20 Minutes is the New “5 Minutes More”

Most of us have already uttered the iconic phrase, “five minutes more” once or a million times upon waking up. For some, it’s even an automatic response when they’re woken up. But did you know that extending your sleep for 20 more minutes is actually more beneficial if you’re prone to having cravings?

According to a study, those who used to sleep for just 5 to 7 hours of sleep and increased their sleep time by an average of 20 minutes was able to cut down their sugar and starch consumption. That’s not a significant amount osaf time but the results are astounding. So if you’re trying to lose weight, maybe catching more zzz’s would be a great addition to your weight loss routine.

If you’re wondering how can this work, the answer is pretty simple. Getting a solid amount of sleep (7-9 hours for most folks) will help you feel more awake and energized the next day. This means you won’t need to rely on anything else to help you power through the day.

When you’re tired, you’re more likely to crave for sweets and carbohydrate-laden foods. These, as you most likely know, are bad for your waist line. They’re easily stored as fat and can definitely cause weight gain if your don’t effectively burn them. So you definitely need to cut them out if you’re trying to keep a slim figure.

If you’re tired, you’ll crave for these items. If you give in to your cravings, weight gain will soon follow. So to effectively avoid such, it’s just best to resolve your tiredness. Getting more sleep can be the best way to do that, so you should give it a try.

In some cases, your mattress would be the very thing that will prevent you from getting restful sleep. So if you suspect that this is the reason why you toss and turn at night, maybe it’s time to replace your old mattress. Check out our amazing selection here and you can also easily resolve your slumber woes.

Experts Say Teenagers Need to Sleep In

A child’s teenage years are some of the most challenging times for a lot of parents. Not only do their moodiness can get even the most patient parents pulling out their hair but it’s also the time when a lot of significant changes in the body will take place.

With hormones and growth spurts also comes a shift in a child’s body clock. While they will still need more hours of zzz’s (about 8.5 to 9.25 hours, according to experts) they will also turn into night owls. So the reason behind your kid staying up til the wee hours isn’t always just so they can stay longer on their phones or computer, it’s actually how their bodies react to how the brain changes its reaction to light.

Their phones and computers aren’t entirely blameless, though. Technology is still a common reason why teenagers stay up late but it can also be more of a response to not feeling sleepy just yet. They just happened to keep them occupied while they wait for the Sandman to come around.

Being night owls, sleepiness will come late to teenagers. With the current school schedule most of them work with, this means that they’re not getting enough zzz’s to meet their daily requirements. This can then be detrimental to their health and development since sleep is one of the most important element of one’s health.

What’s a parent like you should do, then? Teenagers are seriously racking up tons of sleep debt since a lot of them have to wake up very early to go to school. In fact, some local public schools in major cities start classes at 6 am, so it won’t be surprising that a teenager might only get about 3-5 hours of sleep on weekdays if they’re lucky.

Switching schools would be too drastic a move, so that’s out of the question. Should you let them sleep in during the weekends? Maybe, as this can help them catch up with their sleep. However, this can screw up their internal body clock even further, so we don’t want to recommend it. You can let them go back to bed later in the morning or after lunch, though. Letting them nap for an hour or two might also help them pay off some of their sleep debt. Just don’t let them sleep later than 3 pm, though, as that can mess with their bedtime the following evening.

Sleep can really be a tricky thing for everyone. The variables involved in the process are also very hard to control. The only thing you can really do is to make sure that your child is comfortable as they sleep. And for that, you can always turn to Salem Bed. Check out our selection here and you might just be able to help your teenager sleep better.

Sleep Classes for College Students Sound Like a Genius Idea

For those who have gone through it and are going through tertiary education, it’s no secret that this stage of one’s life comes with a lot of sleepless nights. The more units you’re taking or the more terms you have in a year, the more requirements you’ll struggle with. Combine this with the exciting social life most of them enjoy and you’ve got yourself a recipe for sleeplessness.

While almost everyone right now is sleep deprived, college students can be greatly affected by the condition. It can seriously damage their performance in school and even make it difficult for them to actually learn. This is why it shouldn’t be surprising why one of the leading universities in the world came up with a solution for their students.

For the 2018 school year, Harvard University introduced Sleep 101. This course is a mandatory online class for all incoming freshmen. It’s a part of the Sleep Matters Initiative at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and it aims to teach incoming freshies to sleep better.

The class is an interactive online module where students can learn about how different things can affect their sleep and how sleep can affect their overall performance. It also provides tips and information on how the students can practice a healthy sleep hygiene despite the competitive and stressful environment in college.

Students enrolled in the course were required to finish it by bedtime on the official moving day which was on August 27.

According to Dr. Charles Czeisler, the head of the Sleep Better Initiative at BWH, the course was received well by students. More than 90% students took the class and a post-class survey showed that students were very interested in the topic. Some of the students who took the class also shared that they try to use the things they learned to improve their slumber. These spark hope that the school will take more measures on improving its students’ sleep.

Unfortunately, sleep classes of this sort aren’t available in the Philippines just yet. But who knows? Maybe since Harvard already gave it a try, other schools around the globe might also follow suit.

Post-Horror Film Sleep Tricks

So you’ve had a good fright from an amazing horror film you just saw. You felt excited and the rush of emotions made you feel alive. But now that you’re about to go to sleep, you just can’t shake off the scary scenes. Whether you’re afraid or not, there’s a good chance that you’re not feeling sleepy at all.

So how do you sleep after getting a good scare? Here are a few tricks you might want to try:

Exercise

Exercising will let you release endorphins and dopamines which will help you fight off the stress and anxiety that comes with being scared. They will help you calm down and even ease you into sleep.

Note, however, that you should exercise a few hours before bedtime if you want to get to sleep. Exercise can wake you up, too, so timing is important.

Watch or read something fluffy

After scaring yourself, you might want to take your mind off from the frightening scenes you’ve seen. One good way to do this is by consuming some fluffy media. Cute animation movies are highly recommended by many but you can always just watch comedies or romances if you want. The important thing to do is that you distract yourself from the fright that the horror film has brought you.

Realize that it’s just a work of fiction

Keep in mind that the scary movie (unless you saw a deeply unsettling documentary) is just a work of fiction. Whatever scared you there wouldn’t hurt you in real life. If you saw a documentary that scared the lights out of you, well, then, you can always go for the first two to take your mind off it.

These are just a few tricks that can help you calm down and ease yourself to sleep after watching a scary movie. Give them a try next time you see something that scared your socks off.

Fright Nights Might Be Wrecking Your Zzz’s

Despite the non-stop playing of Christmas carols everywhere, it’s still a fact that Filipinos love getting a good fright. We still celebrate Halloween in our own beautiful way, even though some say it’s not the same anymore without the old Magandang Gabi Bayan specials. So no matter how excited the whole country is for Christmas, a lot of us still look forward to the scarefests that will take place this October.

If you love jump scenes and downright psychological thrillers, you might be looking forward to the beautifully dark month of October. If you also want to sleep better, though, you might want to think twice about getting tickets or scheduling binge fests.

As it turns out, those who can’t sleep after watching a scary film aren’t just being scaredy cats. Science proves that you can really have a hard time sleeping after getting scared. According to experts, you get anxious when you watch such films and it can cause your cortisol levels or stress hormones to shoot up.

Scary films tend to trigger the body’s fight or flight instinct which gives you a rush and experience an exciting emotion while watching the movie. However, it also causes the body to release cortisol to keep you alert and awake to keep yourself safe. This is the very reason why you’re on edge when seeing films of this sort.

If you watch scary films before bed without having an effective calming bedtime routine, the film can really keep you up all night. But even if you don’t watch it right before you hit the hay, you’re still bound to be kept up all night by a scary film.

Why? Because things tend to linger in our subconscious and only come up when everything’s quiet. Your mind can then replay the striking scenes and then trigger emotional reactions from you again. This will then make it hard for you to fall asleep.

Getting a good scare isn’t all bad, though. After getting all stressed out and having your fight or flight mode kick in, endorphins will come rushing in after your brain realizes that you’re safe. However, it should be balanced out nicely if you want to get some sleep after.

You shoud find ways how to clear your mind and calm down after watching a horror film. Tomorrow, we’ll share a few tricks on how to do just that.

Why Adults Still Need a Bedtime

One of the best things about being an adult is the fact that your parents can’t enforce a bedtime on you anymore. With all the responsibilities you have, there’s a good chance that you don’t even have enough hours in a day to finish all of them on most days. This tend to make it okay for adults to sleep late into the evening.

However, this doesn’t mean that adults don’t need a bedtime. To get a good sleep hygiene, you also need regular sleep. To achieve this, you have to go to bed at the same time on every night. This way, your body clock will be set into a regular pattern and function even better.

With  a regular bedtime, you’re mostly setting up your body to a better sleeping cycle. You’re ensuring that you’re getting enough sleep which can lead to better health.

It might be tough at first, but with consistency, there’s a good chance that you’ll be able to set a solid sleeping pattern. It might be trickier for some, however, but it’s not entirely impossible, even if it sometimes seem like so. It will need some lifestyle changes, for sure, and that might be the hardest adjustment to make. With the many benefits of having a good sleep hygiene, however, you’ll find all of your efforts well worth it.

While having a bedtime might mean a lot of changes in your lifestyle, there’s still a bright side to it. You can definitely look at it as a way to feel young again since bedtimes are commonly enforced on youngsters.