For a healthy life, sleep is very important. It restores, regenerates and builds. It also influences the hormones that regulate appetite, metabolism and body weight. So much is the importance of sleep that latest studies have even linked diabetes with it. According to these, lack of sleep can increase the chances of diabetes. It can also cause hardening of blood vessels surrounding and supporting the muscle of the heart.For some people, sleep does not come as naturally as it comes to most people. This has been observed especially in elderly people. They find it difficult to go to sleep and when they do, they wake up frequently during the night. Sleep deprivation does a lot of damage to the brain and leads to stress and anxiety. Sleeping problems can be worsened by pain, sorrow, grief and stress.

There are many effects of inadequate and irregular sleep. Some of them are:

1.    High blood pressure: During sleep, blood pressure drops 10% to 20%. This is why continuous sleep deficit can lead to our daily blood pressure and increase the workload of cardiovascular system. For a healthy blood pressure, it is necessary to get at least six hours of sleep a day.
2.    Pre stage of diabetes: It has been observed in many researches that lack of sleep can trigger pre diabetes stage.
3.    Depression: People who do not sleep properly, are more prone to depression than those people who do get enough sleep every day. This may be because, sleeping refreshes the mind and enables a person to better deal with all the stress and negative issues of life.
4.    Heart problems: Proper sleep plays an important part in keeping our heart healthy. Abnormal patterns of sleep such as snoring can affect the heart, causing heart disease or stroke.
5.    Lack of focus: A healthy mind cannot be achieved without a healthy sleep. Those who have even an occasional sleepless night are less alert and energetic the following day. Sleepless nights can also make you irritable and less focused.
6.    Sleeping pill dependency: People who cannot sleep without taking sleeping pills are exposing themselves to the risk of drug dependency, either psychologically or physically. The more used to they get to a certain dose of sleeping pill, the less effective it becomes. So that eventually they are forced to increase their dose because if they don’t, then they are unable to sleep.

All the above points reinforce the importance of sleep for us. Now, the question is how to get good sleep? The following measures are recommended to sleep well:
1.    Make sure that before going to bed you do not take any heavy meals.
2.    The use of cola, coffee, alcohol, tobacco (cigarettes) and sugar should be avoided completely or at least reduced during night.
3.    Go to sleep only when you are feeling sleepy.
4.    Follow a regular pattern of sleeping and waking up.
5.    When lying on the bed, try to clear your mind of tension and worries and think happy thoughts.
6.    A hot glass of water with 10 ml of honey mixed in it can be drunk at bedtime to cure insomnia.
7.    Sleep quality can be improved with regular exercise.
8.    Taking short naps during the day can help in avoiding stress related problems like high blood pressure. They can also improve memory and work efficiency.
9.    In order to get a good night’s sleep, try learning some relaxation techniques.
10.    Sleeping on your side or back is conducive to a good sleep. Avoid sleeping on your stomach.

Develop at least some of these habits and you will see that your sleep problems have either gone away or diminished, leaving you fresh and healthy to face the next day!

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