We spend 25 years of our lives sleeping, but most of the people don’t get enough sleep. One bad night’s sleep can make you less efficient on mental tasks. Sleep-loss lowers energy levels and causes attention lapses. It’s not as easy to enjoy a joke or feel pleasure if you haven’t had enough sleep.

Reasons Why People Don’t Sleep

• Lack of Exercise – You may not be getting enough exercise if you sleep sufficiently and still feel groggy in the morning. Exercise makes the body use oxygen more efficiently. You sleep better and awaken more revitalized.
• Worrying about Sleeplessness – Staying awake one night can cause more mental than physical harm. We worry that our performance will be spoiled and we won’t be able to fall asleep the next night. Relax! The body usually adjusts to lost sleep by pumping more adrenalin into the system.
• Reaction to Drugs – The leading fatigue-causing medications are antibiotics, diuretics, pain-relievers, and antihistamines. Taking alcohol and sleeping pills also disrupts sleep. Alcohol consumption prohibits deep sleep and pills don’t wear off entirely until the next day.
• Lack of Natural Light – The hormone melatonin, which regulates the sleep cycle, is disrupted by the lack of sunlight. Tinted windshields, artificial light, and sunglasses may interfere with the natural light we need to help us sleep.

• Physical Disorders – Diseases can interfere the body’s delicate wake-sleep mechanism because the body’s metabolism is changed when it fights infection. That’s why a thorough physical examination is an important first step in treating sleeplessness.

Sleep Strategies

• Take a Warm Bath – people who take baths before going to bed show deeper sleep brainwave activity.
• Keep Physically Active – activity oxygenates your body, makes you feel more refreshed, and promotes better sleep the next night.
• Count Sheep – Counting prevents intervening thoughts from entering and centers on repetitive, senseless patterns that may make you sleepy.
• Avoid Stressful Situations – relax with reading, slow music or television before bedtime.
• Drink Warm Milk – drink warm milk at bedtime and avoid beverages that contain caffeine such as colas, tea, and coffee.
• Don’t Go to Bed Until You’re Sleepy – going to sleep when you feel drowsy or try telling yourself that it’s time to sleep, you’re ready to relax, you want to sleep.