Did you ever get called “Sleepy Head” at school?
Researchers now tell us that “sleeping” is an ultra-powerful intelligence-boosting fuel for the brain. This latest research is fascinating for lots of other findings too.
Memory Improved, More Creativity, Better Intellectual Performance
All this from a good night’s sleep? That’s the conclusion of a spate of recent studies.
“The sleeping brain is not stupid,” said Jessica Payne, an assistant professor at Notre Dame University, “it’s making rapid decisions on what memories and information to store and access later.”
All of which makes us “smarter”.
Why sleep is so crucial for memory-retention and smarter-thinking capacity is ironically, still a mystery. It turns out that our brains are not like TiVo and able to store and watch something and at the same time and comprehend it all. We can’t simultaneously take in information and process it.
Sleep helps in the whole information-processing picture giving the brain a chance to go “offline” and shift into a different psychological mode that’s evolved to perform certain information processing just like a computer does. Memories, things to do, wondering.
Research suggests that “REM” sleep, the stage of sleep involving rapid eye movement, seems to be the phase that tells the brain what to do with new information. This is all surmised to be vitally important in preventing and reversing Alzheimer’s and dementia.
Sleeplessness is a chronic problem in America and the use of stupefying drugs only makes matters worse. (And rear-end car accident rates keep skyrocketing!)
Sleep is not only important for your ability to remember, it also helps you be more creative and more innovative. Lack of sleep has also just been found to be directly linked to obesity because it disrupts insulin regulation which means instant fat formation and worse, early-onset diabetes.
What is the Right Amount of Sleep You Should Get?
Experts agree that a full eight hours of sleep every night is what the body not only needs but demands that it gets. And the sleep mechanism in our body, centered in the brain of course, keeps a very accurate scorecard of how much sleep it gets and how much it is owed. If you get overdrawn, things start to bounce.
Researchers say that an easy test to decide if you’re getting enough sleep is next weekend if you don’t set an alarm, see if you sleep more than you do during the week. If you sleep longer, you’re in sleep deficit.
Anyone who gets sufficient rest finds that many daily tasks, like driving a car or balancing your checkbook, are far easier than when sleep deprived. And along with that come the realization that getting an extra hour or two of sleep a night might just have life-saving and life extending benefits.
SOURCES: Robert Stickgold, Ph.D., associate professor, psychiatry, Harvard Medical School and director, Center for Sleep and Cognition, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston; Jessica Payne, Ph.D., assistant professor, psychology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Ind.
The Non-Drug Way to a Good Night’s Sleep
You’re gonna want to set two alarms when you use our amazing, all-natural, Good Night sleep formula.
A crucial part of this new formula is the cunning way it brings on deep, restful sleep but without any residual grogginess or “drugged-out” feeling the next day. In fact, quite the reverse!
You bound out of bed like you did as a kid, full of beans and ready to conquer the world. Some ex-Ambien users, the most commonly prescribed sleep drug, just rave about Good Night’s effects compared with taking Ambien. (I’ve heard about people falling asleep driving to work the morning after taking Ambien – now that’s a dangerous after-effect!)
Our new formula doesn’t do that, no way. The ingredients are a who’s who of the herbal material medica.
Here are just some of them.
- Magnesium – the “tranquility” mineral.
- Valerian – the herb that the drug companies tried to copy as a sleeping pill
- Lemon Balm – famous calming herb used since the Middle Ages to reduce stress and anxiety.
- Magnolia Flower – one of the most revered plants in Traditional Chinese Medicine and used since 100 A.D. for all problems related to tension, emotional distress, restlessness and insomnia. It is also a superb cortisol-lowering herb.
- Silk Tree Flower – rare plant whose flowers when crushed into a powder improve near term memory, relieve depression, irritability and insomnia.
- Skullcap – incredible action on nervous tension, insomnia and muscle tension.
- Dwarf Morning Glory – known for thousands of years by Buddhist scholars as the source of a very calming herbal tea to bring on deep calm and aid meditation.
- Celandine – used in traditional, Russian herbal folk-medicine for its amazing abilities to relax and sedate the central nervous system in times of high stress and anxiety.
- Chamomile – the restful, sleep inducing herb.
- Tyrosine – amazing amino acid formed from Phenylalanine which boosts mood, attitude and induces deep, restful sleep.
- Passion of Christ Flower – Mother Nature’s best tranquilizer, revered for its near-instant relief of nervous insomnia.
As a final touch, the formula contains Melatonin, the deep, deep sleep inducing hormonal compound that will take you to “The Sleep Zone” in no time at all. Take two capsules up to one hour 30 minutes before bed and dim the lights to trigger natural melatonin production, and soon you will be feeling sleepy – very, very sleepy.
No More Counting Sheep, Just Say “Good Night”
Even though you think you get a good night’s sleep, just one night of the Good Night Formula will change your thinking about sleeping. Some people say they wake up with their head still in the same resting place it was in the night before!
Further Tips & Suggestions:
- Take two Good Night capsules with a big mug of Chamomile Herb Tea. This helps calm the body and the mind.
- If you are going to bed late and need to get up early, try one Good Night capsule and one Tolerance Stress-X capsule. One of our customers calls this combination their “speed sleep” secret. Save an extra 15% when you purchase these formulas together as the Stress Relief Combo.
- Avoid any caffeine intake up to three hours before “hitting the hay”.
- Cut back on violent TV programs (put them on Tivo and watch them later.)
- Make sure you have a good pillow.
- Exercise every day, people who do sleep far better.
- If you suffer from jet-lag, try adding our 5-HTP Brain Candy formula. It works wonders on sleep, attitude, depression, anxiety attacks.
- The National Sleep Foundation has more on “How much sleep people need”.
As always, here’s to your Contagious Health!
Dr. Wayne Garland, ND/TCM