What you need to know:<\/p>\n
\u2022 A quality good night\u2019s sleep is more important than the quantity of sleep each night.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Sleep quality declines with age (usually, but doesn\u2019t have to).<\/p>\n
\u2022 There are steps you can take to increase sleep quality, feel better, improve health, and increase daily energy.<\/p>\n
The truth is there is no exact number of hours to recommend because sleep duration need is\u00a0highly\u00a0individual, with most people feeling their best with 7-8 hours a night.<\/p>\n
Sleep efficiency, on the other hand, is a better measure.<\/p>\n
To achieve sleep efficiency, the goal is 90% (or better) of actual sleeping each night. In other words, less than 10% of the time in bed should be tossing\/turning or waking up. If that\u2019s not occurring, try exercising more. (Which btw, is my FAVORITE recommendation for most health related issues!) Sleep apps<\/a> and\/or trackers are a great way to get an idea of sleep efficiency using your phone<\/a>, activity trackers\/watches or an oura<\/a> ring.<\/p>\n If you are tracking sleep, the deep sleep phase is tres importante! While it doesn\u2019t last long, this is when cell and cognitive repair take place. Memory is directly tied to this phase. If you\u2019re in your 20\u2019s, an hour and a half is good. As you age, this phase lessens to a half hour \u2013 but there ARE things you can do to lengthen it.<\/p>\n For example, for any fellow \u201cmonkey-brain\u201d friends, try meditation<\/a> or yoga, start a gratitude practice, journal to \u201cdump the day\u201d, try a weighted blanket, educate yourself about adaptogens (to help with stress hormones) or diet\/lifestyle improvements you can try (like exercise!), consider magnesium\/ melatonin\/GABA (Btw, OTC or prescription meds can wreak havoc on your brain\/mortality!) Other options might include making your room REALLY dark, eliminate blue screen (or at least wear glasses) but turn off devices several hours before nodding off. Last, work on getting into a sleep routine that occurs the same time each night.<\/p>\n How quickly you fall asleep could be another indicator or sleep inadequacy. A lot of folks think if you fall asleep within 5 minutes, that\u2019s a good thing. It could mean you have an A-1 nightly routine so well-honed that you fall asleep right away.\u00a0 But, it is likely to indicate you are sleep deprived.\u00a0 On the other hand, if it\u2019s taking more than half an hour to drift off, that may suggest a form of insomnia.<\/p>\n And then, there\u2019s REM sleep which interestingly involves brain activity that is integral to learning and continual brain development. The recommended time for REM sleep is about 20% of your sleep time for optimal wellness.<\/p>\n If you have more than 5 awakenings, there\u2019s a good chance your REM or deep sleep is getting interrupted. You may want to make sure you don\u2019t have sleep apnea.<\/p>\n So yes, sleep is important. It is, quite simply, one of the easiest and most powerful ways we can improve our health and longevity by helping our brains function better, helping our muscles recover faster, and yes\u2026increase fast loss (covered in an earlier blog post).\u00a0 Opt for quality over quantity. Who doesn\u2019t want to live longer and BETTER?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: IF there was a PILL that enhanced nearly\u00a0every\u00a0bodily function when taken and NOT taking it would negatively impact your body, would you be interested in that pill? Most of the diet\/health\/wellness books offer a list of the most important things to do to put yourself on the path to better health and wellness. What …<\/span> Read More →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[88,18,3,103,125,70,62,115,84,129,6],"class_list":["post-788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wellness-2","tag-brain-health","tag-daily-exercise","tag-fitness","tag-health-benefits","tag-healthy","tag-healthy-lifestyle","tag-healthy-living","tag-sleep","tag-sleep-benefits","tag-weigh-toss","tag-wellness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/HealthChicChatter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/HealthChicChatter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/HealthChicChatter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/HealthChicChatter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/HealthChicChatter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=788"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/HealthChicChatter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1966,"href":"https:\/\/HealthChicChatter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788\/revisions\/1966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/HealthChicChatter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/HealthChicChatter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/HealthChicChatter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/healthchicchatter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/img_4806-2-e1570226954556-225x300.jpg\")
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