We all sleep - We all NEED to sleep

Welcome Back,

We ALL SLEEP - We all NEED to Sleep - without sufficient time-out for the brain to relax & re-configure, we simply cannot function in our day to day lives. There are literally 100,000s of people in the world who have at some point in their life suffered from some form of sleep deprivation. The causes of this are broad & vary anything from "stress" to "depression" but the problem is that most people do not know that they have a problem - or indeed how to resolve it! There is the existing recommendation from notable doctors (general practitioner's) that you should try get at least 8 hours recommended sleep every night BUT that is easier said than done especially in today's fast paced society. There is no doubt that western culture & society has evolved so incredibly fast that we are all racing to catch-up in the rat race. For example, according to various polls/surveys carried out independently, there are quite a lot of people aged between 18-30 whom are oblivious to the long-term health strains of today's life-style - I mention this age category specifically because it is a very significant age-group because it is at the age of 30 that the metabolism slows down & the body begins breaking down protein. This is very important & extremely relative to sleep so I will explain why a little later. When it comes to getting a good nights sleep, there are many simple efficient techniques you can implement to improve or induce a healthy sleep pattern (as well as more complicated methods).

Stimulation is a big problem when attempting to fall asleep. You should avoid television or computer games for example because these cause an enormous amount of stimulation in the "cognitive region" of the brain - cognition is used for problem solving & lateral thinking etc so the more ACTIVE your mind is, the LESS likely you are to fall in to a sleep induced state. Reading is a fantastic way to relax, especially in the correct setting. You should read in bed or on the sofa which ever you prefer & use a lamp with a relatively low light ambiance & make sure the room is quite - read a book that is somewhat reserved in content, meaning nothing too exciting or thought provoking - REMEMBER - the less stimulated your mind is - the easier it will be to drift off to the clouds above! Reading is good initial form of therapy for very busy minds that find it hard to stop thinking or ruminating. Rumination is usually the main culprit for lack of sleep because the person may have things on their mind that are causing distress - i.e. a death in the family, too many bills to pay, job interview, exams etc - etc! Rumination also occurs "during sleep" in the form of dreams & nightmares but I will cover that in a later blog.

Sleep from a psychology perspective is a very interesting but complex issue and there are so many factors that contribute to either induce sleep or prevent it - and in my upcoming blogs I am going to go into these issues in greater detail & explain how nutrition, exercise & a healthy balanced diet of supplementary vitamin's & minerals can work WONDERS to get you that much coveted beauty sleep.

Keep logging back to my site for more insightful tips on sleep, health & well-being.

Sleep well!

Sandman;)