Cure:Insomnia

Now that we have learned about sunlight  and exercise, let’s look at the exact implications of this newly found knowledge.

1. Soft drinks mess with your digestive system.  If you eat healthy foods, soft drinks obstruct your body in the process of taking in the nutrients. So not only are soft drinks unhealthy, they lessen the benefits of the healthy stuff too.

2. Soft drinks can leach off the aluminum inside the can when stored for longer periods.  Coincidentally, autopsies of Alzheimer patients reveal heightened aluminum levels in the brain.  Metal in the brain – that doesn’t necessarily sound like a good thing.

3. Tooth Decay such as total loss of enamel on the teeth (that used to occur only among the elderly) has been reported by dentists in teenage boys and girls who are frequent consumers of soft drinks. Maybe the kids Christmas presents this year should be a teeth whitening series?

4. Soft drinks make you thirstier because they contain sodium (a form of salt). If you get thirsty, have another can!

5. Soft Drinks contain a wide variety of chemical acids like acetic, fumaric, gluconic, and phosphoric acids. No wonder sodas are very effective when it comes to removing rust from a car bumper or cleaning car engines. Maybe they should launch a new product: Coca-Cleaner - they could certainly use some of the same ingredients, if not just the same recipe.

6. Soft drinks lead to weakened bones, particularly in growing teens due to a lack of calcium rich fluid consumption. Soft drinks have also been linked with bone fractures in teenage girls.

7. Soft drinks weaken your immune system. Drinking soft drinks instead of water can weaken your body at the cellular level causing a weakened immune system.

8. Diet soft drinks contain Aspartame, an additive that has been linked with depression, insomnia, neurological disease and a many other diseases. Aspartame is a strong neurotoxin and endocrine disrupter.

9. Soft drinks are hundreds of thousands times more acidic than the natural environment in your body. Diseases thrive in an acidic environment.

10. The phosphates in soft drinks leach vital minerals from your body. A severe lack of minerals such as magnesium and calcium can cause heart disease, osteoporosis and many other diseases.  

11. Excessive sugar in soft drinks causes your pancreas to produce an abundance of insulin, which leads to a “sugar crash”. Chronic elevation and depletion of sugar and insulin can lead to diabetes and other imbalance related diseases. This particularly affects growing children and it can set the stage for life-long health problems.

12. Soft drink companies specifically aim to get more young customers - so much for corporate responsibility.

13. Soft drinks are highly addictive - trying to quit often cause withdrawal symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, anxiety, and nausea. Does that sound like someone trying to quite drugs?

14. Soft drinks commonly cause gastrointestinal distress including heightened acid levels in the stomach and moderate to severe gastric inflammation and possible stomach lining erosion

The Passive Lifestyle – The Real Benefits To Exercise

Disrupting Your Natural Sleep Rhythm

We already looked at the mechanism that regulates your sleep and energy, your biological clock of sleep. This internal sleep clock is a very delicate physiological system—it is very sensitive and its natural rhythm is easily thrown out of balance by a number of internal and external factors. In other words, insomnia or impaired daytime functioning is often a symptom of the way you live your life and the way you think. It is critically important that you consciously identify and understand the issues that are messing up your natural sleep rhythm. In this part, we will be looking at these specific issues and providing you with a deeper understanding.

The Circadian Daredevil

 Like many of you, Frenchman Michel Siffre also rejoiced in a New Year’s celebration in 2000. Yet unlike most of you, Michel’s celebration took place three days late! Michel Siffre, a then 61-year-old cave explorer, descended 2,970 feet into a cave located in southern

Sunlight

You may be asking yourself, “How is this relevant?” I’m not living in a cave or planning a trip to the moon anytime soon. Okay, you don’t need to convince me of that, but the fact is that ordinary home lighting is a very poor substitute for natural sunlight. As far as your body is concerned staying in a office or in your home most of the day with no or very little exposure to natural light is the equivalent of living in a cave—and as you have probably figured, human beings weren’t designed to spend most of their time in a cave.

If you think that there is plenty of light in your home or at work, you are not quite right. You see, an ordinary light bulb emits around 200-500 luxes (a measure of illumination) of light. This is an inadequate amount of light especially when you consider that the light at sunrise produces around 10,000 luxes and at noon around 100,000 luxes. This should make it painfully clear that most indoor lighting is insufficient for our purposes. This is the reason why sunlight is so important. When bright sunlight enters your eyes it causes melatonin levels to decrease which stimulates wakefulness. The more luxes, the more melatonin production is inhibited. Conversely, when you are primarily exposed to indoor lighting during the day, melatonin levels increase since this type of light contains too few luxes and thereby your sleep system doesn’t understand it is getting light (isn’t adequately fueled). It thinks you’re in near-darkness and you will start to experience feelings of fatigue and tiredness. We can tell from this that exposure to bright light is required in order to make your body tell the difference between day and night. It is also crucial because if you stay out of natural light the entire day, you are flattening your circadian rhythm curve. This means that your body temperature doesn’t rise very much, which means that you are not giving your body a cue to start its natural rhythm. When your body temperature doesn’t rise very much, logic tells us that the ensuing drop in temperature will only be very small as well. This means that you are making it harder for your body to decipher the clues it needs to tell whether it is time to be awake or sleep. An irregular and limited exposure to sunlight “flattens” your body temperature curve. If you are not exposed to natural light until later in the day, you are delaying your body temperature curve. We can probably agree that moving to a cave is just a bit out of the ordinary, some might even call it crazy, but it isn’t one bit crazier than depriving yourself of natural light! That’s exactly what you’re doing if you’re not getting sunlight in the morning and throughout the day. It is often when people fail to expose themselves to sunlight as soon as they get out of bed and during the day that their natural sleep system becomes disrupted. In that case, you are giving your body a good reason to think that it’s time to sleep. The inevitable result is that you will be feeling drowsy and likely to fall asleep during the day. Further, the onset of night is not as a strong cue for your body that it is time for rest, because your body doesn’t have a clear distinction of day and night. The result is that your body and its natural rhythms become confused.

The Bottom Line on Circadian Rhythms

You need sunlight – by exposing yourself to sunlight you are communicating with your body in terms that your body can understand. Exposure to sunlight in the morning tells your body that another day has started and that the time for sleeping has ended. You also need darkness. When you are in a completely darkened room, you are telling your body that it is time to sleep.

Failure to expose ourselves to daylight is only one of the many ways that we are interfering with the inner sleep clock. We also engage in a variety of additional activities that only further disrupt the inner sleep system. It’s important to remember that it’s exposure to natural full-spectrum light (sunlight) that affects melatonin levels and body temperature—the sleep clock’s thermostat.

24 Ways to Waste Less Time in Bed 

Are you really an efficient sleeper or are you basically shaving hours off your life every day?  

Most people - probably including you - waste hours in bed for absolutely no good reason. The purpose of this article is to help you, not only to fall asleep faster, but also to optimize your sleep system – the idea is of course that you will ultimately waste less time in bed because you will require less sleep and fall asleep faster. 

The article is a work in progress. New tips will be added regularly, including in-depth explanations of each tip.  

1. Slow Bed Movements. Instead of tossing and turning in bed, move around sloooowly if you absolutely have to move around. Frustration feeds on fast movements. Gentle, slow movements will make you yawn and feel more tired. Try it!   

2. Eliminate Negative Thinking. Negative thinking in general (but in particular negative thinking about not being able to fall asleep) creates frustration that causes higher brain waves. When your brain waves are high you are more alert making it practically impossible to fall asleep. Replace negative thoughts with positive thoughts and images. Some people find it helpful to say, “Cancel, cancel,” every time they catch themselves in negative self-talk before substituting a positive statement.  

3. Limit time spent in bed. Regardless of how long you slept, don’t spend more than 8 hours in bed. Get out of that bed! Unless of course you and your better half have morning activities of some sort planned (which I do not want to hear about in any way, shape, or form. Please!). 

4. Reduce intake of stimulants. Avoid stimulants such as caffeine and nicotine at least 4-6 hours prior to bedtime. Nicotine and caffeine both speed up brain waves thereby promoting poor sleep. They can also cause you to have trouble falling asleep and can also cause more awakenings during the night. A little known fact is that smokers often experience nicotine withdrawal symptoms during sleep, which means your body will have more difficulty entering the deep sleep stage.’ 

5. Don’t use alcohol to fall asleep. People who are experiencing difficulties falling asleep often try to solve the problem with alcohol - the so-called nightcap. Although alcohol initially has a stimulating effect, that effect is followed by a decrease in the time needed to fall asleep. However, while alcohol does help people fall into light sleep, it also robs them of the deeper, restorative stages that are responsible for restoring your physical energy, which is likely to have a negative impact on your daily energy levels.

6. Learn to Relax or Meditate. Practice breathing exercises such as abdominal breathing – or consider learning some basic relaxation techniques. Google it! No, you do not also have to become an active yoga enthusiast just because you meditate, and you will be no less of a man (or woman) for doing so. Listen to meditative slow music. Buy a meditation CD! 

7. Relax your facial muscles. Most people who try to relax are mostly concerned about relaxing the body. Full relaxation goes for your face too.  

8. Stop looking at your alarm clock. If you can’t stop looking at your alarm clock when trying to fall asleep, move it out sight or turn it around. You don’t want to be reminded that you can’t fall asleep - it will only reinforce the inability to fall asleep.  

9. Adhere to a designated get-out-of-bed time every morning. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t slept well or slept very much. Yes… get out of bed! I thought I told you that already? 

10. Don’t concentrate on falling asleep. You should never actively pursue sleep. If you stress because you feel that you must be asleep by a certain time or simply put too much effort into focusing on falling asleep, you will decrease the likelihood of your falling asleep.  

11. Expose yourself to natural light (works best during daytime). As people we are designed to bask in natural light, not to be confined in artificially illuminated cubicles all day long! Get out and enjoy the splendor of the real world as often as you can. Take your lunch outside; eat breakfast on your porch or near a window. Move your desk near a window. Ordinary indoor lighting produces so little natural light that your body practically believes you’re in total darkness. 

12. Make sure your bedroom is dark. I’m talking about when it is time to sleep. What you and/or partner(s) do before that time is none of my business! Geeez, how many times do I have to repeat myself here! The same way that bright daylight signals to your body that it is time to wake up, darkness has the opposite effect. Complete darkness aids the body in the production of melatonin that is required in order to sleep. 

13. Take a vow of abstinence. 

14. Let’s get physical. No, I’m not necessarily talking about that. Jogging works too. Exercise is conducive to sleep because it puts strain on the body. When you physically engage your body, your brain will compensate for this by increasing the length of the deep sleep stage. The best time to exercise is late afternoon or early evening. This is so the ensuing drop in body temperature will coincide with your designated bedtime.  

15. Ok, ok. Scratch number 13. Jogging isn’t that much fun. 

16. Don’t eat heavy meals in the evening. Your digestive system slows down during the night, so your system will use a lot of energy digesting late meals—energy that should have been used to rejuvenate your body! So, avoid heavy eating before bedtime. 

17. Take a steaming hot bath for around 20-30 minutes. Taking a hot bath will provide a quick rise in body temperature followed by a drop. You should take a bath around two hours before bedtime so the drop in body temperature will coincide with your designated bedtime. Taking a bath more than two hours before bedtime may only make it more difficult to fall asleep since body temperature may still be too high. 

18. Get off soft drinks. Most soft drinks contain caffeine—the bottom line is that you should moderate soft drink consumption, or stop it completely. 

19. Eat foods that are conducive to sleep. Eat chlorophyll-rich foods, such as leafy, green vegetables, lightly steamed or boiled. Fresh is always better than frozen or canned. Local is better than imported. Micro algae, such as chlorella and spirulina, are considered super foods, because they provide so many vitamins and minerals. You can purchase these and oyster shell as nutritional supplements in a health foods store. Carbohydrates boost serotonin, which promotes better sleep. Whole grains such as whole wheat, brown rice, and oats have a calming and soothing effect on the nervous system and the mind. Mushrooms support the immune system. Fruit, especially mulberries and lemons, calm the mind. Seeds: jujube seeds calm the spirit and support the heart. Chia seeds also have a sedative effect. Use dill, basil and other herbs, particularly organic herbs, to spruce up your dishes. 

20. Adjust bedroom temperature. Since we already know that a drop in body temperature is important in regards to falling asleep, it is obvious that it will be harder for your body temperature to drop if your bedroom is too warm. Make sure that your bedroom is relatively cool. Of course, it should not be so cold that you are freezing, since that will make you unable to relax and fall asleep. A few degrees below your daytime environment will set the stage for quality sleep.  

21. Block out the noise. To block out unwanted and disturbing noises some people find a constant “white noise” very soothing and an effective remedy to achieve a serene, calm mindset. White noise masks other noises that may be keeping you awake. 

22. Develop good pre-sleep routines. An hour or so prior to sleep, it is important that you start to wind down and allow your mind and body to become susceptible to slipping into sleep. During this hour before sleep, you should avoid any stimulating activities such as discussing finances with your spouse or watching an action packed programs on TV. This, of course, includes the news! 

23. Laugh more. Laugh and have fun some time before bedtime. Laughter releases endorphins in your body and reduces stress. It’s not enough to just go ha-ha. It has to be genuine laughter. You can make a frequently updated play list on Youtube.com to create your own little laugh-on-demand cinema. 

24. Don’t go to bed unless you feel tired. You should only try to sleep when you are sleepy. Let your body tell you when it is time for bed. Frustration is most often the effect of a failed attempt to go to sleep. With increased frustration, you are left in a state of arousal that further inhibits sleep. In addition, as you continue to lie awake, you reinforce the association between your bed and wakefulness.  

25. Insert your tip here. If you have a tip that has worked for you - feel free to leave a comment below! If it is any good I will add it to the list
Sweet Dreams… but not for too long. J

Martin

 Your internal biological clock, often referred to as the sleep clock or circadian clock, regulates your sleep and your daytime energy levels. This inner clock is sensitive to many factors, as you will learn later on. Your biological clock is very different from a normal clock. The biological clock is a physiological system that allows you to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature, such as the cycles of day and night and the changing of seasons. The most important function of our biological clock is that it regulates our sleep/wake cycle. This clock is located in a very small area of the brain called the within the hypothalamus. This part of the brain is often referred to as the body’s master gland because it regulates such vital functions as heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, hormone production, and body temperature! If anything, this should underline the importance of body temperature. Now that you have a basic understanding of what the sleep clock is, let us look at the specific components or variables that combine to make up this sleep clock.

Our body’s natural behavior gives us other clues to the importance of deep sleep. For example if for any reason you don’t get enough sleep one night your brain will compensate for this by increasing the percentage of deep sleep obtained the next night. Remember also that most deep sleep occurs during the early sleep cycles, which may be a clue of the relative importance of this stage: it occurs in the period that is least likely to be missed. What is the one most important thing we can we learn from all this? Since deep sleep is what replenishes your physical energy (and since our focus is on maximizing energy), then deep sleep is equal to quality sleep. Deep sleep is the most rejuvenating stage of sleep, and you get most of your deep sleep in the early sleep cycles. Your sleep then becomes gradually lighter as the night progresses, which means that the quality of your sleep diminishes. Your ability to control and maximize deep sleep rests upon your ability to control your underlying natural sleep clock. This is your built-in sleep system that governs your sleep.