Surprising facts about sleep, or lack thereof...

I was surprised recently by some of the facts presented by the National Sleep Foundation regarding how a lack of sleep affects people's performance and behaviours. Here's the top 3 items that caught my eye...

Divorced, separated and widowed people experience more insomnia.

This isn't much of surprise since people in any one of these situations probably have a lot of responsibilities on their mind at any given time. It's important to be able to calm the mind at bedtime and stop all those thoughts about what needs to be done, how things will get done and how the heck we're going to do them!  A calm mind leads to a calm body and helps you fall asleep more quickly.  You'll also be more rested, focused and energized to get all those things done the next day too because you got a good night's sleep!

The body never adjusts to shift work.

This makes sense because our bodies have a natural rhythm. I imagine that if someone was put on a tropical island without clocks or a smart phone how quickly they would begin to go to sleep and awaken in sync with the rising and setting of the sun.  Of course if you've got to work shifts, it would be beneficial to have something that you could listen to to calm you mind and body so you don't have to try so hard to get to sleep when you need to. After all, as with many things, the harder you try... the less likely you are to fall asleep... kinda like pushing a string...

More than eight in ten survey respondents think that people often or sometimes misuse prescription sleep aids.

Lots of people are popping pills to get to sleep which may be completely unnecessary. The more you listen to guided sleep meditations the faster they work, it's like conditioning your mind and body to calm down when it's time to go to sleep. Best of all, sleep meditations are non addictive, allow you to wake up alert and refreshed and are way less expensive that pills.

If you've had problems sleeping, give guided sleep meditations a try! It's as simple as slipping on your headphones, visiting www.patreon.com/trackstorelax  and pressing play.  Pleasant dreams!
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If you'd like to read more sleep facts from the National Sleep Foundation, just click here.

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