Everybody knows that sleep is useful for our brain, however new research studies provides the first direct evidence for why our brain cells need us to sleep. They found out that when we sleep our brain removes toxic proteins from its neurons that are by-products of neural activity when we are not asleep. And brain can remove them adequately only while we are sleeping. So when we don’t get enough sleep, toxic proteins stay in our brain cells, wreaking destruction by impairing our ability to think.
Skipping sleep impairs your brain function no matter how you look at it. It catapults your stress levels and emotional reactivity, slows your ability to process information and solve problem, and kills your creativity.
SLEEP THE RIGHT WAY
Beyond the obvious sleep benefits of the ability to manage our emotions and remain calm under pressure, thinking clearly and staying healthy, has a direct link to our performance. It’s not just how much we sleep that matters, but as well as how we sleep. If life impedes getting the amount of sleep we need, it is absolutely necessary that we increase the quality of our sleep through good sleep hygiene.
Think about all the factors that can interfere with a good night’s sleep, from unexpected challenges, such as layoffs, relationship issues or illnesses to pressure at work and family responsibilities. No wonder that quality sleep is sometimes elusive.
Although we might not be able to control all of the factors that interferes with our sleep, we can adopt habits that encourage getting enough better sleep. Start with these simple sleep tips. Apply them, and you’ll reap the performance and health benefits that come with getting the right quantity and quality of sleep.
A) No to Caffeine at Least after Lunch
By reducing your caffeine intake you can sleep more and vastly improve the quality of the sleep you get. Caffeine is a powerful stimulant that interferes with sleep by blocking sleep-inducing chemicals in the brain and increasing adrenaline production. Caffeine has a six-hour half-life, meaning it takes a full 24 hours to work its way out of your system. Have a cup of coffee at 8 a.m., and you’ll still have 25% of the caffeine in your body at 8 p.m. Everything you drink in the afternoon will still be near 50% strength at bedtime. Any caffeine in your bloodstream makes it difficult to fall and stay asleep.
B) No to Sleeping Pills
Sleeping pills, is anything you take that sedates you so that you can sleep. Whether it is alcohol, drugs or whatever you have, these substances greatly disrupt your brain’s natural process of sleeping. Sedatives can give you some really strange dreams. When you sleep your brain removes harmful toxins, it cycles through an intricate series of stages,shuffling now and then through the day’s memories and discarding or storing them (which causes dreams).Any sedation interferes with these cycles, changing the natural process of brain. And anything that interferes with the brain’s natural process of sleeping has dire consequences for the quality of sleep.
C) Stick To A Sleep Schedule
Go to bed and get up at the same time every day, even on days off, weekends and holidays. By being consistent, it reinforces your body’s sleep-wake cycle and helps promote better sleep during night. There’s a caveat, however. If you don’t fall asleep within 15 minutes, get up to bed and do something unwinding. Back to bed when you’re tired. You might find that it is much harder to fall asleep, if you agonize over falling asleep.
D) Refrain from Blue Light at Night
This is an enormous one, most people don’t even realize it affects their sleep.The short-wavelength blue light plays an important role in our mood, quality sleep and energy level. At morning, sunlight contains high concentrations of this blue light. At the point when your eyes are exposed to it directly,not while wearing sunglasses or not through a glass window, these blue light halts production of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin and makes you feel more alert. Exposure to morning sunlight can improve your mood and energy levels and this is great. Try a blue light device if the sun is not an option.
In the afternoon, the sun’s rays lose their blue light, this allows your body to produce melatonin and start making you to fall asleep.During night time, your brain is very sensitive to blue light and does'nt expect any blue light exposure. The problem this creates for sleep is that most of our favorite evening devices televisions, tablets, laptops, and mobile phones emit short-wavelength blue light. And in the case of your tablet, phone and laptop, they do so brightly and right in your face. Exposure to this weakens melatonin production and interferes with your ability to fall asleep as well as with the quality of sleeping once you do fall asleep.
E) Consistent Wake Up Time Every Day
Consistency is key to a good night’s sleep, particularly regarding waking up. Waking up at the same time consistently enhances sleep quality and your mood by regulating your circadian rhythm. If you have a consistent wake up time, your brain adjusts to this and travels through the sleep cycle in preparation for you to feel rested and alert at your wake-up time. Generally an hour before you wake, levels of hormone increase gradually along with your body temperature and blood pressure, making you to become more alert. That is why you will often find yourself waking up right before your alarm goes off. Your brain doesn’t know when to complete the sleep process and when it should prepare you to be awake, if you don’t wake up at the same time every day.
F) Watch The Food You Eat And Drink
Don’t go to bed either stuffed or hungry. Discomfort might keep you up. Likewise limit how much you drink before bed, to avoid disruptive middle of the night trips to the urinal. Alcohol and nicotine deserve caution, too. And even though alcohol might make you feel sleepy at first, but later in the night, it can disrupt sleep. The stimulating effects of nicotine and caffeine take hours to wear off and can wreak havoc on quality sleep.
G) Perform A Bedtime Relaxing Activities
Do the same things each night to tell your body it’s time to slow down. It might include taking a shower or warm bath, listening to soothing music preferably with the lights dimmed or reading a book. This relaxing activities can produce better sleep by easing the transition between drowsiness and wakefulness.
H) Managing Stress
When you have too much to do and too much to think about your sleep is likely to suffer. Consider healthy ways to manage stress, to help restore peace. Start with the basics, such as getting organized,delegating tasks and setting priorities. Have permission to yourself to take a break when you need one. Make share, a good laugh with an old friend. Jot down before bed, what’s on your mind and then set it aside for tomorrow.
I) Limit Daytime Naps
Long daytime naps can interfere with night time sleep especially if you’re struggling with insomnia or poor sleep quality during night time. If you decide to nap during the day, as much as possible limit yourself to about 10 to 30 minutes and make it during the midafternoon. In the event that you work at nights, you will need to make an exception to the rules about daytime sleeping. For this situation, keep your window coverings closed so that sunlight doesn’t interfere with your daytime sleep.
J) Get Comfortable
Create a room that’s ideal for sleeping. Regularly, this implies cool, dark and calm. Consider using room-darkening shades, a fan, earplugs or other devices to make an environment that suits your needs.
Mattress and pillow can contribute to better sleep, too. Features of good bedding most often are subjective, so make a choice what feels most comfortable. If you are sharing a bed, make sure there's sufficient space for two. If you have children or pets, as much as possible try to set limits on how often they sleep with you or insist on separate sleeping quarters.
K) Eliminate Interruptions
Unfortunately for those with little kids, quality of sleep does suffer when it is interrupted. Try to eliminate all the interruptions that are under your control. If you had to wake up extra early in the morning, make sure your wake up timer is back on its usual time, the next time you go to bed.Avoid drinking too much water in the evening to prevent a bathroom trip in the middle of the night. If you have uproarious neighbors, wear earplugs to bed. There are lots of little things you can do to eliminate unnecessary interruptions to your sleep.
L) Learn How Much Sleep Is Needed
The amount of sleep you need is something that you cannot control, and research studies are trying to discover the genes that dictate it. Most people sleep much less than they really need and are under performing because they think they’re getting enough. Some discover this the hard way. So start going to bed earlier until you find the magic number that enables you to perform at your best.
Skipping sleep impairs your brain function no matter how you look at it. It catapults your stress levels and emotional reactivity, slows your ability to process information and solve problem, and kills your creativity.
Too many studies to list have shown that people who get enough sleep live healthier lives and live longer, but sometimes this isn’t motivation enough. So consider this not getting enough sleep is linked to a variety of serious health problems, including stroke, heart attack, obesity and type 2 diabetes. It stresses you out because your body overproduces the stress hormone cortisol when not getting enough sleep or deprived from sleep. While excess cortisol has a host of negative health effects that originate from the devastation it wreaks on your immune system, it additionally makes you look older due to cortisol breaking down skin collagen, the protein that keeps skin elastic and smooth . In men particularly, not sleeping enough lowers sperm count and reduces testosterone levels.
Beyond the obvious sleep benefits of the ability to manage our emotions and remain calm under pressure, thinking clearly and staying healthy, has a direct link to our performance. It’s not just how much we sleep that matters, but as well as how we sleep. If life impedes getting the amount of sleep we need, it is absolutely necessary that we increase the quality of our sleep through good sleep hygiene.
Think about all the factors that can interfere with a good night’s sleep, from unexpected challenges, such as layoffs, relationship issues or illnesses to pressure at work and family responsibilities. No wonder that quality sleep is sometimes elusive.
Although we might not be able to control all of the factors that interferes with our sleep, we can adopt habits that encourage getting enough better sleep. Start with these simple sleep tips. Apply them, and you’ll reap the performance and health benefits that come with getting the right quantity and quality of sleep.
A) No to Caffeine at Least after Lunch
By reducing your caffeine intake you can sleep more and vastly improve the quality of the sleep you get. Caffeine is a powerful stimulant that interferes with sleep by blocking sleep-inducing chemicals in the brain and increasing adrenaline production. Caffeine has a six-hour half-life, meaning it takes a full 24 hours to work its way out of your system. Have a cup of coffee at 8 a.m., and you’ll still have 25% of the caffeine in your body at 8 p.m. Everything you drink in the afternoon will still be near 50% strength at bedtime. Any caffeine in your bloodstream makes it difficult to fall and stay asleep.
B) No to Sleeping Pills
Sleeping pills, is anything you take that sedates you so that you can sleep. Whether it is alcohol, drugs or whatever you have, these substances greatly disrupt your brain’s natural process of sleeping. Sedatives can give you some really strange dreams. When you sleep your brain removes harmful toxins, it cycles through an intricate series of stages,shuffling now and then through the day’s memories and discarding or storing them (which causes dreams).Any sedation interferes with these cycles, changing the natural process of brain. And anything that interferes with the brain’s natural process of sleeping has dire consequences for the quality of sleep.
C) Stick To A Sleep Schedule
Go to bed and get up at the same time every day, even on days off, weekends and holidays. By being consistent, it reinforces your body’s sleep-wake cycle and helps promote better sleep during night. There’s a caveat, however. If you don’t fall asleep within 15 minutes, get up to bed and do something unwinding. Back to bed when you’re tired. You might find that it is much harder to fall asleep, if you agonize over falling asleep.
D) Refrain from Blue Light at Night
This is an enormous one, most people don’t even realize it affects their sleep.The short-wavelength blue light plays an important role in our mood, quality sleep and energy level. At morning, sunlight contains high concentrations of this blue light. At the point when your eyes are exposed to it directly,not while wearing sunglasses or not through a glass window, these blue light halts production of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin and makes you feel more alert. Exposure to morning sunlight can improve your mood and energy levels and this is great. Try a blue light device if the sun is not an option.
E) Consistent Wake Up Time Every Day
Consistency is key to a good night’s sleep, particularly regarding waking up. Waking up at the same time consistently enhances sleep quality and your mood by regulating your circadian rhythm. If you have a consistent wake up time, your brain adjusts to this and travels through the sleep cycle in preparation for you to feel rested and alert at your wake-up time. Generally an hour before you wake, levels of hormone increase gradually along with your body temperature and blood pressure, making you to become more alert. That is why you will often find yourself waking up right before your alarm goes off. Your brain doesn’t know when to complete the sleep process and when it should prepare you to be awake, if you don’t wake up at the same time every day.
F) Watch The Food You Eat And Drink
Don’t go to bed either stuffed or hungry. Discomfort might keep you up. Likewise limit how much you drink before bed, to avoid disruptive middle of the night trips to the urinal. Alcohol and nicotine deserve caution, too. And even though alcohol might make you feel sleepy at first, but later in the night, it can disrupt sleep. The stimulating effects of nicotine and caffeine take hours to wear off and can wreak havoc on quality sleep.
G) Perform A Bedtime Relaxing Activities
Do the same things each night to tell your body it’s time to slow down. It might include taking a shower or warm bath, listening to soothing music preferably with the lights dimmed or reading a book. This relaxing activities can produce better sleep by easing the transition between drowsiness and wakefulness.
H) Managing Stress
When you have too much to do and too much to think about your sleep is likely to suffer. Consider healthy ways to manage stress, to help restore peace. Start with the basics, such as getting organized,delegating tasks and setting priorities. Have permission to yourself to take a break when you need one. Make share, a good laugh with an old friend. Jot down before bed, what’s on your mind and then set it aside for tomorrow.
I) Limit Daytime Naps
Long daytime naps can interfere with night time sleep especially if you’re struggling with insomnia or poor sleep quality during night time. If you decide to nap during the day, as much as possible limit yourself to about 10 to 30 minutes and make it during the midafternoon. In the event that you work at nights, you will need to make an exception to the rules about daytime sleeping. For this situation, keep your window coverings closed so that sunlight doesn’t interfere with your daytime sleep.
J) Get Comfortable
Create a room that’s ideal for sleeping. Regularly, this implies cool, dark and calm. Consider using room-darkening shades, a fan, earplugs or other devices to make an environment that suits your needs.
Mattress and pillow can contribute to better sleep, too. Features of good bedding most often are subjective, so make a choice what feels most comfortable. If you are sharing a bed, make sure there's sufficient space for two. If you have children or pets, as much as possible try to set limits on how often they sleep with you or insist on separate sleeping quarters.
K) Eliminate Interruptions
Unfortunately for those with little kids, quality of sleep does suffer when it is interrupted. Try to eliminate all the interruptions that are under your control. If you had to wake up extra early in the morning, make sure your wake up timer is back on its usual time, the next time you go to bed.Avoid drinking too much water in the evening to prevent a bathroom trip in the middle of the night. If you have uproarious neighbors, wear earplugs to bed. There are lots of little things you can do to eliminate unnecessary interruptions to your sleep.
L) Learn How Much Sleep Is Needed
The amount of sleep you need is something that you cannot control, and research studies are trying to discover the genes that dictate it. Most people sleep much less than they really need and are under performing because they think they’re getting enough. Some discover this the hard way. So start going to bed earlier until you find the magic number that enables you to perform at your best.
