Sleep – Page 2 – Healthier

Create healthy sleep routines

Try to: Stick to a sleeping schedule. This means getting up at a same time in the morning no matter what time you went to sleep the night before.Short naps of 20 to 30 minutes can help to improve mood, focus and performance. But remember that a nap cannot make up for a lack of night-time sleep.Drink a glass of warm milk or chamomile tea to help you feel drowsy before bed – just make sure to avoid caffeinated drinks like coffee and cola. Avoid: Napping too late in the day. It might affect your night-time sleeping patterns and make...

Sleep Benefits

Reasons to Get More Sleep

A lack of sleep at night can make you cranky the next day. And over time, skimping on sleep can mess up more than just your morning mood. Studies show getting quality sleep on a regular basis can help improve all sorts of issues, from your blood sugar to your workouts. Here's why you should give your body the ZZZs it needs. Sharper Brain When you're running low on sleep, you'll probably have trouble holding onto and recalling details. That's because sleep plays a big part in both learning and memory. Without enough sleep, it's tough to focus and take...

Dreaming

How to lucid dream

Lucid dreaming techniques train your mind to notice your own consciousness. They’re also designed to help you regain or maintain consciousness as you enter REM sleep. 1. Reality testing Reality testing, or reality checking, is a form of mental training. It increases metacognition by training your mind to notice your own awareness. According to Cognitive NeuropsychiatryTrusted Source, your level of metacognition is similar in your waking and dreaming states. So, higher metacognition when you’re awake could lead to higher metacognition when you’re dreaming. This may be related to the brain’s prefrontal cortex, which plays a role in both reality testing and...

Better Sleep

17 Proven Tips to Sleep Better at Night

A good night’s sleep is just as important as regular exercise and a healthy diet. Research shows that poor sleep has immediate negative effects on your hormones, exercise performance, and brain function. It can also cause weight gain and increase disease risk in both adults and children. In contrast, good sleep can help you eat less, exercise better, and be healthier. Over the past few decades, both sleep quality and quantity has declined. In fact, many people regularly get poor sleep. If you want to optimize your health or lose weight, getting a good night’s sleep is one of the...

Sleep Benefits

Sleep benefits

Good quality sleep can ward off many short-term issues such as fatigue and trouble concentrating. It can also prevent serious long-term health issues. The benefits of good sleep include: Reduced inflammation. Sleep loss may cause inflammation throughout your body, leading to possible cell and tissue damage. Long-term inflammation may lead to chronic health issues such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).Improved concentration. People who get adequate sleep are more productive and experience better performance, memory, and concentration than people who are chronically sleep deprived.Eating fewer calories. Sleep loss and deprivation upset the chemicals responsible for regulating appetite. This can lead you to overeat and possibly gain weight, so...

Dreaming

Dreaming and REM Sleep

We typically spend more than 2 hours each night dreaming. Scientists do not know much about how or why we dream. Sigmund Freud, who greatly influenced the field of psychology, believed dreaming was a “safety valve” for unconscious desires. Only after 1953, when researchers first described REM in sleeping infants, did scientists begin to carefully study sleep and dreaming. They soon realized that the strange, illogical experiences we call dreams almost always occur during REM sleep. While most mammals and birds show signs of REM sleep, reptiles and other cold-blooded animals do not. REM sleep begins with signals from an...

Sleep

What Is Sleep: A Dynamic Activity

Nerve-signaling chemicals called neurotransmitters control whether we are asleep or awake by acting on different groups of nerve cells, or neurons, in the brain. Neurons in the brainstem, which connects the brain with the spinal cord, produce neurotransmitters such as serotonin and norepinephrine that keep some parts of the brain active while we are awake. Other neurons at the base of the brain begin signaling when we fall asleep. These neurons appear to “switch off” the signals that keep us awake. Research also suggests that a chemical called adenosine builds up in our blood while we are awake and causes drowsiness....