Sleep well..& be healthy happy

Your Worst Enemy Is Probably You
Stop cheating yourself. You can’t cut corners on
sleep and not have it affect you :
…by the end of two weeks, the six-hour
sleepers were as impaired as those who, in
another Dinges study, had been sleep-
deprived for 24 hours straight — the cognitive
equivalent of being legally drunk.
Being tired actually makes it harder to be
happy . “Sleeping on it” does improve decision
making and can help you follow through on your
goals.
Lack of sleep makes you more likely to get sick
and more likely to behave unethically. There is
such a thing as beauty sleep:
Our findings show that sleep deprived people
appear less healthy, less attractive, and more
tired compared with when they are well
rested.
“Take an A student used to scoring in the top 10
percent of virtually anything she does. One
study showed that if she gets just under seven
hours of sleep on weekdays, and about 40
minutes more on weekends, she will begin to
score in the bottom 9 percent
of non-sleep-deprived individuals.”
Yes, some people don’t need much sleep but
they’re exceedingly rare .
Out of 100 people who think they can go
without much sleep, only five really can.
Know Thyself: Night Owls And Morning Larks
Morning types are more concrete, logical,
introverted and self-controlled . Evening types
are more creative, risk-taking, independent and
impulsive .
Night owls are smarter. And male night owls do
better with the ladies .
But morning people are more proactive and
happier — and you mood in the morning affects
your entire day.
Working outside your preferred time frame
can reduce performance but night owls might
be able to teach themselves to be early birds
by creating rituals that make them excited to
get out of bed.
What Makes For A Great Night’s Sleep?
Via Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange
Science of Sleep
.
1) Exercise during the day promotes good
sleep at night:
…those who exercised reported a better quality
of sleep than those who remained sedentary.
2) Keep it cold:
One study by researchers in Lille, a city in
northeastern France, found that subjects fell
asleep faster and had a better overall quality of
sleep following behaviors that cooled the body,
such as taking a cold shower right before bed.
The best predictor of quality sleep was
maintaining a room temperature in a narrow
band between 60 and 66 degrees Fahrenheit (or
16 to 19 degrees Celsius).
3) Avoid light before bed, and that includes
TV’s and computers:
…bright lights— including the blue-and-white
light that comes from a computer monitor or a
television screen— can deceive the brain, which
registers it as daylight. Lying in bed watching a
movie on an iPad may be relaxing, but the
constant bright light from the screen can make it
more difficult for some people to fall asleep
afterward.
4) Avoid coffee or alcohol at night:
It is obviously not a good idea to drink coffee in
the evening if it keeps you up at night. Nor is
drinking alcohol before bedtime a smart move.
Alcohol may help speed the onset of sleep, but
it begins to take its toll during the second half of
the night. As the body breaks down the liquid,
the alcohol in the bloodstream often leads to an
increase in the number of times a person briefly
wakes up.
Also:
5) Mattress quality doesn’t matter . The only
factor that was relevant with regard to beds was
when traveling, people sleep best on a mattress
similar to the one they have at home.
6) Keeping a consistent sleep and wake
schedule is more important than you think.
Shifting Daylight Savings Time around lowers SAT
scores . Jet lag can be devastating to performing
at your best .
Trouble Sleeping?
A very common yet overlooked cause of
insomnia is putting too much effort into
trying to get to sleep
.
And Ambien and other drugs are overrated for
helping you get to sleep.
Do more aerobic exercise during the day instead.
You don’t actually have to work out really hard,
you just have to think you did .
Upside to insomnia? You’re more creative when
you’re exhausted .
On the other hand, trying to stay awake?
Coffee’s always good but don’t forget about
gum.
Nightmares? Try video games . And if you see
something scary, like a horror movie, discuss it
afterwards. This can reduce the chance of
nightmares .
Waking up in the middle of the night actually
might not be such a bad thing — humans may
naturally sleep in two phases.
Use Sleep to Improve Learning and Thinking
Sleep is vital for improving skills. Want to
increase your learning ability ? After you review
something, take a nap .
By the same token, missing an hour of sleep can
take points off your IQ.
Promise yourself a reward when you wake up
and you might even be able to increase learning
as you sleep.
By the same token, lack of sleep makes us more
likely to waste time on the internet .
You may want to spend less time analyzing
complex problems and just sleep on it .
If you can’t sleep, trust your gut when making
decisions while exhausted.
Naps Are Like Having Super Powers
Use naps to increase alertness and performance
on the job, enhance learning ability and purge
negative emotions while enhancing positive
ones.
Some research says the best naps are 10
minutes long.
How can you make your naps better?
1. If you’re a morning person, the best time
to nap is around 1 or 1:30PM. If you’re a
night owl, nap later, around 2:30 or 3PM.
2. The best naps are under 45 mins or
90-120 mins. Anything in between is likely
to give you that groggy feeling.
3. Naps don’t mean you’re lazy: A NASA
study showed that in-flight naps
improved subsequent performance by
34% and overall alertness by 54%.
4. To make sure you’re productive after
your nap drink a cup of coffee right
before laying down. Caffeine takes about
20-30 minutes to kick in.
5. No nap is too short: A 2008 study showed
that even a nap of a few minutes
provided benefits. Just anticipating a nap
lowers blood pressure.