Want an easy fix for your sleep? Read This!!!!

Tips to get a good sleep......

Sleep is a vital indicator of overall health and well-being. We spend up to one-third of our lives asleep, and the overall state of our “sleep health” remains an essential question throughout our lifespan.

Most of us know that getting a good night’s sleep is important, but too few of us actually make those eight or so hours between the sheets a priority. For many of us with sleep debt, we’ve forgotten what “being really, truly rested” feels like.

To further complicate matters, stimulants like coffee and energy drinks, alarm clocks, and external lights—including those from electronic devices—interferes with our “circadian rhythm” or natural sleep/wake cycle.

 To determine how much sleep you need, it’s important to assess not only where you fall on the “sleep needs spectrum,” but also to examine what lifestyle factors are affecting the quality and quantity of your sleep such as work schedules and stress.

The first and most important thing to know about time is that it’s fixed. A physicist
might have to pick with that, but even physicists have alarm clocks and calendars
just like the rest of us. We’ve all got twenty-four hours in a day, 168 in a week, and if 
time is fixed, we’re not going to get any more.

Thankfully, time is not our only resource. We also possess stores of renewable, expandable
mental and physical energy. That’s the good news. But here’s the bad: the very things that
help us renew and expand it are usually the first things we eliminate when we’re trying to save
time—things like sleep, exercise, and healthy eating....... 

If our mental and physical energy is a renewable resource, then we need to treat it like one.
It needs to be cared for and managed. That means we have to restore the very things that we typically cut out when trying to save time. 

All of this running and gunning is costing us a lot; career, health, legacy, sanity and family, but I would focus on just two; 

1) It cost us our career. 

Sometimes, we think that the extra hours we work make us more productive, but that's not true...
Research shows, putting in extra hours for a short stretch is okay, but after that- if we make it the norm, our productivity takes a dive. 

2) It cost us our health.

Because of the hours we work, most of us don't get the sleep we need. 
To save time in the kitchen, we eat for convenience and not nutrition. We don't get enough exercise. And our rest and relaxation often looks like collapsing and exhausted in front of the TV or mindlessly clicking away time online

You don't need to avoid sleep aids if you absolutely need them, but before you turn to pills, try these eight tips to help you get a better night's sleep

✓Commitment
it is easier to just go on than to go to bed. Research call it "bedtime procrastination".
Determine to go to bed at a set time and then do it. Some people even recommend setting an alarm, not to wake up but to remember our bedtime.

Sleep is one of the best way to keep your immune system functioning well.

✓ Have a pattern.
Have a ritual you follow every bedtime. That is, things that are helpful in making the transition to sleep, such as;

·        Getting a warm bath or cup of herbal tea.

·        Prayer and devotion.

·        A novel saved just for bedtime.

The key is to follow the same pattern most night, Even on weekends. Rituals help signal the body and mind that it's coming to be time for sleep, Drink a glass of warm milk. Take a bath. Or listen to calming music to unwind before bed.

   Listen to my latest podcast: Tips to improve your sleep

✓Exercise
Exercise can help, but not too late in the day. Exercise in the morning or afternoon can benefit our sleep. Just watch the timing of your workouts. Exercising too close to bedtime can be stimulating. Carlson says a morning workout is ideal. "Exposing yourself to bright daylight first thing in the morning will help the natural circadian rhythm," she says.

✓switch off the light.

We need to kill the lights. More than 9-10% of us use electronic devices before sleep. Little LED's can compromise our slumber. It's best to turn off our devices an hour before bedtime and block all light coming into our rooms. 

Get and stay physically healthy

When we are driving hard professionally, it’s a bits easy to cut corners in diet and exercise. Don't just eat what you enjoy at the moment, instead eat for the effect it will have later on you. Avoid eating a big meal within two to three hours of bedtime. If you're hungry right before bed, eat a small healthy snack (such as an apple with a slice of cheese or a few whole-wheat crackers) to satisfy you until breakfast.

Our high-carb, highly processed diets are making us sluggish in the short run, fat and sick in the long run...