A daily round of moderate aerobic exercise a few

hours before bedtime helps people with insomnia

to sleep better.



Why?



"Low impact or moderate aerobic exercise like whole body vibration, cross-training, light jogging, or rebounding on a mini trampoline helps to remove metabolic or dietary acids out of the tissues that may cause muscle cramping, restless leg syndrome, and insomnia," states Dr. Robert O. Young, of the pH Miracle Living Center, in Valley Center, California.



Brazilian scientists found that moderate aerobic exercise, such as running on a treadmill, helped insomniacs fall asleep more quickly, wake less often, and increase their total time asleep. Heavy aerobic exercise or strength exercises didn't have the same effect.



Researchers at the Federal University of San Paulo studied both men and women with insomnia. They divided them into three exercise groups -- moderate aerobic, heavy aerobic, and moderate strength. Those in the group doing moderate aerobics showed a 54 percent reduction in the time it took to fall asleep, 36 percent less wake time, and an increase of 21 percent in total sleep time. They also had a seven percent reduction in anxiety. The other two groups didn't experience any significant change in their sleep time.



Another important finding of the study is that the exercise was done at night. While most experts believe exercise has good effect on the quality of sleep, they also believe it is stimulating when done too late in the day. They usually advise those with sleep problems to exercise earlier in the day. But earlier workouts often don't fit busy schedules, and evening may be the only time available in a hectic day.



"These findings indicate that there is a way to diminish the symptoms of insomnia without using medication," said Giselle Passos, author of the study.



"This is the first study 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 in the world."



"Insomnia is a symptom of excess tissue acidity which can be eliminated with an alkaline lifestyle and diet which includes daily exercise for at least 1 hour a day. I recommend low impact exercising including jogging, swimming, riding a bike, trend mill, elliptical machines, stationary bike riding, rebounding, and my favorite whole body vibration," states Dr. Young.



http://www.phmiracleliving.com/vibraphirm.htm



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Studies have found that in general, the optimal temperature for sleep is quite cool, around 60 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperatures that fall too far below or above this range can lead to restlessness.



Temperatures in this range help facilitate the decrease in core body temperature that in turn initiates sleepiness. A growing number of studies are finding that temperature regulation plays a role in many cases of chronic insomnia.



Researchers have shown, for example, that insomniacs tend to have a warmer core body temperature than normal sleepers just before bed, which leads to heightened arousal and a struggle to fall asleep.



For troubled sleepers, a cool room and a hot-water bottle placed at the feet, which rapidly dilates blood vessels and therefore actually helps lower core temperature, can push the internal thermostat to a better setting.



Sources:



New York Times August 3, 2009





Dr. Mercola's Comments:



America is a nation of insomniacs. At least 25 percent of Americans say they frequently have problems getting a complete and restful night’s sleep and at least 40 million Americans suffer each year from chronic, long-term sleep disorders



Considering human beings spend about one-third of their lives asleep, you’d think we’d all be pros at it! In reality, insomnia is the most common sleep complaint in the United States and about 30-40 percent of adults have insomnia symptoms in any given year!



This is why I absolutely love sharing simple tips like the one above, as giving some thought to your bedroom temperature may help you get a good night’s sleep.



Why Temperature is So Important to Sleep



Thermoregulation -- your body's heat distribution system -- is strongly linked to sleep cycles. Even lying down increases sleepiness by redistributing heat in your body from the core to the periphery.



When you sleep, your body’s internal temperature actually drops to its lowest level, generally about four hours after you fall asleep. Scientists believe a cooler bedroom may therefore be most conducive to sleep, since it mimics your body’s natural temperature drop.



This is also why taking a warm bath 90 to 120 minutes before bedtime may also help you sleep; it increases your core body temperature, and when it abruptly drops when you get out of the bath, it signals your body that you are ready for sleep.



While there’s no set consensus as to what temperature will help you sleep the best, in most cases any temperature above 75 degrees Fahrenheit and below 54 degrees will interfere with your sleep.



Once you’re within that range, many factors can influence which temperature is best for you including, of course, your choice of pajamas and bedding. Most people, however, will find they sleep best by keeping the temperature in their bedroom no higher than 70 degrees F and perhaps even a bit lower than that.



Interestingly, while a cool room and a lower core temperature may help you sleep better, cold hands and feet will not. Because blood flow is a prime method of distributing heat evenly throughout your body, if your extremities are cold it could be a sign of poor blood flow, which results in sleeplessness.



The solution for this is simple: put on a pair of warm socks or place a hot water bottle near your feet.



Get this Wrong and You Will INCREASE Your Risk of Cancer



Light. Or more specifically, making sure there’s none of it in your bedroom.



Your sleeping patterns are actually governed by light, and any source of light -- even one as tiny as the green glow from your clock radio -- could be interfering with your ability to sleep, and more importantly, your long term health and risk of developing cancer.



While it’s typically thought that your biological clock is what tells you when it’s time to wake up or go to sleep, light and dark signals actually control your biological clock. To get more specific, a part of your brain called the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN) -- a group of cells in your hypothalamus -- controls your biological clock. And the cells that make up your SCN respond to light and dark signals.



Light actually travels through your eye’s optic nerve to your SCN, where it signals your body’s clock that it’s time to wake up. Light also signals your SCN to initiate other processes associated with being awake, such as raising your body temperature and producing hormones like cortisol.



Meanwhile, when your eyes signal to your SCN that it’s dark outside, your body will begin to produce melatonin, a hormone that helps you sleep and radically decreases your risk of cancer. There are many studies on this powerful association. The more your sleep is disrupted by light pollution, the lower your melatonin levels and the greater your risk of developing cancer becomes.



Melatonin is secreted primarily in your brain and at night it triggers a host of biochemical activities, including a nocturnal reduction in your body's estrogen levels. It’s thought that chronically decreasing your melatonin production at night -- as occurs when you’re exposed to nighttime light -- increases your risk of developing cancer.



So PLEASE make sure you sleep in a pitch dark room. If you need a light to go to the bathroom at night then use a red flashlight as that is a wavelength that will allow you to see but will not interfere with melatonin production.



The moment your body sees the smallest bit of non red light at night, it will virtually shut off the production of melatonin, and don’t think that popping a pill will counteract this. Remember it is FAR better to let your body produce the perfect amount of melatonin rather than you second guess it and swallow a pill.



Personally, I sleep in a room that is so dark it’s even pitch black at noon. You can achieve this in your own bedroom by:



• Installing blackout drapes



• Closing your bedroom door if light comes through it, and even putting a towel along the base to prevent light

from seeping in



• Getting rid of your electric clock radio (or at least covering it up at night)



• Avoiding night lights of any kind



• Keeping all light off at night (even if you get up to go to the bathroom) -- this includes the TV!



What Else Can You do to Improve Your Sleep?



Americans get about 25 percent less sleep than they did a century ago -- and this isn’t just a matter of having less energy.



Too little sleep impacts your levels of thyroid and stress hormones, which in turn can affect your memory and immune system, your heart and metabolism, and much more. Over time, lack of sleep can lead to:



• Weight gain



• Depression



• High blood Sugar levels and an increased risk of diabetes



• Brain damage



So how much sleep do you need to be getting? Generally speaking, adults need to get between six and nine hours of sleep a night. But there are definitely exceptions. Some people can, in fact, function well on as few as five hours a night, while others need up to 10.



You may also need more sleep during times of illness or emotional stress, or during the winter months. And pregnant women often need several hours more sleep than usual during their first three months of pregnancy.



A good rule of thumb to follow is that if you feel tired when you wake up, you probably aren’t getting enough sleep. Most of us have set times that we need to wake up in the morning, so getting more sleep, for most of us, means going to bed earlier.



If you find that you’re not waking up feeling refreshed, it’s a good idea to devote some attention to revamping your sleeping habits. I’ve put together a list of practical solutions to help you do this in my 33 Secrets to a Good Night's Sleep, which include:



• Avoid before-bed snacks, particularly grains and sugars. This will raise blood Sugar and inhibit sleep. Later,

when blood Sugar drops too low (hypoglycemia), you might wake up and not be able to fall back asleep.



• Sleep in complete darkness or as close as possible. If there is even the tiniest bit of light in your room it can

disrupt your circadian rhythm and your pineal gland's production of melatonin and serotonin.



• No TV right before bed. Even better, get the TV out of the bedroom or even out of the house, completely. It is

too stimulating to your brain and it will take longer to fall asleep.



• Check your bedroom for electro-magnetic fields (EMFs). These can disrupt the pineal gland and the

production of melatonin and seratonin, and may have other negative effects as well.



• Get to bed as early as possible. Our systems, particularly our adrenals, do a majority of their recharging or

recovering during the hours of 11 p.m. and 1a.m.



• Avoid alcohol. Although alcohol will make people drowsy, the effect is short lived and people will often wake up

several hours later, unable to fall back asleep. Alcohol will also keep you from falling into the deeper stages of

sleep, where the body does most of its healing.



• Eat a high-protein snack several hours before bed. This can provide the L-tryptophan need to produce

melatonin and serotonin.



• Address emotional hurdles to sleep using the Meridian Tapping Technique (MTT). MTT can help balance

your body's bioenergy system and resolve some of the emotional stresses that are contributing to the

insomnia at a very deep level. The results are typically long lasting and the improvement is remarkably rapid.



Related Links:



33 Secrets to a Good Night's Sleep



The Most Common Sleep Disorder: Insufficient Sleep



Sleeping Patterns Are Governed by Light





Read this article and/or sign up for Dr. Mercola's FREE NewsLetter click here.

© Copyright 2009 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.

This content may be copied in full, with copyright, contact, creation and information intact, without specific permission.

Americans now get about 25 percent less sleep than they did a century ago. This isn’t just a matter of fatigue, it causes serious damage to your body.



Sleep deprivation can alter your levels of thyroid and stress hormones, which play a part in everything from your memory and immune system to your heart and metabolism. Over time, lack of sleep can lead to:



Weight gain

Depression

High blood Sugar levels and an increased risk of diabetes

Brain damage



Fortunately, there are many steps you can take to get the sleep your body craves. Here are 10 to start with (and the link below has 14 more):





1. Sprinkle just-washed sheets and pillowcases with lavender water, and then iron them before making your bed. The scent is proven to promote relaxation.



2. Hide your clock, so that its glow won’t disturb you and make sure there is no light coming from other sources including your windows as this will seriously impair your body’s ability to produce melatonin.



3. Choose the right pillow -- neck pillows, which resemble a rectangle with a Depression in the middle, can enhance the quality of your sleep and reduce neck pain.



4. Paint your bedroom sage green, or another soothing color, which will provide a visual reminder of sleep.



5. Move your bed away from outside walls, which will help cut down on noise.



6. Kick your dog or cat out of your bedroom -- studies have shown that they snore!



7. Take a hot bath 90 to 120 minutes before bedtime; it increases your core body temperature, and when it abruptly drops when you get out of the bath, it signals your body that you are ready for sleep.



8. Keep a notepad at your bedside -- if you wake in the middle of the night with your mind going, you can transfer your to-do list to the page and return to sleep unworried.



9. Put heavier curtains over your windows -- even the barely noticeable light from streetlights, a full moon, or your neighbor's house can interfere with the circadian rhythm changes you need to fall asleep.



10. Eat a handful of walnuts before bed -- they’re a good source of tryptophan, a sleep-enhancing amino acid.



Sources:

Reader’s Digest





What you don’t know about weight loss can hurt you…

Low-calorie or low-fat foods may not address your personal issues with weight management at all. In addition to being highly processed and nearly free of any vital nutrients, these types of foods often contain ingredients that may compromise your health when consumed.



Find Out More





Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Before the invention of the light bulb, people slept an average of 10 hours a night. Nowadays, a National Sleep Foundation (NSF) poll found that Americans sleep just under 7 hours per night, on average, during the week and about 7.5 hours on the weekends.



While I don’t believe there is a hard-and-fast rule as to how long you must sleep, it is crucial that you do get enough, and this means listening to your body.



Unfortunately, sleep problems -- such as waking up too early, not being able to fall asleep or not being able to stay asleep -- are at near epidemic levels. One NSF poll found that more than half of the adults they surveyed experienced one or more of these symptoms.



Why is Sleep so Important?



Of course, you know instinctively that sleep is essential just by the way you feel when you don’t get enough of it. But sleep is very complex, and sleep deprivation can impact your body in a number of ways:



It can make you fat: People who sleep less than seven hours a night tend to have a higher body mass index (BMI) than people who sleep more. This could be because sleep deprivation alters metabolism. Leptin, the hormone that signals satiety, falls while ghrelin, which signals hunger, rises -- and this boosts your appetite.

It harms your brain: Lack of sleep may cause your brain to stop producing new cells.



It may increase your risk of cancer: How well you sleep can seriously alter the balance of hormones in your body. This can then disrupt your sleep/wake cycle, also called your circadian rhythm. A disrupted circadian rhythm may influence cancer progression through shifts in hormones like melatonin, which your brain makes during sleep.

It may increase your risk of diabetes: Too little sleep may reduce levels of leptin, possibly causing you to gain weight and then develop diabetes.



What Makes Sleeping so Difficult?



There is no one answer to this question, but there are some common factors that can easily disturb your night’s rest:



Racing thoughts: Your worries can easily keep you awake if you don’t know how to overcome them (for this I highly recommend using the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) to release your negative emotions).

TV, computers and video games: Not only do these electronic items make it more difficult to fall asleep, but they also keep you from getting high-quality sleep if you fall asleep with them on. In fact, many teens are now getting “junk sleep” for this very reason (but, of course, teens are not the only ones falling asleep with the TV or computer on).

How to Get a Sound Night’s Sleep



The Reader’s Digest article above has some excellent sleep tips that are worth trying out, and I have also compiled my top 33 Secrets for a Good Night’s Sleep.



If you have trouble sleeping, please take a few minutes to read through this list, as it has emotional, physical and practical solutions to help you overcome your sleepless nights.





Related Articles:





Sleep Drugs Are Wildly Popular Despite Barely Working



More Than Seven Hours of Sleep Per Night Increases Your Risk of Brain Disease



Deep Sleep Solidifies Your Memory



*visit Dr Mercola's aritcle to link to even more information with his links that don't transfer here.

© Copyright 2005 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.

This content may be copied in full, with copyright, contact, creation and information intact, without specific permission, when used only in a not-for-profit format. If any other use is desired, permission in writing from Dr. Mercola is required.

(NaturalNews) Sleep is one of the most fundamental principles of health. Without enough of it you may end up feeling groggy and stressed out on a daily basis. On the contrary, excess sleep may lead to an increase in body fat due to increased insulin production. Sleep is something that must be done in the right amounts. A new study conducted by the Wake Forest University School of Medicine reveals that irregular sleep patterns may lead to an increased amount of fat around the organs. This type of fat is much more dangerous than the typical body fat that tends to accumulate around the waist or abdominal region.



The study was clear that these habits were dangerous for people under 40 years old. This age group showed a clear association between averaging less than 5 hours of sleep per night and in increase in visceral fat (fat around the organs). The study found that within the group of subjects under 40, Hispanic men and black women were the majority group when it came to getting insufficient amounts of sleep. It is not only lack of sleep that is detrimental to one's health, however. The researches also found that excess sleep can lead to similar complications on a smaller scale.



The study showed that getting over eight hours of sleep was better than sleeping less than five, but both were linked with negative health effects. Excess sleep of eight hours or more was found to be prevalent in Hispanic women of all ages. What puzzled the researchers was the fact that in participants over 40, these effects were not observed.



"We don't really know yet why this wasn't seen in participants over 40, but it was clear that, in individuals under 40, it is worse to get five or less hours of sleep on average each night than it is to get eight or more hours," said Kristen G. Hairston, M.D., M.P.H., an assistant professor of endocrinology and metabolism and lead author on the study.



Most health experts recommend sleeping around 6 to 8 hours per night. As the research shows, sleeping less than 5 hours can be extremely harmful to your health. While these effects were not found in adults over the age of 40, adults over 40 should still adhere to these sleep guidelines. The benefits of a proper sleep regimentation are numerous, and only some of them are fully understood.



"We definitely know that a relationship exists between sleep and obesity. Now we need to know how this relationship can be modified." said Hairston.



Sources:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/release...

http://www.journalsleep.org/ViewAbs...

http://jap.physiology.org/cgi/conte...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4...

About the author

Anthony Gucciardi is a health activist and wellness researcher, whose goal is centered around educating the general public as to how they may obtain optimum health. He has authored countless articles highlighting the benefits of natural health, as well as exposing the pharmaceutical industry. Anthony is the creator of Shatter Limits (http://www.ShatterLimits.com), a natural health website , and America Reclaimed (http://www.AmericaReclaimed.com), a rising news website. Anthony has been accurately interpreting national and international events for years within his numerous political articles. Anthony's articles have been seen by millions around the world, and hosted on multiple top news websites.