we are hearing? Trends show that poor sleep and the negative effects of it are becoming more pervasive, and people are not only sleeping less than ever before but are also getting poor quality sleep.

Getting enough high quality sleep could significantly impact your life. You might not even know what you’ve been missing and what you could gain by committing to getting better sleep in 2018.

Here are just some of the ways getting proper sleep could change your life for the better.

Sleeping Well is Conducive to Helping You Maintain a Healthy Weight. People who sleep well typically consume fewer calories compared to those who don’t. Sleep deprivation leads to poor appetite control by causing fluctuations in hormones such as leptin and ghrelin that control appetite regulation.

Proper Sleep Supports Healthy Emotional and Social Interaction. Facial recognition testing shows that sleep influences the ability to recognize emotions such as happiness and anger. In studies, people who were sleep deprived were less likely to process emotional information and recognize important social cues.

Adequate Sleep Strengthens Your Body’s Defenses Against Illness. Immune function decreases even after a minimal amount of sleep loss. Research shows that after exposure to the cold virus, a person getting less than seven hours of sleep may be three times or more likely to develop a cold compared to someone who is getting at least 8 hours.

Good Sleep Increases Your Longevity. Proper sleep reduces the risk of diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular problems, and obesity among others. Healthy sleep is also required for proper immune function needed to fend off bacterial and viral infections.

Restful Sleep Helps You Look Younger. Sleep is necessary for growth hormone to function properly and for cells to repair and rebuild themselves. Poor sleep leads to stress; this causes capillaries to constrict and reduces the flow of nutrients to the scalp and skin, thus leading to dull looking hair and skin.

Healthy Sleep Activates Your Creativity and Increases Your Ability to Solve Problems. Research shows that the mind works on solving creative problems while you sleep. Contemplating a problem you’d like to find a solution for before you sleep, increases the chances that after sleep you’ll have one. Problem-solving ability increases during REM sleep due to stimulation of associative networks in the brain which allow it to make useful and new associations between unrelated concepts.

Getting Enough Sleep Helps You Focus on What You Need to Accomplish. Good sleep supports your ability to concentrate and perform tasks requiring complex thinking. Learning and memorizing things is optimized with good sleep, whereas poor sleep interferes with the brain’s working memory and reduces your speed and accuracy at performing both mental and physical tasks.  

source https://goodmorningsnoresolution.com/blogs/news/could-getting-more-sleep-in-2018-change-your-life

Simple Tips For Better Sleep During The Holiday Season

The holidays tend to cause a variety of disruptions to many of our normal routines. Sometimes we don’t even realize the impact these changes have on our health until we fall ill or become tired and irritable.

Despite the hectic holiday season involving busy schedules, abnormal eating patterns, and travel away from home, there are still things you can do to help yourself get a good night sleep so you can power through all you need to accomplish. Here are some simple strategies you can use to help you sleep better during periods that interrupt your normal lifestyle.

Bring These Items with You While Away From Home

Try using a device or phone app that produces white noise while sleeping at a hotel or the home of friends or relatives. White noise helps drown out environmental noises that can prevent you from sleeping and wake you up.

It’s not necessarily noise in general that can disrupt sleep, but it is changes in the consistency of sounds in your surroundings. White noise is helpful for managing disruptive noise by providing a consistent sound that can be heard at all audible frequencies. You might find you’ll receive the most benefit from using a white noise device at home first to get used to it before travelling.

Whenever you travel away from home, try to bring along items you are familiar with and that you already associate with sleep. Having personal items with you such as a favorite pillow, scented candle or blanket while staying overnight in unfamiliar surroundings can help you relax and sleep better.

Manage Your Stress Levels

Under any amount of stress, the brain produces the energizing hormone cortisol which interferes with the production of the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin. Cortisol levels will likely increase when you hit the pillow and start thinking about Christmas to-do-lists, deadlines, travel plans, and other potentially stressful situations. To sleep, you need to find strategies to effectively manage this stress.

Try using a journal throughout the day to write down your stressors. Writing down your worries during the day rather than dwelling on all of them at night helps to diffuse your stress throughout the day. If you still find yourself worrying at night, get out of bed and distract your mind with a quiet activity such as reading a non-fiction book, folding laundry or doing a crossword puzzle until you feel you are ready to try to sleep again.

Keep an Eye on Your Diet

While fancy meals and decadent desserts are one of the greatest parts of holidays, they can also be an opportunity for overindulgence on sweet and excessively fatty foods which can disrupt sleep. Sugar increases insulin which encourages the production of the sleep-sabotaging hormone cortisol. Pay attention to what you eat if you have food sensitivities as these also cause cortisol levels to increase by causing inflammation in the intestinal tract.

Try to eat reasonable portions and focus on foods that make you feel your best. Eat well-balanced meals which include plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats, and lean proteins. Additionally, try to avoid eating late into the evening.

Curb Your Alcohol Intake

Many people enjoy a triple or two during the holidays, but much like overindulging on festive foods, alcohol can profoundly jeopardize sleep by interfering with the different sleep phases. Alcohol is known to interfere with deep sleep which is needed for cognitive and physical restoration.

Most adults experience five or six sleep cycles per night, but alcohol can reduce them to two and cause you to feel poorly rejuvenated even if you are sleeping. The dehydrating effect of alcohol also causes you to get thirsty which results in you waking during the night. Here’s a tip if you are going to drink alcohol: Try drinking a glass of water between each alcoholic beverage and don’t drink on an empty stomach.

source https://goodmorningsnoresolution.com/blogs/news/simple-tips-for-better-sleep-during-the-holiday-season

5 Foods That Will Help You Sleep Better [INFOGRAPHIC]

The 5 foods promote a good night's sleep, so eat up and sleep tight.

source https://goodmorningsnoresolution.com/blogs/news/5-foods-that-help-you-sleep-better