ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) A recent survey found it takes Americans an average of 24 minutes to actually get out of bed – after two alarms and hitting the snooze twice. So how can you wake up better?
There are two types of people: those who jump out of bed in the morning and those who hit the snooze! While it may be tempting to squeeze in a few extra minutes, research shows falling back asleep may do more harm than good. This type of sleep fragmentation can increase daytime sleepiness and grogginess while decreasing performance. Try moving your alarm further from your bed so you have to get up to turn it off. Also, skip the loud alarms and try a soothing sound such as chirping birds or chiming bells. Another tip: try mimicking your body’s natural signals.
“Perhaps the most important signals are light and dark signals,” explained Francisco Romo-Nava, MD, PhD, a psychiatrist at Linder Center of Hope at the University of Cincinnati.
Raise your shades at night to let in natural light, which cues your brain to wake up. Or purchase a sunrise alarm clock which slowly brightens the room for 15 to 30 minutes before your alarm goes off. Also give yourself something to look forward to in the morning. In one survey, 60 percent of respondents said the key to waking up easier was simply having exciting plans. Exercise can also help you rest better. In a sleep poll, about 80 percent of people who exercised reported good sleep quality compared to 56 percent of those who didn’t exercise. These are all ways to help you wake up refreshed.
Participants in a survey said they change their alarm times an average of 38 times a year and half of them still wish their parents would wake them up in the morning!
Contributors to this news report include: Julie Marks, Producer; Roque Correa, Editor.
Sources:
https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/average-american-this-long-get-out-of-bed-morning
https://www.healthline.com/health/cant-wake-up#causes
https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/ss/slideshow-wakeup-tips
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/09/08/smarter-living/wirecutter/stop-hitting-snooze.html
https://www.sleepfoundation.org/physical-activity/exercise-and-sleep
RISE AND SHINE:
SNOOZE, YOU LOSE #2936
BACKGROUND: According to the Sleep Foundation, healthy sleep patterns improve learning, memory, creativity, and mood. A healthy sleep pattern consists of light sleep, which falls into deep sleep, which finally falls into rapid eye movement sleep, or REM sleep. It is important that your body goes through these stages multiple times a night, uninterrupted. To feel well-rested, The National Sleep Foundation suggests that adults get seven to nine hours of sleep, adults 65 and older get seven to eight hours, teens get eight to 10 hours, and infants get around 17 hours of sleep. According to their statistics, 35.2% of adults in America get an average of less than seven hours of sleep per night and when broken down by race and ethnicity, 45.8% of African Americans reported getting less than seven hours, while only 33.4% of white Americans reported the same thing.
(Sources: https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-hygiene/what-is-healthy-sleep
https://www.sleepfoundation.org/how-sleep-works/sleep-facts-statistics)
THE EFFECTS OF POOR SLEEPING HABITS: Insufficient rest can not only affect you, but also those around you. A few short-term effects of poor sleeping habits are relationship stress, greater risk of car accidents, lack of alertness, excessive daytime sleepiness, impaired memory, and quality of life. If poor sleeping habits continue, those short-term effects could become long-term and could greatly affect your health. Some long-term effects of poor sleeping habits are high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attacks, heart failure, and strokes. In a Harvard study conducted in 1986, and again in 2000, a group of women were observed over a span of six years to look at how too much sleep and not enough sleep affected their memory. The researchers found that the women who had five or less hours and the women who had nine or more hours of sleep every night had the worst brain performance than women who had seven hours of sleep.
(Sources: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/happens-body-dont-get-enough-sleep/
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/little-sleep-much-affect-memory-201405027136)
SLEEP STUDIES: New technologies are in the works to improve impaired waste clearance of the brain due to sleep deprivation, according to the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. In October of 2021, the U.S. Department of Defense decided to fund $4.3 million for the technology and research to help service members achieve better sleeping habits. The research will be conducted by Prof. Dawn Kernagis at UNC School of Medicine and scientists at the University of Washington School of Medicine, the Brain Electrophysiology Lab Oregon Health & Science University, and Montana State University. “Our approach is to continue to validate novel imaging approaches of the human glymphatic system while assessing novel technology to improve glymphatic clearance and cognitive function,” co-lead Prof. Dawn Kernagis explains. Through the course of the study, the team will be testing a device called Augmented Neural Oscillation Drive or “AugNOD”, which is a type of headband that will monitor sleep waves. The team is expected to have results by Fall 2022.
* For More Information, Contact:
Tim Tedeschi
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