7 Basic rules of sleeping

How many times have you woken up more tired then you were the night before? Many people have the same issue and you must know that the main factors that cause this metabolism malfunction are the sleeping habits.

These habits are often causing more problems that they are solving. Still, this isn’t a lost cause, there are a couple of things that you could do to improve your sleeping style.

A good way to begin the change is to pay attention to a few rules and to prepare your sleep properly.

1. The pillow’s shape has a very important role for a proper resting during sleeping time, also the pillow’s filling matters a lot. You need to buy a good pillow with soft filling, and you have to position it correctly to avoid neck and back aches, chronicle fatigue and even insomnia.

2. The bed and the mattress must be comfortable. Chris Idzikowski, the manager of a research centre for sleeping problems has discovered that an uncomfortable bed can cause muscular aches and can shorten your sleep with an hour/night.

3. The clothing must be adequate, on our size, so it wouldn’t bother us during the sleep and it must be made from natural fibers, for example cotton, to allow the body to breathe.

4. Avoid eating, reading, watching television or studying in bed. You have to teach your body that the bed is for sleep and sexual activity only.

5. Choose wisely your sleeping position. You should avoid sleeping on your stomach or on your left side, because the liver, the lungs and the stomach are pressing the hearth with their weight. The most relaxing sleep can be achieved only if you sleep on your back, allowing yourself an excellent breathing process.

6. The ideal bed size is 1.80 m per 2.00 m, a smaller bed will cause an agitated sleep and you will be tired and in a bad mood all day long.

7. At last but not least, for ensuring yourselves a relaxing and peaceful sleep you must take care of your insomnia problems.

After reading and taking care of all these aspects, all you have to do is to … sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite.

What rules do you follow before sleeping ? Do you have a recipe for a better good night sleep ? Tell us how the rules above helped you have a better goodnight sleep.

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Written by: Liviu Moldovan

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5 ways to dodge the hiccup attack

As I wrote in my last post, I had a hiccup attack a few days ago. It made me think about my health condition, because there was posted on the web a vast list of diseases and health condition problems and I got scared and I have tried to get rid of the hiccup.

Theoretically, it sounded very well, but it got a bit tricky when I began to fight against this annoying, but still funny, at least for the others, sound. I tried numerous methods to stop the hiccup, some heard from my friends, some seen on the web, but there was at least one good thing I have learned, and that is that there aren’t any universal methods.

There are few people that react in the same manner to the same method of hiccup annihilation. Our bodies are different, and each person has a perfect way to stop a hiccup attack. It took me a while to find mine. Here is what I have tried:

1. Eat a slice of lemon. The lemon will create a strange sensation that the body can’t understand, and the acid from the lemon will make your stomach reduce its size, making the diaphragm relax. It should stop the hiccup in most of the cases, even for a short while.

2. Crouch and hold your breath as long as you can. Although it can cause dizziness and you can pass out if you push yourself to the limit, still it is a good way to relax the diaphragm and suppress the hiccups.

3. Drink water. This one has a lot of variables, because there are many techniques to drink. You can drink in repeatedly small sips, or drink when you feel like hiccup, or drink slowly but continuous.

4. Eat a spoon of sugar. This method has something to do with the action of sugar upon the stomach, and it also give a boost of energy to the body cells, helping them to carry away faster the surplus of carbon dioxide that causes the hiccup.

5. Apply to your both ear lobes pressure with your thumb and index together for approximately 40 seconds. This is the most surprising tip regarding the hiccup that I ever heard and it has nothing to do with breathing in a certain way or eating certain things, it is all about pressure points. With a background in acupuncture, I think this can be the most efficient advice.

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So how well did you do against the hiccups? Do you know others ways to lose the hiccups?

Written by: Liviu Moldovan

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Relax, take it easy!

How many of you experienced a bad day at work, when everything is going wrong, you are arguing with everyone for no reason and you feel like throw your computer through the window just for the fun of it? I am pretty sure that even if you are doing a job that completely satisfies you, the stress will kick in someday.

When something like that is happening, you know that you have to do something to relax. You have to dominate the situation or it will take the control.

A simple way to relax is to inhale deeply and then exhale very slow, concentrating to relax all your body muscles. It will improve even your brain oxygenation and it will give you the chance to meditate about the problem.

You can also focus your breathing, by inhaling deeply and then, while exhaling, encouraging yourself with expressions like “relax”, “I am calm”, “I can handle the situation”, “There is nothing that can take me down”. This way, you can also practice your positive thinking, involuntary performing an elementary form of NLP (neuro-linguistic programming ). Positive thinking it is thought that it can improve both your mental and physical condition. Scientists have said that it can boost our health condition and it can prevent even common cold.

Muscle stretching is also a good method to relax and oxygenate your whole body. For example, lift your arms above your head, and stretch them, but you can use this technique on every part of your body that needs it.

Imagination exercises could help as well, for example whenever you are too tense, imagine a wonderful place where you will feel excellent. All that you want to see, to smell, to sense, to hear, to taste, depends entirely of you.

You can use a good relaxation tape and spend a couple of weeks before becoming skilled enough for relaxing anytime you wish.

At last but not least, a very know and used method is the Jacobson method of relaxation. This method has three important steps:

1. Concentrate on a muscular group.

2. Tension it, without hurting yourself, and keep it that way for 20-30 seconds.

3. After the relaxation of that group, pay attention to the sensation that follows. By doing that, you can reduce your stress level.

This exercise can be practiced on the following muscular groups: right hand or left hand, then
the other one, forearm and deltoid, back and lumbar zone, neck, face and eyes, the trunk and abdomen, the thighs.

You can always find the time to use one of these methods of relaxation and I am convinced that it will be a time well spent.

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Do yo know other methods of relaxation ? How do you relax when you feel tensed ?

Written by: Liviu Moldovan

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