The Science of Sleep

Often clients will bring in articles and books they know would be of interest to me. Given my focus on encouraging people to get a good night's rest in conjunction with other health behavioral modfications, a client brought in an issue of The New York Times Mag with an article titled "The Science of Sleep". And how timely this little article was.

After I moved a few months ago, the movers offered to put my furniture together for me. This included my bed frame. Later that first night in my new house I turned in and discovered something was awry. Every time I shifted in my bed I heard a squeek. In the morning I took and closer look and, alas, my bed was being held together by four screws. I searched high and low for the other 8 or so screws with no luck. As weeks passed my bed got squeekier and squeekier. It was an IKEA that requires obscure screws so I couldn't just fix it lickedy split. I tried not to let my rickety bed bug me but it just kept getting worse and worse. As time passed, the frame became damaged and I finally accepted that no amount of procrastination was going to alleviate my annoyance with my substandard sleeping set up.

So finally, last weekend I tossed out my cheapy IKEA frame and got a box spring and stand. The first night in my new noise free bed, I kept waking up everytime I moved in anticipation of a squeek. Like Pavlov's dog, I had become conditioned to waking up before I even heard a squeek. I stopped even noticing how disrupted my sleep had become. After that first peaceful night, I quickly settled into a better night's sleep. Turning in no longer carried with it almost undetectible anxiety about my noisy night ahead. My new room was finally a sanctuary.

It's funny to think about the importance we all put on the quality of our sleeping environments since people before us slept on straw, in dank wet conditions, with live stock around having to get up several times a night to stoke a fire in order not to freeze to death in the middle of the night. The article, "The Science of Sleep" is worth a read if you're at all interested in how we got to where we are in terms of our preciousness over nocturnal nuances and our obsession with the perfect pillow. Perhaps it is because our fast food culture is once again trying to pack in more in a shorter period of time, That is, we need better quality rest in a shorter period of time because we sleep far less than our ancestors did. We can thank electricity for that.

So in short, if something about your sleeping arrangement is bugging you, fix it. You don't have time to suffer when you should be sleeping especially if you're sleeping less than you should be already. As for me, I'm going to turn in and sleep in divine silence.

Over and out.
Jane
www.urbanfitt.com

30 Reasons to Strength Train

1. Strength training permanently boosts your metabolism by adding lean body mass.
2. After a strength training session you will continue to burn calories for several hours post-workout (more than you do post cardio workout).
3. Overweight people might have orthopedic problems that prevent them from participating in cardiovascular exercise so strength training is always an option.
4. Being strong will help you stand up straighter and look more confident.
5. You can train around injuries and back pain. No need to lie on your ass to recover. Pick up some weight instead.
6. Provides immediate feedback. You can feel and measure when you've pushed your limits and made progress in your strength (more weight, more reps)
7. You don't need expensive equipment to strength train. The cost of strength training equipment is always less than cardio equipment.
8. You can literally pump your body up before a big night out. (For example: curls for the girls or butt work for the boys)
9. Your body is less likely to store sugars (i.e. carbs) as fat when you have more muscle. Instead, the more muscle you have the more insulin receptors you have so your muscles suck up the sugars and store it as glycogen instead of your fat cells getting fatter.
10. The stronger you are the more likely you are to come out on top in a bar-room brawl.
11. Strength training helps prevent osteoporosis.
12. You are likely to feel randier after a strength training workout than compared to a pure cardio workout.
13. If you don't strength train, you will lose 5-10 pounds of lean body mass for every ten years of your adulthood. The getting fat as you age thing is because of this.
14. Being strong as you get older will help prevent you from looking like a bag of loose jiggly skin. If you strength train you might even have sex over 60.
15. Clothes look better on muscle.
16. Skinny fat people are squishy and frail.
17. You might actually like how you look naked.
18. Being lean not just thin is one of the best ways to prevent a variety of cancers.
19. You are more likely able to open a jar of pickles by yourself.
20. If you're a single woman, you won't have to wait around for ages to get help moving or lifting something. You'll be able to do it yourself.
21. If you have kids, you'll be able to carry them around for longer without any pain in your neck, back or shoulders.
22. Being strong means you're less likely to experience that 'random' back pain so many people complain about.
23. You're less likely to get injured doing normal day to day things if your body is strong and structurally balanced.
24. Thinking you're going to lose weight by doing cardio and skipping strength training is so yesterday. Focusing on strength training will make you hipper and more with the times.
25. It's super cool being able to do a chin-up. You will heal your past scars from high school fit tests by tackling something you've always wanted to be able to do but were once humiliated by.
26. You will help balance your Yin energy with some Yang strength work.
27. If you play sports, strength training will absolutely improve your game.
28. Johnny G's Spin craze has passed for a reason. People got injured and didn't keep weight off by hammering their bodies with intense cardio day after day.
29. Yoga is great but it won't help strengthen all the weak spots people in our society tend to have.
30. It's super fun when you get into it.

Now what do I really think huh? Yes I'm opinionated.

www.urbanfitt.com