Perfect Poise, Perfect Life
Bring your body into balance and revolutionise your life
By Noel Kingsley
Publisher Hodder Mobius
AVAILABLE HERE
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Bed...for sleeping in
'Now children face danger of Junk Sleep' runs the headline in one daily paper today as scientists name the condition that's developing fast in teenagers. Hours of playing video games and watching TV before going to bed leave youngsters tired and grumpy, unable to perform properly at school the next day. A survey of 1,000 pupils aged 12-16 found one in three sleep for just four to seven hours a night instead of the recommended eight to nine.
One in five boys admit that the quality of sleep is affected by leaving his TV or computer on and half say they have a computer in their bedroom. Only one in ten children was concerned about how tired they felt the next day. They said their energy levels were most affected, followed by mood, school-work, hair, skin and weight.
Scientists recommend a well ventilated room, free of distractions is a good starting pint to encourage a healthy night's sleep. "Youngsters need to be taught that a healthy lifestyle includes healthy sleep as well as healthy food.' And I couldn't agree more.
There are other factors here too and Pavlov's Dog has much to remind us in how behaviour is developed by repetitive situations. Whatever we do, if we repeat the experience it becomes ingrained into our system. This is how we learn and develop. I'm learning the violin as best I can and the process involves me avoiding as many 'wrong' experiences as possible i.e. not repeating my mistakes, because whatever I repeat I make more permanent into my subconscious and muscle control; the mistakes become ingrained. We learn to tie our shoelaces by practicing as a child and now we do it without thinking. As adults we may learn to drive a car and the experience can be exhausting as we struggle to switch between brake, accelerator, clutch and gear lever, then there's the traffic ahead, pedestrians and then there's the folk coming up behind us in your mirror. Half an hour of learning to drive is exhausting, but now we've been doing it for a few years, we do it without thinking, we chat to our companion, we talk on the phone and sometimes we arrive at our destination and we wonder how we got there because we were thinking of something else completely.
Now, call me old fashioned if you like, but for me, the bedroom is for sleeping in....and being intimate with another, but mostly for sleeping in. When I shut my eyes at night, I'm out like a light. If we use our bedroom for other activities as teenagers do, playing computer games, listening to music, reading, watching TV all while lying or sitting on our bed, then this is what our body gets used to; we associate bed with TV, computer and anything else we do. It's not for sleep. Or at least, it is less for sleep in proportion to all our activities than if it were entirely devoted to sleeping. Pavlov's Dog will tell us if you go to bed to only sleep then that's what our subconscious will have us do. At least we'll have a better chance of sleeping than if the place is also associated with lots of other activities.
It would seem a great deal of sense to turn our teenagers bedrooms into.....dare I say it......a bedroom, by removing all or as many of the distractions as we can. If this isn't possible, then locate the gadgetry on the other side of the room and make sure they're switched off. If they use the computer or games console then it should be from a chair, not the bed.
Lack of sleep is the greatest cause of accidents at work and on the road, second only to alcohol. It also causes stress, difficulty in reducing weight, lack of concentration, lethargy, depression to name bur a few.
Some of you may know that I advocate having a daily nap as a means of reviving energy levels in the afternoon, as research shows a short 10-20 minute nap can help us be up to 100% more alert, over 30% more productive and reduce the risk of heart disease by 34%. But it may surprise you if I do not recommend having a nap to 'cure' the problem of sleep deficiency or 'Junk Sleep' as it's referred to in today's paper. The nap has to be seen as a 'top-up' for normally rested people. The nap does not replace lack of night time sleep.
The answer for chronic sleep deficiency caused by lack of sleep at night.....is to sort out the night time sleep. We all need between 7 - 10 hours a night depending on our own needs. We're all different so we should accept our own differences.
So, if I may venture to state the obvious, ....it's good to get into the habit of making the bed a place to sleep in.....and nothing else, except maybe telling or showing your partner how much you like them.....and then sleep. :-)
