Sleeping Soundly

sleep ecohip.co.ukRoughly 30% of people will suffer with sleeping disorders annually and many are prescribed the (frequently addictive) sedative hypnotic medicines. Sleep is poorly understood by most people and is critical if you want to stay well. Lack of sleep can directly cause phycotic episodes and trigger other health problems.

Medical books list more than 80 different sleep issues including insomnia, snoring, bad dreams and narcolepsy. Many sleep issues are temporary (for example individuals with new babies), however they may also be an issue which plague you for a long time.

Most adults need between 7 and 8 hrs sleep each night, less as they age. Some may be able to manage on as little as 3 hrs/night. As you get older the tendency is for you to require less sleep.

Insomnia often effects entire families directly or indirectly and impinges on every area of life. Research suggests that people struggling with lengthy-term insomnia are 2 1/2 times more likely to have a road traffic accident than individuals who sleep well.

Poor sleepers suffer reduced productivity, have decreased cognitive capabilities, suffer impaired memory and concentration, experience excessive daytime drowsiness, tend to be more irritable, and take more time off due to sickness.

Drugs

Generally recommended drugs for insomnia would be diazepam, anti-histamines and anti-depressants. Several of these drugs have side-effects including grogginess and reduced muscle co-ordination as well as addiction risks.

Misconceptions and Details about Sleep

Myth 1: Getting just one hour less sleep per evening won’t effect your daytime functioning. You might not be noticeably sleepy throughout your day but even reducing your night-time sleep by just an hour can leave you lethargic and unresponsive. It can also compromise your cardiovascular health, energy balance, and capability to fight infections.

Myth 2: The body changes rapidly to various sleep agendas. If your deprive yourself of sleep (or are deprived of sleep) it will take several days to readjust and in severe cases a week might be required. Jet lag from flying is just an example.

Myth 3: Extra sleep during the night can compensate for daytime fatigue. The amount of sleep you get is not nearly as important as the quality of sleep you get. Many people sleep 8 or 9 hrs a night but don’t feel well rested once they awaken because the standard of the sleep is poor.

Myth 4: Sleeping longer at weekends might feel good but it doesn’t compensate for sleep lost during the week. In fact it may make you feel worse because the pattern of the week has been disrupted. Have you ever had that dread of going back to work on a Sunday evening? It could be partly due to the extra sleep over the weekend.

A few Herbal Products that might benefit sleep

Valerian

Herbal treatments happen to be used securely for hundreds of years for insomnia. In modern herbal medicine, the key plant for insomnia is valerian. Valerian root makes dealing with sleep simpler and increases deep sleep and fantasizing. Valerian doesn’t result in a morning ‘hangover’, an unwanted effect present with prescription sleep drugs in many people.

A double-blind trial discovered that valerian extract (600 mg half an hour before bed time for 4 weeks) can be compared in effectiveness to some generally recommended drug for insomnia. Inside a separate double-blind trial, the equivalent valerian extract was discovered to enhance subjective checks of sleep quality and certain facets of thinking processes throughout sleep too. Valerian powder or tincture could be taken half an hour before bed time for the best effect.

Magnesium

Because of its impact on nerves and muscles, magnesium may prove advantageous in reducing nervous irritability and muscular tension therefore aiding to relieve insomnia.

B-Complex Vitamins

Vitamin B6 may be the ‘anti-depression’ vitamin, since it helps you to produce serotonin, which affects emotions, sleep and behavior. It’s also useful if a person suffers with leg cramps during the night. Folate can also be area of the B-complex vitamins, it can benefit with restless leg syndrome.

Anxiety and anxiety might be connected with vitamin B12 deficiency. Vitamin B12 deficiency may cause depression, particularly in the seniors. Vitamin B12 is required for producing tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4), an important coenzyme needed for that output of chemicals for example dopamine and serotonin. The supplementation of folate and vitamin B12 stimulate producing BH4.

Oddly enough, vitamin B12 also influences melatonin secretion. Low melatonin status might be because of low B12 levels. Vitamin B12 intake of just one.5mg / day has created great results in treating sleep-wake rhythm disorders, through enhanced melatonin secretion.

St John’s Wort

St John’s Wort has proven anti-depressant effects and it has been proven in research to assist in the decrease in anxiety and sleep disturbances. This might be because of its advantageous impact on the nervous system.

Rhodiola Rosea

An adaptogenic plant is a that can help your body adjust to various triggers, whether or not they are physical, mental or environment. Rhodiola is really a superior plant and it is generally regarded as as harmless although applying profound encouraging effects. Considering the fact that we’re essentially a primitive organism battling to adjust to today’s high technological atmosphere, now as part of your adaptogens offer protection against the side effects of stress.

Depression is due to inadequate serotonin levels in your body caused by various stimuli. Active compounds throughout rhodiola (rosavin and salidroside) enhance the passage of serotonin precursors with the bloodstream-brain barrier. Studies have also proven rhodiola to assist preserve serotonin by suppressing the game of COMT (catechol-o-methyl transferase.)

Rhodiola can increase serotonin by 30% and reduce COMT by as much as 60%, offering an all natural method to achieve a far more relaxed condition.

MYSTERIOUS SLEEP

Sleep is among the most mysterious of human activities. Precisely what happens throughout sleep continues to be not completely understood. By studying brainwave designs, sleep scientists have recognized four separate procedures in an ordinary duration of sleep.

STAGE ONE Starts whenever we first drift off. Stage The first is light sleep. Muscles relax and also the heart slows lower.

STAGE TWO – the heartbeat increases. Stage Two sleep is known as REM sleep due to the rapid eye actions that occur throughout this stage. The autonomic central nervous system is active in REM sleep, leading to rapid breathing and elevated stomach acidity secretion. Stage 2 may be the period whenever we dream.

STAGES THREE AND FOUR – Throughout deep sleep (Stages Three and Four), no fantasizing happens.

Inside a normal sleep period, an individual cycles from Stage One to Stage Four within 1 hour 30 minutes. Waking after one full sleep cycle is complete is typical for the elderly and young children.

Top Strategies for a peaceful night’s sleep

  1. Make the bedroom a restful place – Think of somewhere like a beautiful Hawaiian island or some other soothing, pristine place while laying in bed and think positive thoughts. It will help you stay calm as your drift into a dream-like state and finally get the deep, restorative, restful sleep that has become so important in today’s day and age
  2. Avoid Caffeine 2-3 hours before bed – Stay away from both caffeine and sugar to avoid getting too restless before bed.
  3. Earplugs – If you live in a high-noise area, get some earplugs and learn to get used to them. Make sure they’re not so effective that they drown out the alarm, though.
  4. Don’t stay in bed if you aren’t falling asleep – You want your brain to get used to using the bed as a place for sleep first and foremost and in order to do that, you should get up and take a break and read a book or something simple like that whenever you can’t sleep. Then, get up and go back into bed when you feel tired again and you should be out like a light.
  5. Make your bed – Each day your bed should be put in the proper place to eliminate distracting movements like fixing your covers over and over again. This may seem obvious but many people just leave their bed as a huge mess all day and hop in without seeing it beforehand.
  6. Meditate – meditate for peaceful sleeping Do a simple chant in your head while closing your eyes for a couple of minutes to clear your mind and release a bit of tensions before bed.
  7. Make your room as dark as possible – Dark room for sleeping Invest in some good shades and put them down when you hit the bed. This will make sleeping right away and easier feat to achieve.
  8. Don’t eat much before bed – A simple mini-snack might be good like a few almonds or maybe even turkey which has been found to aid a bit in the sleep process, but don’t rush home and eat a big meal just before going to bed because the digestive process will interfere with sleep.
  9. No computer or TV before bed – To fall asleep easily you need to empty your mind, connect with your body, and program it to get a good nights rest. Sticking with the last simple sleep tip, don’t subject your eyes to the bright screens of TV’s and computers before bed. Don’t even have a TV in the bedroom.
  10. Feng Shui your bedroom – To get your mind into the proper state, use the ancient Chinese principles of Feng Shui. Make your room as clutter-free as possible and get rid of things like TV’s and computers. Buy a book on the art of Feng Shui and put it to good use to get better sleep.

Author: Steven Chasen

Here at Eco Hip we have a simple philosophyTo offer you the best natural products around, so that you can maintain a chemical-free home, body and spirit.For 15 years we have been striving to give people the opportunity to enjoy and benefit from this lifestyle, using our knowledge and experience to guide you through the process from start to finish. We believe that there is a complete synergy between what is best for you and what is best for the environment.Do you ever stop and think about what goes into the products that we use on a daily basis?Did you know that everyday products such as toiletries and cosmetics are filled with harmful petro-chemicals, parabens, GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms), DEAs, MEAs, TEAs, artificial colours, fragrances and fillers. The list goes on…Why aren’t there stricter regulations concerning these products?Are the waste products of industry being dumped and sold in our personal care and cleaning products?Who is stopping this and telling it how it is?We feel that we have a responsibility to both our customers and to the world around us to ask ourselves these questions every day. That is why we only sell the most responsible and sustainable products.Responsibility to ourselves – All our products are free of toxic chemicals wherever possible and endorsed by Ecocert and the Soil Association.Responsibility to others – We promote Fairtrade produce to stop exploitation and benefit those communities.Responsibility to local communities – We use local suppliers and products wherever possible in order to support the local economy and reduce our carbon footprintResponsibility to the environment – All our products use minimal packaging and recyclable materials. Responsibility to the future – We use sustainable materials and ingredients wherever possible.Responsibility to animals – We do not use any products that have animal ingredients or are tested on animals. Our products are certified as cruelty-free and are endorsed by BUAV and PETA.There doesn’t have to be a trade off between affordability and healthy living either. The choices we make now will impact our future, and we want to ensure that the investments you make now will save you money in the long-term.Sustainability doesn’t just have to connote the environment, but your own household too.In the age of information overload that we live in, we know that shopping online can sometimes be overwhelming, so we carefully source our products, selecting only the highest quality ingredients and most innovative designs, so that you don’t have to.Ecohip is more than just another online shopping website. The Ecohip mindset is all about challenging conventional thinking and finding a new way of looking at the world, believing that smalls steps can gradually add up to make a big difference.

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