As usual, I am tired. The farm has kept me quite busy, with the drama and heartwrench and tremendous joy that only children and farming can bring. Last night, Hopper Spark and Remington cuddled baby Nathan and gave me five straight hours of sleep between feedings after he ran hard to keep up with my farm chores yesterday. Thanks so much to my goofy dogs!
As I sit here at the craft store today, cleaning out some of my files and updating quickbooks during a very slow day in the store, I finished an article on sleep and health for my students at Pima. Funny, coming from me, but sleep really is one of my top resolutions this year to benefit my health and wellness. In fact, this article came about because Tammy asked me what my own goals were after a discussion about goals and how we would know when we achieved them.
That said, following is the article. I am still trying, and I hope you will the thoughts as you prioritize sleep in your schedule. While I don't see long afternoon naps in bed or on the couch anywhere close in my future, I am working to make sleep a nighttime priority. So here ya' go Hope it helps you think healthy...
Sleep, who needs it?
This time every year, people are setting (and sometimes already breaking) their resolutions for wellness. I am often asked what my goals are for the year. To be quite honest, I am pretty active, and work consistently at getting in the cardio and weights. Leading yoga groups helps me remember not only to practice the yoga, but the mindfulness as well. Nevertheless, stress and exhaustion are ever present. So what is my real goal for health and wellness? Sleep. Did you know that keeping up with sleep can even help fight cancer!
I see students who work out tremendously and eat poorly, those who cannot seem to get themselves into the gym, those who despise either cardio or weights. Somehow, some changes are easier than others. For me, I have struggled to work enough sleep into my schedule since college. But somehow, it was easier to kid myself about the effects of skipping sleep back then.
What are the health effects of not getting enough sleep? Well, when sleep deprivation is short lived, the effects are not too bad, and the health effects are more easily and readily reversed. Yet when you deprive your body of sleep in the long term, the body begins to suffer more.
Some negative side effects of long term sleep deprivation include interference with learning and memory, decreased metabolism and weight gain, inattention due to falling asleep during the daytime, mood swings including irritability and impatience, decrease in cardiovascular health, and a decrease in immune function leading to becoming sick or developing chronic diseases such as diabetes.
It is recommended that you sleep 7-9 hours each night. That isn’t always possible, and sometimes there are people who don’t need quite as much as others. Still, it is while you sleep that your body is most able to repair itself. During sleep, your body focuses on internal processes rather than the never-ending to-do list.
Consider it this way. When your body is deprived of sleep, it goes into a state of stress. This produces stress hormones, and increases the blood pressure and cholesterol levels, adding more stress for your heart and brain, eventually leading toward heart attacks and strokes. Therefore, sleep reduces the stress on your body, allowing for better blood flow and circulation, enabling your body to reduce inflammation and repair from exercise and injury. Then in the day time following that healthy sleep, the sleep induced repair will allow you to pay better attention to the task at hand, and make fewer mistakes. This alertness increases you chances of a better night of sleep the following night. Sounds good, doesn’t it?
When you consider that your new alertness and energy keep you better tuned in, you are paying better attention in class and at work, and processing what you are learning. See where I am going with this? Proper sleep bumps up you memory, your mood, your attentiveness and your cognitive function- allowing you to draw better from your memory banks and seem or become smarter!
I mentioned weight increases with a state of sleep deprivation. Research has shown a greater likelihood of being overweight in those who sleep less than 7 hours each night. The hormones in your body that affect appetite and weight control are easily disrupted when your body doesn’t get the chance to sleep and repair itself. I am sure you are at least remotely familiar with the connection between stress hormones and fat retention as well. Now, sleep won’t make you thin, but it will better enable your body to function, thereby enabling all that work you do in the gym to pay off.
Study after study draws a correlation between drowsiness and heart attacks, cancer, stressed relationships, accidents, memory impairment and a host of other issues. While we are working on our to-do lists and wellness priorities, shouldn’t we include sleep? It is far from easy to make changes, but stay focused, stay organized, and go to bed on time. That early morning workout will be more productive for it, and your body will thank you!
Monday, January 31, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
Full Moons Bring Babies
So far he likes talking with his half brother Obediah in the next pen over, so early signs are pointing to this being a Nathan. Watch for the final name and more updates!!
Monday, January 10, 2011
Little Eyes are Watching
Little Eyes are Watching
I have been thinking about this blog post for a couple weeks, but I decided this morning it was very appropriate for what is going through many of our minds and hearts about now. While working around the house at Christmastime we often leave on the channel with all of the country music. They had a special where they interview Reba McIntire in between playing her videos.
While interviewing Reba, they discussed the issue of role models. She said that, from back in the time when she played basketball in school, the coach had had a sign posted on the mirror in the locker room, which said “Little Eyes are Watching.” This was to remind each of the members of the team that little ones watched their every move, and how they carried themselves. That, like it or not, they were role models and were expected to behave as such. This certainly struck a chord with me.
Often times we hear people say things like “I never asked to be a role model,” or “being a role model is the parents’ job not mine.” But what we do each day, every action and reaction is seen by the little ones around us. Little ones are around us, watching how we prepare for the day, how we stay on track, handle traffic, and handle joys and disappointment, and how we treat those around us. We cannot simply complain about the state of the world we live in. We have to lead by example to create the positive community we want to be a part of- the better world we would wish to leave for them.
Did someone make you late, cut you off in traffic, say something unkind or out of line? Did you let it hurt you or anger you, or did you have the presence of mind and resiliency to respond with kindness and a reminder to yourself that we all have our days? Some days we don’t respond the way we know we wish we would have. Do we admit that? Do we accept our imperfection and discuss our own goals for ourselves openly and honestly? (This part, by the way, is proven to help us achieve more of our goals).
So I tried to help the kids learn what was good in the intent of some of those I was uncomfortable with in dealings over the weekend. And I explained what we should expect of ourselves in the morals we ascribe to. And I let them watch a little coverage of the national event that happened here while we were at football and poultry to figure out what the real story was of what had happened, as opposed to the hearsay of the whispers at the events, then turned the TV off and went back to working our chores. I answered questions honestly and pointed out that there are crazy people in all walks of life, that we have to choose to spend our time with people who have the same values as us, (though not always the same views) and work to be people we can be proud of.
Sometimes I do a better job of that than others. I am still working on it. We all are. But maybe with the little eyes watching, they will hold my feet to the fire, and learn to forgive themselves on their own road to being goo role models. I don’t know. But I know it is worth a try.
Little eyes really are watching. Let’s teach them well, so that they may really have a better world. Or at least that’s my vote.
I have been thinking about this blog post for a couple weeks, but I decided this morning it was very appropriate for what is going through many of our minds and hearts about now. While working around the house at Christmastime we often leave on the channel with all of the country music. They had a special where they interview Reba McIntire in between playing her videos.
While interviewing Reba, they discussed the issue of role models. She said that, from back in the time when she played basketball in school, the coach had had a sign posted on the mirror in the locker room, which said “Little Eyes are Watching.” This was to remind each of the members of the team that little ones watched their every move, and how they carried themselves. That, like it or not, they were role models and were expected to behave as such. This certainly struck a chord with me.
Often times we hear people say things like “I never asked to be a role model,” or “being a role model is the parents’ job not mine.” But what we do each day, every action and reaction is seen by the little ones around us. Little ones are around us, watching how we prepare for the day, how we stay on track, handle traffic, and handle joys and disappointment, and how we treat those around us. We cannot simply complain about the state of the world we live in. We have to lead by example to create the positive community we want to be a part of- the better world we would wish to leave for them.
Did someone make you late, cut you off in traffic, say something unkind or out of line? Did you let it hurt you or anger you, or did you have the presence of mind and resiliency to respond with kindness and a reminder to yourself that we all have our days? Some days we don’t respond the way we know we wish we would have. Do we admit that? Do we accept our imperfection and discuss our own goals for ourselves openly and honestly? (This part, by the way, is proven to help us achieve more of our goals).
So I tried to help the kids learn what was good in the intent of some of those I was uncomfortable with in dealings over the weekend. And I explained what we should expect of ourselves in the morals we ascribe to. And I let them watch a little coverage of the national event that happened here while we were at football and poultry to figure out what the real story was of what had happened, as opposed to the hearsay of the whispers at the events, then turned the TV off and went back to working our chores. I answered questions honestly and pointed out that there are crazy people in all walks of life, that we have to choose to spend our time with people who have the same values as us, (though not always the same views) and work to be people we can be proud of.
Sometimes I do a better job of that than others. I am still working on it. We all are. But maybe with the little eyes watching, they will hold my feet to the fire, and learn to forgive themselves on their own road to being goo role models. I don’t know. But I know it is worth a try.
Little eyes really are watching. Let’s teach them well, so that they may really have a better world. Or at least that’s my vote.
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