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Ten Tips for Sounder SleepCopyright © 2004 Michael Krugman 1: Exercise Earlier. Late night workouts can delay the onset of sleep. Vigorous exercise causes your body to produce hormones that can keep you awake. Solution: Exercise early in the day. Keep evening workouts light. 2: It's Not as Bad as You Think. People often think they’re awake when they’re actually asleep. That's called subjective insomnia. While you may think you’re lying awake all night, you may be asleep a good part of that time. Take heart! You may be getting more sleep than you think. 3: Coffee Blues.The effects of caffeine can last for up to eighteen hours. Caffeine suppresses the natural hormone melatonin, which is essential for sleep, and stimulates secretion of stress hormones like cortisol and ACTH, which can keep you awake. Solution: Reduce your consumption of caffeine products (including coffee, tea, chocolate and colas). If you do consume caffeine, do it as early in the day as possible. 4: Get Your Vitamin "S". Adequate sleep, proper nutrition, and regular exercise are the 3 pillars of good health. So please be sure to take your minimum daily requirement of “vitamin S,” sleep, every night upon retiring! 5: Don't Trade Sleep for Exercise. Dragging yourself out of bed an hour early for that bleary-eyed workout might seem like a shortcut to better health and fitness, but it can shortchange your sleep needs. And that isn’t good for your health. Solution? Enjoy that extra hour of sleep, and reschedule your workout at lunch, or after work. 6: How much sleep do you need? Generally speaking, between 7 and 9 hours of sleep per night. The actual need is as individual as YOU are! If you feel sleepy during the day, if you doze during movies, meetings or lectures, or need to "catch up" by sleeping extra hours on weekends—you may be suffering from sleep deprivation. The cure? More sleep! Mmm! 7: Drowsy driving is no joke. According to sleep-research pioneer Dr. William Dement, drowsiness is not an early warning system—it’s a red alert! Drowsiness is the last thing that happens before you fall asleep. If you feel drowsy while driving, either pull over and sleep or have a cup of coffee. Once you feel fully awake, continue your trip safely. 8: Working Too Hard?Americans work longer hours than any other nation, and we’re experiencing an epidemic of sleep deprivation. And the more we work, the less we sleep, according to recent research.
9: “Early to bed, early to rise.” Not a bad idea! The later you go to bed, the later you’ll need to sleep. But sleeping between the hours of 7 and 9 a.m. is not so easy, and any sleep you do get will probably not be as restful as what you’d get an hour or two earlier. That’s because the circadian clock that synchronizes your body functions with the rhythms of night and day causes a rise in blood pressure and the hormone cortisol, both of which tend to wake you up. And the last two hours of an eight-hour sleep are believed to be the most essential for learning and memory consolidation. Solution? Get to bed by eleven, and get those final two hours of deep, memory-enhancing sleep before 7 a.m. 10: Don't Take Your Computer to Bed. Computers, email, the internet, and video games are stimulating. If you use a computer close to bedtime, you may experience a considerable delay in sleep onset. Solution: Turn off the computer two hours before your ideal bedtime. Sweet dreams! Michael Krugman, founder of the Sounder Sleep System, says that while we may need those eight hours, we can use a lot more. The narrow, eight-hour window of sleep that modern society deems appropriate for sleep is like a tight-fitting shoe that we horn ourselves into night after night. It’s a convenience for industry more than anything else. What to do? Try to schedule naps during the day. Go to bed earlier. Get extra sleep on weekends and vacations. Mmm. Visit soundersleep.com for audio, video, and books on the Sounder Sleep System. |
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