Make the most of the extra hour sleep…
The end of Daylight Saving Time
is one of our favorite excuses to sleep for an extra hour — a decadent,
once-a-year, Sunday morning treat.
How
much can an extra hours sleep change you?
Both the hours slept and the intensity of the sleep are important.
Some of your most refreshing sleep occurs during deep sleep. Although such
sleep's true effects are still being studied, it is generally considered a
restorative period for the brain. And when you sleep more hours, you allow your
brain to spend more time in this rejuvenating period.
"When you put away sleep debt,
you become superhuman," says Stanford's Dement, talking about the improved
mental and physical capabilities that come with being well rested.
Just one extra hour of sleep can
boost your athletic performance
Researchers at Stanford University asked
five healthy students on the Stanford women’s tennis team to maintain their
normal sleep/wake cycle for two to three weeks, then extend their sleep for
five to six weeks. The students underwent athletic performance assessments
after every practice, and researchers discovered that with extra sleep the
students executed a faster sprinting drill and experienced increased hitting
accuracy.
Better memory
If you have a bad
memory, the answer to your woes might simply be getting more sleep. While deep
sleep is perceived as a time when we completely shut off, our brains are
actually hard at work moving our short-term memories to our long-term memories,
which makes space for the next day. If you don't get enough time in a deep
sleep, some of your memories will be lost.
Significantly lower blood
pressure
Heart attacks increase when Daylight
Saving Time begins in March, research shows,
after we’ve lost that precious hour of sleep. And when it ends, heart attacks
decrease. And that makes sense, given what we know about sleep and arterial
health.
To help you get a good
nights sleep here are some of our favourites:
Bach Original Flower Remedy Rescue Night Drops
This Works Sleep Plus + Pillow Spray
And Besleepy De-Stress Bath & Body Oil
Sleep well, sleep tight!