Wenatex Blog | Healthy Sleep for a Better Life

It is called the “silly season” for a reason. People are flat out celebrating Christmas parties, so they are staying up later, drinking and eating more, spending more time socialising. Christmas shopping needs to be done.  People are running around busy shops, looking for parks, thinking about what to buy. People stress about money, racking up big credit card bills.

 

How do these factors and changes in habit change people’s ability to sleep?

 

Stress, diet, and alcohol are some of the major factors that decrease the quality and quantity of sleep.  It doesn’t take long before Christmas catch-ups and hectic shopping in the summer heat take their toll. 

 

Tips:

 

Stress and Shopping – Avoid unnecessary stress by shopping early so you have time to budget properly, avoid the crowds and have time to find what you’re looking for. You also might consider doing some of your gift shopping online.

 

Diet - Ladies might be tempted to cut carbs to curb the effect of indulging in too much party eating and drinking. To get a good night’s sleep, don’t cut carbs altogether but rather, eat a combination of carbs and small amounts of proteins that contain the amino acid tryptophan. 

 

Alcohol - Drinking alcohol makes you sleepy but it will affect the type of sleep you get.  You will wake up more, dream less in the initial hours of sleep then dream more later on.  So you will wake up feeling vague and irritable.  One glass of wine is okay but rethink that second or third!

 

Temperature - Body temperature is one of the mechanisms for the body to produce the feelings of being awake or tired.  We feel sleepy when our body temperature falls. Make sure your bedroom is cool and comfortable to allow your body temperature to fall rapidly which will help you fall asleep quickly.

If you wish to find out more about how to get a good night’s sleep, come along to a free healthy sleep seminar. Wenatex conducts these seminars all over Australia and New Zealand. To register your interest, fill in the form at http://www.wenatex.com.au/seminars_registration.asp.

How do you stay sane and get a good night’s sleep at this time of the year? Please share your thoughts.

 

I know it seems obvious but this article serves as a reminder to all who have children that we should encourage our children to lead active healthy lives. This recent study reaffirms what we have known that active children develop healthy sleeping habits. 

The article I was reading can be found at http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/07/23/sleep-children-exercise.html. Let me know what you think.

Browsing the net this evening, I found a company that sells dolls with the faces of Down Syndrome(DS) children. The company is called Downi Creation and their website is http://www.downicreations.com/. I didn’t know how I felt about this, so I sent the article to a Mexican friend of mine who has a son with Down Syndrome… I will let you know her answer.

Nevertheless, I realised that I had absolutely no idea about the sleep patterns of children wth DS, so decided to do further research. This is what I have found out. At SLEEP 2008, the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies in Baltimore USA, Dr. Nicole N. Phillips presented a study that she performed comparing the sleep patterns of 38 children with DS with 38 normally developing children.

The results are as follows:

1. Children with DS sleep poorly and have more fragmented sleep compared with normally developing children
2. Children with DS may also have an altered sleep architecture characterized by less total sleep time, more stage 1 sleep, and less REM sleep
3. Poor sleep quality and decreased amounts of REM sleep may further impair cognitive, behavioural, and physical growth. This is important to recognise as it is not only valid for children with DS, but for everybody.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Until tomorrow be wise and have fun

Information provided in this blog is to be used for educational purposes only. It should NOT be used as a substitute for seeking professional diagnosis or treatment of any disorder.

Although, the science of sleep strongly opposes reading in bed, I have to tell you, I need to read something to switch off my thinking and help me get off to sleep. I usually spend 20 minutes or so reading some pearls of wisdom, and this puts me to sleep like a baby with a big smile.

I would like to share with you one of my readings…I hope you will consider sharing some of your favourites as well.

The book I am currently reading is called Virtue and Happiness, The Manual of Epictetus. Previous to reading this, I did not know who this Greek gentlemen was… but… Oh la la… he is amazing! I will leave you with one of his beautiful writings:

Signs of someone who is progressing:

He blames no one,
He praises no one,
He complains of no one,
He accuses no one,
He never speaks of himself as of someone important or who knows something.

If you wish to learn about Sleep Tips, visit the Wenatex website or book for a FREE healthy sleep seminar.

Until tomorrow,  be wise and have fun!

Links: http://www.shambhala.com; http://www.wenatex.com.au/sleep_tips.asp

Information provided in this blog is to be used for educational purposes only. It should NOT be used as a substitute for seeking professional diagnosis or treatment of any disorder.

With Australia now listed as the world’s fattest nation, it is time to do an audit on ourselves and work out how we can reduce our waistlines and improve the quality of our lives.

One interesting piece of research states that sleeping for 7 – 8 hours each night can in fact help you achieve your weight loss goals quicker, with other pleasant benefits too!

A full article on the subject please read the following article Dream Diet

Forget hitting the gym this afternoon – it will be heads on pillows from now on! Now that would be a dream diet – if only that was all that was involved!

Information provided in this blog is to be used for educational purposes only. It should NOT be used as a substitute for seeking professional diagnosis or treatment of any disorder.

If you are anything like me you would have been shocked to hear the latest news that Australians are now THE fattest country amongst the world’s major economies, bulging past the Americans by 1%. More than one quarter of our population are now deemed to be obese, this is 4 million Australians! Add to this a further 5.4 million who are overweight. Therefore 62% of our population are now overweight or obese! This is one scary statistic!

There are so many contributing factors to our bulging bellies. We can blame it on cheaper prices of fast foods, the rising costs of healthy foods and gym memberships, our fast paced society leaving us with no time for exercise, or poor quality sleep. Whatever excuse you may use, the bottom line is that we are to blame and it is time that we get serious about our health and the huge impact this is having on our society as a whole.

What steps will you be taking to either reduce your waistline or ensure you don’t add to our ever growing overweight/obese population?

Information provided in this blog is to be used for educational purposes only. It should NOT be used as a substitute for seeking professional diagnosis or treatment of any disorder.