Sleep more for better health and youthful looking skin

Came across this article, "Good sleep gives you younger-looking skin" at the TheStar-Online. Research conducted shows that poor sleepers are found to show signs of ageing skins and slower recovery of skin damage due to environmental effects. Apart from ageing skin, sleep deprivation has other health-related risks such as obesity, diabetes, cancer and immune deficiency.

As the world progresses and everything seems to run on increasingly faster pace, you might think that we should get much needed valuable time to balance between our work and life. But, it is the exact opposite. The faster we progress, the less time we have for our life especially for those living in big cities.

For working parents, their work doesn't just stop in the office. Once they arrive home, their full-time job starts which is to nurture their children and taking care of house chores. But how much time do we have for our life?

More often, we come home late at night and only have that limited time for our personal life. And more often, we give up on our sleeping time trying to cramp as much as we can do until our body tells you that "I give up, I need to shut down". Sounds familiar?

I confess that I am victim of sleep deprivation since there’s just so little time or none at all to spend on my personal time. On average I would only get 4-5 hours of sleep every night and suffer during daytime especially after a good lunch.

All this tolls up and has effect especially as my age increases. I feel tired all the time and my body will feel lost of energy. Sports and exercise would seem too much of a hassle and my weight gain.

To combat these ill-effects, I started exercising more and try my best to sleep at a scheduled time. The best is to refrain from any mind stimulating activities such as playing computer games before sleep. It’s good to keep your room cool with a dim light for that cozy atmosphere before your sleep. Another great method I use is to lie down flat on your back with my eyes close, hands by your side and concentrate on your breathing. Breathe in and out deep through your nose as this will calm your body and lower down the heart rate. This will relax your mind and body.

Sleep is important since it is the time when our body regenerates and repairs itself. So please do not neglect your sleep. Here’s a good read on how to sleep better.