Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Owning Healthy Sleep Habits Is Quite Important

The connection between healthy weight loss and regular sleeping habits is not usually the first thing a person considers as being necessary for dieting success, but the two are directly linked. Sleep plays an important role in overall health and provides many benefits for people who are trying to lose weight and keep it off. A healthy sleep cycle is directly related to appetite and the body's chemistry throughout the day. By considering some easy to implement suggestions and acknowledging existing bad habits, individuals become better prepared to successfully attain and maintain their weight loss goals.

Understanding the benefits of healthy sleeping habits is a good place to begin. A healthy sleep cycle is divided into two distinct classifications: NREM and REM. NREM or non-rapid eye movement dominates the night and is separated by repeating periods of REM or rapid eye movement sleep. The four stages of NREM sleep are responsible for the regulation of heart rate and breathing both of which provide restorative benefits to the body. During NREM sleep blood supply to muscles is increased and muscles become more relaxed promoting tissue repair and growth. Additionally, energy is being restored to the body and growth hormones are being released promoting increased muscle development.

REM sleep increases these benefits by providing additional energy to the brain and body as well as replenishing hormone levels such as cortisol, leptin, and ghrelin that are depleted throughout the day. Cortisol, at natural levels, promotes alertness and is active in the metabolism of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates within the body. Leptin and ghrelin are responsible for appetite sensations relating to hunger and feeling full. The combination of the effects of REM and NREM sleep promote overall general health that can aid in the process of weight loss. The disruption of this process leads to complications during the day that make weight loss more difficult and can actually contribute to weight gain.


Sleeping habits can be improved to facilitate the benefits of sleep that play an important factor in weight loss. A regular sleep schedule combined with a ritualistic evening routine communicates to the body that rest is near. The evening routine should include a comfortable environment without the distractions contained in other rooms in a home. The bedroom should be set aside for sleep and not used as a home office or infiltrated with video games, computers, and televisions that often keep people occupied and awake far later into the night than intended.

Eliminating the tendency to enjoy a late night snack or caffeine infused beverage before bedtime will also promote a healthy night's sleep. A good practice is to avoid eating or drinking anything that disrupts a person's ability to fall asleep for at least 2 or 3 hours prior to bedtime. This timeframe should also include exercising. Exercise is an important aspect to a healthy lifestyle, but it can be counter-productive when exercise takes place too near bedtime. Late night exercise awakens the body and makes sleep difficult to achieve.

The sleeping habits for adults tend to change overtime even though the need for sleep remains the same. This change is typically related to the change in lifestyle that people experience as they age, and this can affect weight loss too. As people age, their behaviors make falling asleep more difficult. Whether this change results from career responsibilities, family situations, or educational pursuits, a consistent sleep pattern is necessary for maintaining a healthy body.

Sleeping habits for young adults are most affected by disruptions that occur over the weekends or while raising children. While the latter seems unavoidable, weekend disruptions and other late night activities make it difficult for the body to react effectively to an inconsistent schedule. The more stable a person's lifestyle can be, the greater benefit that person will receive during a good night's sleep.

At the other end of the spectrum, sleeping habits for older adults are typically put off by the lack of early morning responsibilities. Without the early morning obligations, older adults tend to stay up later than they otherwise would and this leads to periods of drowsiness during the day. A mid-day nap will likely follow a short night's sleep, so now the next evening's rest is disrupted as well.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Some Of These Sleeping Positions To Help You Reduce Back Pain

People with back pain may struggle to get relief from their pain during their waking hours, and they may even notice that they have trouble sleeping at night due to the pain. When people do not get enough sleep at night, they may become more sensitive to pain, and thus, it may become even harder to sleep at night. This vicious cycle can be hard to break. Some sleepers try to deal with their back pain with pain killers, but even this is not always effective. Many pain killers are linked to sleep apnea, and that too can disrupt their sleep patterns.

There are many factors that may put strain on your back while you are sleeping. For instance, you may develop pain due to a bad mattress or due to sleeping in the wrong position. Buying a new mattress is one of the easiest ways to alleviate back pain while sleeping, and most experts prefer something like intellibed, the best bed for back problems. Whether you purchase a new bed or not, you may want to try some of these sleeping positions to reduce back pain.


One of the most popular sleeping positions is lying on your side. In this position, your legs and hips will be lined up and flexed. However, your upper leg may tend to slip forward to rest on the mattress. When this happens, your lower spine rotates, and this can add to your back pain. To avoid this, you simply need to place a pillow between your legs. This will keep your upper leg in place, and it will prevent it from slipping forward onto the mattress.

Sleeping on your back is a great position for promoting the right alignment in your spine. To ensure that you do not strain anything, you may want to add a few pillows for extra support. Ideally, you should put a pillow under your knees. This will help to support the natural curve of your lower spine. If you want additional support near your head, you may want to sleep with a neck roll or a small towel under your neck.

If you like to sleep on your stomach, you should consider changing positions. This position puts an incredible amount of strain on your back. However, some people simply cannot switch from this position into another position. If you feel like you must sleep on your tummy, you should put a pillow under your hips and lower abdomen. This will help to promote the right alignment, and it will reduce strain on your back. The best practice is to sleep without a pillow under your head, but if you truly need a pillow under your head, you may use a small one.

Back pain can interrupt your days and your nights. Unfortunately, it can be hard to totally eliminate back pain, but it is not impossible to reduce it. By blending a few new sleeping positions with a new mattress, you may start to feel a lot better.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Know Morev About Lack of Sleep

If a person is hungry, they typically eat. So if someone is exhausted, why do so many individuals will not go to sleep? In today's rat race, fast-paced society it's not hard to get lost in all the indulgences life has to offer and wind up wronged by a lack of sleep. Television is one example. With hundreds of shows also to choose from, on demand movies, sports etc... the option to be awake is just too attractive.
There are numerous people that disapproval sleep they believe it's a waste of time and that you get lots of sleep when you are departed. The kinds of people who have this belief are commonly very ambitious people who sleep only a few hours a day. Nonetheless, medical research has found that people who live this kind of lifestyle will grow old quicker compared to people who have the habit of getting a good night sleep. As pointed out the body wants time to restore and rejuvenate the brain and our body cells. A lack of sleep hinders the body's growth hormones to repair our cells and in terms of our skin this results in an increase in wrinkles. Enough sleep also plays an important role in strengthening our immune system which protects the body from diseases, infections and free radicals that harm our skin cells.
Lack of sleep for long has been connected with main health related issues and other critical issues like diabetes, obesity, coronary heart diseases. Findings of a recent research have now incorporated colon cancer within the list of major risks that lack of sleep poses.This is the first of its kind research to report a substantial association of the number of hours of sleep with the colon cancer. It has revealed that people who took below 6 hours of sleep at night had raised their risk of acquiring colorectal adenomas by 50 percent as compared to the individuals who slept for a minimum of seven hours every night. It is considered that adenomas are actually benign but can act predecessors to malignant cancerous growths if they are not treated in time.
We all need sufficient sleep, kids integrated. Lack of sleep can lead to many issues - mental, such as poor academic work, memory problems and even moodiness as well as anger and depression. And physical. Lack of sleep weakens the immune system, letting an invasion by everything from a cold to diabetes and other health conditions.
Some adults, depending on metabolic elements, may perform well on somewhat less. Nonetheless, veritable guidelines of neurophysiology basically vary little from person to person. In other words, the lowest amount of sleep one person's body needs to relax neuronal activity compared to another person is not as large as we might see in practice. And, since auditory treatment entails a process of neural "rewiring", lack of sleep only slows or prevents such activity.
The most important thing to remember about the fatal things lack of sleep can have is that they have no need to be lived. These things can be Absolutely averted when someone takes the necessary steps to get more relaxing sleep.