Art of sleeping

Sleeping is a bliss! Getting older, we may not always get the best of a deep sleep that puts us on for a fresh morning.

The art of sleeping well is the art of living well. Yes, to sleep well is an art although to sleep is a natural human instinct. To avoid insomnia, one must master that art.

You can enhance your sleep environment to perfect that art. For example, you can regulate your bedroom temperature, which affects your sleep. Your body temperature changes according to your biological clock, which rises in early evening and gradually cools down throughout the night until around 4 oclock in the morning. You must adjust your room temperature to adapt to your biological clock. A range of 62 degrees Fahrenheit (16 degrees Celsius) and 71 degrees Fahrenheit (24 degrees Celsius) often induces restful sleep.

You optimize your sleep environment by adjusting the humidity of your bedroom. To prevent dryness, place a bowl of water to humidify your bedroom, especially in winter with the heat on. To avoid humidity, use bed linen made from natural fabrics to absorb any body perspiration, as well as to help your skin breathe more freely. Remember, too dry or too humid will prevent you from sleeping well. The explanation is that a too-dry sleep environment may worsen bronchial problems and coughing, and thus interrupting sleep, while a too-humid environment may raise your stress harmone levels.

You reduce the sound level in you sleep environment, making it as quiet as possible. The quality of sounds affects the quality of your sleep. Harsh background noise, such as the sound and vibration of heavy traffic, may disturb and interfere with your sleep, while gentle sounds of water may make you fall asleep fast. In addition, harsh sounds may generate nerve impulses with some emotional connection that could wake you up in the middle of the night.

You pay attention to the intensity and color of light in your sleep environment. If you are accustomed to or have acquired the habit of sleeping in a dark environment, then the intensity of light is critical to good sleep. Colors are also important to natural sleep. For example, blue and green colors are generally more relaxing, and thus more sleep promoting than red and yellow colors. Therefore, the use of drapes or shades, and bedroom decor can help you sleep better.

You must learn to relax your body and mind before you can have deep sleep. Tension, both physical and mental, may play havoc with your sleep. The best way to achieve total relaxation is meditation, which is a simple technique involving breathing right and deep concentration. Find a quiet place to sit down with your body erect. Close your eyes, and focus on your breathing, such as your inhalation and exhalation. Unwanted thoughts may come to your mind. Do not deliberately banish these thoughts; instead, focus your attention on your breathing. Let those unwanted thoughts drift in and out, and do not consciously dismiss them from your mind. With practice and persistence, you will learn to take control of your mind. Essentially, meditation focuses on the present moment to the exclusiion of past and future thoughts. In meditation, you give your mind moments of deep rest, and thus eliminating stress in both the body and the mind. Meditation is a simple practice with immense health benefits for the body and the mind. If you wish to sleep well, you have to master the art of sleeping well. -Articlealley

The link that seems to clarify our confusions about sleeping is here:
http://www.yogachicago.com/jan04/ayurveda.shtml

Reco book - September

Big Five personality development in adolescence and adulthood

The present article examines Big Five personality development across adolescence and middle adulthood. Two adolescents and their fathers and mothers from 285 Dutch families rated their own and their family members' personality.

Using accelerated longitudinal growth curve analyses, mean level change in Big Five factors was estimated.

For boys, Extraversion and Openness decreased and for girls, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness increased.

Whereas mothers' Emotional Stability and Conscientiousness increased, fathers' Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Emotional Stability decreased.

Differences in self- and other-reported personality change were found, as well as interindividual differences in personality change.

Results confirm that personality change is possible across the life course but these changes are not similar for all individuals and depend on the type of observer. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.