“How to get a good night's sleep: ten wind-down tips that will help you maximize your fitness gains and greet each day with peak energy - Energy”
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Sleep aid remedy and natural sleep aid tips about Sleeping disorders How to get a good night's sleep natural therapies for healthy sleeping habits information and remedies for your better sleep which may also cure any mild sleep disorder you may want natural better sleeping aids and remedies for.
It's 11:30 p.m. and I can't sleep. I'm channel surfing so fast, smoke is coming out of my remote.
I flip from Jay Leno's monologue over to Ted Koppel's monotone back to SportsCenter's mania, then toss in a snippet of a Cheers rerun for a late-night banquet of political and pop-culture palaver.
Sure, I worked out after work, but that was hours ago, and now I have my second wind. Or maybe my third.
Being a night person worked fine in college, when I could schedule Econ 101 around my morning haze. But once I entered the working world (more than a few years ago), I haven't been able to shake my uncanny knack for picking up more energy as the night advances.
Not good when you have to have enough energy for your daytime job plus something left in the tank for a run or lift. Not good given how vital sufficient sleep is to training (the catabolic hormone cortisol, for example, is at its lowest daily muscle-eating level during sleep).
In fact, say sleep experts, instead of subjecting your senses to input overload, a la my routine, you need to take steps to wind down at night to set yourself up for quality slumber (at least eight hours).
"Sleep needs to be thought of in the same context as diet and exercise with regard to health," says Carl E. Hunt, M.D., director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research in Bethesda, Md. "There's no substitute for getting a good night's sleep on a consistent basis.... And when you don't, you pay a price." You should have some "deceleration time," says Hunt, "to relax and to slow down from the pace of daily activities." You probably already know that reading and listening to music for a half hour to an hour before bedtime can help, while watching vivid TV programs or having animated conversations can hinder.
But there are plenty of other tactics you can use to bring your body down from the highs and lows and myriad stresses of your day.
1 Raid the 'fridge (well, sort of) Although you should avoid large meals close to bedtime, carbohydrates aid the production of serotonin, a sleep-promoting hormone, so they make a good bedtime snack. Keep it healthy, maybe a bowl of cereal or a slice of whole-wheat toast. To prevent going overboard and snacking too much at night, dim the lights after dinner.
Darkness signals your body that eating time is over, according to Michael Smolensky, Ph.D., of the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston and the author of The Body Clock Guide to Better Health.
Bonus Tip: What about the old standby, warm milk? Milk contains tryptophan, an amino acid that fosters sleep. But, says Smolensky, a single cup doesn't contain enough to help put you to sleep. Still, if your digestive system isn't troubled by dairy, the lulling childhood memories elicited by the milk may do the trick.
2 Exercise In addition to the psychological boost it offers, an end-of-day workout will heat you up, which your body compensates for later on with a reduction in temperature, thus facilitating sleep.
A cool shower will further lower your temperature, and "helps prepare you for normal sleep later in the evening," says Smolensky. This method doesn't work for everyone, he adds, so experiment to find a routine that suits you.
Bonus Tip: Make sure you don't exercise within three hours of bedtime so your body temperature has time to come down.
3 Take a warm shower If you miss a workout, you can still ease sleep-hindering anxiety by taking a warm shower or bath 90 minutes before bed, decreasing the water temperature toward the end. The water is a relaxant (tense muscles can increase your body temperature at night, interfering with the onset of sleep).
"The heat warms the surface of the skin and the muscle below it, and the blood vessels dilate," says Smolensky. "That brings more blood flow to the area." The increased circulation brings more oxygen to your muscles and carries away built-up metabolic waste. Additionally, there will be a compensatory drop in your body temperature after the shower, similar to what happens post-exercise.
4 Stay on schedule If your weekend sleep routine differs significantly from your midweek pattern, this could upset your sleep and energy levels for a few days, according to Smolensky. Keeping a regular schedule--going to bed and getting up at about the same time each day (give or take about an hour)--cues your body temperature to fall as bedtime nears, facilitating sleep.
5 Mind your environment You need suitable sleep surroundings, namely, a dark, quiet room. "Avoid bright lights when you get into your deceleration time," Hunt says. Also, make sure the room temperature is comfortable; if it's too warm, sleep will be impaired. And keep your work out of the bedroom if possible. "Don't associate the bedroom with work," says Smolensky. "Read something you enjoy."
Bonus Tip: If outside noise is a problem in your neighborhood, try using "white noise," such as a fan, to screen out random disruptions.
6 Don't be fooled by alcohol You might think that taking a drink before bedtime helps you sleep, but you'd be wrong. Alcohol may help relax you, and it can get you to fall asleep initially (by lowering your body temperature), but it's not a solution. "It depresses some of the neurological functions that help maintain' sleep," says Smolensky. About an hour per drink is required for alcohol's effects to wear off, he explains in The Body Clock.
Bonus Tip: If you do drink, you'll get a better night's sleep if you stop soon enough so that your blood-alcohol concentration returns to zero by the time you hit the sack.
7 Stifle the stimulants Drinking caffeine around bedtime makes it harder to fall asleep--some people require four to six hours without caffeine before they can doze off, others as many as 12 hours. "There are a lot of individual variations," says Hunt.
Caffeine also reduces deep sleep, during which body functions slow and energy is restored, and causes you to wake up more frequently during the night, according to the National Sleep Foundation. Research indicates that caffeine blocks adenosine, a brain chemical that promotes sleep.
Bonus Tip: Forget lighting up a cigarette. Nicotine will also interfere with your ability to wind down at night. "It's a general stimulant," says Hunt.
8 Nix the nighttime naps Who doesn't enjoy an evening mini-nap on the couch while watching TV or reading? "A five- to- 15-minute nap can be exhilarating and can lead to a second wind," says Smolensky.
But these "micro-sleeps," as he calls them, actually do more harm than good because they delay the onset of overnight sleep. "The idea is to fight those naps," Smolensky says. Get out and take a walk or do some calisthenics. "Work up a little heat and take a cool shower after that."
9 Be consistent away from home When traveling, a new sleeping arrangement can disturb your sleep pattern. To counter this, do familiar things--read, listen to music, take a warm shower. "Follow the same routine even in a new and novel environment of a hotel room," says Smolensky.
10 Consider a sleep aid Over-the-counter antihistamines like Nyquil, used to treat common allergies, can make you sleepy (unless they contain decongestants such as the stimulant pseudoephedrine). You're okay occasionally using antihistamines to aid sleep, says Smolensky. But "if you have to rely on them more than two times a week, you may be bringing too much stress home with you, or you're fighting a sleep disorder," he says. "Talk to your primary care physician."
What about medication? "It's not advisable to rely on sleeping pills without prescription by a doctor," warns Smolensky. "Although they may be necessary for short-term use--a week or two because of a medical reason or stress--dependence on them over the long-term suggests an underlying medical condition such as a sleep or mood disorder could be the culprit."
SLEEP AND BODY TEMPERATURE
Your body's sleep/wake 24-hour cycle is closely tied to the 24-hour rhythm of your body temperature, which is 2 to 3 degrees higher in the late afternoon and early evening compared to when it is at its lowest, overnight during your deepest sleep.
Humans experience sleep when the body temperature begins its major decline at night, which for most is around 10 p.m. or so. Conversely, the automatic rhythmic rise in body temperature each morning around sunrise naturally signals the brain that it's time to wake up.
IF ALL ELSE FAILS ...
In general, if you have sleep troubles more than a couple of nights a week for two weeks--either you can't fall asleep or you're tossing and turning during the night--you should seek help.
Your doctor may prescribe a non-habit-forming medication, or he may find that you have a sleep disorder and refer you to a sleep specialist for evaluation, says Michael Smolensky, Ph.D., professor of environmental sciences at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston. If you are consistently unable to fall asleep, or you wake up too early, this could be a sign of a mild depressive condition, and again you should see your doctor.
SLEEP-SPECIFIC WEB SITES
* American Academy of Sleep Medicine: www.aasmnet.org
* Center for Biological Timing: www.cbt.virginia.edu
* Circadian information: www.circadian.org
* National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute: www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/ public/sleep/index.htm
* National Sleep Foundation: www.sleepfoundation.org
*SleepNet: www.sleepnet.com
COPYRIGHT 2003 Weider Publications
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group
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Is It Possible to Reduce Your Sleep by 3 Hours, and Have More Energy in Your Life than When You Slept 8 Hours or Longer?
What Would It Be Like to Have 27 Hours in Your Day Instead of 24?
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* How to optimize your Inner Sleep Clock so that it's possible for you to reduce your sleep by up to 3 hours, and increase the quality, and power of your sleep (If you don't do this, you will do more damage to your body than good by sleeping less.)
* What really happens to your body while you sleep? While most people think sleep is just "sleep", your body is busier when you're sleeping than when you're awake. The inner sleep system is a complex mechanism which is affected by many things you do on a daily basis. (Most of them you're not aware of). This is a key understanding to optimizing your sleep.
“Powerful Sleep - Secrets of the Inner Sleep Clock” can show you how to reduce your sleep by up to 3 hours, create more time, and an abundance of energy in your body by sleeping LESS! Not more. This system dispels the “8 hour sleep myth”, tells you what most people never realize about sleep, and what the drug companies DONT WANT YOU to know. Go to: www.PowerfulSleep.com to find out more about Powerful Sleep Aids.
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