Musings | Why We Sleep (1)
“The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night’s sleep”
Says Matthew Walker in Why We Sleep, “I believe it is time for us to reclaim our right to a full night of sleep, without embarrassment or the damaging stigma of laziness. In doing so, we can be reunited with that most powerful elixir of wellness and vitality, dispensed through every conceivable biological pathway. Then we may remember what it feels like to be truly awake during the day, infused with the very deepest plenitude of being.”
Sleep is magic. It is free. It is a requirement of every living organism on earth. Although well documented scientifically, our need for and the benefits of sleep are not well known in the public realm, but they should be because seven to eight hours of sleep a day has the power to:
Make you live longer
Enhance memory and prevent dementia
Make you more creative
Make you more attractive
Keep you slim and lower food cravings
Protect you from cancer
Ward off colds and the flu
Lower the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes
Enhance your mood and decrease the severity of anxiety and depression
Let’s be honest, seven to eight hours a day of daily rest is not easy for everyone. Sleep can be elusive and pose a real challenge for some. To help you reap all the benefits of sleep, check out the tips below:
Smartphones and other devices may be one of the biggest detractors from getting enough rest. To wrangle your control over your devices, consider the following ideas from the American Heart Association:
MOVE IT: charge your phone as far away from your bed as possible. Bonus? The distance may help you feel less overwhelmed in general
DIM IT: Dim your screen or use a red filter app at night. The bright blue light of most devices can mess with your circadian rhythm and melatonin production
SET IT: Alarms aren’t just for waking up – set a bedtime alarm to remind you that it’s time to wrap it up for the night
LOCK IT: If you’ve got a scrolling habit you need to kick, try an app-blocking app that makes it impossible to get lost in after-hours emails, social media, or gaming
BLOCK IT: Tell notifications to buzz off if they’re waking you up at night. Put your phone on” do not disturb” mode to block it all out when you’re trying to sleep.