Living Dangerously

The importance of getting a good sleep (and getting help if you're not!!!) is also demonstrated by this very short piece. Lack of sleep leads to poor choices as we who have problems with getting a good sleep already know. I try and steer away from critical decisions when I am know I am exhausted, for example. Beware of your less than normal caution and reasoning when you are tired and conduct yourself accordingly and you should be okay.

Another reason to exercise!!!

Yes, another reason to exercise is noted here. Not only is exercise important to your health for so many reasons, this article from Science Daily notes a study from a university in Brazil that is "...the first to look at the importance of using physical exercise to treat insomnia, and may contribute to increased quality of life in people with one of the most important kind of sleep disorders around the world"

The study explored the effects of moderate aerobic, heavy aerobic and moderate strength exercise on sleep. Four groups of people with primary chronic insomnia, one for each type of exercise and a control group, were run through their paces (so to speak :-) ).

The results of all the exercise groups were:

• reduction in sleep onset latency of 54%
• reduction in wake time of 36%
• increase in total sleep time of 21%
• increase in sleep efficiency of 18%

However the best results were after moderate aeroboc exercise:

• reduction of sleep onset latency of 40%
• increase in total sleep time of 37%
• and, a reduction of the anxiety state of the partipants in this group of 7%!

That is amazing!!! I suspect most of us already had the feeling we had a better sleep after a good work out and this reinforces that. Might also help some sleep challenged people avoid, reduce or eliminate their need for assistance from a prescribed drug.

I am not sure if the fact that the significant majority of the study were women vs a 50%-50% split is important in this case?

I know for me long walks at a good clip in the fresh air always seems to help.

Don't kid yourself...

This short report points out what we sometimes forget - you need the proper amount of sleep for the normal function of your brain and body, whether you choose to believe it not.

You are only fooling yourself if you think otherwise (and I've been there, done that, got the t-shirt... :-) )

Collateral Damage

As obvious as this article might be, it serves as a great reinforcement of one of the many kinds of "collateral damage" that a lack of sleep causes (as my spouse can attest there are a few...).

I know when my sleep problems arise again (as they are now - the medication's effect seems to be decreasing and my internal alarm clock seems to think 5:00 AM is the right time to rise) my outlook is greatly coloured in a negative fashion. Which leads me back to this study that reinforces what many have experienced anyways - the less sleep, the more bad attitude we have about things that normally we take easily in stride., like our jobs.

I wonder if those of us who are sleep deprived should have a warning label about volatility at times :-)