Simple Ways To Manage Insomnia

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2010-01-17T07:18:00.000-08:00

Cant Sleep At Night, But Feel Tired?

Hope To Sleep Better Every Night?

Topic:

About Me:

Hi, I'm Stella Heong, from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Thanks to everyone who come to visit my blog. I was an insomniac last 2 years ago, while I was a Degree Student. My life is full of pressure. I cant fall asleep every night, but I did not know what is the reason. So, I used my sleeping to online or hang out to have drink with friends. After time to time, I found out my lifestyle is not healthy. I felt tired easily, loss motivation, hard to concentrate in day and moody. I cant have a good performance in daytime.

I do not want this happen in my life again!! So I started to find out the solution how to change my sleep habits. I found out some effective ways to help me run out from my bad lifestyle. Now I can sleep easily every night, and my lifestyle is improved as well.

Therefore, I decide to write a blog to share to everyone how can I improve my insomnia problem. If you find out this can help you a lots, please kindly share this to your friends too. (Just click on "SHARE")--->Share

Wish you will have a sweet dream and sleep tight every night. CHEER!!!

Regard,

Stella Heong

About Sleep Cycle

2009-11-24T06:48:00.000-08:00

There are 2 main type of sleep: Rapid Eye Movement (REM) or Non-rapid Eye Movement (NREM). Sleep is classified into 4 stages: stage 1, stage 2, stage 3, and stage 4. After you progressed from stage 1 to stage 4, then you will go on into REM sleep. The complete cycle lasts for about 90 minutes. Therefore, an average adult will have 4 to 6 cycles each night.

Stage 1: Light Sleep
During first stage of sleep, we are in between awake and falling sleep. It usually last from 10 to 15 minutes. It is meant that we can be woken up easily. Our brain waves begin to slow down and our muscle activity will start to slow down and relax. This stage only occupies 2 to 5 percent of sleep time.

Stage 2: Light-Intermediate Sleep
After 10 minutes of stage 1, we will enter into stage 2. It will last for about 20 minutes. Our eyes movements stop and our brain waves slow down further. The breathing pattern and heart rate also start to slow down. Our body temperature will drop too. This stage will take up to 45 to 55 percent of our sleep time.

Stage 3 and 4: Deep Sleep
In stage 3, our brain start to produce delta waves which high amplitude (large) and low frequency (slow). Our breathing and heart rate also turn into slowest rate. Besides that, our blood pressure falls and body temperature also falls even lower. Our kidney function will be reduced, so we will produce less urine. In this moment, growth hormone will be released. This hormone will help to repair and maintain our immune system and body tissues. Therefore, insufficient deep sleep will affect our health.

In stage 4, it is characterized by rhythmic breathing and limited muscle activity. It occupies 40 percent of our sleep. It is difficult to rouse people from this stage. If we are woken during deep sleep, we cannot adjust ourselves immediately. Therefore, we will feel groggy and disoriented for several minutes.

REM sleep:
This stage will start about 70 to 90 minutes after we fall into deep sleep. Our brain start to active in this stage; sometime it will more active than we are awake. This is the period we dream the most. We will spend at least 2 hours dreaming every night. Sometime we will remember it, but sometime not. We can recall our dream in first few minutes after we wake up, because we can remember our dream from REM sleep, and most REM sleep takes place in the early hours. According to research, women are better than men at remembering their dreams.

From figure 1, we can understand our brain waves are different in every stage of sleep.

Why Sleep Is Important?

2009-11-22T08:38:00.001-08:00

According to researches, it shows that nearly 2/3 of us get less than 8 hours sleep and 1/3 of us do not sleep more than 6 hours. A good quality sleep can benefit to daily life, such as strengthened immune system, increase memory, increase daily performance and so on. If you sleep less than 5 hours a night, you will easy to feel depressed, develop heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and etc. A recent study indicated that if a woman sleeps less than 6 hours every night, she will have 62% more likely to develop breast cancer.

Besides that, people who do not get enough sleep will weight gain easily, because they consume foods high in sugar to help them stay awake, so it can lead to high blood sugar level and weight gain. Through the studies, people who have poor quality sleep have been found to have lower levels of leptin, which is a hormone helps to regulate the body’s metabolism and higher levels ghrelin, which is a hormone increases hunger. Therefore, they will overeat and weight gain.

If you do not have enough sleep, your immune system will be reduced and you will more prone to infection, because your immune system needs healthy sleep to function optimally. It is not only affects your health, it also affect your mood. You will loss motivation and making it hard to complete tasks. You also will find out that you are inability to cope your tasks, because your co-ordination, reaction times and judgments may be impaired. You are often overwhelmed by feeling of helpless when faced with tasks you could always accomplish it easily. It also increases your chances of being involved in road or other accidents, because 1/5 of car accidents are caused by tiredness.

Poor sleep problems are also linked to unemployment, because your productivity is reduced. It is included reduced memory, creativity, coordination, decision making, communication skills and inability to think logically or critically. You cannot give the best performance at work and taking time off work through exhaustion. Besides that, irritability and mood swings are common problems if you do not have enough sleep. You will feel angry easily. This might make you lose the respect of others, leading to relationship problems.

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Snoring Problem

2009-11-20T21:49:00.000-08:00

There is about 40% of adult s in UK snore and 30 million people suffer disrupted sleep as a result. Snoring is the vibration of respiratory structures and the resulting sound, due to obstructed air movement during breathing while sleeping. It is sleep-related breathing disorder that can be trigger by few factors:

Throat weakness to cause the throat to close during sleep
Wrong positioned jaw, often caused by tension in the muscles
Overweight - Fat gathering in and around the throat
Obstruction in the nasal passageway
The tissues at the top of airways touching each other causing vibrations
Relaxants such as alcohol or drugs relaxing throat muscles
Sleeping on one's back and may result in the tongue dropping to the back of the mouth.

My Sleep Partner is Snoring at Night? Snoring cannot be cured, but it can be controlled through lifestyle changes, such as losing weight, stopping smoking, and not drinking alcohol during bedtime. According to studies of British Snoring and Sleep Apnoea Association (BSSAA), 15 million British adults live with a snoring partner, depriving them of an average of 2 hours’ sleep a night.

How to STOP Snoring?
Tip 1: Elevate Your Head
To reduce snoring during, you need to elevate your head by sleeping on thicker pillow or few pillows. If you have neck or back pain, you might need to be careful when you elevate your head. Sleep on a too soft pillow can encourage your throat muscles to relax and narrows your air passageway, so you will snore at night.

Tip 2: Foods and Medicine
Do not drink alcohol or take sleeping pills before sleep, because they will cause your muscle to relax and limit your air passageway. Besides that, you are not suggested to eat big meal before sleep. If your stomach is full, it will push on your diaphragm and limit your air passageway. You also need to avoid eating rich foods such as pizza, chocolate, cakes, biscuits, etc.

Tips 3: Sleep on Your Side
Sleeping on your side instead of sleep on your back can help to prevent snoring. You can sew a tennis ball to the back of your nightwear, so it can help to prevent you sleep on your back. This is a n old-fashioned remedy to prevent sleeping on your back. However, it is not recommended, because it might disturb your sleep.

Tip 4: Anti-snoring Products
There are a lot of anti-snoring products are available in the market, such as: “snore stopper”, which is an electronic device that wake you up when you snore, and anti-snoring nasal spray, which prevents snoring by keeping the nasal path open. Some products might make your throat feel dry. Therefore, you might need to prepare a cup of water nearby your bed.

Other Tips:
If you are overweight, you are suggested to lose weight. It is because fat gathering in and around the throat will narrow the air passageway. If you are a smoker, you are suggested to stop smoking before you go to sleep, because smoking will cause inflammation and swelling of the throat. If your snoring problem still does not be solved, you are suggested to consult a medical professional.

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If you want to refer more about Snoring, you can read the recommended books:

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Back Pain Problem Make You Insomnia?

2009-11-19T08:29:00.000-08:00

Back pain is one of the most common problems to insomniacs. According to studies, average 8 out of 10 of us will experience lower back pain at some point in our lives. Nowadays, there are many factors cause us have back pain problems, such as: poor diets, wrong posture of sitting, standing and sleeping, overweight, and so on. Our joints and muscles are overloaded and cannot work through their strength. Sitting, standing, sleeping and bending with wrong postures will cause lower back pain.

If you got lower back pain, you are suggested to see physiotherapists as soon as possible. They will help you to find out the cause and give you some tips on how to take care of your back. They will access your condition, explain your problem, and treat it provide the maximum benefits in minimum time-frame.

There are few tips to prevent and relieve your back pain:
Tip 1: Check Your Mattress
You must ensure that your mattress is suitable for your situation. If you are sharing bed with other, you need to make sure that your mattress is bigger enough to both of you. You will not be crowded out, and you can have a comfortable sleeping posture when you are sleeping. If your mattress is too soft or too old, it may not give enough support to your back, so you will have back pain problem.

Tip 2: Check Your Pillow
You need to find out the sleeping posture that you prefer. If you prefer sleep on stomach, you need to choose a soft pillow. If you prefer sleep on your side, you need to choose a medium-soft pillow. If you prefer sleep on your back, you need to choose a firm pillow. You must need to ensure that you are using the right pillow for your needs, because pillow is important to support your neck in the midline.

Tip 3: Sleeping Position
If your sleeping position is incorrect, it will make your back pain problem become worse. If you sleep on your back, you need to put another pillow under your knees. If you sleep on your side, you need to put a pillow between your knees.

How to Pick a Pillow?

2009-11-19T01:27:00.000-08:00

Choosing the suitable pillow can give a big change to your sleep quality, because the right pillow will give support to your neck and spine, to alleviate or prevent many common forms of back and neck pain which might affect your sleep quality.

Buying a suitable pillow, you should consider your favored sleeping position. When shopping for a new pillow, buy at least two pillows as they can be used to support other parts of your body as well as the head and neck.

If you prefer to sleep on your back:
You should choose a firm pillow. Your pillow should support the natural curvature of your spine. You must make sure that it has adequate support under your head, neck and shoulder. Besides that, you need to place a pillow under your knees to maintain the natural curve of your body and off-load the low back. This position can help you drift off to sleep. You may move during the night, the pillow may move as you move, so you need to reposition them if you wake up.

If you prefer sleep on your side:
You should choose a medium-soft pillow. The pillow can support your head and neck so that your spine maintains the midline position. You need to make sure that your weight is evenly distributed, so will not create unnatural bending or pressure. Some people will choose to put a small pillow or rolled towel under their waist for additional support while they are lying on their side.

If you prefer sleep on your stomach:
You should choose a soft pillow. It should be flat to keep the spine and neck aligned, so you can sleep better. You also need to put a flat pillow under your stomach to help the spine keep its natural alignment. If your mattress is soft, you may need to put more than one pillow under your stomach, because they can help you to minimize the amount of strain on your lower back as well as the amount of twisting for your neck.

The fill of the pillow you choose is also very important. Different fills provides different advantage and firmness. The right pillow depends on your budget and your needs. It is not necessary that the most expensive pillow is the most comfortable pillow for you.

Down and feather pillow: It can give you comfort and adjustable. It can support your head and eliminate pressure point. It is the ultimate in comfort and luxury. However, it is not the best option, because it can develop an odor. Besides that, if you are suffering from asthma and allergies, you are not suggested to choose down and feather pillow.

Cotton-filled pillows: They are the ideal choice, because they are suitable for those people who are suffering asthma and allergies. They have different range of thicknesses and comfort levels.

Foam-filled pillow: It is inexpensive, but may not offer as much comfort, because it is often lower quality. It comes in a range of fills from solid to shred and pellets.

Orthopedic pillows: They consist of different shapes and materials. They can keep their shape and comfort your head and shoulders, to keep spine alignment. However, it does not mean that it will be good or right for you. If you want to buy an orthopedic pillow, please consider the different materials they are made from, and pull them out from the boxes and inspect them before you buy it. Remember read the labels and understand what you are purchasing and what the promises are. You also need to understand the best position to use them to prevent your neck or shoulder pain after sleeping with an orthopedic pillow in wrong position. You can consult a physiotherapist before you buy it.

If your pillow is more than 6 months old, you should need to replace another new pillow. A down pillow can last for 5 years, while a feather pillow can last for 8 years. If your pillow starts to change shape, then it is the time to buy a new one!

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6 Simple Steps To Buy A New Bed

2009-11-16T06:56:00.000-08:00

What bed should I buy? How to choose the most comfortable mattress? How important is a good bed in our life? There are a lot of retailers in the market, which one is the most suitable for me? An uncomfortable bed will make you experience back pain that will affect your sleep quality.

Step 1: Set Your Budget
Bear in mind, the most expensive bed is not necessarily the best for you. It might not necessarily make you feel comfortable. The more expensive bed will use better quality materials and fillings. You can set the best budget for you to buy a good and affordable bed. Buying a bed is same as buying an investment. It will affect your sleep quality and your life.

Step 2: Choose Mattress Size
You must make sure that your bed is about 15cm (6 inches) longer than your height. If you choose to buy single bed, make sure that its width must not less than 90cm (35 inches). If you choose to buy double bed, make sure that its width must not less than 160 cm (63 inches). Besides that, the size of the mattress also depends on your room’s space. You must make sure that you have enough space to get in and out of it easily. If you are sharing the bed, you might need to choose big size of bed. Therefore, you both will have enough space to turn around your body without disturbing your partner.

Step 3: Decide Type and Style of the Bed

- Air Bed: It is a mattress with an air-filled core to provide the support instead of inner springs. It is only suitable for temporary use.

- Head Board: It is optional and used for decoration.

- Water Bed: It is a divan with a water-filled core providing support coupled with layers of upholstery for insulation and surface comfort.

- Electrically Adjustable Bed: You can adjust the head and foot of the bed to the most comfortable position.

- Futons: It is mattress that does not have springs. It can be fold as a sofa in day, and open it as a bed at night.

- Divan: it is the base of the mattress. It is useful if your room space is limited, because its drawers provide additional storage.

- Bedsteads: it is made by wood or metal.

Step 4: Buy a Mattress That Suit for Your Body
“Should I buy soft mattress or hard mattress?” This is the common question people will ask when they are buying a mattress. The ideal mattress should keep spine in alignment and distribute balanced pressure throughout your body. If you like soft mattress, you need to ensure that it can give your adequate support, especially in the small of your back when you lie on your back. If the number and thickness of the springs increase, the firmness of the mattress also increases. Mattress firmness is rated from 1 to 5, while 5 is the firmest. A rating between 3 and 4 is generally best for most of us. Your weight should also be taken into consideration. Adding a mattress topper to a firm mattress may be a good choice for people who have back pain.

Step 5: Check what is Inside Your Mattress

Sprung mattress: It is made by a series of coils or springs. It is designed to support the sleeper needs without discomfort. The more springs there are, the more support the mattress can give. If you are over-weight, you are recommended to buy pocket sprung mattress which have small springs that are sewn into individual pockets, to make the mattress more responsive to the weight and your position.
Non-sprung mattress: It is made by wide variety of materials, such as: latex, fibre, wool, cotton, foam and water.

Step 6: Check what is on The Outside
The mattress cover is one of the important parts. It can help to protect from general wear and tear and make you feel comfortable.

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Alcohol, Smoking and Caffeine Kill Your Sleep

2009-11-13T21:41:00.000-08:00

Alcohol
Many people believe that drinking alcohol can help to have a good night’s sleep, but it is myth. Drinking alcohol only can make you sleep for 3 to 4 hours. After the alcohol’s effect wear off, you will wake up and feel exhausted, when you continue to sleep, you will be disrupted by diuretic effect that you need to visit to toilet several time during the night. If it is happened continuously in your life, you will become less restful.

How much can you drink per day? For women, you should not drink more than 16 to 24 grams of alcohol per day, and should not drink more than 112 grams of alcohol per week. For men, you should not drink more than 24 to 32 grams of alcohol per day, and should not drink more than 168 grams a week.

Smoking
Cigarettes contain nicotine which affects sleep, because it will stimulate your brain, increase your blood pressure and heart rate that keeps you awake. However, smokers do not aware of this problem. Besides that, nicotine and adrenaline that released from the body will keep your mind stay alert and affect the natural sleep cycles, therefore, smokers do not have normal deep sleep. According to studies, when the smokers quit smoking, their sleep habits will be improved too.

Caffeine
You should not consume any caffeine foods and drinks several hours before bedtime. Caffeine is stimulant and activates the central nerve system. Caffeine will enter into bloodstream and stay in the body for 3 to 8 hours afterwards. Therefore, you will feel more alert after drinking coffee, make you not easy to fall asleep and cause insomnia. It also makes some people feel slightly ill and jittery. You are suggested not to drink caffeine at least 8 hours before bedtime. You need to find out when you need to stop to drink caffeine during daytime, so you can avoid experiencing insomnia at night. If you have no problem to fall asleep after drinking caffeine, but it will affect your sleep quality that you might not aware obviously. Coffee, chocolate, tea and caffeinated cola drink are containing caffeine. Besides that, green tea also contains caffeine although it is good for health.
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How Powerful of Napping Can Improve Insomnia?

2009-11-10T20:23:00.000-08:00

According to studies, taking a napping can make yourself more alert, reduce your stress and improve cognitive functioning. It is better than you drink a cup of coffee. 20 minutes daytime nap can rejuvenate people. It can improve memory, learning, and mood, and can boost productivity by up to 30%. Many studies have proven that a good napping can improve your ability to close attention to detail and make critical decisions. Due to urban life is busy and the amount of sleep is reduced at night, therefore, taking a nap can increase our alert during daytime.

If your nap takes you from the first stage of sleep to second stage, then you will wake up and feel energized and more alert. If your nap takes you into the third stage and forth stage (deep sleep), you will not wake up easily and will feel tired after wake up. First stage of sleep’s duration is 10 minutes, while second stage of sleep is another 10 minutes. Therefore, 20 minutes is the most ideal for napping. It is called power nap. If your nap is shorter than 20 minutes, you might not increase your alert effectively, while if your nap is longer than 20 minutes, you might feel more difficult to fall asleep at night. If you have 5 minutes to take your nap, just take it!!! It can help you to reduce your stress and helping you relax little, which can give you more energy to continue your work. If you have one hour to take your nap, it is good!!! You can complete the whole sleep cycle, and less sleep at night.

People who experience Insomnia will feel tired during daytime, but cannot fall asleep at night. Therefore, taking nap during daytime for 20 minutes can help to boost up their work performance. However, naps should be avoided, if you have enough sleep at night and do not feel tired during the day.

Prime nap time is from 1-3pm, when your energy level starts to drop down due to the increase of hormone melatonin in the body at the time. Once you are relaxed and in a comfortable position to fall asleep, remember set your alarm, the ideal nap duration is 20 minutes. You must make sure do not have any interruption during your napping time, such as ensure silent your phone, door is closed, and etc. Besides that, you must avoid caffeine after 10 am, because it might make you hard to nap.

To Learn More How to Stop Feeling Tired In 7 Days Or Less and Increase Your Energy!!!

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Women Love To Fall Asleep on Man's Arm

2009-11-10T05:19:00.000-08:00

In TOKYO, a new product on the Japanese market has been designed for the single and lonely girl who desire a comfortable man hug while she sleeps. The “Boyfriend Arm’s Pillow” is shaped like a giant arm which will hold you all night without the need for any man.

Benefits and Features Boyfriend Body Pillow:

Delicate and comfy body pillow
Perfect sleep companion for lonely people
Feel the hold of a man without the snoring, smell, tossing or turning
A Funny and Original Gift Idea
Gives enjoyment and excitement for female lonely

* Dear Ladies Insomniacs, find a man to hold in your lonely night. You might have a sweet dream under "his" arm.

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How Sleep-Promoting Supplement Help You Improve Your Sleep Habit?

2009-11-08T20:48:00.000-08:00

In order to balance your diet to improve your sleep habit, you also can choose to consume sleep-promoting supplement to improve your sleep habit.

Melatonin
Melatonin is a hormone that is secreted by pineal gland in the brain at night to help to maintain sleep. Melatonin is made by converting tryptophan to serotonin, and then converting serotonin to melatonin. Therefore, melatonin supplements are widely used as sleep aid. There are many studies proved that melatonin can improve sleep pattern effectively. Melatonin can decrease your body temperature and help to slow down your body metabolism, so you can relax easily. Melatonin can also be used to treat jet lag, because your body might not adjust with change of time zones when you are travelling.

5HTP – 5-hydroxytryptophan
5HTP are derived from the seeds of a West African medicinal plant Griffonia Simplicifolia. It is serotonin which helps to improve sleep habit. According to studies, 5HTP can help you fall asleep faster and increase sleep duration. It also increases the amount of deep and REM sleep. The recommended dosage is 100mg at bedtime, but you cannot consume anti-depressants together with 5HTP, because it will give negative feedback when both drugs are interacting.

Passion Flower
Passion flower is traditional South American remedy for insomnia. Passion flower does not have any ill side effects. It helps to be restful, relaxing sleep with no grogginess the next morning. You can either choose to consume passion flower supplements or blew a passion flower tea before bedtime. It is most effective when it is combined with other sleep-inducing herbs.

Valerian
Valerian is an herb that helps to reduce anxiety and used as a sleep aid. Professor Jim Horne said that valerian appear to be most effective for treatment of insomnia. It helps a lot of people who have trouble falling asleep and poor sleep. It also helps for those people who always wake up at night. It is because of valerian contains GABA (gamma-aminobutyric aic), an amino acid that help to regulate sleep. Herbalists recommend taking valerian for 4 to 6 weeks and then taking a 2 to 3 weeks break.

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Change Your Sleep Habits

2009-10-19T09:51:00.000-07:00

Changing your sleep habits will help to improve your sleep problem (insomnia). It will make you fall asleep easily. There are few tips to have healthy sleep habits:

Tip #1:
Spending more time to outdoor activity during the day will help you easy to sleep at night. Stop your body produce melatonin (sleep hormone) by exploring sunlight in day; therefore, your body can produce melatonin easily at night. Besides that, exploring sunlight can refresh your mood and reduce your stress. However, remember prevent explore sunlight during 11am to 3pm, to prevent yourself get sunburn.

Tip #2:
You must follow the bedtime routine. Before you sleep, you can take a warm bath, dimming the lights, sipping a warm, drink a cup of milk, listening music or reading book, it can help you to get out from your stress. You reduce the level of light you exposed in the evening, easy to your body to produce enough melatonin hormone. Taking a warm but not hot bath can help for sleep too. It can relax your muscle and mind. Some people will choose to read bedtime story to aid them to sleep.

Tip #3:
You need to write down your sleep schedule and try to train yourself to sleep punctually. It helps to reset your body clock properly, makes you can fall asleep and wake up on time, so you will have a good quality sleep every day. The best time to sleep is from 10pm.

Tip #4:
You have to restrict your bedtime. If you spend a lot of time turning on the bed to get sleep or wake up from the bed, you might need to reduce the time as much as possible to increase the proportion sleeping time on the bed. It will help to your brain associate your bed with sleep. When it is become a habit, once you laid down on the bed, your brain will automatic send a message to your body is time to sleep. If you tend to sleep 7 hours per day and you have to wake up 7 am in the morning every day, then you have to restrict yourself sleep on 12am every night. Following this schedule every day will help to set your body clock properly.

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Make Your Bedroom Become A Heaven

2009-10-19T04:12:00.000-07:00

If you want to have a good sleep, first, you must ensure that your bedroom is comfortable and have enough space for you to rest and sleep. You must need to make your bedroom a peaceful heaven.

Tips #1:
Keep Silent in your bedroom, because noise will disturb sleep, especially REM sleep. According to the studies, traffic noise will make you take more time to fall asleep. If your family or partner snores when they are sleeping and disturb you to fall asleep, you can use the earplugs.
“White noise” is the sound of ocean, can help to filter out the background noise, slow down the brain wave, and helps to sleep easily and comfortable. White noise also can be used for babies aged a week to 2 years old to make them fall asleep easily.

Tips #2:
Television is not recommended to keep in your bed room. It is because the brain will be over stimulated if you watch television before sleep. It will make you hard to fall asleep, especially watching horror movie. Besides that, try not to use computer before sleep, because it has same effect as television. Both television and computer will influence your body hormone which control your sleep/wake cycle.

Tips #3:
Try to make your bedroom as dark as possible, because darkness can stimulate your brain to produce sleep hormone melatonin which can help you easy to fall asleep, while light will disturb your sleeping process. Example: do not switch on any light when you are going to sleep, print the bedroom’s wall with darker or harmonic color, such as: green color, sky blue and so on, use darker color curtain.

Tips #4:
Keep your bedroom temperature around 16˚C and airy. Our body will lower down our body temperature when we are sleeping, to slow down the metabolism and conserve the energy. If you sleep in a hot bedroom, your body will keep in active status, it will make you hard to sleep. If you worry that the room temperature is too low for you, you can wear cotton nightwear and bedding to help to keep your body temperature in steady temperature. According to studies, keep your face cool but feet are warm can help you to fall asleep. Therefore, cotton sock are recommended to wear when you are going to sleep.

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Take A Deep Breathe, Close Your Eyes, Relax Your Mind...

White Noise -If you cant fall asleep tonight, play white noise music, you will feel relax and easy to fall sleep soon.

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Improve Bedroom’s Feng Shui

2009-10-18T08:25:00.000-07:00

Feng Shui means “wind” and “water”. It is the ancient Chinese art of creating a balanced, harmonic environment to help to promote our health, wealth, and happiness. Nowadays, Feng Shui is proven that it will bring positive energy to people. It is included the layout of building, interior designs, allows the free flow of energy or chi. Feng Shui helps to balance yin (passive) and yang (active) energies. Feng Shui has a great power to influence our behavior, emotions, thoughts, and health.

There are 10 tips to improve the Feng Shui in your bedroom:

Remove the clutter and get rid of clothes and shoes that you don’t wear to encourage the flow of chi.
Don’t store things under the bed that will block the chi to disturb your sleep.
Don’t keep items on top of the wardrobe and keep your dressing table clean and tidy. Only display the items that you use regularly.
Don’t put television or computer in your bedroom which will produce too much yang energy, so use battery clock rather than electrical clock.
Don’t put any mirrors in front your bed which will disturb your sleep.
Choose soft color paint and furniture such as blue and purple, because yin shades will promote serenity and calm.
Place your bedroom away from bedroom’s door. The bed’s head against on a solid wall and in a position where you can see the door. It can make you feel supported and safe.
Choose a wooden-framed bed with a solid headboard to protect your chi when you sleep.
Lighting needs to be more yin than usual to promote relaxation and sleep. You can choose to put some candle.
Always keep your bedroom clean and tidy, make the bedroom have enough space to allow the flow of chi.

To Know More About Improving Your Bedroom's Feng Shui, please refer to:

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ManageYour Stress

2009-10-17T21:03:00.000-07:00

Why Stress Make You Hard to Fall Asleep?
Stress is a feeling when our bodies or minds react to pressure. When you are feeling stress, your body will send a message to your brain, to make yourself stay alert to your stress. It is because the body releases some hormone such as adrenaline and noradrenaline into bloodstream. Therefore, the heart rate will increase, breathe become shorter and faster, metabolism increase and change sleep pattern. If stress cannot be solved, the level of hormone still remains high in bloodstream. You will easy to feel tired, but you cannot fall asleep easily.

Some people will choose to smoking, drink too much alcohol or overeating to deal with their stress. These unhealthy habits will change the sleep pattern too. According to Dr. Chris Idzikowski, stress is one of the factors that cause insomnia. If you have good stress management, you will improve your sleep patterns.

Find out the worries and concern of you
You need to prepare a note book, write down the things that you need to do, the problems you face, and the possible solutions. You are suggested to do this before sleep, because you will not lie on the bed, and stay awake to think about the worries. Writing do to-do list will help you avoid the feeling of overwhelmed. It will make you feel organized and safe. Besides that, it also help you do your works effectively and reduce your stress daily.

Focus What You Do Now!
Sometime, you will feel stress when you worry your past or future. For example, you want to have a big house in your future, you try so hard to achieve your goal, but you will feel more stress before you really success to achieve the goal. The right thing to do is giving all of your attention to the here and now, rather than worrying about the past or future. You must do the best in the moment you are, but not worry the past or future, and you can remove the unnecessarily stress. You are happy with your life right now, rather than you will be happy when you achieve certain things.

Have A Good Social Life
Hanging out with friends daily can also help you to reduce the stress effectively. You can speak out and share your problems and concerns with your friends; they might be your good listener or help you to find some useful solutions. At the same time, your stress level will be reduced effectively.

Have A Laugh Everyday
Laughter helps to relieve stress by reducing levels of stress hormone in the body. Laugh also can help you to relax your muscle in upper body. Therefore, you can spend some time with friends who love to make you laugh, buy a joke book, watch some funny movies. When your stress is reduced, you will easy to fall sleep at night without any worries.

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Foods and Supplements for Improve Insomnia

2009-10-11T07:40:00.000-07:00

What you eat daily also will affect your sleeping. Some foods will helps to promote you to sleep, while some foods will prevent you to fall asleep. A healthy balanced diet can promote us to have a good quality sleep. Urban life is pretty busy, it is impossible to ensure that every meal that we eat is healthy balanced diets; therefore, supplements can help us to prevent deficiencies.

#1: Balance Your Sugar Level in Blood
Sugar (Carbohydrate) is the main energy resources for our daily activities. To maintain a steady sugar level, can help to prevent hunger that will disturb your sleeping. For normal sleep duration is 8 hours per day, you must ensure that your body sugar level can stand for 8 hours until you have your breakfast in the next morning. However, you do not try to over eat before you sleep. It will prevent you to fall asleep, because your body temperature will increases after eating. You also do not eat too little or not to eat before sleep, because hunger will keep you awake.

Some foods can be easily digested into glucose causes your blood sugar increase rapidly. For example: bread, rice, cake, sweets, and fizzy drinks. Some foods have more complex structures sugar form, hard to digest into simplest sugar, glucose, such as: porridge, multigrain bread, potatoes, brown rice and whole wheat pasta. Therefore, it can help to maintain steady body temperature. Besides that, you can eat some fruits, vegetables, beans and low-fat dairy product, such as: yogurt, cheese and milk.

#2: Increase Tryptophan Intake
Tryptophan is an amino acid that used to produce serotonin and melatonin in body which will help to fall asleep easily. Foods that rich of tryptophan are included chicken, eggs, beans, rice, seeds, nuts, dairy foods and etc. A carbohydrate-rich meal increases the brain’s uptake of tryptophan. Therefore, you are suggested to eat more rice, chicken, and green vegetable in lunch meal to ensure body get enough of essential nutrition to improve your sleep. Banana is the best choice of the fruits to improve sleep disorder problem. If you are feeling hungry after meal, you can choose to eat banana as your snack rather than unhealthy snacks. Besides that, eating a little bit chili in your daily meal can help to regulate sleep cycle, allowing you fall asleep easily and wake up feeling more refreshed.

#3: Increase Magnesium Intake
Magnesium is one of the essential minerals in our life. According to researches, insufficient magnesium has closely linked to insomnia (sleep disorder). Due to magnesium is “fantastic relaxant” which can help body to cope with stress effectively. If you are under stressed, magnesium is your best choice. Magnesium-rich foods are included green leafy vegetable (spinach, broccoli, and kale), peas, seafoods, tomatoes, nuts, seeds, oats, yeast extract.

#4: Eat Calcium-rich Foods
Calcium also has same function as Magnesium which enables body to relax. Milk, cheese, and yogurt are rich in calcium. Besides that, you can choose to eat non-animal calcium such as green leafy vegetables. You need to increase “good bacteria” intake such as Lactobacillus to improve calcium absorption. However, soft drink will reduce the rate of calcium absorption.

#5: Eat Food Containing Iron
Iron is also another essential mineral for improving your sleep, because deficiency of iron will cause restless leg syndrome which will disturb your sleep. It is very common among the people who have sleep disorder problem. Salmon, sardines, tuna, egg, liver, meat, dark green leafy vegetable, wholemeal bread and etc are rich in iron.

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