It’s commonsense knowledge that a good night’s sleep will provide many benefits, not only physically but mentally as well. Ask any parent of a newborn and they will be the first ones to tell you that solid sleep is not something to take for granted. In all seriousness, the folks at PatientsLikeMe conducted a sleep survey and found that a bad night’s sleep is normal for people with health conditions.
This makes sense, given that if there’s pain, anxiety or other health-related issues, sleep won’t come easy due to the absence of relaxation. Eighty-eight percent of the respondents said their problems are caused by stress or anxiety, and that women are more affected by stress-induced sleep problems.
Respondents also said that the lack of sleep has had a serious impact on their daily regimes.
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We live in a tech era, and given that, we can easily turn to technology to help us all catch some much-needed Z’s. Light emitted from cell phones and other gadgets triggers alertness, and, according to Harvard research, may even fight fatigue. It’s a good idea to power down at least an hour before bed, and establish a relaxing bedtime routine that's free of technology. But technology can be used for good to help get you to the land of nod, so long as you employ the use of the “do not disturb” function on your device.
Apps like SleepCycle uses the motion sensors in your iPhone to track your movements while you're asleep, then estimates what stage of sleep you're in. You program the alarm for the latest time you'd like to wake up, and the app rouses you at the point when you're sleeping the lightest around that time, so as not to totally jolt you awake.
White noise apps like Sleep Pillow offer 70 high-quality recorded sounds like wooden wind chimes, a bubbling stream or even a dryer, that you can mix into 300,000 personalized combinations for the perfect night’s sleep.
Edited by
Alisen Downey
