Busting the myths.
This week I thought I’d share with you some information I’ve taken from The National Institute of Health’s Guide to Healthy Sleep.
It takes 4 key myths about Sleep and tells you the truth about them. Here goes…
Myths and Facts about Sleep
Myth 1: Getting just 1 hour less sleep per night won’t effect your daytime functioning. You may not be noticeably sleepy during the day. But even slightly less sleep can affect your ability to think properly and respond quickly, and compromise your cardiovascular health, energy balance, and ability to fight infections.
Myth 2: Your body adjusts quickly to different sleep schedules. Most people can reset their biological clock, but only by appropriately timed cues—and even then, by 1–2 hours per day at best. Consequently, it can take more than a week to adjust after traveling across several time zones or switching to the night shift.
Myth 3: Extra sleep at night can cure you of problems with excessive daytime fatigue. Not only is the quantity of sleep important but also the quality of sleep. Some people sleep 8 or 9 hours a night but don’t feel well rested when they wake up because the quality of their sleep is poor.
Myth 4: You can make up for lost sleep during the week by sleeping more on the weekends. Although this sleeping pattern will help relieve part of a sleep debt, it will not completely make up for the lack of sleep. Furthermore, sleeping later on the weekends can affect your biological clock so that it is much harder to go to sleep at the right time on Sunday nights and get up early on Monday mornings.
Makes you think doesn’t it.
Dan Kennedy has written a free ebook on how to Cure Your Insomnia. To download it visit www.cure-your-insomnia.com
Showing posts with label jetlag. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jetlag. Show all posts
Monday, 15 November 2010
Wednesday, 6 October 2010
7 top tips on avoiding jet lad triggered insomnia
My wife has just returned from a long haul trip to the States with work. After a couple of weeks with her struggling to sleep and waking me up in the middle of the night to look at paint samples I thought I’d better start looking at how I can stop this from happening again!
So I’ve decided to pull together some facts on the causes of jetlag and some tips on things that you can do to avoid it. Even if you’ve not got a long flights across timezones coming up soon – hopefully you can remember the tips and they will come in handy in the future.
So what is jet lag exactly?
Well, one of the downsides of long distance travel across different timezones is that it confuses your body clock – this can lead to throwing peoples sleep patterns.
The syptoms manifest themselves as severe tiredness and fatigue as well as minor disorientation.
7 Top Tips on avoiding jetlag
The tips below have been proven to help with minimising the effects of jetlag.
1. Your watch
Change your watch to your destination time as soon as you board the plane. It’s a small thing but it really helps you mentally adjust to arriving at your destination.
2. Eating
Eat after you land, rather than just on the plane. This will help your body clock adjust. It will also help you feel dozy as long as you keep to a light meal. A salad is often good as lettuce has been found to actually help people sleep.
3. Bedtime
When you arrive at your destination – force yourself to stay awake. It’s best not to sleep until it is bedtime in that timezone.
4. Routine
If it is bedtime when you arrive, follow your normal bedtime routine. This will encourage sleep.
5. Dehydration
This makes jetlag worse. It is important to try and avoid too much alcohol on your flight and instead drink lots of water.
6. Light
If you have arrived in daylight when it should be dark in the time zone you’ve come from – try and avoid light as much as you can the first day or so.
7. Active
Finally, be as active as you can during daylight hours. This will help you naturally feel tired at night time in the new timezone. Fatigue can be a great way of getting back into a sleep routine.
Hope these tips come in use at some point in the future
Dan Kennedy has written a free ebook on how to Cure Your Insomnia. To download it visit www.cure-your-insomnia.com
So I’ve decided to pull together some facts on the causes of jetlag and some tips on things that you can do to avoid it. Even if you’ve not got a long flights across timezones coming up soon – hopefully you can remember the tips and they will come in handy in the future.
So what is jet lag exactly?
Well, one of the downsides of long distance travel across different timezones is that it confuses your body clock – this can lead to throwing peoples sleep patterns.
The syptoms manifest themselves as severe tiredness and fatigue as well as minor disorientation.
7 Top Tips on avoiding jetlag
The tips below have been proven to help with minimising the effects of jetlag.
1. Your watch
Change your watch to your destination time as soon as you board the plane. It’s a small thing but it really helps you mentally adjust to arriving at your destination.
2. Eating
Eat after you land, rather than just on the plane. This will help your body clock adjust. It will also help you feel dozy as long as you keep to a light meal. A salad is often good as lettuce has been found to actually help people sleep.
3. Bedtime
When you arrive at your destination – force yourself to stay awake. It’s best not to sleep until it is bedtime in that timezone.
4. Routine
If it is bedtime when you arrive, follow your normal bedtime routine. This will encourage sleep.
5. Dehydration
This makes jetlag worse. It is important to try and avoid too much alcohol on your flight and instead drink lots of water.
6. Light
If you have arrived in daylight when it should be dark in the time zone you’ve come from – try and avoid light as much as you can the first day or so.
7. Active
Finally, be as active as you can during daylight hours. This will help you naturally feel tired at night time in the new timezone. Fatigue can be a great way of getting back into a sleep routine.
Hope these tips come in use at some point in the future
Dan Kennedy has written a free ebook on how to Cure Your Insomnia. To download it visit www.cure-your-insomnia.com
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