The Chicken or the Egg

Talking about how to get good sleep is like solving the question of the Chicken and the Egg – which comes first is very important. If you eat well will this help with sleep or if you sleep well will this help you eat better.

Solid sleeping can many times be achieved by having a horrible night’s sleep the night before – and then most likely the following night will allow your body a good night’s sleep due to extreme exhaustion from the night before. Unfortunately this only provides about 50% good sleep.

Without good sleep a person is not as alert as needed, cannot respond and react as one would prefer, is not up for good exercise and can make some really bad decisions when it comes to food. Eating anything in site to stay awake and keep going. A tired person is more likely to consume mindless calories.

I see many of my friends my age, on Facebook reporting how they are up and cannot sleep – at all hours of the night. Men and Women. Why do I see them? Because I have been up and cannot sleep at all hours of the night too.

So how do we get good sleep all the time, as we age?

Here’s what I have found works for me:

Saying “NO Thanks” to an overload of news and taking it in earlier in the day. I watch smaller bits of news earlier in the day when my mind can handle it better than the late night hours.

Saying “NO Thanks” to excessive Facebook time.

Saying “NO Thanks” to late night eating and especially sugary foods.

Saying “Yes” to daily walks – early in the day. This helps start my body early in the day and by night time I am more ready to fade to sleep.

Forcing myself to get up earlier was helpful in getting my body ready to sleep at night.

It takes several weeks of deliberate effort to change cycles – I founds after 2 weeks of regular morning exercise my body was adjusting very nicely to getting up early and being ready for good solid 8 hours of sleep at night.

There are still nights from time to time when sleep does not come easy – but it is mostly when I have not been active enough during the day in a healthy way, for sleep to come easily…