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10 Tips for Better Sleep
Posted by Amy Lorenti on Nov 30 in Healthy Aging, Healthy Aging, Men, Women
Are you having trouble falling asleep or staying asleep? I’ll be you want solve this problem as soon as possible. Lack of sleep impairs judgment and makes us accident prone. Lots of folks think that as they get older they don’t need as much rest. Not so. According to Dr. Oz (as well as my own personal physician), we all need a good 7 to 8 hours of restful, uninterrupted sleep every night. The good news for those of us who aren’t getting quality Z’s is that once we know the cause, a good night’s rest may not be far away. See if one or more of these are keeping you up nights:
- An uncomfortable mattress
- A room that’s too warm
- Shifts in circadian rhythms (how the body reacts to light and dark in a 24-hour period)
- An erratic schedule
- Too much caffeine – while great for waking up in the morning (I couldn’t do without mine) caffeine can linger in the body, making make it hard to fall asleep at night
- Too much alcohol – alcohol can wake us up during the deep sleep cycle which is the critical time the body repairs itself, inhibiting cognitive and physical performance
If none of these are a problem, see your doctor. You might be suffering from:
- Sleep apnea
- Medical or psychological problems such as depression and anxiety
- A reaction to drugs
- Too much stress
10 Tips for a Good Night’s Rest
- Get up around the same time every day – even weekends
- Take the clock out of your bedroom, or – if you need the alarm – turn it away from the bed
- Make sure your room is dark, quiet and cool
- Reserve the bed for sex and sleeping
- Exercise regularly, but be finished at least three or four hours before bedtime
- Try relaxation techniques: Once in bed, breathe deeply and slowly relax each part of your body one after another; work from your feet to your head
- Cut back your intake of regular coffee, caffeinated drinks and heavy or spicy foods, and smoking
- Try not to nap during the day
- If you do wake up at night, don’t move; just close your eyes and allow yourself to relax and let sleep return on its own
- After an hour or so, if you still can’t get back to sleep, get up and do a quiet activity like reading or listening to soft music; don’t return to bed until your eyes are almost shutting on their own
RELAXATION TECHNIQUE: First, breathe deeply in through your nose and then exhale through your mouth. Concentrate on relaxing your toes and feet. Take another breath and move your concentration to relaxing your legs. Repeat for your thighs, hips, stomach, etc. all the way to your head. You may fall asleep before you get there. If not, repeat the exercise.
Nightie-Night 😉
Posted By Amy Lorenti
Amy Lorenti considers her greatest “defy maturity” moment to be when - at the age of 50 - she adopted a baby boy and became a full-time mom for the first time. “I believe you can do whatever you want to in this life as long as you are healthy. Raising my son – an active, smart and funny kid by all accounts - allows me to feel young every day.” Amy has worked with some of the most successful companies in the world to help them effectively reach their target markets – both the young and not-so-young. She owned and operated two marketing communications companies, was chief public relations officer for an award-winning advertising agency and director of marketing and public relations for a publicly-held international company focusing on the consumer fashion market. Amy is not only a single mom to a 4th grader, but an author and blogger, a designer, an unapologetic nerd, an avid reader and a novice painter who prides herself on defying maturity every single day.Posted on November 30, 2011 at 5:41 pm
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