It has been discovered that a lack of sleep can lead to a shorter life, obesity, and any number of additional health challenges. People do extraordinary things to get a good night’s sleep.
They take medication, listen to tapes, exercise, read, and meditate, just to relax enough to fall asleep. People even find fault with their sleeping surfaces. The bed isn’t soft enough or firm enough, etc.
Maybe the pillow is at fault. It causes them to sweat too heavily through the night. It may be what’s keeping them awake. Then finally, they invest in an adjustable bed. Surely, if they are sleeping with the right elevation of the head and feet, they’ll sleep like a baby.
#1 Realizing It May Be Time to Try Something New
You may have tried all of those options. If you have, try one more, one that won’t have the cost of a college education and one that should work.
Try a sleeper chair. Why a sleeper chair?
As we age, things that formally failed to affect us suddenly slow us down or cause us to experience unpleasant effects. One of those effects is sleep deprivation. Your diet can cause sleep deprivation.
#2 Foods That Can Interfere With Your Sleep:
- A) Chocolate – contains tyrosine, which converts into the stimulant, dopamine causing you to become restless. Dark chocolate contains more caffeine than milk chocolate and a substance that increases the heart rate called theobromine.
- B) Spicy Food – A chili can raise the body’s temperature and makes you restless. They also cause acid reflux and heartburn.
- C) Chicken – If you eat protein just before bedtime, it will interfere with the internal body clock, waking you instead of relaxing you.
- D) Green Tea – a warm cup of tea can do more to stimulate you with the added caffeine than to relax you. Plus, it triggers body functions by stimulating the heart, brain, nervous system and muscles.
- E) Wine – consumed just before bed, it can keep you from entering that deep sleep called REM sleep.
- F) Heavy Dessert – Eating fatty foods causes the brain to release a chemical called orexin. Orexin arouses you and awakens you.
- G) Cheese – a source of tyramine, which can cause you to get headaches and your brain to feel overly stimulated.
#3 Aging Changes Sleep Patterns
Aging also affects our mobility. We aren’t as physically agile as we once were and trying to relax and get a full night’s rest in a traditional bed might not work like it once did. Perhaps you breathe better when your head is elevated.
And those strange pains you feel in your legs at night go away when your feet are elevated too. Lying prostrate doesn’t allow you to fully rest and fall into a deep sleep. A sleeper chair may be the solution to your sleeping difficulties.
#4 Physical Sleeping Issues
- Acid reflux may prevent you from getting comfortable while lying flat, so the chair would be a good alternative, as the acid is being pulled downward by gravity and thus doesn’t wake you.
- Experiencing sleep apnea may make sleeping on your back uncomfortable. You may find yourself waking frequently when you fail to breathe. Sitting upright allows you to breathe normally, even if you do suffer from sleep apnea.
- Back pain is yet another reason why lying flat or even on your side may be uncomfortable, leading to sleepless nights. Sitting and slightly reclining in a sleep chair could alleviate all of that discomfort.
Most adults need seven to nine hours of sleep each evening. The average adult gets six hours of sleep. Consequently, we have more health and concentration problems stemming from that lack of sleep.
When you sit down in a sleeper chair in front of the TV, while you’re watching your favorite late night talk show and you yawn and stretch, feeling sleep calling you to bed, instead of jumping in that uncomfortable bed of yours, pull out the footrest or the body of the chair bed and continue allowing that show to lull you to sleep. But, before you doze off, set the sleep timer of your TV and then start counting sheep.
Are you thinking about starting a sleeper chair?
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