On this site, we talk a lot about sleep hygiene and creating a good sleep routine. One activity that is often recommended is reading a book before bed. Reading before bed is a fun, relaxing activity that often does not expose you to blue light (unless you read on an electronic device) and can help your brain wind down before bed.
Continue reading to learn the benefits of reading before bed and other tips to help optimize this activity.
Trying to interpret dreams has been a practice for many years. People have been fascinated with what they think dreams might actually mean. Even in ancient cultures, they used to think that dreams had a spiritual or religious meaning behind them. Some cultures and people still believe that, while others believe that dreams actually have very little meaning.
Books on how to interpret dreams are widely available. And some mental health professionals use dream analysis in their practices. However, scientist still do not understand the precise reasoning behind dreaming, and if they actually do you mean anything. Although there has been no definitive answer on why we dream, and what dreams may actually mean for our lives, what we do know is the diving into dreams. Can be a very fascinating practice. Continue reading to learn more about if your dreams actually mean anything, and how to interpret them.
Have you ever been sleep and felt like you saw or heard something that ended up not being there? This can be quite an unsettling and frightening experience, especially when you're transitioning between sleep and being awake. Hallucinations can be caused by a lack of sleep, underlying condition, or the use of a certain substance.
One of these hallucinations is called hypnopompic hallucination which is a specific type of hallucination that happens right when you are waking up. If you experience these often, it can be helpful to determine what exactly could be the cause. Continue reading to learn more about them, and what you can do about them.
The schedule of most obligations - work, school, kids, etc. - is not conducive towards those who enjoy sleeping in. Therefore, you may be motivated to turn yourself into a morning bird. You may have also heard that it's impossible to flip your chronotype, you are what you are. This may not be entirely true. Although your body has specific times that it likes to got to sleep and wake up, there are adjustments that you can make to help your body get accustomed to an earlier time. Continue reading to learn tips for how to turn yourself into a morning bird.
At the end of another long day that came after another bad night of sleep, the last thing you may want to do is exercise. You may be trying to maintain your fitness goals and overall health. But at that point, nothing sounds better than going home to sit on the couch and get some much needed rest.
But what are the experts say? Is it safe for you to workout even thought you are tired and unfocused. Sleep deprivation makes it harder for you to make good decisions, pay attention, memorize things, and do much other than function at baseline. Working out involves coordination, awareness, focus and motivation - all of which go out the window when it comes to being so tired.
Continue reading to learn what experts say about exercising when you're tired.
Growling or twisting stomach right when you lie down for bed? Nothing is worse than a stomach going off like a marching band when you're trying to get a good night's rest. Even discomfort like heart burn tends to get started at night due to the force of gravity and your position in bed. These can all be uncomfortable situations that prevent you from getting a good night's rest. But, did you know that poor sleep can also affect digestion? Continue reading to learn more about this relationship, and determine if there are any changes you may need to make!
You need two things to fall asleep: a relaxed mind and a relaxed body. Overstimulation disrupts your ability to have a relaxed mind. One source of this overstimulation could be your unmade bed. A clean room represents a clean mind, and a cluttered room could overwhelm the brain.
Even if you don't have time to clean your room everyday, starting with your mattress and bed may be key to helping your mind relaxed. A little less than half of people who make their bed and turn down their covers fall asleep within the typical time it takes to fall asleep - 20 minutes. Comparatively, only about a third of adults who don't make their bed fall asleep in this same time frame.
Making your bed every morning could give you a renewed sense of purpose. The average number of days that one makes their bed is 4.1 days per week. It's as if that one task builds momentum for another to be completed. Continue reading to see the impact that making your bed can have on you falling asleep faster.
Quality sleep is vital for your child's functioning and academic success. Sleep deprivation in children can look similar to adults, but it can also differ. Academic performance is going to be one of the main players in how you can recognize when your child is not getting enough sleep.
One way to ensure that your child does get enough sleep is to ensure that when school starts, they are back on track with their sleep schedule. The summer is a looser time without many time commitments or time-restraints. Therefore, parents normally are more relaxed about when their children go to bed and when they wake up.
Transitioning back to school can take some readjustment in many areas of their lives, including a sleep schedule. Continue reading to learn more about how to get your child back on track with their sleep schedule for a good start to the year.
Three and four teenagers, and 96% of teens between the ages of 15 and 17 bring technology into the bedroom. This can lead to the average adolescent getting up to nine hours of screen time per day. The growing use of electronics between school, home and extracurriculars has its benefits. But it also has its drawbacks.
The effect of blue light can severely interrupt the flow of melatonin from the brain as its controlled by light. Melatonin is required to help the body prepare for bed. Blue light emitted from cell phones is very strong due to how small the screens are. Almost 67% of teenagers have a regular sleep schedule less than the recommended amount of time for their age group. Continue reading to learn more about how screen time can impact the development of insomnia in teens.
Although it's still a month away, Daylight saving time is around the corner. Once again, it's time to get ready for shorter days, longer nights, and a major shift to your sleeping pattern. Just because the time difference is only an hour, doesn't mean that it doesn't still have a significant impact on your ability to get a good night's rest for the first few weeks.
Normally in the spring, you "spring forward" and in the fall, you "fall back". This means that you'll either move your clock ahead one hour and wind it back an hour, respectively. This abrupt change can cause major sleep dysfunction within your household if you don't properly prepare for it.
The change in the spring is subjectively harder than the change in the fall because you can have reduced sleep quantity and quality. However, in the fall, there is an overestimation of how much the extra hour can make up for lost sleep time when really long-term adjustment is needed to make up a sleep debt.
There has been research that shows the association between daylight saving time and short-term health risks, like heart attacks, strokes, traffic accidents, emergency room visits, and mood disturbances. Part of this is due to the shift in your circadian rhythm, because of the change in light exposure. The circadian rhythm has profound effects on your overall well-being.
The switch between daylight saving time and back should not be taken lightly. Here are a few tips for how to prepare for the change.