It’s tough trying to be healthy all the time. Every now and then I succumb to magnum brownie ice-cream, donuts, scrumptious mud brownies with vanilla ice cream or any kind of spaghetti from pesto to carbonara. On weekends there are delicious buffets ranging from dim sum to Korean bbq to international buffets. Bangkok is a food lover’s paradise. Then there’s Games of Thrones and Da Vinci’s demons on DVD which had me staying up way past my bedtime on weeknights, anticipating what happens next. (Thank goodness am done until the next season.) I end up sleeping late, eating a lot (more often than I should) and lack the energy to go workout. I find excuses. It’s a terrible vicious cycle. I gain weight, I get sluggish, I get moody. I wake up not feeling “fresh” as I should even though I still slept my seven or eight hours.
To improve the quality of our sleep (and our health), this past week Alex and I have been experimenting. We’ve been sleeping according to the sleep cycle and it feels amazing! We wake up refreshed and even awaken before the alarm clock goes off. There’s no grogginess or wanting to snooze in bed. The body wakes up naturally.
So what’s the thinking behind this? As you probably all know, we go through roughly four stages of sleep. In short, it begins with NREM (Non-rapid eye movement) with us in a stage of between sleep and wakefulness. Our eyes roll slowly, opening and closing. Then we start becoming harder and harder to awaken until we reach a stage where we are less responsive to the environment and do not react to what’s happening around us. The final stage is when we are in the REM (Rapid-eye movement) stage. We are in such a deep sleep that most of our muscles are paralysed. Interestingly, this is the most important stage in our sleep and important in helping us learn complex tasks. It takes us roughly 90 minutes to finish a sleep cycle.
To avoid waking up in the middle of our dream stage or the REM stage, Alex and I determined the time we have to wake up and worked back five cycles to determine our bedtime. We made a conscious effort to make sure we were in bed and ready to doze off. It has paid off and reminded us of the importance of quality sleep. We awaken feeling fresh and energised. It’s a wonderful feeling, and the best part? It results in my having less cravings for unhealthy foods.
Quality sleep = good health
Have a good weekend everyone and wish you all some quality sleep! Let me know if it works for you 🙂
Having "Me" Time 