Sleep Smarter By Learning How Quality Sleep Is More Important Than Length Of Sleep!
Sleep Smarter is a book written by Shawn Stevenson, and has been at the top of the best seller list for quite some time. Shawn has dedicated his life to helping people sleep better, but more importantly, improving their quality of life through health. Everyone knows the importance of sleep, or at least they hear sleep is important. Why sleep is so important might be surprising to you, as you will see in the video below.
Importance Of Sleep
Sleep is something a lot of people don't pay attention to. People just know they should get good sleep, but how much effort and preparation they put into that is another story. First, people need to understand that if your body does not get the adequate rest it needs, it simply won't be able to function properly. Scientific research proves that sleeping well is far more important than your diet and also exercise. That might be surprising to you, but take a couple things into consideration.
When you are tired, you make bad decisions. The same goes when you feel bad from a starvation diet. Have you ever seen a person wake up at 2 am to binge watch a tv show and say, "hey, can you pass me the broccoli?" Of course not, it's always, pass me the chips or the pizza! Why does this happen? Because your body is not in its best state, and that means that it's not feeling good. What do people do when they are not feeling good? They reach for something that will make them feel good, and those things are usually junk food. Considering the fact that most of your body's melatonin is stored in your guy / stomach, what you eat has a lot to do with how you sleep.
That said, junk food is not the only reason food is important. There was a research study done, that showed that people on the same exact low calorie diet and workout program, lost 55% more weight if they got at least a good 6 hours of sleep. That is something you should keep in mind when planning to lose weight, and just be more healthy in general.
Things That Affect Sleep
You might be surprised, but one of many things that affect sleep is the chlorine in our water. That is, if you drink tap water. However, you might be surprised to find out what kind of drugs were found in regular tap water. Scientific research has found heart medication, anti-depressants, cholesterol medication, and many other drugs that would shock you. How does that happen? It happens because people take drugs, amongst other things, and then they use the bathroom to urinate. Unfortunately, the water from the sewers gets recycled with chlorine and other things, and gets recycled.
Drinking Caffeine Before Bed
We all know that caffeine can keep us up, and most people do try to avoid it before bed. However, many people don't realize that caffeine has a half life of 8 hours. What does that mean? It means that if you drink a cup of coffee at 6 pm, it will still be affecting your nervous system until 2 am, 8 hours later. Caffeine is something many people love, but drinking it in the morning and not in the evening can have significant advantages.
Cell Phone Use And Sleep
We all love our cell phones, especially starring at it before we go to sleep. Many people have heard that looking at the light that comes from your cell phone screen can be bad for your sleep, and they are correct. To provide more detail. every hour you spend looking at your cell phone screen, or even laptop, will take 30 minutes away from you REM sleep at night. Putting way your phone a few hours before bed is recommended and will definitely make a difference in you getting the rest you need.
Sleeping Temperature And Light
To make the long story short, the ideal room temperature for sleeping conditions should be somewhere between 62 and 68 degrees. Your body just responds much better to that, and there are many scientific experiments that support this, as you will see in the video below. You should also sleep in a pitch dark room with absolutely no sunlight entering the bedroom, or where ever you are sleeping. Sunlight is not good during sleeping hours, but extremely important during the day. Sunlight releases serotonin, which is a trigger to later release melatonin. Check out the video and be ready to change how you think about sleep forever.
It's not always easy to get the sleep that you need, but the point here is that maximizing the sleep that you get is the most important. Sleeping longer is not better than sleeping smarter. Best of luck!