Sleep Deeply Every Night For A Fit And Beautiful Body

Sleep deprivation is a serious medical risk, but few people are aware of that. A spate of studies is turning up clear links between inadequate sleep and obesity, as well as several related conditions: heart disease, hypertension, and type 2 diabetes. For example, people who typically get fewer than 7 hours of sleep per night are more likely to be obese than their well=rested peers, according to an analysis of almost 7000 people enrolled in a US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The good news is that with adequate sleep, these conditions may be reversible, says experts. Drawing on studies about what robs us of quality sleep, they have devised strategies that can help you get the rest you need. Here’s a line-up of the most insiduous sleep thieves – and the latest recommendations on how to bar them from your bedroom forever.

Sleep Thief 1 – An Overactive Mind:
The reason why you sometimes obsess over a difficult project or an argument with your best friend when you’re trying to fall asleep; you can’t re-focus your thinking at the edge of slumber the same way you cab when you’re alert. People have little control over their thoughts, because they maybe going in and out of a light stage of sleep, even though they think they’re awake.
Rest Easy: When fretful, get up and go to another part of the house (but leave the lights off). Your anxious thoughts will usually stop right away. Then you can go back to bed and fall asleep. This well-studied strategy, called stimulus control, also prevents you from associating your bed with anxiety.
Set Time Aside: Set aside time early in the evening to solve problems. Write down your pressing concerns, along with a possible solution for each, a few hours before retiring. To get sleep you need to relax and to do that you need to believe in yourself. I notice a lot of psychological and sociological stress in patients who come to me with sleep disorders.

Sleep Thief 2 – Weekend Sleep-ins:
Late nights followed by extra hours of sleep the next morning throw off your internal clock, which is controlled by a cluster of nerve cells in the brain that also regulate apetite and body temperature. When Sunday rolls around, you’re re-programmed to stay up past your bedtime, and you feel like a zombie on Monday morning.
Rest Easy: Even if you’ve been up late, don’t sleep in more than an hour longer than usual. To make up for lost slumber, take an afternoon catnap (no more than 30 minutes, though, because an extended daytime snooze can keep you awake at night.)