No matter your age, your job, how many children you have or how much you have to do, this shouldn’t be a description of your morning routine. You shouldn’t need an alarm to jolt you out of deep sleep. You should expect to feel restored and refreshed when you awake, ready to take on the day. And if you can’t even remember what that feels like, take heart—and take notes.

Sleep: are you getting it?

According to the National Sleep Foundation, appropriate sleep durations are as follows: Young adults [age 18 – 25] 7 – 9 hours, adults [age 26 – 64] 7 – 9 hours, older adults [age 65+] 7 – 8 hours. Due to a genetic variant, only a very few people are short sleepers—no more than five per cent of the population can get by on less than these recommended amounts.

So for the majority of us, getting the recommended amount of sleep is essential for optimum physical and psychological health, overall wellbeing and quality of life. Making a commitment to getting adequate sleep on a consistent basis will make your mornings better, your days better and your life better.

The best way to ensure sufficient sleep is to make your sleep requirement a non-negotiable part of your schedule. You may even find it helpful to extend your sleep time beyond your normal requirement if you have been accruing sleep debt. It’s also helpful to track your sleep—many apps and wearables are available—or simply keep a handwritten sleep diary [templates are available online]. As the saying goes, if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. This holds true for sleep.

Since we spend a third of our lives catching those important ZZZs, high thread-count sheets, a quality mattress and comfortable pillows are a worthwhile investment that will help you look forward to getting that all-important sleep.

Own your evening

Reorganise and reprioritise your evening routines to accommodate your need for sufficient, quality sleep. For instance, make the mornings less hurried and more relaxed by packing lunches, setting out clothes, and putting briefcases and book bags by the door.

Set a consistent bedtime that starts about eight hours before you need to wake up. Avoid “bedtime procrastination”—putting off bedtime to watch TV, surf the internet or catch up on work—it’s not a good trade-off. Setting an alarm for bedtime as a reminder is quite helpful for keeping bedtime on track.

Bedtime routines are just as important for adults as they are for children because they serve to transition your mind and body from wake to sleep. Keep the lights low as you prepare for bed. Keep your bedroom cool to help you fall asleep. Turn off electronics a good hour before bedtime, and make time for a relaxing bedtime activity—yoga, meditation, reading [print only, with a low-wattage reading light], colouring, a jigsaw puzzle—something quiet, not stimulating. Consider journaling or keeping a list of things you are grateful for. Several studies have shown that gratitude helps people sleep better. Aromatherapy is another helpful sleep strategy for some. The scents of lavender and chamomile have been shown to help induce relaxation. In fact, findings from a 2012 study suggest that night-time exposure to lavender aroma actually helps relieve sleepiness upon awakening.

Own your morning

A positive wake-up routine is as important as a positive bedtime routine. It will make you look forward to waking and set the tone for the day, enhancing your mood, productivity, and energy level. Set your alarm for the absolute last minute you must get out of bed—not 20 minutes earlier so you can keep hitting the snooze button. That fragmented sleep only leaves you feeling lousy when you finally get out of bed. In fact, you should not need a morning alarm if you are getting enough sleep. If you need a conventional alarm clock, place it across the room so you have to get out of bed to turn it off. Wake up to your favourite music instead of a buzzer. Open the curtains and let the sunlight in upon awakening; bright light in the morning helps regulate your body clock. There are even alarm clocks that simulate the sun rising in the morning, or put your lights on a timer.

If you have a programmable thermostat, a warmer temperature will also help you wake up. Stretch or do a yoga pose while still in bed. Do some light exercise while the coffee brews or you’re preparing breakfast. Make your bed. An unmade bed is less conducive to sleep in the evening than a made one, so make this three-minute chore a habit.

Then plan your daily activities according to your chronotype. If you are most alert and creative in the morning, do your intellectually demanding work first instead of doing chores, running errands, or going to the gym. If you are more of an evening type, plan to do your best work then. Do you crave exercise in the evening? Recent studies show that late-day exercise does not necessarily interfere with sleep.

Do I look tired to you?

Bad sleep habits, poor lifestyle choices, or even sleep disorders may be robbing you of sleep and making your mornings miserable. Don’t ignore sleep problems. Always discuss sleep at doctor visits and seek help from a sleep specialist for any persistent sleep problems, especially feeling tired upon awakening and excessive daytime sleepiness.

Manage and track your sleep and have a daily schedule that accommodates sufficient sleep. Make getting adequate sleep a personal and family value and respect your need for sleep as well as your family member’s need for sleep. Sleep, diet and exercise comprise the very foundation of health. Give them all equal priority for the best life—and best mornings—possible.

The post Why do I always feel tired? appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

Taking snoring seriously

Snoring can have many health complications including high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, diabetes, as well as the much more serious condition called sleep apnoea, in which you stop breathing temporarily during sleep for periods that could be as long as a minute or even more. If it occurs during pregnancy, snoring increases a woman’s chance of developing high blood pressure and of having a low birth-weight baby. In children, snoring is associated with learning and behavioural disorders including ADHD. Snoring can also have serious social consequences—it is cited as the third leading cause of relationship breakdown.

What are common symptoms associated with snoring

• Heavy, ‘windy’, noisy breathing
• Restlessness, ‘restless legs’, kicking while asleep
• Mouth-breathing, dry mouth, dry throat
• Morning headaches
• Waking unrefreshed, low energy, daytime tiredness
• Foggy thinking
• Frequent sighing, yawning, extra-deep breaths

What causes snoring

The first thing you ought to know is that snoring does not occur in people who have a normal breathing pattern. Those who snore do not breathe correctly, no exceptions. Research shows that a heavy snorer can breathe up to 2 – 3 times more air per minute than is normal, both when awake and asleep. That is, they overbreathe.

Overbreathing, breathing too fast, and/or too much air per breath can cause the tissues lining the nose and throat to get dehydrated, swollen and congested, narrowing the airway. During sleep, when the throat muscles are relaxed, these tissues can vibrate and create the snoring noise. If you suck in a large amount of air rather quickly, the walls of your throat can be drawn closer together and further obstruct the airflow.

Those who snore do not breathe correctly, no exceptions

Snorers are usually unaware of their pattern of overbreathing. During daytime, they can be so used to it that they don’t notice their mouth-breathing, heavier or faster breathing, upper-chest breathing or their intermittent deep breaths, sighs or yawns—all indicators of overbreathing. When lying down and asleep, however, overbreathing and its effects are very noticeable to an observer.

Anyone who has slept next to a heavy snorer will identify with this high “drive to breathe”. One woman described her partner’s snoring thus: “He breathes two breaths for my one. When he breathes in, it’s like he’s sucking the paint off the walls; when he breathes out, I feel I have to hold on to the edge of the bed so he doesn’t blow me out.”

Healthy, physiologically normal breathing is silent; in and out the nose, all day and night and during exercise. It is 8 – 12 breaths per minute, even and regular; it is diaphragmatic—with just a small movement visible at solar plexus level.

Breathing is a critically important body function. It is the first thing we do in life, and the last. Many people are getting it wrong over 20,000 times a day.

Healthy, physiologically normal breathing is silent; in and out the nose, all day and night and during exercise

The good news: You can change the way you breathe

That’s what breathing retraining is designed to do. First, it identifies faulty daytime breathing habits that have become automatic, altering your brain’s breathing control mechanism, and setting you up for what happens during sleep. Then, through awareness and simple practices, breathing retraining gets you back to silent, slow, smooth, soft breathing day and night. Improvement is often noticeably from the first night.

Gregory had been snoring for as long as he [and his family] could remember. His wife rated his snoring as being at least eight out of 10. Gregory had a lot of congestion and his nose was, more often than not, blocked. His daytime breathing was too fast, and too heavy. After his first consultation he noticed that his mucus decreased. On the third night into his breathing programme he found he slept eight hours straight without needing the usual toilet visit. He felt totally refreshed and clearheaded in the morning. His wife came home after being away for three weeks and she thought he had died in his sleep! He was the quietest he had been in 40 years!

This simple, natural, science-based approach to the management of breathing disorders is often overlooked.

Overbreathing: Overlooked!

As explained, snoring is fundamentally a problem with the way you breathe—day and night. Unfortunately this fact is rarely considered and checking someone’s baseline breathing pattern is not part of standard medical diagnosis. People are often steered towards surgical, pharmaceutical or appliance-based interventions without considering what they can do themselves to improve their breathing habits.

Breathing retraining process

A typical breathing retraining programme with a breathing educator, involves an initial consultation in which the breathing pattern is assessed, then a programme that is a combination of formal and informal practice [blended into normal daily activities] is designed. The aim is to eliminate faulty breathing habits and restore a normal and stable pattern of gentle, silent, nose-breathing, at the correct rate, rhythm and volume, and with the correct use of the breathing muscles. You are shown how to maintain better breathing while asleep, when talking, under stress, and during physical exercise.

It really is that simple. The benefits are experienced right away, with most people commenting that they have had their best sleep in decades within just a few days of starting the process. Clients are advised that changes in prescribed medication and treatments must be undertaken only in consultation with their doctor. A follow-up sleep study is recommended for clients who also have sleep apnoea.

First Three Steps to Better Breathing, Health and Sleep

1. Be aware of your breathing. Know that normal healthy breathing is nasal, silent, slow, soft, smooth and relatively small.
2. Breathe through your nose whenever it is comfortable to do so.
3. Breathe more gently. If your nose is blocked or you are uncomfortable breathing through
   it, then as a first step, try to breathe more gently through your mouth.

The simplest things in life are often the best: changing the way you breathe has to beat having an appliance do it for you.

The post Snoring: It’s more harmful than you think appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.