Bet You Didn't Know This Is Good For Your Heart ❤️🩹
We know that getting about 8 hours of sleep is optimal. The American Heart Association has added sleep duration to its checklist for measuring cardiovascular health. Getting enough sleep helps prevent Alzheimer's disease (the brain cleans itself during sleep), keeps our immune system strong, helps prevent weight gain, and makes us more fun to be with. 😊
Sleep consistency matters, too
The NYT reports that people who slept varying amounts each night and had varying bedtimes were more likely to have hardened arteries than those with more regular sleep patterns.
Variations of two or more hours from night to night throughout the week — five hours of sleep on Tuesday, say, and then eight hours on Wednesday — were particularly associated with high levels of calcified fatty plaque built up in their arteries, compared with those who slept the same number of hours each night.
Catching up on sleep on weekends doesn't compensate for staying up during the week.
Sleep experts call this "social jet lag" because it has the same effect on your body as changing time zones.
Previous studies have found
people ages 45 to 84 with erratic sleep schedules were nearly twice as likely to develop cardiovascular disease as those with more regular sleep patterns.
An analysis of over 90,000 people linked circadian rhythm disruptions with a greater risk of mood disorders.
irregular sleeping patterns are linked to high cholesterol and hypertension.
Choose a wake-up time and create a motivating reason to get up. On weekends, this might look like meeting friends to walk or binge watching on Saturday morning the shows you might have stayed up watching on Friday night.
Mike Nelson recommends going for a morning walk. It's good for your vision to focus at various distances, the sunlight is good for resetting our circadian rhythms, improves your mood, and gets your blood flowing so you're not so sore or stiff.
Create a bedtime ritual. Bedtime habits like reading, listening to calming music or a meditation (there are lots of apps for this) or reflecting on the best things that happened during the day psychologically prepare your brain for sleep.
Place your alarm where you have to get up to turn it off. Or use one you turn off by standing on it....
Ruggie Alarm Clock--you have to stand on it until it counts down to zero
or chasing it down...
Clocky amazon.com
With spring break coming up, lots of people will be staying up later and sleeping in the next morning. A few nights of "Vacation Mode" won't have the same kind of effect as a regular stay-up-late-and-sleep-in "Weekend Mode."
But a regular sleep schedule will lead to better sleep and better health!
