How Important is Sleep to Your Health?
Eating properly, drinking plenty of water and getting a good night’s sleep are necessary components to keep our body running well. While most people understand why proper nutrition and water intake is so important, does everyone give the same importance to sleep?
Getting enough quality sleep can help protect your mental and physical health, quality of life and safety. While you sleep your brain is creating new pathways that help you learn and remember information. It helps support healthy growth and development and helps your hormone levels stay balanced.
A proper night’s sleep sets you up to function well throughout the day; this helps you be more productive and prevents you from suffering from a preventable accident such as falling asleep while driving.
Why Are You Not Sleeping Well?
Unfortunately, there are a number of things in Houston, Texas that can prevent you from sleeping well. Below are the nine most common reasons you are not getting a proper night’s sleep:
- Getting up to use the bathroom. A simple survey found that nearly half of all people get up to use the bathroom at least once during the night. The more liquid you drink before bed, the more likely you are to have to answer nature’s call around 3 a.m. Turning the overhead light on every time you to go the bathroom is also not doing you any favors. May we suggest a night light?
- Waking up because of discomfort. Some of us are sleeping on old mattresses and some of us are just getting old. Both of these can lead to back pain or general discomfort. This contributes to trouble fall asleep and staying asleep.
- Snoring. Almost 50 percent of all adults in Texas and throughout the United States snore. Having a partner who snores can seriously mess with your ability to sleep through the night.
- Being pushed out. Sharing a bed with someone you love is great. But if they are the type of sleeper who likes to take up more than their fair share of mattress, you may find yourself waking up throughout the night on the verge of falling out of bed. Don’t even get me started on having to deal with a blanket hog.
- Tossing and turning. Sometimes, it is just hard to get comfortable. If you partner is having a hard time finding the perfect sleeping position, then there is a good chance you will be woken up as well.
- Talking too much. A number of people report being woken up by their partner talking in their sleep. Most likely they are having a crazy dream, but it’s always nice that they sleep right through their chatty outburst while you are stuck trying to fall back to sleep.
- Using the phone. Oh, cellphones. You connect us with the world, but also you have that annoying blue light that has been shown to harm our sleep. Try implementing a no phone usage policy. If you need to check an email while your partner is sleeping you will have to get up. Is it really worth it?
- Dreaming. Sometimes you can fly above the city and sometimes you are being thrown over a waterfall in a barrel. You would be hard pressed to find someone who has not experienced the terror that is being jerked awake in the middle of the night because of a bad dream.
- Feeling anxious. Most people experience some anxiety throughout their day. The key is to not take it with you when trying to fall asleep, as that typically leads to thoughts running through your mind a mile a minute, making sleep nearly impossible. Meditation and breathing exercises can help with this.
Sleep in important. If you don’t seem to be getting the amount you need it is time to do something about it. Contact the best ENT in Houston, Texas and schedule an appointment.
