Sleep is vital for our wellbeing – if you don’t believe this fact, ‘try’ getting insomnia for just a week and you’ll understand why you need your beauty sleep. Insomnia is difficulty getting to sleep or staying asleep for long enough to feel refreshed the next morning.
Getting a good night’s sleep is as important as eating a proper healthy diet and exercising. Lack of it takes a toll on your ability to function during the day. Insomnia can sap not only your energy level and mood but also your health, performance and quality of life.
Too much worry, anxiety, a change in health, depression and other factors cause insomnia. The worse factor is when we tend to worry about not being able to sleep. If you work nights, the probability of suffering from insomnia is high. Our bodies go into repair mode when we sleep. If you keep awake, the system is not relaxed to do its magic then we wake up with puffy eyes and in a foul mood.
Not having that beauty sleep leads to complications such as (from personal experience and medical advice):
– Being easily agitated
– Mood swings (worse than a pregnant woman)
– Extreme tiredness
– Irrational behaviour/reasoning
– Fatigue
– Low concentration level
– Brain cannot retain information for
– Affects personal relationships
– Gastrointestinal symptoms (according to medical experts)
– Increased risk and severity of long-term diseases, such as high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes (according to medical experts)
– Overweight/obese (medical)
Overcoming/’Curing’ Insomnia
– NEVER resort to sleeping aids – it is highly addictive
– Alcohol is a big NO – Please don’t buy into the ‘brandy and warm milk’ idea, it doesn’t help
– Good sleep hygiene — simple steps such as keeping the same bedtime and arising time keeps the body clock in check and it promotes sound sleep and daytime alertness.
– Try as much as possible not to nap during the day
– Exercise or keep active to the extent of making the body tired. It makes sleeping much easier
– Avoid trying too hard to sleep – the harder you try, the more you stay awake
– Avoid caffeine at bedtime
Due to busy lifestyles, we always try to sacrifice sleep for work – which is not very helpful. It is very important that we set aside enough hours for some good old-fashioned beauty sleep. Sleep is beautiful; it beautifies the body both in and out. Good skin, clearer eyes and sharp clear brains.
We need it for our survival.