Tired? How do you sleep at night?

Want to be energetic during the day?

Here is a collection of sleep tips for you.

I remember a client that came to me for help many years ago. His main complaint  was that he was tired. 

My first question was: How do you sleep at night?

his answer: 5 full hours of sleep…

For those of you who missed the humor here, 5 hours of sleep is a very good reason to be tired!

If you check out the research coming out of sleep labs over the years, most claim that less then seven and a half hours of quality sleep predict the higher likelihood of work related accidents and many other failings showing that we need more.

In Chinese Medicine 8 hours a night is what you need and to that I add a few things:

1. 8 hours of deep sleep (For most this means about 8.5-9 hours of basic sleep.
2. Only quality sleep counts as full sleep. Sleeping less soundly gives less value.
3. WHEN you go to sleep counts too. Sleeping deeply by 23:00 is very valuable for getting the most out of your night. The core of our night is 23:00-3:00 and that is when (if we are sound asleep) we heal the most and clean our brain!

To sum up this simple and important lesson:

1. Go to bed about 22:0 or earlier
2. Focus on an (net) 8 hour night 
3. Do what it takes to sleep deep.

Lets dig in a little deeper

How can we tell if we sleep deeply and how much of the night we were really asleep?

lets get some tech help!

There are plenty of phone Apps out there that can give you a clearer picture regarding the quality of your sleep.

One such app I have been using for a while is called Sleep Cycle. 

It records your breathing during the night and gives you a clear analysis come morning.

It shows your sleep length, depth, snoring (even records them ;) ) and more.

*disclaimer* It is not fail proof. It can show you asleep when you are in the next room... but most of the time it paints a rather accurate picture.

The idea that we need good sleep for a clear mind is not new. The fact that we now understand why? That is relatively new.

The mind-boggling story about how the brain does it can be found in a TED talk in the following link. It left me speechless - I think you will be astounded too.

Show me the TED talk.

I found another short video that complements the TED talk above - it talks about the importance of quality sleep not just the length of it.

Show me the second vid.

Sleep well !