More Tips For Healthy Sleep
You didnt get to where you are in life without learning how to relieve stress along the way. But just because youve been there, done that doesnt necessarily mean it is going to be easier this time around. Granted life experience will likely have taught you the old refrain, this too shall pass but that same life experience will also likely have taught you something about the active role you need to take to combat stress from time to time and how we could all stand to benefit from a stress-busting reboot.
I think we all know the dangerous side effects of too much stress in our lives. Stress is a major contributor to many poor health outcomes, such as diabetes, weight gain, hypertension, poor memory, and a whole host of mental health issues. Therefore, how we manage the stress in our lives, needs to be revisited with a fresh and new perspective, in the same way, we need to clean out and freshen up our closet every so often.
Below are my top 10 strategies to relieve stress and restore energy with a fresh look at some old favorites that are guaranteed to help you self-optimize for health and happiness in body, mind, and spirit.
Alzheimers Disease And Sleepa Special Problem
Alzheimers disease often changes a persons sleeping habits. Some people with Alzheimers disease sleep too much others dont sleep enough. Some people wake up many times during the night others wander or yell at night.
The person with Alzheimers disease isnt the only one who loses sleep. Caregivers may have sleepless nights, leaving them tired for the challenges they face.
If youre caring for someone with Alzheimers disease, take these steps to make him or her safer and help you sleep better at night:
- Make sure the floor is clear of objects.
- Lock up any medicines.
- Attach grab bars in the bathroom.
- Place a gate across the stairs.
How To Get Some Zzzzs
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Dietary Supplements For Insomnia
There are many dietary and herbal supplements marketed for their sleep-promoting effects. Although they may be described as natural, be aware that sleep remedies can still have side effects and interfere with other medications or vitamins youre taking. For more information, talk to your doctor or pharmacist.
Find Balance In Your Life
Stress can turn our lives upside down and throw everything off-kilter. Finding your equilibrium, getting your bearings straight, and finding the balance in your life between the many demands of family, partner, work, and friends is essential.
If you are feeling increased stress, take a look at the demands around you and make sure that there is a balance between the different parts of your lifein particular, the areas where you find more nourishment for the soul.
Incorporating the well-known life coaching strategy life wheel is a great way to think about the different parts of your life to ensure that you are giving all areas the time and attention that they need.
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Lets Learn About The Possible Reasons For Insomnia
Insomnia in its initial stages is not a chronic condition. Chronic insomnia conditions are serious when patients have been known not to sleep for days altogether. This will naturally need an experienced sleep disorder professional help in order to cure the underlying cause for insomnia.
Did you know that insomnia or sleeplessness is one of the most common sleep disorders found in living beings? Even birds and animals suffer from insomnia.
There are many factors that may contribute to those White nights when you just cannot drop off into those really necessary forty winks. That is when you spend your time watching the ceiling, overthinking, nibbling something or reading a book.
Heck, you even end up browsing the Internet for natural insomnia cures. Im sure youve tried dozens of things to get rid of insomnia to no avail
Just remember that you need to sleep as much as you need to breathe and eat. While youre sleeping, your body is busy tending to your physical and mental health and getting you ready for another day. In children and adolescents, hormones that promote growth are released during sleep. These hormones help build muscle mass, as well as make repairs to cells and tissues. Sleep is vital to development during puberty.
A change in lifestyle can also prevent you from sleeping.
Insomnia Is Common In Older Adults
Insomnia is the most common sleep problem in adults age 60 and older. People with this condition have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. Insomnia can last for days, months, and even years. Having trouble sleeping can mean you:
- Take a long time to fall asleep
- Wake up many times in the night
- Wake up early and are unable to get back to sleep
- Wake up tired
- Feel very sleepy during the day
Often, being unable to sleep becomes a habit. Some people worry about not sleeping even before they get into bed. This may make it harder to fall asleep and stay asleep.
Some older adults who have trouble sleeping may use over-the-counter sleep aids. Others may use prescription medicines to help them sleep. These medicines may help when used for a short time. But remember, medicines arent a cure for insomnia.
Developing healthy habits at bedtime may help you get a good nights sleep.
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Tips For Taking Sleep Aids
If you have a string of wakeful nights, you may want to talk to your doctor about trying an over-the-counter sleep aid. Sleep aids work by activating the sleep centers in the brain and turning off the wake centers, explains Dr. Foldvary-Schaefer. But you have to be careful. People start to think they must reach for something to get sleep at night. When that happens, medication can turn an acute case into a chronic one.
She doesnt recommend options such as Benadryl® or alcohol. While they seem to help, they dont enhance the quality of your sleep. Even the short-term relief that comes with taking prescriptions like Ambien® may not outweigh the long-term risks of dependency.
But be sure to talk to your doctor if your sleep aid doesnt work, does more harm than good or youre concerned about ongoing insomnia and other symptoms.
To use sleep aids safely, Dr. Foldvary-Schaefer says to follow these tips.
Allow enough time for a full nights sleep
Most sleep aids recommend that you devote a full eight hours to sleep, so make sure you are sleeping enough, says Dr. Foldvary-Schaefer. You want sleep aids to help you fall asleep, but not leave you groggy the next day.
Sleep aids are designed to help you fall asleep and stay asleep longer, but they shouldnt knock you out. If you have significant difficulty waking up in the morning, tell your doctor.
Watch for side effects
Only take pills for a short time
Dont stop taking a sleep aid suddenly
Cure : Essential Oils
Essential oils made from a variety of flowers, plants, and trees. Many conditions are treated by inhaling oils or massaging them directly on to the skin. This is called aromatherapy.
A review conducted on 72 adults with anxiety or poor sleep found that anxiety decreased to a considerable extent with using CBD Oil.
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Remember The Importance Of A Regular Bedtime
Even if youre exhausted, try to stick to within 30 minutes of your normal bedtime. Going to bed hours earlier than usual may throw your bodys normal rhythm out of whack, says Dr. Emsellem. Sticking to a routine is key to keeping insomnia at bay. While you may hate being locked into a schedule, your brain likes following a pattern. Likewise, daytime napping, even if you slept poorly the night before, is also a no-no if youre prone to insomnia.
But The Benefits Of Morning Workout May Be Greater
Exercising in the morning may help you sleep better than working out in the afternoon or evening. In an unpublished study presented at the 58th meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine, researchers at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, found that people spent 85 percent more time in light sleep and 75 percent more time in deep sleep when they worked out at 7 a.m. compared with working out later in the day. The authors arent sure why, but they believe early-bird workouts affect levels of stress hormones in a way that leads to better sleep quality later on. More research is needed to confirm these finding.
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Does Anxiety Go Away
For those people that are diagnosed with a legitimate anxiety disorder, the condition is unlikely to go away. Some people may be able to better control their anxiety disorder with the help and guidance of a therapist or psychologist, and medications may help further control the condition. There may also be specific coping mechanisms to help manage anxiety disorders, however, a permanent cure for anxiety does not currently exist.
For those that do not suffer from an anxiety disorder, but only have occasional or intermittent anxiety from time-to-time, this is normal and healthy behavior for many people. Temporary anxiety is likely to diminish over time, and if it is related to a specific place or person, removing yourself from those situations may help the anxiety go away after some time.
Keep Noise To A Minimum
Keep the bedroom as quiet as possible to help you nod off at night. Some noise is unavoidable. Traffic outside, a barking dog, and dripping faucets can be distracting. Wear earplugs at night to drown out ambient noise. You can use a fan or a white noise machine to mask sounds. Fix leaky faucets, squeaking doors, and other noisy distractions around the house. Ask family members to keep the noise down after hours and respect your bedtime routine.
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Get Outside Its Like Therapy
Simply getting outside in the fresh air will automatically bring down your stress levels and restore some lost energy. The research around this growing field known as ecotherapy is proving once again how powerful nature is and how we can improve our mental wellbeing along with our physical and spiritual health with time outdoors.
When you are outside, you are more likely to have increased activity levels and will be exposing yourself to the mood-boosting sun, which helps our body create vitamin D. Research on vitamin D indicates that those who are vitamin D deficient may be more susceptible to inflammatory illness, depression and lowered resistance to stress, and more and more of us are becoming vitamin D deficient across the United States.
Spending as little as 10 minutes outside every day can be enough to improve mood, mental focus, and decrease blood pressure. Think of the increased concentration and improved efficiency you will get as a return on investment that yields way better growth on your aptitude and attitude for life.
Up In The Middle Of The Night How To Get Back To Sleep
Waking up in the middle of the night is normal. Most of us experiencemini-awakenings without even noticing themup to 20 times per hour. When itcomes to observable wake-ups, most people have about two or three pernight. But up to one in five Americans have difficulty getting back tosleepa frustrating, sleep-robbing problem that experts call sleepmaintenance insomnia.
While we tend to stare at the clock, toss and turn for hours, or flip on the light and watch TV when sleep eludes us, there are much better ways to cope and help ourselves get back to sleep, says Johns Hopkins sleep expert Luis F. Buenaver, Ph.D., C.B.S.M. Instead, try these six sleeping tips. They can help you get back to sleep tonight and pave the way for sound sleep tomorrow night and beyond.
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What Are The Types Of Insomnia
Insomnia can come and go, or it may be an ongoing, longstanding issue. There is short term insomnia and chronic insomnia:
- Short term insomnia tends to last for a few days or weeks and is often triggered by stress.
- Chronic insomnia is when the sleep difficulties occur at least three times a week for three months or longer.
Avoid Tobacco For Better Sleep
Nicotine has an effect on neurotransmitters, brain chemicals that influence mood and sleep. Nicotine is a stimulant and can make it hard to fall asleep and stay asleep. Studies have proven that nicotine increases insomnia, daytime sleepiness, and sleep problems. Nicotine use suppresses restorative REM sleep. Smoking increases sleep-related respiratory problems. See your doctor if you’d like to quit smoking. There are medications and nicotine-replacement products that can help you wean off slowly and quit. Don’t be discouraged if you fall off the wagon. Many people try to quit a few times before they finally kick the nicotine habit for good. Many people are concerned about weight gain when they quit. Your doctor can advise you about diet and exercise strategies to combat that.
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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Is The Gold
If improving sleep hygiene and other lifestyle changes alone dont help with your sleep, the next step is cognitive behavioral therapy to improve sleep and reverse chronic insomnia. Aouad says its a better option than medication.
Medication will help you as long as its in your system, so thats a day or two, she says. While there are some appropriate uses for prescription sleep aids , they can come with extremely dangerous side effects, and they tend to be highly addictive. The benefits of cognitive behavioral therapy, a specific type of counseling to help with the anxiety around sleep that comes with chronic insomnia, have been shown to far outlast medication, Aouad explains.
According to a study published in May 2012 in the journal BMC Family Practice, cognitive behavioral therapy is better at improving sleep efficiency than common drugs, and led to an extra 30 to 60 minutes in sleep time when the two treatment strategies were compared.
Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on teaching techniques to help you relax, control your breathing and mood, slow down your racing mind, and get to sleep. Really, the basis of it is providing education, talking about sleep drive and teaching people things like stimulus control and avoiding anything stimulating around bedtime, Aouad says. Think of it as reteaching your body how to sleep.
Mind Your Circadian Rhythm
Going to bed and waking up the same time every day, even on the weekends, can help you get good sleep. Maintaining a sleep schedule helps your body have a consistent sleep-wake cycle. Over time, this will help you get to sleep quickly and get deep sleep throughout the night. Another way to optimize your sleep patterns is to get adequate sunlight as soon as you get out of bed in the morning. Go outside without sun glasses and get 5 to 30 minutes of sun exposure to tell your brain to wake up. Early morning sun exposure also increases the production of melatonin.
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Intend To Get To Bed At The Perfect Time For You
Leave all your worries and concerns in the bathroom as you prepare for bed and promise them that you will tend to them tomorrow. Write them down if that helps you let go of them for the night. Turn them over to your Divine Self, God, your Source, or the Universe to take care of tomorrow. Do whatever works for you and feels good and natural.
How Anxiety Can Affect Sleep
Lack of sleep can lead to increased chances of anxiety, but anxiety can also cause a lack of sleep. Unfortunately, the two can intertwine quite a bit, causing one to exacerbate the other.
Anxiety can have a negative effect on your bodys ability to fall asleep as your brain is in fight or flight mode, thinking of all potential outcomes for whatever is causing the anxiety. Furthermore, anticipatory anxiety and specific anxiety about sleep can lead to sleep disturbance and insomnia, which then creates a feedback loop that can make both conditions worsen. Insomnia can also make you more irritable and more worried, as your brain is not getting all the sleep it needs in order to function at normal levels.
However, its not uncommon to experience anxiety related to sleep. As Winnie Yu, a writer for WebMD noted in her article Scared to Sleep, sleep anxiety is a form of performance anxiety. Many people may stress about not getting enough sleep to function, but the stress alone of trying to sleep can cause people to sit awake for hours. Additionally, other fears such as recurring nightmares, fear of sleep apnea , and more can all lead to disturbed sleep.
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