Improve Quality of Sleep

Sleep is a natural behaviour of everybody's life, but many people do not know how important sleep it is, and some even try to get by on little sleep. We spend about one-third of our lives asleep. Sleep is something our bodies need to do; it is not an option. Sleep gives the body cells an opportunity to rid themselves of waste and to repair themselves. To insure a recovery period from such fatigue, we undergo the periodic loss of consciousness known as sleep. Some parts of the brain actually increase their activity dramatically, and the body produces more of certain hormones. The cardiovascular system also gets a break during sleep. Researchers also found that people with normal or high blood pressure experience a 20 to 30% decrease in blood pressure and 10 to 20% decrease in heart rate.

When we get less sleep (even one hour less) than we need each night, we develop a sleep debt. When you get sleepiness that occurs when you should be awake and alert, that interferes with daily routine and activities, and reduces your ability to function. Even if you do not feel sleepy, the sleep debt can have a powerful negative effect on your daytime performance, thinking, and mood, and cause you to fall asleep at inappropriate and even dangerous times.Missing hours of sleep could slow down the body ability to produce blood sugar which stops the action of insulin that diabetics need to function. Sleep debt hinders you r ability to think clearly and come up with answers to day-to-day questions. Sleep debt can also contribute to obesity as it increased the stress hormone called Cortisol.

The amount of sleep each person needs depends on many factors, including age. Infants generally require about 16 hours a day, while teenagers need about 9 hours on average. For most adults, 7 to 8 hours a night appears to be the best amount of sleep, although some people may need as few as 5 hours or as many as 10 hours of sleep each day.

The quality of sleep also important. The higher the quality of your sleep, the less you may need to be fully rested. The amount of sleep you need is also affected by something called sleep "hygiene." Basically, this refers to various lifestyle choices you make every day that can have an impact on your sleep. These choices include things like the amount of caffeine you consume, the amount of exercise you get, and whether or not you smoke or drink alcohol.

Tips to Improve Sleep Quality

- Caffeine is only our friend during the morning hours. Even though you might not think that caffeine affects very much, it does play a big part in your body's ability to settle down and rest at the end of the day. If need cup of coffee, switch to decaf after lunch. Caffeine can affect our body for up to eight hours. The longer it has to leave your system the less likely it is to affect your sleeping habits.

- Make sure your bed and bedroom comfortable. Sleep in a room with reduced light, reduced noise and a temperature not too cool or hot.

- Avoid large meals just before bedtime. Small snacks are not a problem, but large meals keep the digestive system active and can disrupt sleep.

- Sleep in complete darkness or as close as possible. If there is even the tiniest bit of light in the room it can disrupt your circadian rhythm and your pineal gland's production of melatonin and seratonin. There also should be as little light in the bathroom as possible if you get up in the middle of the night. As soon as you turn on that light you will for that night immediately cease all production of the important sleep aid melatonin.