National Stress Awareness Month – April 2019

We all know that a good night’s sleep is extremely important for your health. This month is national Stress Awareness Month.  Getting good quality sleep and waking feeling well rested helps to alleviate so many potential hazards to our health, such as anxiety and stress.  Sleep is just as important as eating healthy and exercising for your overall wellbeing.  Sleep is nature’s healer.

Here are 5 ways that sleep will improve your health:

  • You will be ill less frequently
    Even a small loss of sleep has been shown to impair immune function and your ability to fight off infection.  Study after study shows that if you skimp on sleep, you are likely to get ill. The more sleep you get the more you create the optimum environment for your natural defences to work well.
  • You will feel more relaxed
    You will be able to cope better with the pressures of the day if you get enough sleep thus avoiding potential stress in the mind and body.  You will help yourself avoid building up high distress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline – when they are present you are unlikely to get a good quality deep sleep.
  • Create and maintain a healthy weight
    Poor sleep is strongly linked to weight gain and obesity. Your body needs sleep to normalise weight-control hormones. In fact, short sleep duration is one of the strongest risk factors for obesity.  People who slept 4 hours a night for two nights running had a 24% increase in appetite, craved sweet, starchy and salty foods and lost interest in fruit, vegetables, protein and dairy products. If you’re trying to lose weight, getting quality sleep is absolutely crucial.
  • You will improve your memory
    Deep sleep dramatically improves how your brain works. It affects how nerve cells in the brain connect, governing everything from how the brain controls behaviour to the ability to learn or remember.  A good nights sleep reduces stress & anxiety.
  •  You will be at greater risk of heart disease or stroke
    It’s known that sleep quality and duration can have a major effect on many health risk factors. These are the factors believed to drive chronic diseases, including heart disease.  People who don’t get enough sleep are at far greater risk of heart disease or stroke than those who sleep 7–8 hours per night.

Start to create a better sleep pattern by learning to switch off the noisy mind, using mind based relaxation techniques such and Mindfulness, Meditation and Hypnotherapy combined will increase your chances of overcoming the dangers of stress and Anxiety which can lead to negative habits forming.  

To begin creating a change in behaviour and increase your chances of sleeping more soundly use the links to download professional recordings that I have created to help support you.  Better still arrange an appointment to start a new way forwards without lifes baggage.

07834 666979 – nigel@strongminds.co.uk – www.strongminds.co.uk