Lack of activities can hinder you from living healthy. When you don’t enjoy activities, you may feel fatigue or find it difficult to sleep at night. When you awake in the morning, you may feel tired until you finally fall asleep. As we age, our body changes, and we have to make changes to accommodate our lives.
Having a good night sleep makes the mind think more clearly. A good night sleep also boosts your energy while controlling your weight. You can also make decisions with less stress. Sleeping well at night makes our immune system stronger to keep us healthier. Researchers have proved that a good nights’ sleep is important for our health. Researchers have found that lack of sleep decreases the growth hormones in our bodies, since it changes muscles to fat. Sleep overall is most important, yet it stands behind activities. To improve your health, try something as simple as walking daily.
Walking will help to loosen our muscles, reduces stress, and depression along with anxiety. By reliving these things, it will help us to sleep for a longer and deeper period. So, when we wake up in the morning we feel happier and more rested.
When you exercise, you get a good night sleep, which promotes metabolism. Without the right amount of sleep, our bodies crave energy. Our body will release insulin or glucose into the bloodstream, which slows down metabolism. This action causes the body to gain weight, rather than control weight.
When a person feels exhausted, they will feel weak and repressed from enjoying activities. This leads to additional problems. Sleeping right balances out our bodies giving us, more energy leading to more activities that will satisfy our sleep needs.
To rest proper and feel active you need to reduce your intake of caffeine, nicotine, harmful chemicals, such as over-the-counter medicines that keep you awake, alcohol, and so on. The chemicals and substances will keep you awake. Try to avoid drinking anything after 8 p.m. in the evening. Nicotine should be avoided if possible, yet if you must smoke try to avoid smoking after 8 p.m.
Start a walking program in the morning to help wake you up, while boosting your energy. You will feel better since the joints will feel flexible enough to move freely. In addition, walking will help you burn fat and calories. You’ll notice a big change in how you feel the rest of the day. Start out walking at a slow steady pace for as far as your comfortable. Each day pick up the pace a bit and walk a bit further. Just remember when walking that you want to work up to a steady brisk walk to make you sweat but not out of breath. Take a short walk before and after meals to calm your nerves, and burn calories, too. It will give you energy, relieve that stress from the long day, and help you sleep.
If you start a walking program for yourself, it is a lot more fun if you have someone to go with you. Talk to that neighbor you don’t know, and maybe they’ll walk with you. Just think about it; you’ll be acquainted with someone new, talk about new things. You will relieve stress and get in your exercise as well.
After walking that brisk walk you’re doing be sure to cool down. When walking at a brisk pace your heart rate will go up and it needs to get back to normal. Just walk a bit slowly and relax until you’ve cooled down.
If you can’t go to sleep at night instead of getting up and turning on the TV try pacing around the house. Do some stretching and shake your arms and legs. Even walking around the house can relax you especially when everyone else is in bed and you can relax more.
As with starting any exercise program, consult your physician first.
Ms. Davis is a veteran educator, promoting natural health and wellness products for children and adults.
The Experiment
There is a lot more light in our room than we believe either by having weak curtains, electronics chargers, or perhaps a little night light. Even the slightest amount of light exposure can disturb the melatonin your body produces. By making it a routine to wear an eye mask when you sleep, you significantly prevent light from getting into your eyes, enabling you to rest in the complete darkness. Try this fast experiment before you go to sleep tonight to learn how much ambient light you have in your room, your sensitivity to it, and what you can do instantly to stop it from getting in the way of your natural sleep cycle.
What Do You Need?
Eye Mask or something to cover your eyes with
Something to write on to jot your notes on
First things first: Set An Alarm Firstly, put your mask and your alarm beside you and then set your alarm for at least 15 minutes. This ensures that you won’t fall asleep during the experiment! But if you do then that’s fine as well. Just retry by following these steps again
Step 1 – Determine Your Light Sensitivity Shut down the lights, lie down on the bed, and close your eyes. Give them 1 minute to adjust to the dark. Now pay attention to any light that seeps in your eyes. I found that this is a nice indicator to measure how sensitive you are to the light around you.
Step 2 – Measure the Effectiveness of Your Sleep Mask
With your eyes remaining shut, put on your mask. What major distinctions you notice while wearing your mask compared to when you are not wearing it? Did you notice any ambient light even while wearing the mask? If you do then it is possible you need a mask that is better fitted to match the shape of your face.
Take notes of your own responses to these questions. I would say write it down on your writing pad but that will require you to not only open your eyes but also require you to flip on your lights so you are able to see what you’re writing and that would have to redo the experiment. So for the time being, just take notes and once you are done with the experiment you can record everything on a writing pad.
Step 3 – Identifying the Main Sources of Ambient Light
Remove your eye mask and open your eyes. Now your eyes should be calibrated with dark. Stare up at the ceiling and look for any background light in the room. It may be found everywhere in your room but some of the more typical places to find light are by the windows or door drafts. Once again, take mental notes of places in your room most abundant in light.
Step 4 – What Are Your Observations
Now, you can turn on the lights and jot down all your observations. Here are a few questions to think about:
What is the major source of ambient light in your room?
How sensitive are your eyes to this light?
How does covering your eyes help with the light sensitivity?
What else can you do to instantly to remove ambient light?
The Outcome
Through this experiment I realized that my room much more light than I thought. One thing especially was my computer. I knew my Macbook gave out a continual rhythm of white light in sleep mode but I never noticed how brighter it looked in the dark.
Also I never realized that while my laptop was charging there was miniature beam of orange light that originated from the computer charger. A faint beam of light goes not noticed in the daytime but is amplified by more than a hundred times in a dark room. I found that the largest source of ambient light came from the street lights and my drapes weren’t thoroughly keeping them out. They weren’t closed completely and the textile was semi-transparent. I was able to see the light through my drapes.
Take Action! Some Suggestions It is now time to act. Go through your notes and start off with the quick fixes – these are the things that can be done immediately to totally get rid of the light in your room. Try flipping off your that night light of yours (if you have one) or unplugging your computer charger when it’s not in use. Replacing your existing window curtains for thicker and opaque ones is usually expensive and difficult to physically change; at the same time, it is probably the best way of blocking out light. Using a good fitting eye mask will also prevent ambient light from getting into your eyes. Considering that they are very affordable and can be purchased almost anywhere, it is an essential item to include to everyone’s sleep regimen.
Find out more information about ambient light and using the eye mask to improve your health by visiting John’s Eye Mask resource page.