Hi Matt,
If you’re having trouble sleeping – and many of
us do – here’s something you may not have tried.
We have more than one biological clock in our
body as it turns out. Recent research indicates that pretty much every
organ has its own circadian rhythm and keeping them in sync helps us keep our
sleeping schedule intact.
A number of consequences stem from disrupted
sleep: blood sugar control is impacted, hunger hormones disrupted, blood
pressure raised and immune systems compromised. So in addition to the
stress of not getting enough sleep, you can add the risks of diabetes, obesity,
hypertension and getting sick more often.
So what can we do to make all our body clocks
happy? One thing for sure: keep a routine. Decide what the
best hours are for you, given that you should likely get 7-9 hours for optimum
health. Let’s say you’d like to get up at 7am and go to bed at
11pm. That leaves 8 hours of sleep, which is plenty. Now stick to your
schedule. After a while, it will become routine.
But the best plan for getting to sleep
is keeping it dark. Those circadian rhythms set us up to sleep at night
and be active during the day. That means we need bright light in daytime
– which many of us don’t get if we’re indoors – and darkness when we sleep.
So here are your best strategies – even if you
work shift work and have to be up all night:
- Get some
bright light during your waking hours. If you can, take the
opportunity to step outside on your lunch break. For shift workers,
bright artificial light does the job too.
- Make sure
your bedroom is dark. You can use “blackout” curtains if you have to
sleep during the day.
- No devices
that shed light. This means televisions, tablets and above all
smartphones. In fact, staying away from light sources and screens
for an hour before bedtime is a great idea.
Your flooring consultant,
No comments:
Post a Comment