A big, juicy steak may be delicious, but it’s hardly the best thing to eat right before bed. Red meat will kick your body’s natural processes into overtime and will make it incredibly difficult to get the type of deep sleep that you really need after a hard day at work.

2. Vegetables

Vegetables are inherently nutritious, so you may think that they’re the perfect thing to eat right before bed if you want to stay healthy. In reality, you’d be very wrong. Vegetables tend to have a large amount of fiber, which moves incredibly slowly through your digestive system. This is another late night snack that will only keep you awake longer than you need to be.

3. Processed Foods and Chips

One of the great things about snacks like chips is how convenient they are ­ you can just grab a bag, munch away and be done before you know it. The issue is that processed foods have high doses of monosodium glutamate, which will almost certainly lead to sleep-­related issues that you likely want to avoid.

4. Pasta

Pasta is one of the best foods to eat if you’re hungry because a little bit goes a long way. The issue with eating pasta late at night, however, is that it’s such a fatty food that it will almost certainly lead to weight gain while you sleep. The carbohydrates in pasta turn to fat pretty quickly, so if you’re trying to eat healthy at night you’ll definitely want to look elsewhere.

Source: Healthy Panda

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This university professor (Richard Wiseman) explains how to calculate how long you need to sleep at night:

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Research shows that you are probably surfing the web and reading this when you really should be catching up on your sleep! First tip: spend the next 2 minutes to watch this video to learn a couple of new ways to improve your sleep. For example, I discovered that wearing socks to bed really works to help me sleep. Check out the other 9 tips in this short video (and share with your weary friends!) …

My favorite tip is wearing socks to bed. What works best for you?

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Learn what sleep deprivation does to you — especially the way you look. A lack of sleep obviously causes dark circles under you eyes to appear and fine lines will develop … but there is much more to consider. Watch this video and think about changes you may want to make to your lifestyle and the hours of sleep you get at night.

Tip: This 3-minute video is best to watch on a large screen for full effect!

The post [Video] What a LACK of SLEEP Does To You … and Tips to Improve Your Lifestyle! appeared first on Top Morning Recommendations.

Here are some surprising facts and useful tips:
 

1. Choose sleep superfoods

While it’s important to avoid a big, heavy meal right before bed (a full stomach will disturb your sleep), some foods may actually help you snooze, Blake says. If you’ve had a few nights of restless sleep, make a light whole-wheat-pasta dish with fresh vegetables, a little diced chicken breast, tomato sauce, and a sprinkle of Parmesan for dinner. This meal contains a snooze-friendly combination of protein and tryptophan, an amino acid that converts to sleep-promoting serotonin in the body.

If your stomach’s growling late at night, try a small bowl of cottage cheese with banana slices, another dish that serves up tryptophan. Other combos of healthy carbs and protein, such as milk and graham crackers or yogurt sprinkled with cereal, will also do the trick.

2. Sip wine sooner

Even though a nightcap may help you relax and fall asleep faster, it’ll make the second half of your sleep cycle restless and unsatisfying. Alcohol decreases deep sleep and increases arousals from sleep, says John E. Brown, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland. If you like a glass of wine in the evening, have it with dinner—around 6 p.m. rather than 11—and drink in moderation, so it’ll wear off by the time you lie down.

3. Take an early soak

Like to unwind in the tub before you snooze? Surprisingly, a hot bath might make it harder for you to drift off: Doing anything that raises your body temperature too close to bedtime may actually hinder you from falling asleep, because your body needs to cool to a certain temperature in order to reach a sound slumber, says J. Todd Arnedt, PhD, director of the University of Michigan Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program. That doesn’t mean you can’t soak after a rough day—when you get home from work, not right before turning in.

4. Ban your …

Need to send out one last e-mail before you “officially” turn in? Not so fast. Typing in bed can wind you up, so when you do unplug, it will be harder to fall asleep …
 
For tech-free zzz’s, disconnect an hour before bed, turn your smartphone off, and put any gadgets on an out-of-reach dresser or in another room so you won’t be able to grab it if you get the late-night urge. Also, invest in a real alarm clock (using your cell will only give you another excuse to keep it close)—and get ready to wake up feeling so refreshed that you won’t even need to press snooze.

Source: Leslie Barrie

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Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that nearly 40 percent of men and women get less than the 7 hours of the sleep that they need at night. This is alarming when you consider that these are undoubtedly the same people who unintentionally fall asleep during the day and nod off behind the steering wheel as they’re driving.

Here are 8 great tips and guidelines to avoid sleep deprivation:
 
 
 

• Invest in a red light. Exposure to light during the night in any form — the television, your cell phone, night light, laptop — can suppress the production of melatonin, the hormone that is responsible for keeping your sleep/wake cycle in sync. If you need to have some light to help you navigate to the bathroom during the night, make it red.

 
Exercise early in the day. Experts don’t agree on how much time to keep between your workouts and bedtime, but at least three hours is the minimum. For the best shut-eye, exercise first thing in the morning.

 
Skip the alcohol. Sure, a drink or two before bedtime may help you fall asleep, but it also will have you up and restless in a few hours and/or you will be awake before your normal starting time. The net result is less and restless sleep, not more.

 
Eliminate distractions. That means you should keep the TV and computer off and your cell phone out of sight (if you need to have your phone in the room, keep it where you can’t see it). Once again, the light from these objects can reduce melatonin levels. If you fall asleep better with a little noise in the background, choose some soothing music or white sound.

 
Be consistent. Go to bed at the same time every night and get up at the same time every morning. That means Saturday and Sunday too! Work with your body’s rhythms, not against them.

 
Identify your magic bullet. Okay, maybe it’s not magic. However, if you have a routine you can do before bedtime that helps you fall asleep and stay asleep — perhaps its meditation, a hot shower or bath, doing crossword puzzles, reading, progressive relaxation — follow it consistently. But whatever you do, don’t do it in bed. Take all the non “S” activities out of bed, so your bedroom become a sanctuary for just sleep and sex, not work and watching TV.

More tips on the next page …

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The post 8 Great Tips to SLEEP BETTER at Night and Wake Up Full of ENERGY! appeared first on Top Morning Recommendations.

#1 Mix Up an Amazing Energy Juice

Drink this before a workout, before a run, before you do your yoga, your pilates, or whatever your morning exercise may be …

Looking at the pre-workout juice — it’s a finely-tuned energy drink that makes good sense. Take note of this list: Prepare two cucumbers, one beet, one lemon, a small knuckle of ginger, two carrots, and a half of a red apple. Combining these vegetables and fruits gives you a big boost of phytonutrients. These serve as perfect super-nutrient upload for the day ahead.

Beets are loaded with nitrates which increase your nitric oxide production naturally in your body. A recent study about the benefits of beet juice showed that Olympic athletes who drank three liters of beet juice during the period of 60 minutes to 2 hours before intensive physical activity, experienced a 17% increase in stamina.

 

Here are Drew’s other energy tips:

#2 Get Enough Quality Sleep

One of the essential prerequisites for energy during the day is a good night’s rest. When you’re in bed, REM sleep is then the most important. REM is the abbreviation for Rapid Eye Movement sleep that your body needs to build your energy level for the day ahead. A lot of people sleep for only 4 to 5 hours and then they wake up feeling groggy and unable to function and perform optimally. Quality sleep is important!

#3 Make Sure You Are Hydrated

The third key factor — that’s simple and easy to fix — is to make sure you’re hydrated. Drink at least a gallon to a gallon and half of water a day, and make sure that it’s purified and comes from a healthy, reliable source.

Drew discusses all of this and more in detail in this entertaining video:

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A salad could just mean a helping of iceberg lettuce, some shaved carrots and Ranch dressing. And loading your bowl with veggies and skimping on protein and carbs means you’re not getting enough calories to power you through the rest of your day.


Your dressing of choice could be adding to the problem. “You might think you’re doing the right thing by eating a salad, but if you add a dressing like honey mustard or raspberry vinaigrette, both of which are usually high in added sugar, that’ll probably lead to an energy crash later,” says Marisa Moore, RD, spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Do you regularly consume dairy products? This is another category of foods that is often sleep-inducing:


2. Cheese and Yogurt

Dairy could be behind your fatigue. You may have digested it just fine when you were younger, but intolerances to the proteins in dairy (casein and whey) can develop as we age, and tiredness is a hallmark symptom.

The mechanism isn’t entirely clear, but it’s believed that the body mistakenly develops an immunological reaction to the proteins, building an army of antibodies to mobilize against the proteins whenever they show up, resulting in fatigue.

And then there’s a third category of sleep-inducing foods on the next page …

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Tap your foot

 
Your skinnier friends are probably fidgeters, who burn up to 350 calories a day just by tapping their feet or being restless.
 
Try it for a few days. Walk around while you’re on the phone, or tap out a tune with your hands or feet (in the privacy of your own office, of course).
 
In fact, do a couple of swaps a day and you can drop 10 pounds in 5 weeks! So try these 25 easy tweaks—and get the slim body you want in no time.

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