Getting A Good Night’s Sleep

Share Button

sleepFrom Your Health Journal…..”Most of my regular visitors know I always promote a web site called Medical Xpress. They always have quality reads there, and today’s article review from their site is called How to get a great night’s sleep: Could less mean more?. So many people truly do not get enough sleep each night. Most adults need a good 7-8 hours a night for optimal health, to preform their daily tasks at peak levels. Sleep helps our vital organs to rest, helps strengthen our immune system, keeps our hormones related to appetite stable, improves memory, improves cognitive skills, keeps hormones / chemicals in the body stable, and helps us to look better. It is basically vital for good health. Today’s article is stating that iIf you regularly struggle to fall asleep, it might be better to try and restrict rather than extend the amount of time you spend in bed. This does not apply to everyone, but recent research is suggesting those who have trouble sleeping or falling asleep may need to restrict their sleep. Let’s wait to see more research on this topic, as their are a whole range of reasons why some people may have trouble sleeping, from diet to stress, from amounts of exercise to overall health. I still believe a good night’s rest is imperative for optimal health, so it will be very interesting to read more on this topic in the future. Please visit the Medical Xpress web site to read the complete article.”

From the article…..

If you regularly struggle to fall asleep, it might be better to try and restrict rather than extend the amount of time you spend in bed.

According to the new Good-Night Guide from The Sleep Council, sleep restriction can help people who only manage limited sleep, to fall asleep faster and wake up fewer times.

It’s a new approach to helping problem sleepers, the idea being to build a strong association between your bed and sleep. Anyone, for example, only getting five hours sleep a night but spending seven hours in bed, may benefit from limiting themselves to just five hours in bed at night.

It’s a method that may make you more tired at first, but will ultimately make you fall asleep faster and achieve better quality sleep.

“It’s not suitable if you’re only getting a couple of hours sleep and should be supervised by a qualified Cognitive Behavioural Therapist,” says Jessica Alexander of The Sleep Council.

Commonly prescribed for depression, clinical trials have now shown that CBT is the most effective long-term solution for insomniacs. It helps to identify the negative attitudes and beliefs that hinder sleep and replaces them with positive thoughts.

A typical exercise is to set aside 30 minutes in which to do your day’s worrying. During the worry period you keep a diary of negative thoughts, the very act of writing them down being believed to reduce them. Worrying is banned at any other time of the day and once in bed, with eyes closed, each worry should be pictured floating away in a balloon, leaving the mind free and unencumbered. The technique is just one of a host of ways in which people who struggle to sleep can be helped.

To read the complete article…..Click here