Kerry McClure – Practical Wellness
April 6, 2015
The 4 most important things you can do for your health: eat a whole foods, plant-based diet; move your body daily; manage stress; get restful and enough sleep.
It is estimated that 70% of Americans are sleep deprived.
There seems to be a connection between getting enough sleep and maintaining a healthy weight. A study published in 2005 by Columbia University Psychotherapist James Gangwisch, Ph. D. indicated that if you get…
4 hours or less/night — you are 73% more likely to be obese than people who sleep 7-9 hours
5 hours/night – 50% more likely to be obese
6 hours/night – 23% more likely to be obese
One explanation…
When you don’t get enough sleep, your body produces less of the hormone leptin (feeling of full) and more of the hormone ghrelin (feeling hungry). Bottom line…we eat more and experience more cravings.
When you are sleep deprived, your cortisol rises — and so do all its harmful effects, including dementia, weight gain, diabetes, heart attacks, high blood pressure, depression, osteoporosis, depressed immunity, and more.
The reality is that most of us need 7-9 hours of restful sleep a night. But meeting this goal has become more and more difficult.
Our lives are inundated with stimuli from the moment we wake up until the moment we climb into bed and close our eyes. It’s no wonder we can’t sleep well when we eat heavy and late dinners, answer emails and texts, surf the Internet, or do work, and then get right into bed and watch the evening news which is often filled with not the most pleasant news.
Here are my top 5 tips to get a restful night’s sleep.
1. Stick to the same bedtime and wake up time, even on the weekends. This helps to regulate your body’s clock and could help you fall asleep and stay asleep for the night.
2. Exercise daily. Vigorous exercise is best, however light exercise is better than no activity. Avoid vigorous exercise after dinner – it excites the body and makes it more difficult to get to sleep.
3. Avoid alcohol, caffeine, and heavy meals in the evening.
Alcohol helps you get to sleep but causes interruptions in sleep as well as poor quality sleep. Caffeine makes your sleep worse. It is good to finish eating at least 2-3 hours before bedtime.
4. Wind down. Your body needs time to shift into sleep mode, so spend the last hour before bed doing a calming activity such as reading. Step away from all your electronic devices! Using an electronic device such as a laptop can make it hard to fall asleep because the particular type of light emanating from the screens of these devices can be activating to the brain.
5. Create an aesthetic environment that encourages sleep — use serene and restful colors and eliminate clutter, distraction and all electronics from the bedroom. Create total darkness and quiet — consider using eye shades and ear plugs. Keep your bedroom for sleep and romance only.
What are your tips for getting enough, restful sleep each night?
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