Healthy Sleep

Sleep really is the best thing you can give yourself.  It will not only help you maintain your very active lifestyle, but it is imperative for mental and physical recharging. And although it may seem impossible some days to get uninterrupted slumber, it is in everyone’s best interest if you are well rested. 

WebMD defines the importance of sleep in the following way:

“Historically, sleep was thought to be a passive state. However, sleep is now known to be a dynamic process, and our brains are active during sleep. Sleep affects our physical and mental health, and is essential for the normal functioning of all the systems of our body, including the immune system. The effect of sleep on the immune system affects one’s ability to fight disease and endure sickness.”

Not everyone requires the same amount of sleep each night.  Some individuals can function properly with 5 hours while others need to reach the recommended amount of 8 hours of sleep. You’re probably thinking that even before you had kids, rarely did you see 8 hours of sleep. 

The important thing is to know your body and how much sleep you need and then to adjust accordingly.  If you feel rested after waking with six hours of sleep, then try to work a plan that will allow you maximize that amount of sleep.

If you want to feel rested, have energy and most important remain healthy, you needn’t look for answers any further than your nearest pillow.  So again we don’t question what it is we need, but rather we wonder how we are ever going to get it. 

 How is it possible to get the amount of sleep needed?  Days often consist of maintaining a certain energy level.  Rarely are moms allowed the time to relax before going to bed. 

After dinner is served and consumed by the masses there are dishes to be done, kids to be tucked in and more often than not some preparations to be made for the following day. 

By the time you reach your bedroom you’re physically exhausted yet your mind is racing a mile a minute.  It’s hard to ‘turn off’ some days, so even when lying down to sleep it may seem a simple but impossible task to actually fall asleep.  

Start by thinking about what helps you relax and then work on creating a plan that will allow you to make that part of a nightly plan. Having the husband help out with some of the after dinner tasks is a good start. 

He may already be a great third arm, but by putting a little structure to the situation, it may free you up to take on the duties that may not include tending to the children. 

Share This

Bookmark To:

It’s no secret that we feel better when we get a good night’s sleep.  Tossing and turning all night, or simply hitting the sack too late, can leave us feeling unenergetic and grouchy the following day.  An adequate amount of restful sleep, on the other hand, makes us more alert and improves our mood.

But a good night’s sleep has a lot more benefits than that.  It can improve our mental and physical health in several ways.  Here are some of the reasons we should strive to get enough sleep each and every night.

* Getting enough sleep is good for your heart.  Our hearts slow down when we’re sleeping, so it stands to reason that not getting the sleep we need makes our hearts work harder for longer than intended during the course of a day.  Lack of sleep can also be linked to higher blood pressure and cholesterol, both of which are bad for the heart.

* Sleep helps us fight disease and infection.  As we sleep, our bodies produce more of the hormones that aid the immune system, such as melatonin and cortisol.  These hormones can help prevent cell damage that leads to cancer, and they help fight off germs that cause colds, the flu, and infections.

* Long-term memories are formed during sleep.  So when we get a good night’s sleep, we are giving our brains time to store more information away for later reference.  If you are suffering from forgetfulness, try getting a little more sleep.  Chances are, it will help.

* Adequate amounts of sleep can help us maintain a healthy weight.  Studies have shown that those who sleep less than 7 to 8 hours a night are more likely to be overweight.  This is believed to be due in part to lower levels of leptin, a hormone that regulates appetite, and higher levels of ghrelin, a hormone that simulates hunger.

* Getting the sleep you need can help ward off depression.  One of the contributing factors in depression is serotonin deficiency, which often occurs in those who do not get enough sleep.

* Sleep is the time when our bodies repair themselves.  They create new cells to replace those that have been damaged during the waking hours.  This is one of the keys to good health.

Getting a good night’s sleep can help us be more productive, happier and healthier.  It gives our bodies a chance to produce hormones that we need and regenerate itself, and our brains a chance to file away the things we need to remember.  Getting enough sleep each night is one of the most effortless, yet most important, things we can do to keep our bodies functioning as they should.

Share This

Bookmark To:

Getting enough sleep is important for all of us but especially our kids.  Infants and toddlers require lots of sleep to support their growth and development, and to keep them in good spirits.  School aged children need to get enough sleep to be alert in school.  And kids of all ages (as well as adults) require a certain amount of sleep to stay in good health.

For most children, setting a bedtime can help ensure that they get the sleep they need.  Going to bed at the same time each night has been proven to result in more sleep for kids, because it adjust their bodies’ rhythms so that they fall and stay asleep more easily.  This is also good for the parents, because when the kids don’t sleep, neither do Mom and Dad.

Bedtime and Young Children

Newborns should not be expected to stick to a bedtime schedule.  They rarely sleep for more than a few hours at a time, because they need to eat often.  But once a baby starts sleeping through the night, you can start thinking about a bedtime.  Children up to the age of three years need 10 to 13 hours of sleep each night, plus their daily nap.

If your baby or toddler isn’t getting enough sleep, it’s not hard to figure out.  Some kids become hyperactive as a result of inadequate sleep, while others become lethargic.  But most have a shorter attention span and are irritable or moody.

Bedtime and Older Children

Bedtime is very important for children who are in school.  They have to get up at a certain time on school days, and if they don’t get to bed early enough, they won’t get the sleep they need.  It’s best to enforce the same bedtime on the weekends as well, because if you don’t, it will be hard for them to keep readjusting to new schedules.

Kids between the ages of three and five need 10 to 12 hours of sleep each night.  Those at the lower end of this range will need a daily nap as well, but as they get older it becomes less important.  Children from six to nine years need about 10 hours a night, and preteens need 9 hours.

Signs of inadequate sleep in older children are similar to those of younger children, but perhaps less dramatic.  Those who are in school, however, often reveal sleep problems through their grades and behavior in class.  They may display poor memory or have trouble with decision making as well.

Sleep and Your Child’s Health

Sleep is crucial to the body.  It is the time when our brains form long-term memories and our bodies repair themselves.  A good night’s sleep is also essential to the function of the immune system.  During slumber, our bodies produce hormones that we need to fight off disease.  For these reasons as well as for their mental and emotional well-being, it is very important that we make sure our children get the sleep they need.

Enforcing a bedtime can seem impossible at times, but it is well worth it.  Doing so makes things easier when it’s time for the kids to get up in the morning, it enhances their performance at school, and it keeps them healthy.  It’s never too late to start a soothing bedtime routine that will help your child get the rest s/he needs.

Share This

Bookmark To:

You can find thousands of products that claim to help you restore your natural beauty all over billboards, magazines, T.V. and the internet.  Why are there so many?  Simply because most people are willing to spend lots of time and money searching for the proverbial fountain of beauty and youth.  If you’re one, I have a secret to share.  Instead of buying creams and pills; put your credit card away and get some sleep.  If you want to look and feel like a natural beauty, than look no further than a good night’s sleep.

Who looks younger a healthy person, or a sick person?  Being sick can make you look old and haggard.  One effect of sleep deprivation is that it can severely compromise your immune system, making you get sick more often.  Sleeping keeps you healthy and looking great.

Even if you don’t catch colds or other illnesses a lot; if you’re not getting enough sleep your body isn’t as healthy as it could be.  Stage 4, or deep sleep, helps restore and renew the cells of our bodily organs.  This helps them function properly and lets the body work as efficiently as possible.  If our organs don’t work properly, it can take a toll on our physical appearance.  That means your natural beauty will suffer.  Plus, even if you’re not sick, you probably won’t feel as good as you might if you had enough sleep.

So you already now know that deep restorative sleep helps renew organ tissue and keep them in peak condition, but do you know what your body’s largest organ is?  If you said skin, you’re absolutely right.  And what’s the most important factor in determining how young or old you look?  Your skin!   Proper sleep will allow old, dead skin cells to be replaced with beautiful, fresh, new skin cells quickly and efficiently.  This will leave you and your skin looking younger.

Have you ever noticed that when you’re in a bad mood, depressed, or just not feeling good about life, you don’t look as good?  It’s not just your perception; how you feel affects facial expressions body posture, and other factors that determine how we look.  When you’re well rested, you feel younger; and when you feel younger you look younger.

So how much sleep is enough to keep you looking and feeling younger?  Well, that depends on you.  Generally it’s recommended that adults get 8 hours of sleep; however, there are people who can function just fine on less.  Others need 9 hours of sleep to feel refreshed.  If you feel tired and sluggish in the morning, or require an alarm clock to get up (yes, I’m serious); you’re not getting enough sleep.  If you get as much sleep as your body will allow and still feel sluggish in the morning, you may have a sleep disorder and might want to see a licensed health care practitioner.

The bottom line? Before investing more money, try the ultimate beauty ritual: a good sleep.

Share This

Bookmark To:

Have you been struggling to lose weight?  Have you tried diet, exercise, and even weight loss pills, but nothing seems to be doing the trick?  The trouble may not be with the things you’re doing while you’re awake, but rather the simple fact that you are awake.  Studies have shown that getting more better quality sleep can help with weight loss efforts.  Why?

The first reason that sleeping more causes you to lose less weight is probably the most obvious.  The more hours you spend sleeping, the fewer hours you have to eat.  We all have cravings for certain foods that aren’t good for us, and the longer we’re awake, the longer we have to fight those cravings.  Plus, sleep deprivation reduces deductive reasoning skills, so we have less will power to resist.

Getting a good night’s rest makes you feel energized and awake the next day.  If you sleep well the night before, you’re more likely to be able to get up and go work out.  Sufficient sleep can give you the energy to work out harder and for longer periods of time, further fueling your weight loss efforts.

We used to believe that you we hungry when your stomach was empty and full when your stomach had no room left, but we know better than that now.  We now know more about hormones and other chemicals in the body and how they affect hunger.  One of these chemicals is cortisol.  Excess cortisol not only causes us to feel hungry when we’ve had enough to eat; it can also affect the amount of fat we store.  On top of this, cortisol decreases memory retention along with other stress inducing side effects.  Getting sufficient sleep helps return the cortisol balance to normal.

Two other chemicals that are affected by the amount of sleep you get are the hormones leptin, which makes you feel hungry, and ghrelin, which makes you feel full.  Reduced amounts of sleep can reduce ghrelin levels and increase leptin levels, causing you to feel you need to eat more when you’ve actually had enough.

Another side effect of sleep deprivation is a change in the way the body metabolizes carbohydrates.  Most individuals have problems fully digesting carbs without sufficient sleep. This means that instead of being burned for energy; these calories are being stored as fat.  Plus, excess carbs in your system can cause a rise in blood sugar levels, along with insulin resistance; these are both symptoms of type II diabetes.

And if all these reasons aren’t good enough for you, lack of sleep also drops the level of human growth hormone in your system.  While HGH helps children grow bigger, it affects the percentage of fat in proportion to muscle in adults.  Decreased levels of this hormone send even more of the food you eat to be stored as fat reserves, further hindering your weight loss.

So if you’re really serious about losing weight, make it a goal to get a full night’s sleep every night.

Share This

Bookmark To:

It seems like every time you turn around there is another new prescription sleep aid.  You can find them from you pharmacist and over the counter in every shape and size.  What if you don’t want to take dangerous and possibly addictive chemicals to get yourself to sleep every night?

Before you make a trip to your doctor, try a trip to your local health food store.  There you can find natural herb based sleep aids.  While most of these haven’t been clinically tested, they’ve been used for years in various cultures. Here are a few of them.

* German chamomile.  This is probably the most widely publicized herbal sleep aid in recent years.  Simply brew the tea and drink to relax your self into a peaceful sleep.  The best part is that it’s safe to drink during the day when you just need to unwind; something no medical sleep aid can claim.

* Lemon balm.  This is an herb often used in gardens for its lemony scent (it smells a bit like lemon wood cleaner); this is a great herb to calm your nerves.  You can find it as a tea, capsules, or a liquid extract.  This makes it extra convenient for every situation.

* Valerian root.  This is one of the oldest and most widely used herbal sleep remedies.  Unlike many other herbs, valerian root has been the subject of several clinical trials where it was found to help people fall asleep faster and get a more restful night’s sleep.  It is also available in tea, pill, or liquid form.

* Catnip.  Sure it sounds crazy, but that herb that makes your cats go wild can actually calm you down and prepare you for sleep.  It contains chemicals similar to those in valerian root.  In addition to being a sedative, catnip can also help with indigestion and heartburn.  It can be enjoyed as a tea or taken in liquid extract form.

* St John’s Wort.  This herb not only helps you fall asleep at night, it has also been indicated for treatment of anxiety and depression.  Just be sure to take the prescribed dosage because too much can be harmful.

* Lavender.  This is a safe relaxing herb that is so powerful, it has been shown to reduce and sometimes completely counteract symptoms of caffeine use.  This herb is much more convenient because it comes in tea or and as an essential oil that can be massaged on, put into a bath, put on cotton balls to infuse into the air, or simply put on your pillow.

Remember that herb sleep aids are generally slower acting than drugs, so they may take days or even weeks for you to feel the full effect.  Also, just like with any other medication, consult a licensed health care practitioner before taking a sleep aid, even a natural herbal based one. For more information on SerenitePlus, click on the button below.

Share This

Bookmark To:

Most of us have experienced a night of where we just couldn’t get to sleep, or kept waking up in the middle of the night.  While one night of not sleeping can be annoying, persistent insomnia can have negative consequences on our work, personal relationships, and health.  If you just haven’t been able to catch some Z’s, here are some tips for better sleep.

To get proper sleep at night, you should watch what you eat.  Here are some eating tips for you to sleep on.

* Avoid caffeine and other stimulants.  You may think you’re okay if you don’t drink caffeine before bedtime, but stimulants can stay in our bodies for up to 6 hours.  If you’re having trouble sleeping. Try not to drink caffeine after lunch time.
* Don’t drink alcohol.  This may put you to sleep right away, but you’re much more likely to wake up in the night and have a much less restful sleep.
* Try some tryptophan.  This is the chemical in turkey that makes you sleepy.  It’s also found with most protein.  Try eating a little protein with some complex carbohydrates at night. You could also try a warm glass of milk, another good source of tryptophan.
* Avoid a big dinner.  A lot of food late at night provides you energy and actually helps wake you up.  It can also cause painful indigestion that will keep you from sleeping.  Try eating a moderate dinner and a small bedtime snack instead.

You can also get to sleep better if you adjust your sleeping and bedtime habits.  Here are a few tips you can try.

* Have a set sleeping schedule.  Our bodies thrive on schedules and rhythms.  Waking up and going to bed at a set time will help your body develop a normal sleeping rhythm.
* Get darkness and light.  Another way to help set your natural rhythms is to make your bedroom dark or wear a mask while you’re sleeping.  Shortly after you wake up in the morning, expose yourself to the sun or other bright lights.
* Start a bedtime ritual.  Our bodies develop natural responses to what we do.  If you follow a certain pattern before you go to sleep every night, your body will know it’s time for sleep when you do these things.  This will help you fall asleep faster and easier.
* Only sleep in your bedroom.  You’re much less likely to be able to sleep in a place where you work, read, or watch T.V.  If you sleep and only sleep in your bedroom, your mind won’t be occupied by other things.

If you’re feeling stressed and have a wandering mind at bedtime, try these tips to calm yourself down.

* Take a warm bath.  This will soothe your muscles and help you relax.  Just be sure your bath isn’t too hot; it can actually make you more awake.
* Try deep breathing and visualization.  These can not only help calm you and prepare you for rest, they can also clear your mind and push away stressful thoughts.
* Avoid stimulating activities.  This includes not reading or watching T.V. before bed.  Instead of relaxing and sleeping, you’ll end up thinking about what you saw or read.

If you find that none of these techniques work for you, you may also want to look at herbal remedies that will calm you and help you rest, like SerenitePlus from Native Remedies.  If all else fails, you might pay a visit to a licensed health care provider.

Share This

Bookmark To:

If you have insomnia, likely you will try most anything to get to sleep.  Endless tossing and turning can be agonizing, but you may be wary of a sleep medicine and potential side effects. Happily, the solution may be much healthier and easier than that.  Try opening the refrigerator for relief!

We know that food can make us sleepy.  After eating a big turkey dinner, it’s hard to do anything but lie down and take a nap.  This is because of a chemical you’ve probably heard a lot about in recent years: tryptophan.  So what exactly is tryptophan?  It actually allows your body to produce an amino acid called L-Tryptophan.  This amino acid is essential in the production of the neurotransmitters serotonin and melatonin.  These help slow down the nerve traffic in your brain, relax you, and allow you to think less and sleep more.

While you’ve already felt the relaxing powers turkey has, you probably aren’t too happy about the prospect of eating turkey before bed every single night.  Well, the good news is that turkey isn’t the only source of tryptophan.  It’s also found in foods such as dairy products, soy, meat (especially poultry), nuts, fish, beans, eggs, hummus and most other high-protein foods.  Eating a small amount of these foods shortly before bed time can help you sleep more soundly.

The problem with many of the foods that contain tryptophan is that they also contain an amino acid called tyrosine.  This produces chemicals that perk you up and make you more energized.  Eaten alone, these acids will counteract each other produce no significant effects in either direction.  The key to getting rest is to eat other foods that will allow you to utilize the tryptophan and not the tyrosine.  Excellent foods for accomplishing this effect are carbohydrates.  They encourage your body to produce insulin which “ties up” the tyrosine and allows the tryptophan to reach the brain without competition.  Just be sure to avoid too large amounts of carbs and simple sugars.  You can produce too much insulin; causing you to wake up not long after you’ve fallen asleep.

Another way to get the full benefit of tryptophan is to eat foods that will increase your brain’s absorption of this amino acid.  The best way to do this is with calcium.  And we already learned that dairy products are a great source of tryptophan.  This is why our mother’s always gave us a warm glass of milk at night to help us rest; because it works.

So, if you just can’t seem to settle down and get to sleep, try a late night meal containing nature’s sleeping pill: tryptophan.  Just remember not too eat too much at night or you’ll likely wake up a few hours later.  The most effective plan is to have a moderately sized dinner and a small snack an hour or two before bed.  If you eat the right foods at bedtime, you might find you’ll be drifting off to sleep in no time.

Share This

Bookmark To: