The Sleep Revolution

The importance of sleep is something that I am familiar with. Due to my Vasculitis and the Prednisone that I had to take while fighting the disease sleep has been elusive to me. When I saw Arianna Huffington’s book “The Sleep Revolution” available to read. I knew that I needed to dive into this book. And dive in, I did.

Sleep is a struggle for a lot of us. We don’t want to sleep, because we want to get things done. I see this all the time with one of my older sisters. For years, I have heard her say she is more creative, gets more things done when she is sleep deprived. No matter what her husband, my other sisters, or I said to her she didn’t believe us about the importance of sleeping. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe us. It was more like she had goals to accomplish and she needed to do that before she slept. So when I started having bouts of insomnia due to my medication that I had to take for my illness. I knew fretting and worrying about it wasn’t going to anything but make it worse.

Huffington shares throughout history, from the Greeks, Romans, and the Industrial Revolution that sleep was viewed as not important to the workers. With science, thank you Huffington for suppling some great scientific information on the value of sleep we now know that isn’t the truth.

Here is what I am taking away from reading “The Sleep Revolution”:

• Don’t sleep with your technology. The blue light makes it harder for you to sleep. Don’t have a TV in your room, your computer, cellphone, or anything electronic. Your room is for sleeping.
• Have a nighttime routine. Such as, putting on your pajamas, dimming the lights, turning off the phone, taking a hot bath, drink some herbal tea, or read a book. Anything that promotes sleep.
• If you are a loud snorer, you could have sleep apnea. Discuss this with your doctor and he might suggest a sleep test.
• Don’t be afraid of trying new things when something you tried isn’t working for you. Become a sleep pro.
• Don’t fret about not getting enough. Also don’t brag about how much sleep you got. These things set you up for failure.

Disclaimer: I was given a free copy of The Sleep Revolution by Arianna Huffington from Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review. The opinions I express are my own.