We spend a third of our lives in bed and whether this time is spent sleeping soundly or tossing and turning can depend quite heavily on the mattress you have invested in. Lying on any part of your body for an extended period of time, reduces the flow of blood through the blood vessels on that part of your body thus depriving your skin of the oxygen and nutrients it needs. Your nerve and pain sensors then send a message to your brain telling you to turn over. Rolling over restores the blood flow to the area but also briefly interrupts your sleep. In an ideal world, your mattress should reduce the pressure points on your body and in turn give you a better night’s sleep. However, every body is different and finding the best bed or mattress is a very personal thing. The mattress market — it’s personal The most important thing to consider is your personal comfort. Look for a mattress that fits your body (it is supposed to conform to the spine’s natural curve and distribute pressure evenly) and feels comfortable.
Women generally have more difficulty sleeping than men. We may blame it on our hormones, our partner's snoring, our kids, our dogs, our overloaded minds or any number of other issues, but the fact is, lack of sleep can make us tired and grouchy. So what's a woman to do?Perhaps surprisingly, we should start by getting out of bed, says Steve Orma, PsyD, a former insomnia sufferer and clinical psychologist specializing in anxiety and insomnia. Orma's book, Stop Worrying and Go to Sleep: How to Put Insomnia to Bed for Good, offers plenty of tips on restful sleep. Here are a few on avoiding those endless hours of tossing and turning:1. Don't stay in bed tossing and turning. If you don't fall asleep within 20 to 30 minutes, get out of bed. You don't want to associate feeling anxious and restless with the bed itself because that can lead to insomnia. Go into a different room and do something that will help you nod off, like listening to relaxing music, knitting, drawing or reading a calming book.
Don't do anything that could stimulate your senses. Avoid exercising, going on the computer, watching TV (unless it's a show that will put you to sleep) or reading a thriller.2. As soon as you're sleepy, get back in bed. Don't fall asleep on the sofa or you may be grouchy AND sore the next day. But don't go back to bed too soon, either! People start worrying that it's getting late, so they get back in bed when they're still wide awake. It's better to wait until you're really sleepy, even if you only get a few hours of sleep, Orma says. The next night, you'll be more likely to fall asleep because you're tired and your body will try to make up for the lack of sleep, so you'll get good, restorative sleep.3. When you get out of bed during the night, do a mind dump. If you're anxious and your mind is racing, dump those worries and concerns on a piece of paper. Orma doesn't recommend journaling during the night, because then you start analyzing your worries. Just list what's on your mind. That should help you feel calmer.
Then leave the list and go do something relaxing. The next day, start addressing your concerns. Resolve each issue, one by one. It may take days or weeks, but you're cleaning your hard drive, Orma says, so those things don't weigh on you at night.4. Avoid poor sleep behaviors. People who aren't sleeping well often adopt poor sleep habits. They may start napping or sleeping in over the weekend. In the short term, they'll feel better because they got some sleep, but these habits can worsen their sleep and could lead to insomnia. If you're sleeping during the day or excessively on the weekend, you're taking pressure away from the body needing to sleep at night. People think "Sunday night insomnia" occurs because they're dreading going to work on Monday, but it's usually because they've slept in over the weekend and now they're not tired.5. Go to sleep when you're sleepy and keep a regular wakeup time. Don't worry if you find yourself getting sleepy at 9 or 9:30. Go to bed and then wake up when you're rested.
Try to keep a consistent wake-up time, including weekends. If you have to wake early for work during the week, your body will be trained to get up early—even on weekends. If you sleep in for three or four extra hours, it can throw your sleep schedule off-kilter. Waking at the same time every day places pressure on your body to fall asleep at night.6. Get exposure to sunlight during the day, if you can. Get outside and enjoy some sunlight, ideally without sunscreen and sunglasses for a brief time. Even if the sun is blocked by clouds, you can get some light. The sunlight lowers your release of melatonin, a hormone that makes you sleep, so you'll feel more alert during the day. Outdoor exercise heightens the effect. At night, when you turn off or dim your lights, your body releases melatonin to help make you sleepy. If you can't get enough sunlight, consider using a light therapy device, Orma suggests. Turn it on in the morning while you work to start your body clock. That will help you later when you go into nighttime mode.7.
Avoid bright lights near bedtime. In addition to dimming the room lights in the evening, avoid the lights of your TV, computer, tablet or smartphone for at least an hour before going to sleep. If you have a lighted bedside clock, turn it around so you can't see it (it'll only torment you). Lights slow release of melatonin—not to mention that whatever you're watching or reading online can cause mental stimulation that may make you toss and turn when you turn off the lights.Tired of tossing and turning? We've discovered the secrets to blissful slumber. In addition to food, water and air, sleep is the one thing we truly can't live without. But experts say more and more women are falling short on shut-eye, and staring at the ceiling all night isn't just frustrating — it can also be life-threatening. According to the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), the 40 million Americans who now suffer from sleep disorders are at higher risk for a slew of serious health issues. Here, what's behind the insomnia epidemic, plus fast-acting solutions for getting quality sleep.
There are roughly 90 official sleep disorders, the three most common being insomnia, restless leg syndrome and sleep apnea, a potentially life-threatening disorder in which people stop breathing during sleep, said Philip Westbrook, M.D., former president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. New research has shed light on why sleep problems are skyrocketing. As with many health issues, stress is to blame. "Thanks to the economy, there's been a big increase in stress, especially in women," said Alan Lankford, PhD, president and CEO of the Sleep Disorders Center of Georgia. "And stress can have a huge impact on falling and staying asleep." When you're mentally keyed up at night, your body pumps out the stress hormone cortisol, which acts like an adrenaline shot that prevents snoozing.Researchers say sleeping twice a day is good for you Also contributing to sleepless nights is a genuinely modern double threat: overactive minds and underactive bodies. Thanks to our coffee culture, people tend to suck down jolts of energy well into the afternoon.
"Any kind of caffeine, even the small amounts in hot chocolate and candy bars, can impair your sleep if ingested after 2 p.m.," said James Maas, Ph.D., coauthor of Sleep for Success! Everything You Must Know About Sleep But Are Too Tired to Ask. Artificial blue light from a television or computer is another powerful mental stimulant that blocks production of the sleep hormone melatonin. So fiddling with your iPad or watching Jimmy Fallon within an hour of bedtime signals your brain to stay alert — and awake. This might not be such a big deal if we got off our butts more often. "Women evolved to be physically active from morning to night," said Westbrook. "But today's desk-bound woman, even one who regularly hits the gym, still doesn't get the exercise her body was built for, and ample exercise is crucial for good sleep." RELATED: How much sleep do teens really need? A solid third of your life should be spent in slumber, and not just so you can recover from those happy hours gone wild.
Sleep is critical for overall health, said Maas, "and people are starting to realize it's a necessity, not a luxury." As you snooze, your body repairs errant cells, builds bone and muscle, consolidates memories and stores up energy for the days, weeks and years ahead. Sleep is so important, in fact, that some doctors consider how much you get to be a vital sign, on par with body temperature and blood pressure, said Lankford. When you're spent, your healthy habits tend to disappear. Fatigue makes the body crave a quick hit of energy — otherwise known as a high-calorie carb-fest. (Ever hit a fast-food drive-through after a rough night?) Going to the gym, a smarter pick-me- up, can seem about as doable as taking a trip to Mars, which is why nearly 50 percent of women report skipping exercise when they're beat, according to the NSF. RELATED: Fall asleep faster and sleep better with this expert advice Habitually skimping on shut-eye can also lead to chronic health problems or worsen preexisting ailments.
"Sleep deprivation is cumulative," said Lankford. "If someone needs eight hours a night and gets only six every night for a week, by Friday she will be functioning on sleep debt." Long term, that can spell malfunctioning hormones that pave the way for increased risks of depression, heart problems, gastrointestinal issues, type 2 diabetes and breast and colorectal cancers. (Breast cancer, for example, has been linked to high levels of estrogen and low levels of melatonin; production of both of these hormones is affected when you're sleep deprived.) Tossing and turning night after night can make a person desperate enough to storm her doc's office. But instead of searching for the root causes of insomnia, many physicians simply whip out their prescription pads. "Until recently, many doctors were not trained in sleep treatment in med school," said Maas. "Of the 90 or so sleep disorders, most physicians can name around four. Many hand over pills because they don't know how else to solve the problem."
To wit, a whopping 60 million sleep prescriptions were filled in 2009, according to research firm IMS Health. RELATED: 8 things we learned from a sleep expert about putting kids to bed All this pill popping has ushered in a new set of problems. For one thing, some sleep drugs are addictive, especially older ones such as benzodiazepines. Even the new class of nonbenzos can be habit forming, says sleep doctor Shelby Freedman Harris, Psy.D., director of behavioral sleep medicine at Montefiore Medical Center's Sleep-Wake Disorders Center in New York City. "Though people are not hooked on them physiologically, they can develop a psychological dependence and think they'll never sleep if they don't take a pill," she said. Rare but scary side effects include things like memory loss and sleepwalking, sleep driving or sleep sex. Plus, said Westbrook, no studies show what extended use of these drugs does to your body. "The bottom line is that prescription sleeping pills are a short-term solution," said Maas.
Simply put, drugs may be a godsend for temporary insomnia, but continuous use could be dangerous. "Taking a pill won't get to the underlying issue," said Westbrook. Most frightening of all, "insomnia can be a symptom of depression, and depressed patients who take sleeping pills have an increased risk of suicide." Likewise, sleep apnea, when treated with Rx sleep meds, can turn fatal. A safer and more effective cure for sleep problems lies in improving what doctors call sleep hygiene, a combination of natural snooze-inducing practices. Clean up your slumber routine with these tricks: "Routine is so important," said Maas. "You have one biological clock — not one for the workweek and one for the weekend. You need to synchronize it and go to sleep around the same time every day." Changing up your snooze schedule confuses your brain's sleep center and promotes restless nights. When you nod off, your core body temperature drops by about a degree and a half, said Lankford.
Encourage the process by setting your bedroom thermostat to around 68°F. If you still feel hot at night, you could be smothering yourself under a comforter that's too warm, so switch to a lighter one. Another trick: Take a hot bath before bed. As your body cools, it transitions more easily into sleep mode once you lie down. RELATED: Why my husband and I sleep apart Artificial light messes with your internal clock and acts as a stimulant, inhibiting the flow of melatonin. "An hour before bed, turn off your iPad or computer, and don't text or watch TV," said Harris. And by all means, stop watching the clock! Not only do digital versions give off a melatonin-disrupting glow, but watching 20 minutes tick by can lead to more hours of sleepless anxiety. Working out soothes insomnia-fueling stress and eventually lowers your body's built-in thermostat, a necessary presleep step, explained Robert Oexman, director of the Sleep to Live Institute in Joplin, Missouri. Just finish off your cardio at least four hours before bed — any later and your body temp will still be too high, keeping you awake.