A good night’s rest can be the answer to many of our daily issues: sluggishness, weight gain, stress. Many don’t even know we’re not getting a good night of sleep because we have adapted and built a routine out of the rest we do get. However, due to this very unhealthy adaptation, nearly 40% of adults in America fall asleep without meaning to at least once a month. THAT’S A SIGN!
Something as simple as a restful sleep, can benefit our cognitive skills, increase our overall health and make you feel better in general. Conversely, the ill-effects of poor sleeping habits are numerous and quite dangerous to our well-being. How so? For instance:
- Decreased Performance and Alertness: Sleep deprivation induces significant reductions in performance and alertness. Reducing your nighttime sleep by as little as one and a half hours for just one night could result in a reduction of daytime alertness by as much as 32%.
- Memory and Cognitive Impairment: Decreased alertness and excessive daytime sleepiness impair your memory and your cognitive ability -- your ability to think and process information.
- Stress Relationships: Disruption of a bed partner's sleep due to a sleep disorder may cause significant problems for the relationship (for example, separate bedrooms, conflicts, moodiness, etc.).
- Poor Quality of Life: You might, for example, be unable to participate in certain activities that require sustained attention, like going to the movies, seeing your child in a school play, or watching a favorite TV show.
- Occupational Injury: Excessive sleepiness also contributes to a greater than twofold higher risk of sustaining an occupational injury.
- Automobile Injury: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates conservatively that each year drowsy driving is responsible for at least 100,000 automobile crashes, 71,000 injuries, and 1,550 fatalities.\
There are many avenues one can travel on the road to good sleep. Often, no one thing will work for everyone. So, the key is finding what works for you and making this vital lifestyle change. Some suggestions are:
- Develop a routine. Just like with children, having a routine leading up to bedtime can aid in restful sleep.
- Remember your position. Upon waking, remember how you were laying. Make note if it is often/always the same position. Some experts advise that the position in which you awaken, is your most comfortable. Therefore, you can lie in that position to start and hopefully rest comfortably all night.
- Go rather than fall. What does that mean? Set a bedtime and stick to it. Don’t work until sleep is inadvertent. Decide to go to sleep, rather than inadvertently falling asleep. When you develop the routine, as suggested, and make a certain time, create an atmosphere that promotes sleep (no TV, cell phone out of arm’s reach, actually lie down, etc.).
It can be hard. Children aren’t the only ones that tend to fight off sleep. You don’t have to ponder long to think of another household task, a file that needs reviewing, a bill that needs to be paid. It can be endless! There’s always going to be something. Life is a system of inherent checks and balances. When we properly manage the business of life, you’ll find that everything else will more easily fall into place! SWEET DREAMS!
