Yoga can help you with all sorts of things, but many people don’t know how beneficial it can be for getting a good night’s sleep. So, try combining one of your mattresses in San Diego with the following yoga poses, and eliminate that pesky insomnia.
better sleep
Which is Better for you – Memory Foam or Latex Hybrid Mattress?
Let’s go through the most important aspects when shopping for a mattress, and see if a memory foam or a latex hybrid mattress is the best choice for you.
The Sleep Cycle Explained
Have you ever had one of those nights when you slept for at least 8 or 9 hours, yet you woke up as tired as you went to bed? Or even more, so have you ever had a night when you only slept 4-6 hours and you woke up feeling recharged and energized? Not all sleep is equal. The quality of your sleep has a lot to do with your sleep cycle. For better sleep, read up on the sleep cycle, how to best manage your sleep and wake up fresh and rested every day.
The basics
First of all, sleep is not a time when our brains shut down and rest from the hard day’s work, as we once thought. Instead, it is a state of altered consciousness, where our typical waking brain patterns are replaced by different ones. The human sleep is controlled by something called the circadian clock, or the circadian rhythm. It is also known as the inner clock. It tells us when it’s best to sleep. It may vary from person to person, but only slightly. Any bigger discrepancy form the norm is considered a sleeping disorder.
Sleep stages
Two distinctive stages of sleep are REM and non REM sleep. Periods of human sleep usually repeat every 90 minutes. There tend to be 5 cycles per night with non-REM preceding REM phase, and then changing between them until waking up. Non-REM sleep is divided into three separate stages, with each having distinctive physiology and function. So even if you have enough time to sleep, skipping some of these stages can result in feeling tired afterwards.
Non-REM
This part of sleep comprises about 80 percent of all sleep in humans. Some common identifiers of non-REM sleep are a decrease in heart rate, body temperature and energy consumption. Even the brainwaves become slower and bigger. There are 3 stages of non-REM which precede one phase of REM in the sleep cycle.
NREM 1 or light sleep is the first stage, somewhere between wakefulness and sleep. Muscles are still active and can twitch. This is when hypnic jerks occur.
NREM 2 is a deeper kind of sleep. The muscle activity decreases and the sleeper becomes completely unaware of the external world.
NREM 3 or deep sleep is also known as slow-wave sleep. In this phase, most of the external stimuli provoke no reaction from the sleeper. This is the most restful phase of sleep, as it relieves the subjective feeling of sleepiness the most.
REM
REM stands for Rapid Eye Movement and it is most commonly associated with dreaming. The name itself is derived from the quick, involuntary movement of eye muscles. This part of the sleep cycle is often associated with a type of paralysis of skeletal muscles. During this stage, the sleeper’s EEG waves are quite similar to those of a wakeful person, but they are harder to awake than those in any other sleep stage. In addition to that, the brain seems to consume more oxygen and energy than in a wakeful state.
The real purpose of REM is unknown, but the lack of it makes higher cognitive function difficult to perform. Very young children tend to have more REM, but from the age of five, it reduces to just 2 hours per day.
In order to have a healthy night’s sleep, you need to go through all these phases uninterrupted. There are many ways to help you with this, but the first step is a comfortable and supportive mattress. If you’re in San Diego looking for a mattress and you need to catch up on your REM sleep, stop by San Diego Mattress Makers today and get a free nap 🙂 Come by our store or give us a call today.
What To Remove From Your Room Right Now For Better Sleep
We have become a people consumed with media.
Whether it be our TV, our smart phone, or our tablet, we are like the Depeche Mode we just can’t get enough.
The problem with this is it has started to affect our quality of sleep.
In order for us to get the most out of our sleep, I am going to reveal the number one item that is in the majority of our bedrooms that we must remove right this instant to maximize our sleep quality.
Drum roll please………
Our television.
This should be a no brainer, however according to a national consumer study, nearly two-thirds of Americans fall asleep with the TV on.
This is insane!
We have become so attached to our TVs that the average household has more TVs than people residing in their home.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying we need to throw out our TVs all together because I too enjoy watching the latest episode of The Walking Dead.
However, what I am saying is let’s enjoy our TV but not in the comfort of our bedrooms.
Our bedroom should only be for sleeping and connecting with our spouse (wink, wink).
There was a study done on two types of couples, those that have a TV in their bedroom and those that don’t have a TV in their bedroom.
It was discovered those that do have a TV in their room have sex half as often as those who don’t.
With that said, I now rest my case.
But wait there’s more.
Our TVs emit a blue light that tricks our brains into thinking it is day rather than night which in turn suppresses our bodies’ natural secretion of melatonin which is our sleep hormone.
By suppressing the production of melatonin it also throws off our circadian rhythm.
Whoa hang on there, you’re talking mumbo jumbo to me.
Let me explain.
Our circadian biological clock regulates the timing of periods of sleepiness and wakefulness throughout the day.
So, watching TV just before bedtime hinders our sleep because light is the main cue influencing our circadian rhythm, and this is turning on or turning off genes that control our organism’s internal clock.
Basically the artificial light from the TV over stimulates our brains tricking it to think it is day time.
Now let’s do a quick recap why having a TV in our bedroom is bad news.
1) By having a TV in our room it leads to less sex with our spouse.
2) It throws off our sleep cycle confusing our brain into thinking it is day rather than night.
Hopefully this article has been helpful for you improving not only your sleep but also your relationship with your spouse.
If you have taken action removing your TV from your bedroom please let us know in the comments below as we would love to hear the wonders it has done helping you improve your sleep.