Staying Healthy – Get a Good Night’s Sleep

Have you ever had those nights where you toss and turn, watch the clock, play games on your phone, surf the internet, stalk social media or raid the kitchen because food invites the Sandman? Well there are many reasons why those options will lead to other health concerns.

A recent article byWebMD reported that more and more scientific studies show correlations between poor quality or insufficient sleep and a variety of diseases, including high blood pressure, diabetes, depression, and susceptibility to colds and viruses. For example, sleep can impair the body’s ability to use insulin, which can lead to the development of more severe diabetes. Patients with poorly controlled diabetes and sleep apnea have improvement of blood sugar control when treated for sleep apnea. This is also found in patients with high blood pressure and sleep apnea. When sleep apnea is treated, blood pressure improves. In addition, too little sleep may decrease growth hormone secretion, which has been linked to obesity.

There are tons of medications that you can find over the counter or prescribed. But ongoing usage of pills can lead to dependency. Fortunately, you have options!

Here are a few tips that I’ve picked up along the way.

1. Develop a daily routine for going to sleep and waking up at the same time.
2. If you are laying in the bed over 20 minutes and not falling asleep, get and do something non stimulating like reading the dictionary (just a suggestion). But STAY AWAY FROM YOUR PHONE!
3. Avoid caffeinated drinks (FYI tea has caffeine) or nicotine at bedtime. They both have stimulating features and will interfere with you sleep hygiene.
4. Cut off all alcoholic beverages at least 3-4 hours bed. The reason for this is because it raises you heart and will interrupt sleep steadiness.
5. Avoid clock-watching. This tactic is anxiety provoking and increases the brain activity.

Form more information about getting a good night’s sleep, check out out this post.

Once you have created a good sleep hygiene, benefits such as clearer thinking, better mood, decreased dark circles or bags under your eyes, and overall brain regeneration; they supersede the effort.