Sleep Maximization
Sleep Maximization by Alan Tutt http://www.KeysToPower.com
Do you wake up feeling tired and run down, before you even start
your day? Do you have trouble sleeping soundly? Would you like
to sleep less and use the extra time doing other things?
If any of these describe you, you're in luck. I've recently
learned about some specific things you can do to make your sleep
much more energizing for the time invested.
And in that spirit, I'm going to get right to the heart of the
matter and spell out some of the most important steps you can
take to increase the amount of energy you can get from your
sleep.
One of the most important things to know is that the best sleep
is the deepest sleep. The deeper you sleep, the more your mind
and body recuperates and the more energy you get.
There are a couple of factors that determine how deeply you
sleep.
Get Plenty of Exercise
As most of us know, one of those factors is how hard you've
worked during the day. If you've put in a full day's labor and
really worked your muscles good, you will generally fall asleep
easily and reach a deep level of sleep. This is because the body
has a definite need to recuperate and gets right to it.
Most people today don't do nearly enough physical work to
activate this natural phenomenon. Our only alternative is to
take time to follow an exercise program. Of course, there are
many other benefits to this besides just getting better sleep.
The general recommendations here are:
Get at least 15-20 minutes of exercise every day if possible.
Make sure to exercise hard enough to increase your heart rate by
25% of your resting rate.
Exercise early in the day, and if possible, right after waking
up in the morning.
Combine both strength training and cardiovascular training.
Get Out Into The Sun
One of the surprising facts that I learned is that the more
sunlight you get during the day helps to promote deeper, more
restful sleep. And the flip side of this is that the darker it
is where you're trying to sleep, the better too. The body's
natural rhythm is based on several cycles. There's the daily
cycle of bright days and dark nights as well as monthly cycles
and so on.
When you're exposed to sunlight, there is a chemical in the
brain that is inhibited. Melatonin is a chemical produced by the
brain, and makes you drowsy and ready to sleep. The main thing
to remember with this is that the more light you take in through
your eyes, the less of this chemical you have in your system.
And so, to have the most energy during the day, get out into the
sunlight.
When we spend most of our time indoors, we get very little
light. Any photographer will tell you that the ambient light
levels indoors are pitifully small compared to full sunlight.
And when we don't get enough full sunlight, our bodies don't
really know if it is day or night, and our sleep cycles are
disturbed.
Drink Plenty of Water
Here's something else that we've all been told is good for us.
Drinking lots of water (not colas, coffees, teas, or alcohol)
will improve your blood-flow, making it easier for your body to
repair itself from the daily wear and tear of life. All of your
physical systems work better when you're blood is flowing right.
Eat Light
Again, something we should be doing for other reasons. If you go
to bed with food still in your digestive system, your blood is
engaged in distributing the nutrients of the food to the rest of
your body and has a hard time doing double duty to help in the
daily repair work. Also, when your body is healthier, all
systems and processes work better, including the daily
recuperation of sleep.
Lower Your Stress Levels
I'm sure you're surprised by this one, heh? When you go to bed
with worries and problems on your mind, you have a hard time
relaxing enough to get to sleep. There are many different things
you can do to help here, but one of the best may be a short
period of meditation before bedtime. Resolve to put off the
problems of the day (or of your life) until tomorrow. By getting
a quality night's sleep, you'll have more energy and more
brainpower to find a solution.
Set a Regular Sleep Schedule
Although our modern cultures play havoc with our schedules,
requiring us to get up and out of the house at different times
each day, if we are to get the most we can from our sleep, it's
important to always start our days at about the same time. The
main reason for this is simply because our bodies work by
regular cycles, and if those cycles are disturbed, our systems
don't work as efficiently. The time we get up in the morning is
more important to this cycle than the time we go to sleep at
night, but both will affect the quality of sleep that we get.
One thing that most of us do which kills the regularity of our
sleep cycle is sleeping later on the weekends than we do during
the work week. Of course, that was to try to increase our energy
levels, and now that we know how to get the most energy from our
sleep, this will no longer be necessary.
How To Sleep Shorter Nights
Before you can start decreasing the amount of time you spend
sleeping each night, it's important to increase the quality of
sleep by implementing the above suggestions. Once you start
getting better sleep, you can then adjust the amount of sleep
you get each night.
Another piece of information that you'll need to know is that
during the time we spend sleeping, we go through a number of
sleep cycles. We drift from light sleep to deep sleep and back
again over and over. Most of us experience about 6 to 10 of
these sleep cycles, which last about 20 to 40 minutes in length.
Ideally, you want to wake up at the end of one of these cycles,
when you are in a light sleep, not a deep sleep. This makes it
easier to wake up, and helps you to feel more energetic to start
your day. The simplest way to find out what works best for you
is simply to experiment with different bedtimes, and seeing how
much energy you have after waking up the next day.
For More Information
If you'd like to learn more about how to get the most you can
from sleep, visit
http://www.keystopower.com/Link/PowerfulSleep.php.