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Week of 28 July, 2002 - Sleep
If you are having trouble falling asleep or you cannot sleep without waking
during the night, changing your sleep habits can be as effective as taking
sleeping pills.
The benefits of behavior therapy are not as immediate as those of sleeping
pills, but the benefits will last as long as you continue your new sleep
practices. In contrast, sleep-inducing medication eventually will have to be
discontinued to avoid possible long-term side effects. And once medication is
stopped, its benefits decrease.
Physicians recommendations for changing your sleep behavior include the following:
 | Get up at the same time no matter when you go to sleep. Stick to your
regular wake-up time even on the weekends |
| Go to bed only when you are sleepy. If you do not fall asleep in 20 to 30
minutes, you should get out of bed and go back only when you become sleepy |
| Develop a bedtime routine, such as reading, taking a warm bath or eating a
light snack |
| Avoid naps |
| Exercise daily |
| Cut down on alcohol, tobacco and caffeine consumption |
| Use your bedroom and your bed only for sleep, not for work or for watching
television |
Week of 15 July, 2002 - Breathe
"When you gasp through your mouth, you're triggering your
body's fight-or-flight response," John Douillard explains.
"But when you breathe deeply through the nose, you're activating the
underused lower portion of the lungs and accessing more oxygen. Now your
breathing is telling your mind that this is not an emergency; this is an
experience you can do calmly in a state of heightened awareness.
In 1991, Douillard took two groups of training athletes and
outfitted them with heartrate monitors and attached electrodes to their
scalps. Those in the first group did most of their breathing through their
mouths while exercising; the others breathed through their noses.
The mouth-breathers produced standard brain waves, and had the rapid lock-step
heartbeat of someone experiencing an adrenaline rush. The nose breathers,
on the other hand, produced the alpha waves and the more variable heartbeat
normally seen during meditation or light sleep.
Douilllard is the author of the current fitness
best-seller: Body, Mind, and Sport.
Week of 8 July, 2002
- Relieve Stress
Here are some fun and interesting methods of relieving
stress:
| Tear up a piece of paper. According to
Mary Sotile, M.A., author of Beat Stress Together, the
rhythmic motions of tearing the paper may release pent-up physical stress,
the smooth sounds of the tearing paper are soothing and may help you focus
and tune out distractions, and it is a concrete task that gives you a
definite feeling of accomplishment. |
| Recruit your partner to give you a ten-minute
head or foot massage every day. What luxury! And how
attainable! |
| Dab peppermint oil on your temples and forehead.
Participants in a German study reported significant pain cessation from
headaches 15 minutes after peppermint oil had been dabbed on their foreheads
and temples. |
| Try this eye trick: when you feel stressed or
overwhelmed, take 5 deep, slow breaths through your nose. Then,
rapidly move your eyes from side to side, about 25 times to each side.
When you are finished, you will feel a sense of calm, and an amazing new
ability to conquer those things which seemed impossible.
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