Good Lifestyle

You set when you want to lose weight. You network when you want to land a job. You meditate because self-help gurus said you should.

We work so hard to make us feel good. But very few of us really try to sleep better. We should.

More and more studies prove that a good night's sleep is not a luxury, it's a necessity - and we do not allow ourselves. That's why we have studied the 40 most interesting facts about sleep, and make sure each insight is also a new one that you can use - to sleep better, be happier and sleep more tight, once and for all.

To avoid gravitational folds, elastic pleats or goose feet, sleep face to face. Studies show that sleeping on your stomach or your side puts a repeated pressure on your face muscles, which leads to the breakdown of collagen. Bingo: wrinkles.

In addition to preventing wrinkles, sleeping on your back is also the healthiest way in Snooze, say that the experts, because it helps to stay at the head, neck and your spine in a neutral position. This prevents the neck strain and uneven weight distribution that can lead to back pain. It's not popular, only 8% of us are back from sleeper - but when the nearest millennium will tell you, the best things are never.

Recommendation: Do you want to explore sleep? Buy a pillow designed for this, cradle of your head and your neck. (The target has a very appreciated model for $ 13; you can buy ithere.) You may be so comfortable that you convert in one night.

Experts say You should be cruising to Dreamland within 10 to 20 minutes of your head striking the pillow. If you fall in the five minutes, you are deprived of sleep; If it takes more than 15 minutes, you could suffer from insomnia.

Recommendation: Read on expert advice on how to fight both.

Have you ever had an uncomfortable feeling when you're half sleepy and you suddenly awakened? This is called a hypnogical jerk, a harmless involuntary contraction of the muscles. It could be accompanied by a feeling of fall. This certainly makes it uncomfortable, but it is a normal phenomenon: 70% of people have known at least one and ten percent to have it daily.

Recommendation: The "beginning of sleep" occasional is nothing to fear, but sometimes the condition is confused with the syndrome of the leg without rest. If you encounter any discomfort in your legs and the irresistible desire to move them (which is often worse at night), talk to your doctor.

A study carried out at the University of Groningen In the Netherlands found that sleeping with your socks can facilitate orgasm. The researchers found that only 50% of participating women could have an orgasm; After receiving socks to wear, 80% did. The socks have created feelings of comfort and calmed the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex, the areas of the brain responsible for anxiety and fear, said the author of study Gert Holstege, MD, PhD.

Recommendation: If you are anorgasmic, it would not hurt to try a pair of socks - or more generally, to investigate any sense of anxiety you have.

During sleep, the body heals and recharges, especially the brain, which hunts toxins to prevent the accumulation of plates. Researchers believe this processlowers the risk of Alzheimer's disease and improves memory. A study published inThe newspaper of neuroscience I found that people who taught specific finger movements (such as hitting piano keys) were better able to call back after 12 hours of rest. "When you are asleep, it seems that you can a memory on more efficient storage regions in the brain," said the author of the Matthew Walker, Ph.D., the sleeping laboratory and neurotimage of Bidmc.

Recommendation: Aim seven to nine hours of restful sleep and quality every night.

After-half-lunch collapse is not a myth. So you can stop you from going crazy about the pizza buffet (even if you should probably get away from the pizza buffet): Scientists have determined that peak fatigue at 2 pm and 2am. "Human beings are biplaassic (physically designed for two persons per day), with two major body rhythms (homeostatic sleep training and circadian excitement) that derive us in different directions in terms of awake or sleeping stay, but they align fascinating in the middle of the day to create a NAP area, "says Dr. Fiona Kerr, a neuroscientist at the University of Adelaide.

Recommendation: If you have the chance to be able to take a nap of noon, let nature knock out. Just sleep longer than 15 or 20 minutes - the more you can go for your alarm clock. (Read for the duration of the perfect standard specifically determined.)

According toCenters for Disaster Control and Prevention, awake for 18 hours is the same as having an alcohol level of 0.05%. (The legal limit of most states is 0.08%.)

Recommendation: The CDC warns that the driving driving can be as dangerous as drunken driving and echoes experts who say adults should be at least seven hours per night. Adolescents should get eight.

On a scale of 1 to 10, the ideal nap is 26 to 26 minutes long, that is to say. For years, experts indicated that a short snooze of 20 to 30 minutes was optimal. NASA researchers have recently identified the ideal length, noting that the pilots who slept in the cockpit for 26 minutes showed an improvement in vigilance up to 54% and an improvement in employment performance of 34%, by Report to pilots who did not know a nap. "Nap leads to improvements in mood, vigilance and performance such as reaction time, attention and memory," said Kimberly Cote, PhD, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Brock University. "Longer Naps will allow you to enter the deeper sleep, which will contribute to unbridled - also called sleep inertia - experienced when awakening and will disrupt night sleep."

Recommendation: If you are the old school, set your alarm for 26 minutes or try a targeted pattern application at that time, asNap26.

If you find it is particularly difficult to participate in your pillow in the morning, you could have a condition called Dysania. According to the Clinic of Cleveland, it can be caused by nutritional deficiency, depression or other problems.

Recommendation: There is a difference between Somnolence and Dyssan: If you can not get up regularly for one or two hours after your awakening, talk to your doctor.

Having trouble sleeping becomes more and more frequent with age, but do not get it elongated (or stimulate the ground). According to the National Sleep Foundation, adults need seven to nine hours of sleep a night for optimal health. In the elderly, insomnia is not the way of nature to tell us that we need less sleep; It is often due to another medical condition or discomfort that can be treated.

Recommendation: If you have trouble sleeping or staying asleep, talk to your doctor.

Transport additional penetrations? The bad sleep can be to blame. During sleep, our bodies release a hormone called laptine, who tells us that we are full; At the same time, a hormone called Ghrelin (a.k.a "hunger hormone") is reduced. When we are deprived of sleep, these hormones come out of the losses of washing leptin and ghrelin increases, which can cause too much to eat.

Recommendation: Eat a power supply full of protein, fat and healthy fiber to prevent pangs of hunger. A site likeeatethis.com Has food solutions that can help.

Hate to break it, but you can actually sleep too much. Several studies show that, regularly, more than nine hours of sleep increase your risk of dementia. Search published in the newspaperNeurology found that the risk of being almost double.

Recommendation: Scientists believe that an inability to get out of bed is a symptom, not a cause, neurological conditions such as dementia. If you find that you regularly sleep more than nine hours, talk to your doctor.

ZZZUT then! In France, people are sleeping an average of 8.83 hours a day, the most in the developed world. (Maybe it's all the cheese, which is packaged from sleeping tryptophan.)

Recommendation: If you can not expatriate, get your seven to nine regular hours, where you are. Remember that sleep is not a waste of time; It's crucial for your health and longevity.

Did you snore? Do you have to listen to it? You are not alone - 37 million Americans are affected by snoring on a regular basis, the National Sleep Foundation indicates. Your penchant for sawing logs could be a sign of a serious condition called sleep apnea, a respiratory disorder that submits the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Recommendation: If you are a regular snoring, consult your doctor about it.

Here's another reason to feel better in the cancellation of these plans and stay with Netflix: "Social Jet Lag" is what researchers call the pretty common phenomenon to go to bed later and sleep more on weekends. end, and has been linked to a frightening health. effects. According toa study Realized by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, every hour of the offset at the Social Plane is correlated on an increased risk of 11% heart disease.

Recommendation: "The regularity of sleep, beyond the duration of sleep alone, plays an important role in our health," said Sierra Fuchush study author, a research assistant in the Sleep Research Program and the Health of the University of Arizona. "This suggests that an ordinary sleep schedule can be an effective preventive, relatively simple and inexpensive preventive treatment of heart disease, as well as many other health problems."

Forty-seven percent of sleeping on our sides, in the fetal position. Unfortunately, according toThe Cleveland ClinicIt's the Big Mac, the Whopper, Sleep Health Bloomin Onion-Choose your metaphor for misconduct. Sleeping on your side, while striving the chin, puts the neck forward in a potentially painful posture, explains Andrew Bang, DC, the center of integrative medicine.

Recommendation: It is better for your body to sleep on your back. But if you continue to return in the lateral habit, adopt this position: "When standing with an ideal posture by looking at the horizon, your ear hole should align with your shoulders," says Bang. "Try to keep this posture when you sleep."

The sleeping face requires turning the head to the side, creating a twist and a non-natural pressure of the neck. "Although it's good to facilitate snoring, it's bad for virtually everything else," says theNational Sleep Foundation. "It can lead to back pain and neck, because it is difficult to keep the spine in a neutral position. In addition, the stomach sleepers are pushing their muscles and their joints, which causes numbness, which causes numbness, tingling, pain and irritated nerves. "

Recommendation: "It's best to try to choose another position, but if you have to sleep on your stomach, try to lie facedown to keep the upperproof airplaces-instead of the head turned on one side - with your forehead. Top of a pillow to allow a pillow to allow a pillow to let breathe, "the NSF advises.

"The Starfish" is the least common sleep position - on the back, hands above your head turned, legs spread up-with only 6% of adults reporting that they rest this way. Good thing: it can be conducive to Ronfler.

According toCleveland Clinic, today 75% of people report to dream of color, while 12% of people report to dream in black and white. Why? Here is an index: before the advent of color television, only 15% of us dreamed of color.

The experts say that we spend about three quarters of each night in Nrem sleep (non-fast movement). It's sleeping without dreaming, a lighter stage of sleep that increases as we get older. Scientists do not know why. They know that the rest of our sleep, the Sleep of Rem, is when dreaming happens.

According toBest sleeping adviceMillennials and Gen Xers are the most likely to report sleep in the laying of "free fall" - on the stomach, legs and arms tense - than baby boomers.

Recommendation: If you know a millennium, register; Make sure they are going well. And suggest that they start sleeping on the back.

Violent frequent nightmares could be a sign of RBD (REM sleep behavior disorder), which has been associated with neurological conditions. Researchers have discovered that 80% of RBD patients develop to develop neurological conditions such as Parkinson's disease and dementia. "For some reason, the cells in the REM sleeping area are the first to be ecorned, then neurodegenerative disease spreads in the brain and affects other areas that cause disorders such as Parkinson's disease," said John Peever , PhD, a neuroscientist. at the University of Toronto, who directed research. "The REM behavioral disorder is actually the best-known predictor of Parkinson's early disease."

Recommendation:If you encounter frequent violent nightmares, talk to your doctor.

People who have insomnia and other sleep problems seem to have increased sensitivity to pain, according to a study published in the pain of the journal. In January, researchers atUniversity of California, Berkeley Affirmed that research and published a possible explanation in the Journal of Neuroscience: Losing sleep seems to reduce dopamine in a brain area dedicated to the response to pain. "Sleep loss does not only improve regions for pain detection in the brain, but also blocks natural analthrough centers," said the senior author of the Matthew Walker study, Professor UC Berkeley of Neuroscience and psychology.

Listening to music can slow down your heart rate and your breathing, reduce your blood pressure and relax your muscles, all processes that can help you fall asleep. A study published in theAdvanced Nurses Journal I found that people who listened to 45 minutes of classical music before bed have reported a better quality of sleep than those who did not do it.

Recommendation: Choose music that makes an average of 60 to 80 beats per minute, which you are most likely to find in the classic or jazz.

An investigation of 155,000 US adults asked the participants if they had been exercised at all over the last month, including low-intensity activities such as golf, gardening or walking. Those who had been a third less likely to have sleep problems and half less likely to know the fatigue of the day.

Recommendation: Remember what to do with exercise is almost always better than having an exercise at all.

As we get older, our internal "corporal clock" moves, makes us tired earlier at night and wake up earlier in the morning. This can mislead us thinking that we need less sleep. This is not true-seven to nine hours are needed for good health.

Recommendation: Keep a regular sleep routine: go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. "It's also a good idea to go out and take a walk early in the day," advises the National Sleep Foundation. "Aerobic activity and sunlight can help put the brain and body in" awake "mode.

When you eat too early before hitting hay, calorie stimulant and energy can stand up. So, can acid reflux reduce gastric acid in your esophagus, causing painful stomach burns. (Eating late at night is probably not great for your weight either, although research is not conclusive.)

Recommendation: Experts advise dinner eat at least three hours before bedtime. If you need a late night snack, do something light like rice cereals, bananas and milk, who eat that, not that! Said perfect food at bedtime.

Add good sleep to the crowd of benefits you get regular workouts. According to the National Sleep Foundation, even a single moderate intensity exercise session (like walking) can help you fall asleep and improve sleep quality, even if you suffer from insomnia.

Recommendation: Experts recommend 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise, or 75 minutes of high-intensity exercise (such as running or swimming) every week to maintain cardiac health, organize cancer and improve your sleep.

"Private sleeping people have higher blood levels of stress hormones and substances that indicate inflammation, a key player in cardiovascular disease," says Dr. Susan Redline, Professor of Sleep Medicine atHARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL. "Even one night of sleep insufficient can disrupt your system."

Recommendation: Make sure your anti-inflammatory mediterranean regime includes many Z.

"People who do not sleep enough are at higher risk for cardiovascular diseases and coronary heart disease, regardless of age, weight, smoking and exercise habits," says theNational Sleep Foundation. Scientists are not quite sure why, but it is believed that not having enough rest damage body processes such as glucose metabolism (sugar), increases blood pressure and increases inflammation. The three have been associated with cardiovascular disease.

Recommendation: To reduce your risk of heart disease, follow a judicious diet, get regular exercises, do not smoke - and plan to get seven hours of sleep just as important.

This is not a coincidence that type 2 diabetes levels exploded to the US state while our average sleep time has decreased. Although obesity is a major risk factor, "a number of evidence indicates that the lack of chronic sleep can contribute to the risk of diabetes type 2 mellitus," the authors of a study published in theCleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine. "Adults sleeps less and less in our society. However, sleep is no longer considered strictly a body restoration process. The importance of sleep for metabolic function and specific glucose homeostasis is now largely accepted. "

Recommendation: "Adequate sleep and good sleep hygiene should be included among the goals of a healthy lifestyle, especially for diabetic patients," said researchers. "We urge clinicians to recommend at least 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep per night as part of a healthy lifestyle.

Based on interviews with more than 4,000 parents, a new study printed in the newspaperTo sleep Found that parents of newborn babies face six years of sleep deprivation - 40 minutes per night for women and 13 nightlife for men, the first year after the birth of a baby.

Recommendation: "Sleep deprivation can be physically drained and emotionally drained. Try not to worry about non-essential jobs around the house and accept the help of family and friends when it is proposed," says Cathy Finlay of the national trust of the United Kingdom. If you are the parent, do not hesitate to ask for help. If you know new parents, do not hesitate to offer it.

Sorry, it's not possible to catch up. A January study published in the journalCurrent biology Summary of previous conclusions that additional weekend rest can not compensate for sleep lost during the week. "The benefits of weekend recovery sleep are transient," said researchers. In addition, losing even an hour per night can land you in the "sleep debt", put your health at risk.

Recommendation: Do not do a good night's sleep a weekend. Get seven to nine o'clock every night.

Private sleeping persons are more likely to feel alone and less social than well-rested people, according to a study published in the newspaperNature Communications. The researchers at the University of California-Berkeley also found that people who have not slept enough may seem more socially unattractive to others, increasing their feelings of social isolation. "It may not be a coincidence that the last decades have seen a marked increase in loneliness and an equally spectacular decrease in the duration of sleep," says the author of principal studies ETI Ben Simon. "Without sleeping enough, we become a social offense, and loneliness strikes soon."

Recommendation: Rethinking sleep as a social activity. "One night of good sleep makes you feel more obvious and socially confident, and in addition, you will attract others to you," explains Matthew Walker, professor of psychology and neuroscience at UC-Berkeley and author of the reason we Dormons.

Insomnia and sleep problems are a classic symptom of depression, which particularly affects men and women in the Middle Ages. This can be part of a vicious cycle - do not have enough rest and aggravation of depression, and vice versa.

Recommendation: If you encounter sleep problems, do not just leave sleeping pills (see another reason at No. 38) - Also talk to your doctor about your emotional state.

"If you are deprived of sleep, it can reduce your ability to combat infection"Said Rachel Salas, MD, Associate Professor of Neurology at Johns Hopkins Medicine. Here's why: During sleep, the immune system releases proteins called cytokines, which help combat infections and inflammation and ease of stress. Sleep deprivation means that fewer protective cytokines are produced, as well as other antibodies and cells canceling infections.

Studies linked the use of hypnotic drugs (sleep incidents) with increased risk of cancer and death by a cause. Do not researchers know why this can be, but why the risk?

Recommendation: There are many strategies you can follow before applying for a prescription, including meditation, relaxation and avoidance of screens. Talk to your doctor.

Your pillow should be washed every six months and replaced each year or two, declares the National Sleep Foundation. The reason for washing: mites. They can aggravate allergies and asthma, harm your breathing and aggravating your sleep. The reason for replacing: feathers go flat and the foam degrades with age. More than half of us experience neck pain as we get older, which could be attenuated by buying a pillow that properly rocks the head and neck.

Recommendation: The bottom and foam pillows can be washed in a regular washing machine. Put them in a separate charge and make sure they are driving completely so that they do not develop mold. Start tennis balls or dryer balls in the dryer to help.

According to a study of theMAYO Clinic Sleep Disorders Center53% of people who sleep with their pets have disrupted the rest and abnormal sleep habits, or because of the movement of the animal or space they occupy in bed.

Recommendation: It may be time to upset a room (or at least one bedside basket). For more ways to live your happiest and healthiest life, do not miss these essential elements50 irregular habits on the planet.