ANCSLEEP BLOG

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. 

A recent study found that sleeping with the window open actually improves our sleep. However, over half of adults in the U.S. sleep with their bedroom windows closed. The reason that sleeping with the window open can be so beneficial, is that it can improve the quality of the air that we breathe. The long-term effect of this is longer-lasting sleep. Continue reading to learn why sleeping with the window open is so important, and what may be some of the reasons that you are not doing it.   

Teaching children to share is vital at a young age. However, a new study is finding that having children share bedrooms could actually be cause them to miss out on sleep. How much sleep exactly? 28 minutes. Although that doesn't seem like a significant amount, the extra time could actually be worth it. Continue reading to learn more about the benefit of children sleeping in their own bedrooms. 

Caffeine is stimulant that is used around the world to combat sleepiness. It is present in coffee, teas, sodas, and other supplements to help provide energy throughout the day. It is natural, but can also be synthetically produced. 

Caffeine normally affects the body within about 30-60 minutes of consumption. It is efficiently distributed throughout the whole body and can cross the blood-brain barrier. 

Inside the brain, it blocks a sleep-promoting chemical and can also interfere with the circadian melatonin rhythms. Caffeine has a half-life of 4-6 hours, which means that's how long it takes for approximately half of it to remain in your system. So, consuming caffeine in the evening could keep you up at night because of how long it takes your body to metabolize it.

Caffeine can have a significant impact on sleep, so it's important to understand how it works, and how you should be consuming it for optimal sleep health. 

The art of sleeping is truly just that. It is not as simple as lying down and entering a peaceful slumber. Actually getting good quality sleep requires a multidimensional effort in terms of good sleep environment, a relaxed state of mind, and good sleep behavior. 

Once you are able to "master" all three of these, then you can prepare yourself for a very restful night of sleep, consistently. A good sleep environment is one that is dark, quiet, and cold. If it's clean and decluttered, that also helps. A relaxed state of mind is achieved by doing relaxation techniques before going to bed, and trying to stress dump before it's time for sleep. 

However, sleep behaviors can be a little more tricky to achieve because they require consistency and have to be individual to you! Sleep behaviors are the things you do before bed that prepare you to go to sleep. They are important because they get your body ready (or un-ready) to go to bed. Once you get a good pattern of sleep behaviors down, you can complete your triad of necessities for sleep.

So, in this article, we are going to talk about good and bad sleep behaviors, and what you can do to get ready for bed. 

Sleep architecture is the basic pattern of normal sleep. There are two main types of sleep. Non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and rapid eye movement (REM). NREM has three different stages, all of which have a different depth of sleep. They are identified by sleep experts through brain-wave patterns, eye movements and muscle tone. 

REM sleep is a stage all by itself and is the stage of "dreaming". This can be identified through higher levels of brain wave activity and being as close to being awake as possible. Continue reading to find out more about what sleep architecture is and associated conditions when it is disrupted. 

Your sleep environment can strongly impact your sleep quality and quantity. Sleep environment is not just the triad of cool, dark and quiet. Although that is extremely important, it is the entirety of which sleep environment consists. 

Sleep environment also includes the accessories in your room, the colors, and the furniture and accessories you have. If they are too stimulating and overwhelming, then that can be antagonistic towards your sleep efforts. One of the aspects of your environment that you may never have thought of, but that is important, is the pillow color. 

Certain colors are very stimulating for the brain, which can be antagonistic towards sleep efforts. Therefore, they should be avoided. Your pillow is what you lie on, so you brain may actually be being stimulated if you have one of the five colors listed below. 

Sleep is one of the most vital pieces of human health. It is necessary for almost all bodily functions to run optimally, and without it, there are so many things we can't do. Our bodies turn into "low battery mode" and simply focus on getting us through the day. But, when we get great sleep, then we are able to accomplish so much because we feel good, motivated, and well-rested. 

One barrier to getting good sleep may actually be our mattress. If we are sleeping on an old, lumpy and uncomfortable mattress, then no matter how much time we spend in bed, it doesn't matter. Our bodies flop around all night trying to find a comfortable position to lie in. If this sounds like you, then it may be time to replace your mattress. Continue reading to find out if you have a couple of years left, or if you're overdue for a new set of springs. 

Some sleepers are pillow lovers while others are quite the opposite. Does it make a difference for your health? Potentially. You may be tempted to sleep without a pillow if you have neck or back pain. However, if you have trouble breathing at night due to heart issues, then you may want a pillow at night. There's no hard rule to whether or not sleeping with a pillow is good for you. Continue reading to learn about the advantages and disadvantages of sleeping with a pillow! 

If you are hot while sleeping, it can severely ruin your sleep quality. For optimal sleep, you must be cool. Your body actually drops to about 96 degrees when you are sleeping. Therefore, your outside temperature needs to match that. Your sleeping environment should be anywhere from 66-70F degrees. If you feel very hot when you sleep, continue reading to learn possible causes, and what you can do.