Dead Tired

Grow more muscle.  Carry less fat, maybe even save your job or your life.  It’s all about getting better sleep.

Your mental tasks that require a degree of coordination (like driving) falls off rapidly when you sleep less than 5 hours.  While 7 hours of sleep is considered adequate, that target is more a reflection of society than science.  Our parents most likely got between 8 and 9 hours, routinely.

 Sleep deprivation has been linked to chronic depression, anxiety, decreased fertility in men and, of course, increased accidents, not to mention high risk behavior when lack of sleep is coupled with alcohol.

 Overall, ANYONE who burns the candle at both ends, as a habit, is going to have a hard time maintaining optimum health.

 Most likely, people who often stay up late, also tend to eat late and it’s usually high calorie, junk foods. These types of foods often balance out the overstimulation of caffeine and other stimulants used to stay awake longer. It’s the perfect combination for decreased muscle and increased body fat. The problem is, your metabolism naturally slows down around 8 PM and when you try to jack it up with sugar and fat, you’re messing with Mother Nature and your own circadian rhythms. Disrupted or short sleep cycles also decrease sex drive and performance because essential hormones like growth hormone and sex hormones peak at night under normal conditions.

 All of these bad habits have got to be linked to shorter life span and more disease states, in the long run, so you’re really not saving yourself any time, with bad sleep hygiene.

 Here are a couple of quick, easy fixes to get your sleep hygiene back on track:

• Establish a schedule for sleep and stick to it. You can train your body to be sleepy at a certain time, but you have to reinforce that time by going to sleep then.
• Regarding exercise, find out when it helps you the most. Some people can exercise fairly late at night and it helps them sleep better.  You may be the opposite, but one thing is for sure, regular exercise helps everyone sleep better.
• Keep your bedroom dark at bed time and light during awake time. Associate your bed with sleep, not TV.
• Caffeine, nicotine and alcohol will all negatively affect your sleep.

If you need help, Sleep Wizardmay be the all natural answer for you.  It works especially well, if you need to sleep and can’t, or your job/lifestyle prevents you from establishing a sleep schedule.  Unlike prescription drugs, it does not contain a large dose of anything that can cause bizarre side effects like sleep walking, sleep eating ad weight gain, as was reported with the drug Ambien.

Get your rest and your body and brain will reward you with better performance during the day, plus you’ll likely live better too!