While You are Sleeping
A Journalistic Expose on Sleep and Dreams
Healthy Sleep Habits
According to the National Sleep Foundation our bodies require different amounts of sleep at different ages. Does anyone else count the hours of sleep they will get if you were able to immediately fall asleep? Unfortunately we don’t usually have that kind of power over our bodies.
There are different methods of falling asleep. You can read this article on Wiki How about using hypnosis to fall asleep. Some of us use music, or have songs that were sung to us when we were young to help us fall asleep.
Lesley Stahl discovered, in The Science of Sleep, that if we don’t get the right amount of sleep our whole body suffers. Here are a few of the things that suffer.
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Our lepton levels. Lepton is the chemical that tells our body when we are hungry. If our lepton levels are off then we tend to gain weight because we are always hungry.
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Our ability to drive. The sleep-study test subject Stahl interviewed was very groggy, but they still think they could drive just fine. Drowsy drivers are thought to cause over a million accidents a year, according to the National Sleep Foundation.
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Our brain’s sharpness. We have trouble remembering, memorizing, reacting, and thinking on our feet.
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Our concentration. According to the scientists Stahl interviewed, our brain takes “micro-sleeps” when we are sleep deprived. This can happen in a classroom, while driving, or at work.
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Our mood swings. The scientists noticed that the sleep-study test subjects were either giddy or easily irritated.
Get the right amount of sleep.
Sleep in the right conditions.
2. We sleep better when the temperature is cooled down. The National Sleep Foundation recommends anywhere between 60 and 67 degrees Fahrenheit.
3. Chose your favorite, calming scents to fill your room
4. Many of us sleep with a sound machine, or some comforting noise that drowns out the irritable ones. One of the tests the scientists did in 60 minutes’ The Science of Sleep
didn’t tell the subject what his test was. He was being woken up during the night with a loud noise. The noise wasn’t loud enough to actually wake him up, so he had no idea why he was tired all the time.
5. Comfy bed. Make your bed custom to your preferences. Soft? Firm?
Keep a regular sleeping pattern.
Taking naps.
Our body clock, or circadian rhythm, craves a regular sleep schedule. According to Sleep.org you will get to sleep much better, and feel more rested if you try to keep your bedtime and morning alarm clock within about an hour or so. If your sleep schedule needs changing, change it most effectively by changing only fifteen minutes at a time.
That schedule can include naps!
Having a restless night and then a tough day at work or school can leave you feeling fatigued. At this point the living room couch looks like the comfiest place on earth.
According to The National Sleep Foundation, naps won’t disrupt your sleep schedule if taken properly. A twenty to thirty minute nap is ideal. You can take planned naps, emergency naps, or habitual naps during the day. Planned naps are taken regularly. You might not even feel tired before you take them. Emergency naps are taken when you feel you can not function a second longer without some shut-eye. Habitual napping comes from taking a nap the same time each day.
6. Make your room a peaceful place. When you are designing your room use colors and decorations that promote a calm environment. It also helps to keep it tidy.
Tips from the National Sleep Foundation.
1. An hour or so before you go to sleep, turn off your ceiling light and just use a lamp. Just like our caveman ancestors knew it was time to go to bed when the sun went down, our brain is wired to prepare for sleep when the environment gets darker. This is another reason to stay from computer, tablet and smart phone screens, or at least lower the brightness.