September 12, 2010
Sleep Hygiene For Weight Loss
Sleep is something that none of us seem to get enough of. But it is the most crucial thing that you can do for your body. When you sleep, you give your body a chance to repair and recover. If you don’t get enough sleep, you induce stress and will not get the results that you are looking for. In this article we show you how to lose weight and how to lose belly fat by getting and adequate amount of sleep.
Sleep deprivation makes you fat and it leads to depression, pain, heart disease, diabetes, and much more. In fact, besides eating right and exercising your body, getting enough sleep is the most important thing you can do for your health.
Most of us need eight hours of restful sleep a night. Getting this is becoming very difficult.. Our bodies use the rhythms of sleep to signal us to create a whole cascade of hormonal, neurochemical reactions that keep us healthy by repairing our DNA, building tissues and muscle, repairing our bodies, regulating our weight and our mood chemicals. When we are sleep deprived, our cortisol levels rise with all its harmful effects, including brain damage and dementia, weight gain, diabetes, heart attacks, high blood pressure, depression, osteoporosis, depressed immune system and lots more.
Good sleep is not something that just happens, unless you’re a baby or a teenager. There are clearly defined things that interfere or support healthy sleep. Now follow these guidelines to restore your natural sleep rhythm. It may take time but slowly but surely you can reset your biological clock.
The first thing we have to do is prioritize sleep. Our lives are infiltrated with stimuli and we keep stimulating until the moment we get into bed, and this is not the way to get restful sleep. Is it any wonder we can’t sleep well when we eat a later dinner, answer e-mails, surf the net, or do work and get right into bed and watch the evening news all about disaster, pain and suffering in the world? We must take a break, at the end of the day in the two hours before bed. Maybe you can create a sleep ritual, a special set of little things you do before you get into bed to help you ready your system physically and psychologically for sleep, and these can guide your body into a deep and healing sleep.
Here’s how to get a good night’s sleep. Practice regular rhythms of sleep, go to bed and wake up at the same time every day and try not to nap. Only use your bed for sleep and sex, no reading or television. Create an aesthetic environment that’s helpful for sleep by posting pictures of serene settings in your bedroom. Eliminate clutter and distraction. Create total darkness and quiet, where there are no disturbances.. Avoid caffeine. Now it may help you to stay awake, but it actually makes your sleep worse. Avoid alcohol. It helps you get to sleep, but makes your sleep interrupted and at a much poorer quality. Try to get regular exposure to sunlight for at least twenty minutes a day. The light from the sun enters our eyes and triggers our brain to release specific chemicals and hormones like melatonin that are vital to healthy sleep, mood and aging.
Don’t eat a heavy meal prior to bed because that will lead to a bad night’s sleep. Don’t exercise vigorously after dinner; it sort of wakes you up. You can take a walk, but don’t run a marathon or go for a five mile jog. Try writing down your worries before bed. One hour before bed, write down the things that are causing you anxiety and make plans for what you might have to do the next day to reduce your worry and it’ll free your mind up and lead you to a deep and restful sleep. Try taking a hot bath, it raises your body temperature and helps to induce sleep. Avoid medications that can interfere with sleep, things like sedatives, which help a little bit but ultimately cause dependence and ruin your normal sleep pattern. Antihistamines, stimulants, cold medications, steroids, headache medications with caffeine, these all interfere with sleep. Try some relaxing minerals like magnesium and calcium. Melatonin is often very useful to promote a restful sleep and it is 100% natural.
So remember, don’t skip on sleep. It’s one of the most important healing treatments for your body that’s available to you every day.
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Filed under Weight Loss Tips by fitnessguru