to exercise is morning or late afternoon.
• Avoid drinking too much water immediately before bed.
A glass or two of water right before bed will wake you up a few hours later to go to the bathroom. If you have trouble going back to sleep once you’re awake, this is not a habit you want to get into. If it happens on a regular basis, the “routine” becomes so conditioned that your internal clock will begin to wake you up at a certain time each night, whether you need to “go” or not.
• Sleep on a good quality, comfortable mattress.
Something as simple as changing your mattress can prevent aches and pains that disrupt sleep. Most people are helped by a firmer mattress that doesn’t create swells that cause bends in the body. Some of the newer memory foam mattresses that conform to your body curves are excellent.
• Keep your bedroom cool and dark.
The optimum temperature for sleep is sixty-eight degrees because that’s the temperature that seems to best set the brain’s internal thermostat. The mild drop in body temperature induces sleep. Blocking out all light triggers the pineal gland to produce melatonin, the hormone that tells your body it’s time to sleep. A night light, and even a light on the alarm clock next to your bed, will confuse the pineal and disrupt sleep.
• Take magnesium an hour before bed.
If your sleep is disrupted by anxiety, or if you’re tossing and turning because you’re thinking about things that cause you stress, magnesium may be the answer. This supplement has a calming effect on the nerves and helps relax muscles so that you sleep more soundly. Because sleep deprivation is stressful, and since stress lowers magnesium levels, taking a magnesium supplement may help get you back in balance.
• Stretch before going to bed.
Tension and muscle pain can keep you from getting to sleep or can wake you up in the middle of the night. Ten minutes of yoga or stretching will relieve the tension and help you stay more relaxed throughout the night.
• Avoid foods that cause insomnia.
If you’re having trouble dozing off, what you eat before bed may be sabotaging your sleep. Foods to avoid are: deli meats like ham, sausage, pepperoni, bacon, and smoked meats because they contain tyramine, which triggers the release of brain stimulants and makes you restless; spicy foods because they raise body temperature and may cause heartburn; and high-fat meals because they can disrupt natural sleep cycles.
• Relax with some stress management exercises.
Relaxation exercises and meditation have natural tranquilizing effects that induce sleep. By practicing these before bed, you’ll be conditioning the brain to trigger a deeply relaxed state that can easily transition your body into sleep.
We don’t realize how important sleep is until we start having sleep problems that leave us tired, irritable, and unproductive. Because the physical effects of sleep deprivation are cumulative, they lead to lowered disease resistance. Adapting good sleep habits will not only make us feel more refreshed and energized but will keep us a lot healthier as well.
The way we perceive daily events, the way we view the world around us, the manner in which we respond to stress and interact with others all affect the way in which our body maintains homeostasis. The reason it’s called the mind-body connection is because the mind is working in sync with the body to process the multitude of reactions that control every organ system. We think and then we respond. And how we respond is basically a matter of mind over body.
Simply put, life events are viewed as either good or bad depending on how we choose to look at them. One of my students actually enjoyed getting into traffic jams because it gave him an opportunity to think and reflect on things in his life. While many of us would be ready to explode into a rage at being stuck on a highway and going nowhere, he would use the time to do something constructive like listening to the radio and catching up on current news events or mentally reviewing facts for an upcoming exam. It’s attitude more than anything else. And attitudes, just like habits, are conditioned responses that can be changed for the better. If you’re thinking that this is easier said than done, consider how quickly we can form habits or how easily we condition ourselves to behave in certain ways. With a little effort, we can just as easily condition ourselves to develop attitudes that bring out the best in us.
Okay, so you accept that you have a bad attitude; and you’d really like to feel and think differently. But exactly how do you change attitudes in order to prevent illness and disease? The answer is not to try to change your personality but to make small adjustments in your outlook and behavior that, over time, will automatically change the attitudes that are affecting health. Sometimes the best and most effective preventive medicine is conditioning the brain to perceive life events in a new way. Here are eleven suggestions I offer in my seminars that people have found help them the most.
• View change as rewarding and challenging. In most cases, change is not something we view positively. Many of us are not very good at it; and the older we get the harder it becomes. Sometimes it’s simply a fear of the unknown or the fear of failure. So rather than viewing change as something negative, look for the positives. The more consistently we do that, the less negatively we’ll feel about change in general.
• Visualize positive results. As if we’re looking through someone else’s eyes, we visualize what’s happening to us or what will happen to us, and we don’t like what we see. Performance anxiety is common when we’re about to give a speech or have sex or perform some other function. To rid yourself of this negative habit, imagine success instead of failure. Once you condition the brain to see positive outcomes, you’ll overcome that initial urge to think the worst.
• Take control over situations. Having a feeling of control is one of the most important and fundamental attitudes we can have to combat stress and prevent illness. Studies have shown that we get sick, not as a result of stressful situations, long hours, job pressures, or low pay but rather from feelings that what we do is beyond our control. The best way to reverse that is to get involved rather than to sit passively by and have others take charge. Join, participate, volunteer, and become active. Doing whatever you can to lead instead of follow will make you feel more in control, even if you’re not.
• Don’t be a perfectionist. Since perfection does not exist, trying to be perfect can lead to burnout, isolation, depression, and eventually disease. It’s okay to try and be the best we can be. But what we need to come to grips with is the fact that there will be always be things we can’t do as well as we’d like. We have to accept that and move on.
• Discover your peak energy levels. Each of us has a unique internal biological clock. Some of us are morning people; others have more energy during the afternoon or evening. By discovering what type of person we are, we can avoid stressful or strenuous situations that sap our energy levels and make us feel as if we’re not accomplishing what we should. On the other hand, scheduling the most difficult tasks around peak energy times makes us more efficient. Recognizing when we’re at our best is a good first step in eliminating burnout, limiting wear and tear on the body, and keeping our immune system healthy and functioning well.
• Take time out. Everyone—no matter how much they love what they’re doing or how stress-tolerant they think they
