Benefits of a Good Nights Sleep

"Sleep Hygiene", characterizes your sleep habits. By amending your current sleep patterns, you can amend your sleep habits, but more importantly stay sleeping between seven to nine hours. The main advantage, you'll feel refreshed, ready and able to cope with your day more readily.

Feeling more Attentive

We all need to recharge our batteries, this is the body's way of repairing and resting while we sleep. When you awake from sleep your body feels revitalized, functioning at a more optimum level, your reaction and response times are faster, and hormone levels are returned to acute levels.

Improved Memory

Disorders concerning the mind, such as Alzheimer's are not prevented by sleep, however, the effect on short term memory has shown to have a definite effect. Dreaming occurs when the body is in REM sleep, during this time the body amasses the information it has gathered during the day, arranging it so it can be remembered at a later time. Dreaming actually helps to create memories.

Rebuilding and Renewal

During sleep the body produces proteins that restores and repairs damage occurring from stress, exercise, exposure to UV light, pollutants to name a few of the things that we confront on a daily basis. Increased stress from weight training and exercise puts additional emphasis on the body to process acceptable amounts of protein in order to repair the damage. Restoration is done while we're sleeping, therefore more sleep is required when following an exercise/training regime. More intensive the exercise, the longer time you need sleeping to repair the damage.

Weight Management

The older we get the harder it is too maintain our weight. Having a really great nights sleep can be correlated with weight control, when the body is exhausted and tired it desires carbohydrates and sugars to counter balance the feeling of sluggishness. Those cravings will become less often with a better nights sleep, making you feel more energetic for longer throughout the day.

Tips to a better nights sleep:

Determine a more regular sleep schedule (do this by going to bed at the same time every night).

Abstain from drinking stimulants such as alcohol, caffeine and even some medications before going to sleep.

Make sure the surrounding temperature is cool rather than warm.

If you don't fall asleep within 20 or 30 minutes of getting into bed, move to another room for a short time, before returning to bed.

Snacking on cottage cheese, milk or other protein filled foods before going to bed can be advantageous.

Keep your bed clean and wrinkle free.

Use the toilet before bed.