Beating Insomnia

A variety of experiments on sleep’s effect on health and performance showed that sleep is the number one recovery mechanism that restores our psychological and physiological vitality after the strain and exertion of a long, busy day. Studies also revealed that sleep is an active process and a wide discrepancy exists between solid revitalizing sleep and restless, agitated sleep.

Sleep researchers divide sleep into five stages. Stage one is the lightest stage of sleep, a twilight state of conciousness that marks the transition between wakefulness and sleep. As sleep deepens through stages two and three brain-wave frequencies and many bodily processes slow down until they reach their lowest and most relaxed point in stage four. After spending anywhere from a few minutes to an hour in stage four sleep, you enter rapid eye movement, or REM sleep, the state in which dreaming occurs. Every 90 to 120 minutes, you cycle down from stage one sleep to stage four, then back up for an episode of REM sleep.

Optimizing your sleep consists of maintaining the regularity of these cycles and increasing the amount of time you spend in deep sleep (stages 3 & 4) which is the period in which the most complete physiological restoration occurs. The following are some of the most effective strategies for beating insomnia from the book, “CathFire : A Seven-Step Program to Ignite Energy, Defuse Stress, and Power Boost Your Career”, by Peter McLaughlin with McLaughlin Jr. :

1. Get some aerobic exercise during the day.

2. Reduce your consumption of caffeine and alcohol.

3. perform relaxation exercises.

4. Play music that promotes sleep.

5. Avoid sleeping pills.

6. Establish regular hours of sleep.