Sleep is essential to health.
We would all like to deny that fact, but it's true.
One aspect of sleep I didn’t learn until a few years ago is how our brains repair/clean themselves. Without getting too medical on you, a fluid cleanses our brains during sleep. It clears out toxins and wastes. If you'd like to read the whole scientific explanation, there's a fairly good layman’s terms run-down of it here.
Basically, it's like taking out the trash. If you don't get all of the trash out of your house one week, it's not a big deal. You can catch up the next week. However, if you only take out some of your trash every week, it's going to pile up in your home and cause big problems. Except in this case, the trash is in our brains!
Effects of Lack of Sleep
When you are chronically short on sleep, it causes a number of issues. A few of them include:
- Impaired problem-solving and reasoning abilities
- Lowered attention to detail
- More difficulty forming memories
- Increased risk of heart attack, stroke, diabetes, and hypertension
- Higher chance of anxiety and depression
Plus, one of the toxins the brain clears during sleep is known to accumulate in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's.
Fixing Sleep Issues
I used to have serious issues both falling asleep and staying asleep. On nights when I was particularly stressed, I would barely sleep at all.
Over the last several years, I’ve made sleep a priority and put a few lifestyle changes into place to make sure I get enough of it.
Here are my top three tips for better sleep:
1 - Have a sleep schedule – Going to bed whenever you’re tired doesn’t work very well. You need to set a schedule and train your body when it’s time to sleep.
2 - Make your bedroom a good sleep environment – A darker room yields better quality sleep, and both diffusing essential oils and playing white noise or sleep music can help you fall asleep more easily.
3 - Avoid blue light – The light from our phones, TVs, computers, tablets, even our LED light bulbs disrupts our sleep cycles. Do your best to avoid blue light for 30-60 minutes before going to sleep.
Want to Learn More?
I did a 10-day series on improving sleep in my group on Facebook. If you’d like to join in, just request to join the group. There are no strings – just education. Once in, you can find the sleep series in the guides.
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