We all know how we get when we don?t have enough sleep. We are cranky and we look terrible. Often, we are too tired to perform our normal daily tasks. But those are just the things we notice right away. Dig deeper and see how having an unhealthy sleep pattern can affect your brain much more severely than you may think.
Take for example our ability to make quick and smart decisions, or to solve problems. All of those examples are hindered on even just one night of bad sleep. Imagine how a person with insomnia must feel. Every doctor will stress the importance of good sleeping habits, but a doctor, practicing functional medicine, will get to the root of the problem, find out what it causing your bad sleep, and help you solve it.
There could be many reasons why you are not sleeping well. Everything from stress, to what you eat can easily affect your sleep.You need a good, healthy night of sleep in order to be your best for your family, your job and yourself.  Maintaining good sleeping patterns can also help you solve problems in a dream state that you may not be able to solve when you are awake.A recent New York Times article discussed how much we actually learn while we sleep. The reporter talks about new research that may show our dreams are our way to learn while we sleep. A study followed nearly 100 volunteers while they studied a maze. Half the volunteers were then allowed to sleep. Afterwords, those who did not sleep, did not show any improvement. Those who slept showed slight improvement, but those who slept and dreamt about the maze improved incredibly. So, was the brain solving their problem while they slept?
In the New York Times Article, one doctor describes it as the things that really grip you and stick with you are considered important and they are what your brain will go back to, to try and solve as you sleep. Read the article here. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/22/learning-while-you-dream/ So what should we learn from this article?  Get enough sleep at night.  Otherwise you won’t be able to work and enjoy life. But how it can be done? Drugs? Of course not.
Practically, there are some ways that you can try to correct your sleep habits. They include:
Avoid stress: stress will always keep you from falling or staying asleep. Try to solve your problems, but if you cannot, put them behind you, meditate, use relaxation techniques etc.
Enough sleep: make sure that you are getting eight hours a day.  How to do it? Make your sleep a priority.
Fix the gut  —  what  you eat can be affecting your digestion and, in turn, your sleep patterns.  Avoid carbs, coffee, alcohol, dairy and wheat.
Take a warm bath-the warm water will soothe you, and the down-time will be beneficial
Early to bed early to rise…- go to bed when the sun goes down.
Darkness: make sure that you sleep in total darkness. Even the light from a clock or outside lamp can tell your brain that it has to wake up, and not give you the amount of restful sleep you need
Right partner not giving you stress: the person you sleep next to should make you calm and relaxed and comfortable so that you can sleep more peaceful.
So how about you?
Are you having difficulty falling asleep?
Do you have night dreams? Nightmares?
Do you wake up in the middle of the night and cannot get back to sleep?