If food is the #1 way to control your health, appearance, and happiness, then I would probably have to assign sleep as #2. Sleep: the natural state of bodily rest observed by humans and other animals. Some women say they can get by on 6-7 hours of sleep each night. More power to you honeys. I personally need 8-9 hours pretty much without exception every night. This is the surest way to guarantee that I'll make other sound decisions regarding my health the following day. Sleep plays a huge role in determining my energy level, appetite, and mood. In one GOOP newsletter, an expert recommends that the first and easiest change one can make to develop healthier habits, is to first change her sleep habits. After two weeks of sound sleep, she can then change her appetite to minimize white food and animal products with much greater ease.
An awesome natural sleep aid is Valerian Root, which is most often consumed as tea. One of my fellow Holiday Honeys swears by this tea. You can find Valerian at your local health food store, if you've had any trouble getting into a normal sleep cycle. According to Deepak Chopra, "restful sleep provides the foundation to mental and physical well-being."
I'm guilty of the bedtime triple threat: texting, web surfing, and watching tv all at the same time. These are NOT optimal conditions for rejuvenating sleep. Deepak recommends reading inspirational or spiritual literature in bed, and not watching any television or doing any work whatsoever. He also says that self-massage followed by a warm bath is a good pre-sleep ritual. Deepak suggests that sleep before midnight is more restful than sleep hours acrued after midnight. Therefore sleeping from 10pm until 6am will be more beneficial than sleeping from midnight to 8am. Either way ladies, there's no denying that sleep makes you look, feel, and operate closer to your highest potential. ZZZzzzzz.
I just wanted to say, nice post. I've found your blog through the FitBuff carnivals a couple times now and have enjoyed your entries.
You said that sleep patterns can be the first method one takes at becoming a healthier person and I couldn't agree more. They say that exercise is very important but if you are exhausted how can you get into the habit of exercise... it's tough, I know.
I'll have to look into Valerian Root as I've never heard of it but I have also written recently on the benefits of sleep and thought you and your readers might be interested.
Another random thought just occurred to me. My dad has sleep issues and he swears by taking a shot of apple cider vinegar at night before bed. I believe this serves the purpose of settling the stomach so that you can be more comfortable and as a result sleep better.
I'll be linking to this post from my blog as I always like to highlight the carnival writers other than myself.
Posted by: brian | 07/06/2009 at 06:10 PM
Wonderful post! I actually found this site by browsing through Brian's "How To Live A Longer Life" blog. Sleep has always been a fascinating topic to me, and it's interesting to know the benefits of sleep as well as how to promote sleep.
"...Deepak recommends reading inspirational or spiritual literature in bed, and not watching any television or doing any work whatsoever..."
I agree with Deepak when he recommends that reading in bed encourages sleep. Indeed it does, especially if someone is reading to you. Of course, this tactic goes a long way back in history. Children have always enjoyed being read to before bed.
However, I'd have to disagree with Deepak when he suggests not to watch television before bed. I find that changing the tv to the news channel and turning the volume low works great on a tough day when I can't get any rest. Usually with this set-up, I'm asleep in minutes!
Though I never mentioned sleep on my blog Salad Sticks, I think sleep is a great way to keep healthy. I agree with Brian's above post that, with sleep, you'll be more energized and able to do everyday tasks more efficiently.
Overall, great post! I'm definitely going to stop by later.
Posted by: Christina Crowe | 07/07/2009 at 12:01 AM