I said no.
With all the overtime and double shifts here and there I am tired. So tired that I am not sleeping well. Lack of sleep just compounds the situation and puts my health at risk. It even puts my relationship at risk as it stresses us both. Two stressed out people does not make for a happy relationship.
So with this I start a short Health Tips Series. I will talk about what can compromise your health and ways that can be beneficial in improving your health. I base a lot of this on personal experience, work related experience as a LPN and information that I have found on the internet. Here are some good health tips that I hope help make life better for everyone. Just simple little tips to improve your chances of staying healthy and living a comfortable life from day to day.
First in the series: GET SOME SLEEP.
Sleep is necessary to life. If you don't sleep you cannot properly recharge yourself. Lack of sleep can lead to many health problems in the short and long term. Here are 6 good examples of the issues that can arise from lack of sleep. I state here only six, there are many more to be found if you research it for yourself.
Ineffective learning and memory retention: When you are tired you cannot focus on the task at hand. You have greater difficulty concentrating and this makes your ability to learn what you are doing less than what it could or should be. Due to lack of sleep you also have a decreased chance of even remembering what you learned. Next time you need to do this task you will most likely feel like an idiot because the knowledge and skills you were supposed to have learned are not there for you. Your memory will be a blank. You will not be able to do that task let alone recall each step.
Altered metabolism and weight gain: Sleep studies have shown that sleep deprivation alters the hormones in your body. Many of these hormones affect your metabolism, how you process the nutrients you ingest and even how your body stores the nutrients. This can lead to a weight problem. Sometimes when I am tired I am not hungry but I will force myself to eat, but because I am tired I find myself feeling more sleepy afterwards and this leads to decreased activity. This will put me me into the weight gain scenario. The lack of sleep will attribute to a weight gain problem as your metabolism slows. If your metabolism is slowing down then you are not burning the calories and what the body doesn't burn it stores as fat.
Safety related to Level of Consciousness: When you are tired you become more prone to little naps and moments where you nod off here and there. This seems to happen at the worst of times making your life hellish. When at work you can increase your chances of errors that will have consequences. These momentary lapses will directly relate to falls, road accidents, medical errors, interpersonal problems, putting others at risk, etc. When you are tired you are just not alert enough to be safe.
Mood and mental well being: I find that when I am tired I am not a nice person to be around, sometimes I am just not nice when tired. Our lack of a good nights sleep will make us less able to deal with day to day situations. At the best of times many of us don't suffer fools willingly but with no sleep you suffer them not at all. No sleep = bad mood. This is true for most anyone. We end up with increased irritability, impatience, decreased concentration, decreased stress tolerability, etc. Lack of sleep makes us moody and no one likes a moody person.
Cardiovascular health: Serious sleep problems can contribute to serious health issues. You are putting yourself at risk for hypertension (high blood pressure), increased stress hormone levels and irregular heartbeat. High blood pressure can put you are risk for strokes, heart attacks, heart failure, aneurysms, and other heath issues. The stress hormones can directly affect your metabolism and weight (see previous). Problems arising from an irregular heartbeat are much the same as hypertension. We have all seen in the media and been taught one way or another about the importance of a healthy heart. Your heart is an important organ in the body. Without our heart the cardiovascular system in our bodies would not function, blood would not be pumped through the body bringing oxygen and nutrients to our cells. Our cells would die and so could we. We need our hearts or a functioning facsimile
Disease and decreased immune function: When you do not sleep properly you decrease the body's ability to fight off disease and illness. You may have noticed in your life that when you feel overworked, stressed and tired, you become more susceptible to colds, coughs, the flu and general malaise. Our ability to to heal from scrapes, cuts and so forth is compromised. You will have seen at times of illness just how important it is to get the rest you need. Doctors and other health professionals, TV personalities, our mothers/fathers and people in general have many times stated that "Rest is important in the healing factor." Generations of experience has proven this to be a fact. Lack of sleep puts our bodies at greater risk for many serious health issues, such as diabetes, obesity, cancer, and can lead to an overall shortened life expectancy.
When we sleep our bodies recharge themselves, they heal and renew us for the next day. When we do not get the sleep that is needed we feel less like our normal selves. We have no energy, no incentive or drive, no interests, nothing. To be healthy we need to be active, we need to eat well, and we need sleep regularly.
Studies have shown that 6-8 hours of sleep a night is best with the 8 hour mark being the optimum. I myself find that I do well if I get my 6hrs every night. My partner is one of those people that 8-10 hours is more what he needs. Everyone is a little different in what works best for them.
My message to you is GET YOUR SLEEP! It is important. Everyone needs to have a regular sleep routine/pattern. Something that allows you to get the amount you need each night so you can function properly each day. I said earlier in this blog entry that sleep wasn't the most important health tip but I could be wrong. In the end getting the necessary sleep may just be the single most important thing you do for your health.
Tips for getting good sleep
www.spine-health.com
www.mayoclinic.com
Information
http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu
www.webmd.com
www.washingtonpost.com
www.prevention.com
Safety related to Level of Consciousness: When you are tired you become more prone to little naps and moments where you nod off here and there. This seems to happen at the worst of times making your life hellish. When at work you can increase your chances of errors that will have consequences. These momentary lapses will directly relate to falls, road accidents, medical errors, interpersonal problems, putting others at risk, etc. When you are tired you are just not alert enough to be safe.
Mood and mental well being: I find that when I am tired I am not a nice person to be around, sometimes I am just not nice when tired. Our lack of a good nights sleep will make us less able to deal with day to day situations. At the best of times many of us don't suffer fools willingly but with no sleep you suffer them not at all. No sleep = bad mood. This is true for most anyone. We end up with increased irritability, impatience, decreased concentration, decreased stress tolerability, etc. Lack of sleep makes us moody and no one likes a moody person.
Cardiovascular health: Serious sleep problems can contribute to serious health issues. You are putting yourself at risk for hypertension (high blood pressure), increased stress hormone levels and irregular heartbeat. High blood pressure can put you are risk for strokes, heart attacks, heart failure, aneurysms, and other heath issues. The stress hormones can directly affect your metabolism and weight (see previous). Problems arising from an irregular heartbeat are much the same as hypertension. We have all seen in the media and been taught one way or another about the importance of a healthy heart. Your heart is an important organ in the body. Without our heart the cardiovascular system in our bodies would not function, blood would not be pumped through the body bringing oxygen and nutrients to our cells. Our cells would die and so could we. We need our hearts or a functioning facsimile
Disease and decreased immune function: When you do not sleep properly you decrease the body's ability to fight off disease and illness. You may have noticed in your life that when you feel overworked, stressed and tired, you become more susceptible to colds, coughs, the flu and general malaise. Our ability to to heal from scrapes, cuts and so forth is compromised. You will have seen at times of illness just how important it is to get the rest you need. Doctors and other health professionals, TV personalities, our mothers/fathers and people in general have many times stated that "Rest is important in the healing factor." Generations of experience has proven this to be a fact. Lack of sleep puts our bodies at greater risk for many serious health issues, such as diabetes, obesity, cancer, and can lead to an overall shortened life expectancy.
When we sleep our bodies recharge themselves, they heal and renew us for the next day. When we do not get the sleep that is needed we feel less like our normal selves. We have no energy, no incentive or drive, no interests, nothing. To be healthy we need to be active, we need to eat well, and we need sleep regularly.
Studies have shown that 6-8 hours of sleep a night is best with the 8 hour mark being the optimum. I myself find that I do well if I get my 6hrs every night. My partner is one of those people that 8-10 hours is more what he needs. Everyone is a little different in what works best for them.
My message to you is GET YOUR SLEEP! It is important. Everyone needs to have a regular sleep routine/pattern. Something that allows you to get the amount you need each night so you can function properly each day. I said earlier in this blog entry that sleep wasn't the most important health tip but I could be wrong. In the end getting the necessary sleep may just be the single most important thing you do for your health.
Tips for getting good sleep
- Go to bed at a time that will allow you to get the amount of sleep you need each night. Make is a part of your regular routine to go to bed and wake at the same time every night/day.
- Do not eat within 2-3 hours before bedtime to decrease the chances of heartburn, indigestion and/or acid reflux. These will interfere with your ability to get to sleep and stay asleep.
- Make the room dark. Dark curtains, turning off all light, turn your alarm clock away from you so it's light doesn't shine in your face. By making the room dark you trick your body/brain into thinking that it is time to sleep.
- Meditation to calm the mind. Many people find that when they go to bed their mind doesn't want to shut down. Finding ways to calm the mind can be very beneficial and allow your brain to into the sleep cycle faster.
- Exercise regularly. Not only will it help you deal with daily stress more effectively but it helps improve sleep patterns and quality of sleep.
- Noise reduction. This can be a hard one. You rarely have control over the noise outside your environment. The best thing is usually ear plugs. If you don't have a noisy house, building or neighbourhood at night then you are more fortunate.
- Reduce or eliminate alcohol and caffeine consumption. Both can contribute to reduced amounts of sleep and the quality of it.
- Reduce the amount of fluids you drink before bed. Getting up in the middle of the night to urinate can seriously shorten the amount of sleep you get and make it more difficult for some to even get back to sleep.
- Use your bed as it is meant to be used. Your bed is not meant to be a couch, a reading area, a gathering place, a meal platform, a video game station, etc. When you use your bed for other than sleep you psychologically train your brain to not think of it as a place to sleep. When you try to sleep on your bed the brain says 'no' as that is not what it considers your bed to be used for.
For more tips and information check out the links below.
Tips
www.helpguide.orgwww.spine-health.com
www.mayoclinic.com
Information
http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu
www.webmd.com
www.washingtonpost.com
www.prevention.com
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