Search Results for: blog six tips for a good nights sleep

Losing Sleep to Popcorn Brain

Do you ever find your mind too active to sleep? Maybe you’re turning one problem over and over in your head… or maybe your thoughts are pinging from one topic to another, racing along merrily while the rest of you desperately wants to rest. I like to call that hopping from one thought to another “popcorn brain”. Pop! A thought goes off over here. Pop! A totally different thought goes off over there! And if you imagine your head like a popcorn popper, it can quickly fill up with thoughts, leaving you very little space in which to calm down … Continue reading →

Weight Loss and Sleeping: A Winning Combination

Not only do our bodies crave a certain amount of sleep to feel alert, energetic, and more in tune, but there is also a connection to weight loss. This is good news! Sleep is more important than you think. More and more people are sleep deprived as they struggle to keep up with their day-to-day activities. Having to create a balancing act between our job, our families, and keeping up our house has left many people very stressed. Getting it all done requires more hours in the day, which is of course impossible. So what do we do? We have … Continue reading →

When Your Medication Causes Sleep Problems

When I was trying to clear up my clogged ear, I picked up a variety of decongestants to try. My family doctor suggested traditional Sudafed — made with pseudoephedrine, which can be hard to get in some areas. The Sudafed worked, but caused a different problem: I had trouble sleeping. Most nights, I’d wake up every few hours — instead of sleeping straight through like I normally do. The doc had warned me that the decongestant might cause problems sleeping, and suggested that I only take it in the mornings (instead of twice per day as indicated on the package). … Continue reading →

How To Get More Sleep

It isn’t always easy to fit in enough bed time. A poll from the National Sleep Foundation found that sixty percent of women only manage a good night’s sleep a few days a week! Around half of all women polled feel like their lack of sleep is interfering with their daily activities. Here are some tips to help you squeeze more Zzz into your night. Prioritize. Yes, you’ve got tons of things to do… but how many of them can wait until tomorrow? An hour before bed, make a list of all the things you think you need to do … Continue reading →

Sleep & Your Success

It’s important to understand that sleep is an important ingredient. Periodically I like to talk about sleep here in the Fitness blog because too often as adults, overwhelmingly busy – we forget how important sleep is. But the truth is, sleep is as vital to your health as exercise and eating right. Studies Suggest Sleep Helps You to Lose Weight According to Michael Breus a Ph.D. and clinical psychologist, sleep or the lack thereof can be holding you back from losing the weight you want to lose. In his book, Good Night: The Sleep Doctor’s 4-Week Program to Better Sleep … Continue reading →

Herbal Sleep Aids: Valerian

Valeriana officinalis (more commonly known as valerian) has been long used as a tranquilizer. The plant is native to Europe, North America, and parts of northern Asia. It was popularly used in ancient Greece and Rome to treat heart conditions, and was hailed as a cure-all during the Middle Ages. Valerian is mainly used in treating the nervous system and calming the whole body. It can be used as a pain reliever, anti-inflammatory, digestive toner, and sedative. If you have heard of or used valerian, it was probably in relation to sleep. Valerian can help you fall asleep more easily … Continue reading →

Sleeping Together or Apart?

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Interesting topic of discussion, I read an article about married couples spending only 1/3 of their lives sleeping together. Sleeping apart may indicate lower marital satisfaction, but it can also indicate just wanting to get a good night’s sleep. In the first few years of a relationship, couples are willing to sacrifice comfort for intimacy and after five to six years, the couple is more interested in a good night’s sleep than they are in intimacy. This can be a problem. According to the National Sleep Foundation, more than one in ten married Americans sleep alone. Of those with less … Continue reading →

Who Will Get Up With The Baby?

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In the past, I have always nursed my babies, so I have always been the one to get up with them. Now that I am bottle feeding, we are trying to figure out what works best for my husband and I so that we both can get some much needed sleep. With three little ones to take care of, sleep is hard to come by these days. What has been working for us is that my husband gets up at the first feeding, and then I get up at the second. This is mostly because I do better in the … Continue reading →

The Saga of the Training Pants

Just what we need around our houses. More potty talk. But I’m telling you, this subject is gripping. Fascinating. I’m talking about night time toilet training. The other day I mentioned that my daughter seems to have graduated to training pant-less nights. This would be a great boon to our budget and to our garbage if it were the case. However, since her night time pees tended to be quite epic, she is a little afraid to ditch the training pants completely. I can’t say that I blame her. So I came up with a plan. For those of you … Continue reading →

Night Terrors vs. Nightmares

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I’ve always had vivid dreams: happy ones, sad ones, nightmares, weird ones, dreams that eventually got turned into stories. But every once in a while, a dream leaves me in an absolute panic. I wake up in a sweat, heart pounding, afraid to move and even more afraid to go back to sleep for fear of being back in the dream again. I had one of those last night. While I used to think nightmares and sleep terrors were basically the same thing, they’re not. What’s the difference? Night terrors tend to happen within the first few hours of falling … Continue reading →