A Good Night’s Sleep

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Are you getting a good night’s sleep? Sleep can be crucial to your health.  Everyone has their own way of falling asleep and things that keep us awake.

When my daughter comes home, she sleeps in what has been converted into my office. There is a wall clock in that room whose tick-tock drives her crazy. “Mom, get that crazy clock out!” So, I have learned to prepare for her visit by pulling out the sofa bed, putting on clean sheets, making sure she has access to a charger, and of course, taking the tick-tock offender out of the room.

On the other hand, when I toss and turn, can’t get to sleep and don’t want to wake up my husband, I go into that same room and lie on the sofa. Guess what puts me to sleep? Yep. That crazy clock. Its rhythmic sound is soothing and silences the speculations, discussions, and dialogues of the day that are still in my head. However, if you’re like my daughter and don’t like the sound of a clock, there are other remedies to sleeplessness.

In our quest for sounder sleep we drink herbal tea, change the mattress, the pillow or the blanket, stop drinking coffee, play music, meditate, or take melatonin.

Yet it may be our screen habits that affect sleep most. An enormous amount of the population in the US looks at a technological device before going to sleep. This is what the National Sleep Foundation has to say about this subject:

“Here’s what happens: Using TVs, tablets, smartphones, laptops, or other electronic devices before bed delays your  body’s internal clock (a.k.a., your circadian rhythm), suppresses the release of the sleep-inducing hormone  melatonin, and makes it more difficult to fall asleep. This is largely due to the short-wavelength, artificial  blue light that’s emitted by these devices. The more electronic devices that a person uses in the evening, the harder it is to fall asleep or stay asleep. Besides increasing your alertness at a time when you should be getting sleepy, which in turn delays your bedtime, using these devices before turning in delays the onset of REM sleep, reduces the total amount of REM sleep, and compromises alertness the next morning. Over time, these effects can add up to a significant, chronic deficiency in sleep.”

What works for me, beside my daughter’s nemesis, is reading a good, old fashioned paper book or magazine. What you might need though, is a care provider to take care of your loved one while you sleep.  In that case, AVIDA will come to your rescue.

Tell me what puts you to sleep. (We already know about lectures and boring articles, so skip those.)

 

Thttp://National Sleep Foundation

 

Emma

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