You seem to get enough sleep, the usual 7-9 hours. But you sleep poorly, wake up irritable, and feel tired all day. There are ways to beat the most common obstacles to a good night’s sleep. Repeated waking in the middle of the night sabotages your sleep in two ways: It prevents you from achieving deep, restful REM sleep and the lost hours of sleep cut into your beauty rest. As soon as you notice this happening, take a few steps to prevent it from becoming habitual. The more you keep thinking and worrying about falling back to sleep it makes it harder to sleep. What you can do is: 1. Keep the room dark when you wake up. Whatever you do, don’t turn on the overhead light in the bathroom once you’re there. Use a mini flashlight to navigate your way to the bathroom, or leave a dim nightlight in the next room with the door cracked. Light is one of the most important external factors that can affect sleep. It does so both directly, by making it difficult for people to fall asleep, and indirectly, by influencing the timing of our internal clock and thereby affecting our preferred time to sleep. 2. DO NOT! I REPEAT DO NOT turn on the TV or computer. Nope, not even for a few minutes. The light from the screen “resets” your internal clock, stimulating your central nervous system and making it harder for you to fall back asleep. 3. Don’t eat unless you’re truly hungry. Getting your digestive system revved up can keep you awake, so avoid snacking unless a growling stomach is going to keep you awake. So try to keep away from foods like preserved and smoked meats, chocolate, energy drinks, and spicy foods. 4. Keep a pen and paper next to your bed. If you’re often kept awake by racing thoughts and worries and you tend to make to-do lists in your head, keep a pen or pencil and a small pad of paper handy and write them down. As you put each item down on paper, imagine yourself setting aside that concern. Hope these tips were helpful. If you’ve done these tips and yet you still have difficulty sleeping go to a local doctor and seek futher information.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Sleep Problems
You seem to get enough sleep, the usual 7-9 hours. But you sleep poorly, wake up irritable, and feel tired all day. There are ways to beat the most common obstacles to a good night’s sleep. Repeated waking in the middle of the night sabotages your sleep in two ways: It prevents you from achieving deep, restful REM sleep and the lost hours of sleep cut into your beauty rest. As soon as you notice this happening, take a few steps to prevent it from becoming habitual. The more you keep thinking and worrying about falling back to sleep it makes it harder to sleep. What you can do is: 1. Keep the room dark when you wake up. Whatever you do, don’t turn on the overhead light in the bathroom once you’re there. Use a mini flashlight to navigate your way to the bathroom, or leave a dim nightlight in the next room with the door cracked. Light is one of the most important external factors that can affect sleep. It does so both directly, by making it difficult for people to fall asleep, and indirectly, by influencing the timing of our internal clock and thereby affecting our preferred time to sleep. 2. DO NOT! I REPEAT DO NOT turn on the TV or computer. Nope, not even for a few minutes. The light from the screen “resets” your internal clock, stimulating your central nervous system and making it harder for you to fall back asleep. 3. Don’t eat unless you’re truly hungry. Getting your digestive system revved up can keep you awake, so avoid snacking unless a growling stomach is going to keep you awake. So try to keep away from foods like preserved and smoked meats, chocolate, energy drinks, and spicy foods. 4. Keep a pen and paper next to your bed. If you’re often kept awake by racing thoughts and worries and you tend to make to-do lists in your head, keep a pen or pencil and a small pad of paper handy and write them down. As you put each item down on paper, imagine yourself setting aside that concern. Hope these tips were helpful. If you’ve done these tips and yet you still have difficulty sleeping go to a local doctor and seek futher information.
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