We all need to sleep. Some of us toss and turn all night long and wake up feeling tired and groggy, while others drift easily into a deep and restful sleep and awake feeling refreshed. Sleep experts have known for some time that sleep, and particularly its dream stages are important for helping the mind and body heal itself and for filtering and incorporating important input from your daily activities into your memory and discarding what isn’t needed. Now, they are beginning to discover that the sleeping mind is much more active that we used to realize; it can even help us solve problems while we are dreaming.
If you are desperate for a good night’s sleep, need to keep bad dreams or nightmares at bay and want to feel great when you wake up in the morning there are modern methods available to help you. Here is a rundown on some of them,
A Gentle Awakening
Alarm Clock For Me is an alarm clock app for android that will wake you gently to the sound of your favorite music. This is much healthier than a jarring alarm that will increase your blood pressure and leave you feeling anxious. The app gives you a choice of waking up to a built-in selection of gentle tunes or music from your own collection. It also has background alarm support so that the alarm will sound even if the app is not running. Its nightstand mode will turn your mobile device into a handsome bedside clock and you can change the screen’s brightness so it won’t glare.
Don’t Feel Blue
One reason you may be feeling tired all day is because of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). The problem stems from a lack of bright light in winter. Light makes a significant difference to the functioning of brain chemistry although the exact means of effect are still unknown. It is known that the nerve centers in our brain which control our daily functions are affected by the amount of light entering the eyes. Blue Light Therapy is an app that’s designed to stimulate your brain with blue light, relieving symptoms of SAD such as confusion, fatigue, depression and anxiety.
Bedtime Stories for Grownups
Bedtime Stories: Classic Tales for Sleepy Grownups is a podcast you can listen to on your mobile device while you’re waiting for sleep to draw you in. Narrated by Parker Leventer’s soothing voice, the show plays unabridged stories by favorite authors like Willa Cather, H. P. Lovecraft, Edith Wharton, Jack London, and Edgar Allen Poe. This podcast is perfect for a sendoff into slumber. You can listen to it on your mobile device using the Stitcher Radio app.
Many people nowadays walk around feeling tired all the time, not realizing why or how to fix it but using these methods you no longer have to be one of them. You can sleep peacefully and feel refreshed each day.
Scott Hurst is a life coach who wants to give everyone a burst of energy so that they can focus on creating the best life possible. His articles appear on a range of lifestyle blogs.