Sweet dreams: eight strategies to make you sleep like a log, grow like a weed—and wake up with energy to burn - Energy

Men's Fitness, Feb, 2002 by Tom Weede

* Find a quiet place and sit or lie down, and put on some mellow music. Close your eyes and slowly relax your body, starting with your feet, and let the relaxation spread throughout your body and up to your head.

* Silently calm yourself with phrases like I can feel my toes becoming very relaxed/warm/heavy.

* Breathe in a relaxed, deep pattern and focus on the rise and fall of your abdomen, or use meditation's mantra-focusing device, repeating a single word such as one or heavy.

* The whole process should take anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes per day, but more time is fine.

* In addition to reducing stress, doing this in the afternoon can induce a light nap and be a good way to beat the slump you normally feel after midday, which Jacobs says has its basis in our distant past. "There's very good evidence that we evolved to take at least one major period of rest during the day, and that was in the afternoon in the form of the nap," he explains.

* Taking a relaxation break is also a good alternative to caffeine, which Jacobs says is okay in the morning but can disrupt sleep if consumed in the afternoon or evening.

LIFT HEAVY GYM OBJECTS

"If you use a lot of energy during the day by exercising, then your body needs to replenish the energy that you used up," says Jacobs. "It does that by promoting greater pressure for sleep at night, particularly deep sleep. So the more you exercise during the day, the more deep sleep you'll produce at night."

* The best time of day to exercise is an individual preference, but from a sleep perspective, late afternoon and early evening (within three to six hours of bedtime) may produce the best results, because an exercise-induced increase in body temperature is followed by a compensatory and sleep-enhancing decrease in temperature a few hours later.

* A caveat: Your body temperature may still be elevated and your sleep disrupted if you exercise within three hours of bedtime.

* By the way, studies have indicated that daily intellectual and mental stimulation--exercising the brain--also facilitates sleep.

DON'T LIVE LIKE A VAMPIRE

You might have heard that getting natural light during the day will enhance sleep (you should also avoid bright light at night), but do you know why?

* "We evolved to live outdoors," says Jacobs. "We did not evolve to live inside, to live and work in places that have very little exposure to bright light, and to stay up at night with light when we're supposed to be asleep. Regular exposure to bright light is a timing mechanism for the sleep system."

* Exposure to natural light and true darkness is optimal for natural melatonin secretion and the rhythm of our body temperature.

* Your office probably has about 500 luxes of light--equal to 500 candles. That compares with 10,000 luxes at sunrise and 100,000 at noon on a July day. Bottom line: Take a break and get outside.

KEEP A SLEEP DIARY

Try to stick to a regular sleep schedule, getting out of bed around the same time every day.

* This includes weekends and mornings after a late night (otherwise you're delaying the rise and fall in your body temperature).