Poor sleep, part 2. *

If a human body needs 8 hours of sleep, why is it so difficult to get that much?

Sleep is a consequence of a routine, often called sleep hygiene. Sleep requires regularity and good sleeping conditions. Regularity means going to sleep at similar times and waking up at similar times. In nature, there is no Friday night or Monday morning but many people interrupt their sleep routine several times every week. It is not surprising many can not fall asleep when they want to...

Sleep requires good conditions: dark, cool and quiet room with a good sleeping surface. Most of us have access to all of the above yet struggle to sleep well and long.

The Chinese medicine offers clues and methods to address most sleep issues. The first thing is to look at the balance of Yin and Yang. Are we too active and find it difficult to slow down? Do we add stimulants (Yang) to our body? If it ever day? In what quantities?..

Often, sleep is interrupted or one can not find deep sleep because of their dietary choices. But other factors include anxiety (usually caused by too much Yang), worry or simply "a brain that can not stop" (Yang). Often, people struggle to sleep because their activity levels are too low - they may not get tired enough to fall asleep...

Ok looking to improve one's sleep, it is best to start from the basics: the environment, the timing of sleep. It is important to have a window of time reserved for sleep and nothing else. Ideally that window will allow some time to fall asleep. For example, planning to go to bed every night between 11 and 12 and then reserving until 8 am for sleep. If on one night you fall asleep at 11 and wake up at 7, you're served and can get up and start your day. But allow yourself to have a window so in case you were at a movie or a party, you can still fall asleep at midnight and need until 8 am to complete your 8 hours.

Another solution is to practice making sleep more important than anything else you may need to do in the morning. After all, is possible that you're sleep struggles started because you didn't call sleep enough in the first place...