A good night’s sleep will always refresh you physically and mentally. Everyone needs adequate sleep to remain productive with their study or career. But, most of us do not understand our own sleeping patterns. We either under-sleep or over sleep both of them result in tiredness and unproductive days. Here are some simple tips to sleep smart and awake fresh every day.
1. Understand the essentials – Stuck with a deadline? Need to burn mid-night-oil and work day and night to finish a work? You are doing more harm than you can imagine to yourself by losing sleep. Sleep is good for your brain and it will keep you in good physical condition. Sleep is a great stress-reliever and sleep is a good natural medicine.
2. Duration of sleep – I know some people who sleep for just 4 hours every night but feel fresh and I also know some people who sleep for more than 10 hours and still awake tired. You just need to find out the duration of sleep that you need. Go to bed when you feel sleepy and wake up when you feel fresh.
3. Understand your sleep cycles – we all sleep in regular cycles. Each sleep cycle lasts for 90 minutes (that is 1 and half hour) and then we wake up from the sleep, it continues until daybreak. Maintain a sleep journal and note down what time you go to sleep and set your alarm, adjusting for the 90 minute cycles. When you awake in the middle of a sleep cycle, you would naturally would fall back to sleep. Adjust your alarm accordingly.
4. Sleep routine – follow a sleep routine every day. Stop watching television or using computers at least 1 hour before you hit your bed. This will give enough rest to your eyes and will alert your brain that you are ready for sleep. Drink a glass of warm water, dim the bedroom lights or do a routine set of tasks so that you will fall into a good night’s sleep every day. Don’t alter it even for the weekends.
5. Avoid daytime naps – some people say a quick nap during daytime will keep you refreshed. But, I would advocate that you sleep only during a specific time during night.
5 Tips for sleeping smart
6 Tips for exercising regularly
Before you start an exercise program, spend some time in defining why you need to start this exercise program. Always start with a goal; think about what you wish to achieve – a reduced weight, smaller waistline or some measurable goal. Having such a goal will compel you to stick to the exercise schedule to achieve the desired result. Once you visualise the result that you would like to achieve, develop a plan of exercising. Here are few tips to stick to your exercising plan and schedule.
1. Find like-minded friends – have a bet with a friend of yours and start exercising together. It could be a simple thing such as walking, jogging or swimming, but do it together. Each should encourage other so you stick to the exercising schedule without fail.
2. Start small – if you plan to start doing big exercises, you might not like it. You will probably stop your exercising program after few days. Instead, start doing a small activity, an enjoyable activity regularly.
3. Fall into a routine – stick a routine, choose a comfortable time of your day and stick to it. Can’t you allot a small window every day, for your own sake? Come what may, stop what you are doing and stick to a routine of exercising.
4. Measure progress – After a certain period, measure if you have lost weight or reduced your waistline. Don’t feel dejected if you don’t achieve. The measurements will keep you focused on the exercise routine and will push you towards your desired goal.
5. Enjoy – if you think exercising is a hard task, you will more likely to feel it as a burden. Instead, enjoy the process of exercising. Listen to your favourite songs or a good talk while you do your walking.
6. Reward yourself – have small sub-goals towards your desired result. Reduce your weight by 1 Kg by 2 weeks. If you do it, reward yourself with a small gift (no junk food please). Such rewards will make you more comfortable with harder goals. You can expand your goals to achieve far better results.
4 Reasons why you should eat fresh food
Eating right and eating in right quantities is the only way to be healthy. By the way, what is good food, anyway? Good food is the food that will not produce any ill-effects for your body. You will feel fresh and healthy when you eat, will give sufficient energy when you finished eating. Everyone is unique and has different dietary needs. Fresh vegetables, fruits and nuts are generally considered as good food.
Here are few reasons why you should eat right food.
1. Eating fresh food will keep your health – you know how you feel after eating a double-layered-cheese pizza. Tired and overly stressed more than that, stuffed. Eating fresh food keeps your skin shiny, healthy and naturally you will have a youthful, good look. You would like to keep yourself healthy, don’t you? Choose your food carefully to live healthy
2. Eating fresh food is enjoyable – eating fresh food is a very pleasant experience. Nutritious food always makes you feel happy because you know you are eating good food and that will make you happy.
3. Eating fresh food is environment-friendly – when you try to eat uncooked food or minimally cooked food, you are not using much energy to cook. So, you can reduce your energy bills and will learn to live an environment-friendly way.
4. Eating fresh food is easy – you won’t need to spend time in cooking (frying, steaming). Just make a plate of salads by cutting fresh vegetables, add some salt and seasoning, your meal is ready. You will start enjoying such fresh food.
7 Ways to manage stress
Stress has become a biggest part of everyone’s life. Stress can be due to physical, emotional or mental challenges. You can’t avoid being stressful but, you can handle stress to overcome the ill-effects of being stressful.
1. Become physically active – get up and walk or run, by changing your physical state, you can instantly relive your stress.
2. Laugh – listen to a joke or tell a joke to someone. Laugh together. Laugh until your face hurts (nearly).
3. Listen to kids – watching a baby smile or listening to a story told by a kid will make your stress vanish.
4. Express how you feel – talk about your feelings, write about them or paint them. Just let it out how you feel.
5. Simplify – may be you are pushing yourself too much, so take a break and simplify things. Sometimes it is a smart job to walk away from a stressful deal or work.
6. Eating right – eating fresh food is believed to release your stress. Don’t ever do the mistake of cramming yourself with fast foods, when you are stressed.
7. Be with Friends and Family – develop some relationships that will make you forget all your worries; put you into a comfortable state.
