Time To Wake Up From Sleep Deprivation

On a recent trip, I discovered my dear friend and I had matching Jawbone UP bracelets. It was a total “Wonder Twins powers activate” moment!

Did you know that chronic sleep deprivation is directly relational to an increased chance of heart attacks, strokes, depression, obesity, and injury? It’s also contributes to stress, memory impairment, and an over-all reduction in your quality of life.

As I type these words, I’m highly aware that I have chronic sleep deprivation due to a number of health factors, but some of it due to my own poor habits like not sticking to a sleep schedule.

Habits that have never been so visually clear to me as they are now thanks to Jawbone UP and my Samsung Galaxy Note 3.

This is not a pretty pattern, it’s totally a problematic one.

This is not good news, but it is (pardon the pun) an eye opener.

Importance of sleep

There are things I really want to achieve in my life right now.  Chief among them are weight loss and increased energy.  Does it make sense that I’m constantly combating my efforts each day by not paying adequate attention to my body’s sleep needs?

(Insert an obvious- NO!)

Sometimes you just need a really good kick in the bottom to realize the consequences of your bad habits.  I’m truly grateful that Jawbone UP has been integrated into my lifestyle because it was just the kick I needed towards better health.

Yay, I hit my goal 1 time… oops, but wait, it’s not a good thing.  The very short sleep times on Monday and Tuesday caught up with me on Wednesday forcing me to return to bed after getting the kids to school.  A total waste of a morning and not a good start to the day.  I did a little better through the rest of the week, but still falling short of where I need to be at a full 7 to 8 hours of sleep.

It’s also an ideal monitoring device to provide a clear picture of whether my efforts to improve my sleep habits produce quality results.

Sleep Tips

Beginning this week, I am on a full out mission to improve my poor sleep habits and thereby, improve my overall health.  To achieve this, my plan includes the aid of my Jawbone UP and some handy ideas I’ve discovered through research:

Start a sleep journal.

My Jawbone UP offers incredible insights to my exercise and sleep patterns – so most of my work here is done, but I’m also going to track my moods, nighttime foods, distractions and additional efforts to see how positively or negatively they impact my sleep.

Use ear plugs.

Ever since I first became a mom, little noises rouse me easily. Any irregular noise often prevents me from falling asleep at all.  My children are now grown, but my husband is a late-night tv watcher due to his work schedule… so in the earplugs will go in hopes this will help me fall asleep and stay asleep.

Avoid late night snacks.

If I get to sleep on schedule, this will be an easy task. Nights I may slip and catch the hunger bug? I’m going to reaching for a tryptophan-rich snack like bananas or walnuts.  Tryptophan is known for its sleep-inducing quality, so we’ll see how well it works, when needed.

Stick to a schedule.  

This will be the most difficult task for me. Especially on the weekends where we tend to have later nights and sleep-in mornings. Or on weeks where I have a plateful of writing assignments and tasks.  I often stay up ’til the wee hours to complete them.  It’s so easy to say, “I’ll just do one more thing,” but that one thing turns into twenty so quickly!  To help, I’m setting a reminder alarm on my phone to prompt me to stop working and start slumbering.

These are the four steps that I’ll begin with.  Once I have these goals down, I’ll then attempt to add in others as needed, such as the Smart Alarm feature on the Jawbone UP that allows me to set an alarm to wake me while I’m in a state of light sleep to help me awake fully refreshed at the optimum time for my body’s needs.

I’ll be checking back in in a few weeks with my results. Until then, hope you may be inspired to catch a few more zzz’s and improve your sleep health, too!

Do you have tips for improving your sleep patterns that have worked for you?  I’d love to hear ’em!

We all know that plenty of movement during the day help ensure a restful night. IKt’s equally important to have quality sleep time to help fuel out bodies through the movement of the day. Exceeding my move goals is great news, but not if I continue to lag behind in my sleep goals.