Care For Your Sleep

Archive for November, 2009

It is a known fact that some people feel better when they wake up early and come to work as the sun rises. Other people love sleeping till afternoon and can come to the peak of their activity closer to the evening. The first are called “larks”, and the latter are called “owls”. It is also a known fact that the most of “owls” have really big problems with waking up early in the morning to start their working day. Those “owls”, who need to be at their working place in the office or in the shop by 8 a.m. have to wake up not later than at 7 a.m. How to change own biological rhythm and turn from an “owl” to a “lark”? Below, you can find some recommendations for such situations.

• If you can not spend a day without a cup of refreshing coffee, be sure that you drink it before 3 p.m. After 3 p.m. you can drink only a mint or Melissa tea, which can help you relax and calm down, as well as not to get concentrated on the everyday problems and worries.
• When you are back home from the work, change your clothes immediately. This will help you to feel free from all the stresses and troubles you have to fight against every day. Also, when you are back home, take 3-5 minutes to lay down in your bedroom, relax and concentrate on something pleasant and calming.
• Eat a light, healthy, but warm dinner. Warm meal in the evening will help you to warm up your soul and make you feel calmer. Also, never go to bed when you feel hungry. Drinking a glass of warm milk or a herbal tea with honey will help your stomach to get busy for some time and not to bother your efforts on falling asleep.
• At 9:00 or 9:30 p.m. close your TV and cell phone, take a shower or have a 20-minute bath with your favorite relaxing aroma. Then, go to bed and take a magazine or your favorite book. You can turn on you favorite slow and relaxing music.
• Do not plan anything. Do not say to yourself: “I’ll fall asleep at 10:30 and wake up at 6:30, making it 8 hours of sleep”.
• If it is already late and you still can not fall asleep, think about how great it is staying in bed in total silence and calmness.
• Even if you can’t fall asleep at the same time for 3-4 days, do not give up and go to bed at the same time every night. Usually, it takes from 7 to 12 days for your body to change its natural rhythm and start getting used to waking up early in the morning.
• Thus, be aware that within the first 7-10 days your mornings will be really terrible. For many of us this can be very hard and unbearable, waking up early in the morning. However, very soon your body will understand and accept the changes, and you will experience again, what a great thing is to have a “good morning”!

Many of us spend hours and lots of efforts looking for a special effective treatment for insomnia. We tried everything: lowering caffeine consumption, getting rid of bad habits, avoiding stresses and worries, drinking melissa tea, going to sleep at the same time every night, changing the color of our bedroom and many other recommended tips that were promised to work out well. But still it was too hard to combat this serious problem, and we go on tossing and turning in our beds for hours and then feeling tired and restless all day long.

A new idea (which is actually not a new thing, but the thing which does not come to our mind, when we are thinking about a possible treatment for insomnia) was offered by the scientists from the University of Pittsburgh, who carried out a series of experiments with the volunteers suffering from regular insomnia. It turned out that opening a bedroom window and letting some fresh air in before the bedtime can substantially improve our sleep quality. In addition, during the experiments it also proved to be effective to place a piece of wet fabric on the forehead. Cooling effects of the wet fabric helped the participants to relax and fall asleep much faster.

It is a known fact that when we sleep, our brain activities slow down. But those who suffer from insomnia demonstrate no slowing down in brain activities. In this context, the scientists are convinced that giving more of fresh air and cooling down the forehead can help to slow down chemical processes in our brain and set it up for sleeping and rest. The experts from Pittsburgh University point on the fact that good amount of oxygen in the air can have very positive effects on our sleep quality and become a new alternative treatment for insomnia. They recommend everyone keeping the bedroom window opened at least for 10-15 minutes every time before going to sleep.