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Are You Getting The Sleep You Really Need?Do you get enough sleep? Chances are you don't. Many people living in modern industrial societies suffer from a chronic, and worsening sleep deficit.Until a few decades ago, most people lived lives so very different from ours that we would scarcely recognize them. Until fairly recently in human history the majority of people lived in small villages or on farms, not in big cities. There were no electric lights. There weren't any faxes or e-mails. There was no Internet, and no television. Once the sun went down, most of the day's activities came to an end. People worked very hard physically, and only a very small minority had what we would call “white collar” jobs. And most people, on average, slept nine to nine and a half hours each night. For most of us today, an average of nine hours sleep each night is an impossible dream. In our very busy schedules, something has to give, and quite often the choice many of us are making is to cut back on our hours of sleep. If you listen to, or read some of the popular current guides to success, you will usually be instructed to work hard, play hard, study hard, be more outgoing, and gain every advantage you can. The struggle to the top can be ruthless. Why, even the struggle to stay where you are and not to lose your place can be ruthless. Where do many of these success guides and gurus tell you to cut back? Why, on your hours of sleep. They'll tell you that sleeping more than five or six hours a night is a waste of time. They'll tell you that the world is moving ahead while you are dozing, and that you'll never catch up if you indulge your desire to sleep. If you snooze, you lose! They'll tell you that you don't really need those extra two or three hours of sleep each night. That it's just a bad habit you've developed. That it's self-indulgent. That a full night's sleep is the booby prize for losers in the game of life. Unfortunately, this advice goes against thousand of years of human biology. It's true that some of us really do need only five or six hours of sleep each night, but those people are in a minority. Most of us require seven, eight, or even more hours of good quality sleep every night in order to function at our best intellectually, physically and emotionally. In sleep deprivation experiments conducted on volunteers, it has been found that even a few days of sleep loss produce a marked negative effect on a person's mental abilities. It becomes much harder to focus mentally and to process information. Decisions take longer to make, and are of poorer quality. Learning and remembering new information becomes more difficult, and it becomes harder to recall information that was previously learned. Creativity declines, while mistakes increase. A person who hasn't had enough restorative sleep will have difficulty handling technical machinery. In addition, lack of sleep causes emotional impairment and difficulty with mental processing. As people become more sleep deprived, they may experience more depression and mood swings. Tempers flare more often, and sleep deprived people become less cooperative with others. Lack of sufficient sleep is believed to have contributed to many well-known accidents, such as the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle, the near meltdown at Three Mile Island, and the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl. It is believed that lack of sleep contributed to poor decision making in each of these incidents, with disastrous results. If you add to these examples the many hundreds of thousands of other accidents every year caused by sleep deprivation, it becomes clear that cutting back on our sleep may not really be the solution for greater productivity we are looking for. If you are studying for important exams, you will be better off getting sufficient sleep the night before, rather than spending the whole night desperately trying to cram more information into your head. Remember that your brain uses its sleeping hours to process the information of the day and to consolidate new memories. Cutting back on sleep in order to study instead will interfere with this process. About the author: Royane Real is the author of several self help books, including “Your Quick Guide to Improving Your Learning Ability” Sign up today for her free newsletter filled with life improving tips at www.royanereal.com Circulated by Article Emporium Take Control of the Reins of Your Mind The power that you have in your mind is truly phenomenal, but like the rest of us, you may have trouble controlling it at times. Here is an analogy that illustrates this perfectly... Your mind is like a strong, wild horse, powerfu... How To Ruin Your Online Dating Success These days you seldom meet a single person who never tried online dating - unless they aren't Internet users. Since you are reading this, I assume you ARE online - so this information can be crucial for your online dating success. Most people placing personal ads ... Achievement and Happiness The 80/20 Way Copyright 2005 Rasheed Ali If there was ever a principle that was responsible for the most happiness and achievement in the world, it would be the 80/20 Principle. The 80/20 Principle or Pareto Principle was discovered in 1897 by an Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto w... The Power of Beliefs Years ago I had the opportunity to meet a woman who reinforced my understanding of the power of beliefs. A woman who is probably one of the most powerful individuals I will ever encounter. I met Chris in 1986 while taking the Dale Carnegie course in Santa Rosa, California. <... 5 Steps to Dating with Integrity Copyright 2005 Heartmind Connection, LLC Here you are. You just have had another failed relationship, wondering do I want to put myself back out there to and try to meet someone just to be disappointed again. How can you take a different approach this time? How can you in... Fear… Control It Before It Controls You! Feed your faith and your fears will starve to death. -Author, Unknown Fear… The most overrated concept known to man! Fear is not reality, but rather a perception of reality. Interesting how all of mankind suffers this ‘perceived' condition. The truth is, although we ... How Concentrated Psychic Thought Links All Humanity Together It is within your power to gratify your every wish. Success is the result of the way you think. I will show you how to think to be successful. The power to rule and attract success is within yourself. The barriers that shut these off f... Do What You Love, Love What You Do Everyone dreams of a life full of love and adventure. But we fill ourselves with reasons not to follow our dreams. Instead of protecting us, they imprison and hold us back. Life will be over before we know it, so now is the time to really live life and love. In Lif... Are You Getting The Sleep You Really Need? Do you get enough sleep? Chances are you don't. Many people living in modern industrial societies suffer from a chronic, and worsening sleep deficit. Until a few decades ago, most people lived lives so very different from ours that we would scarcely recognize them. Unt... Ordinary or Extra-Ordinary? There is a way to feel wonderful all of the time and what's more it is quite simple to implement. I'm not sure about you, but I can't think of any other outcome that would be higher, or that I would enjoy more, than for a person to have had an interaction with me and enjo... The Problem With Setting Goals Focus on Your Goal, Not on How You'll Get There Excerpted from Business Black Belt by Burke Franklin "Don't tell me that something is impossible. Tell me what it would take to make it possible." After we figure out what we want, we usually start to st... Setting Goals That Empower The Business Owner Copyright 2005 Terry Strom To succeed to the greatest extend possible, you need to set goals. But those goals must be reachable and stretchable. Reachable so you will believe that you can attain them, and stretchable so that when you attain them, you will have moved fo... Another Reality Tv Show Or A Reality Check? Quote of the month: "The secret weapon for success is knowledge, so what you don't know can hurt you. - Geela These days there is a growing trend towards reality TV shows that are based on external shallow values. With the appeal of junk food, it has a powerful hypnotic ... Millionaire Mindset: Is Your Brain Sabotaging Your Success? Copyright 2005 Rick Miller Have you ever wondered why some people seem to have success with every they do? Do they have some magical power that you don't? Would you like to quickly get that power? In a recent interview for the List Crusade program, T. Harv Ek... Is the Internet a Miracle Cure For Loneliness? A few years ago a surprising survey discovered that people who spent a lot of time on the Internet were a lot lonelier than people who didn't spend much time on the Net. This was an unexpected find because many people view the Internet and e-mail as a great way to make a...
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