In today's hectic and competitive world many people have relegated little priority to getting a good night's sleep - believing that using every waking moment to work or learn is far more productive and important. The problem with that philosophy is that you are not giving your body enough time to rest and heal because shorter hours of sleep means a lesser quality of sleep.
It is important not only to fall asleep easily, but to maintain sleep long enough (7-8 hours) so that you can reach that all important part of sleep known as REM. During the night we cycle through 5 stages of sleep with each cycle lasting about 90 minutes. We need to sleep long enough to go through these cycles 4-6 times a night because, with each cycle the REM portion gets longer and, it is during that portion of sleep, that we have our deepest and most restful sleep and when our body is able to repair and heal itself which is so important to maintaining a strong immune system.
REM sleep is also associated with dreaming because it is marked by intense brain activity. That’s how you can tell if you achieve REM sleep and have therefore slept sufficient hours. During REM (Rapid Eeye Momevent)sleep breathing is more rapid, irregular and shallow, eyes move in different directions and muscles become temporarily paralyzed.
It is believed that during this final stage the regions of the brain used for thinking, learning (banking the day's memories) and organizing information are stimulated (like when a computer is re-booted). If you cannot sleep without constantly waking then you are not getting good sleep and you feel it in the morning and all during your day. It's more important to sleep than to stay up late studying or preparing for a business meeting.Everything should be given it's proper time so that you can function at your peak but also maintain a balance in you life.
Tova Greenberg is President of The Sleep Genie. For more on information on better sleep go to:
http://www.TheSleepGenie.com
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I had trouble sleeping for many years, especially falling asleep. I used to take sleeping pills from time to time but found that if I took them one night the next night it wasn't as effective and I refused to even think of raising the dosage. Three years ago I read about CES, cranial electrotherapy stimulation, and discovered that the US FDA licensed it for medical devices to treat insomnia, anxiety and depression, more than 20 years ago. It has not been well marketed in the US because doctors have to prescribe it. But the technology was brought to Canada and is available in a device called The Sleep Genie which even sells for half the US price and is a consumer product there, available to everyone. CES is designed to help reset the body's internal sleep clock so that your own body will again trigger your own body's relaxation chemicals to bring about sleep naturally and keep you asleep. It also reduces stress and tension, the two main reasons I developed sleep problems. I used it for about 4 weeks, half an hour while watching TV and I re-established my normal sleep patterns back and I have been sleeping well for more than 3 years. Once your sleep clock has been reprogrammed it only needs occasional maintenance to stay that wasy. I suggest you try it. This technology has been around for more than 50 years. It's not a drug, safe for all ages (my daughters and mother in law have used it too), easy to use and portable and runs on a 9 volt battery.
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