How to Get a Sound Night’s Sleep
- By Joseph Mercola, DO
- Published 02/1/2008
- Sleep
- Unrated
Before the invention of the light bulb, people slept an average of 10
hours a night. Nowadays, a National Sleep Foundation (NSF) poll found
that Americans sleep just under 7 hours per night, on average, during
the week and about 7.5 hours on the weekends.
While I don’t believe there is a hard-and-fast rule as to how long you must sleep, it is crucial that you do get enough, and this means listening to your body.
Unfortunately, sleep problems -- such as waking up too early, not being able to fall asleep or not being able to stay asleep -- are at near epidemic levels. One NSF poll found that more than half of the adults they surveyed experienced one or more of these symptoms.
Why is Sleep so Important?
Of course, you know instinctively that sleep is essential just by the way you feel when you don’t get enough of it. But sleep is very complex, and sleep deprivation can impact your body in a number of ways:
There is no one answer to this question, but there are some common factors that can easily disturb your night’s rest:
The Reader’s Digest article above has some excellent sleep tips that are worth trying out, and I have also compiled my top 33 Secrets for a Good Night’s Sleep.
If you have trouble sleeping, please take a few minutes to read through this list, as it has emotional, physical and practical solutions to help you overcome your sleepless nights.
While I don’t believe there is a hard-and-fast rule as to how long you must sleep, it is crucial that you do get enough, and this means listening to your body.
Unfortunately, sleep problems -- such as waking up too early, not being able to fall asleep or not being able to stay asleep -- are at near epidemic levels. One NSF poll found that more than half of the adults they surveyed experienced one or more of these symptoms.
Why is Sleep so Important?
Of course, you know instinctively that sleep is essential just by the way you feel when you don’t get enough of it. But sleep is very complex, and sleep deprivation can impact your body in a number of ways:
- It can make you fat: People who sleep less than seven hours a night tend to have a higher body mass index (BMI) than people who sleep more. This could be because sleep deprivation alters metabolism. Leptin, the hormone that signals satiety, falls while ghrelin, which signals hunger, rises -- and this boosts your appetite.
- It harms your brain: Lack of sleep may cause your brain to stop producing new cells.
- It may increase your risk of cancer: How well you sleep can seriously alter the balance of hormones in your body. This can then disrupt your sleep/wake cycle, also called your circadian rhythm. A disrupted circadian rhythm may influence cancer progression through shifts in hormones like melatonin, which your brain makes during sleep.
- It may increase your risk of diabetes: Too little sleep may reduce levels of leptin, possibly causing you to gain weight and then develop diabetes.
There is no one answer to this question, but there are some common factors that can easily disturb your night’s rest:
- Racing thoughts: Your worries can easily keep you awake if you don’t know how to overcome them (for this I highly recommend using the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) to release your negative emotions).
- TV, computers and video games: Not only do these electronic items make it more difficult to fall asleep, but they also keep you from getting high-quality sleep if you fall asleep with them on. In fact, many teens are now getting “junk sleep” for this very reason (but, of course, teens are not the only ones falling asleep with the TV or computer on).
The Reader’s Digest article above has some excellent sleep tips that are worth trying out, and I have also compiled my top 33 Secrets for a Good Night’s Sleep.
If you have trouble sleeping, please take a few minutes to read through this list, as it has emotional, physical and practical solutions to help you overcome your sleepless nights.
