What would you do for a better night sleep?  Especially after a day’s hard work it would be in the fitness of things that we get a good night’s sleep. After all sleep like working, playing an eating is an essential human activity and comes to us most easily. Even a new born baby knows how to sleep from the moment that it is born.

Moreover sleeping at night is part of our physiological make up. The mere absence of daylight is a signal to the body that it is time to wind down everything else and give the mind and bodies some much needed rest. However all is not as well and as simple as it seems. There are those who cannot sleep well and there are those that will not. In the former category I put the involuntary insomniacs-people who want to have better night sleep, but are unable to do so. The latter categories belongs to the voluntary insomniacs who are usually willing insomniacs who sacrifice a few hours of their required sleep everyday in order to work some more towards the achievement of their goals-mostly to do with money and career.

But not sleeping is very unhealthy. To those that sleep less I would pose the question- what would it be like to have a better night sleep? How would it make you feel? Apart from making you feel rejuvenated getting more than six hours of sleep every night significantly lowers the risk of you developing high blood pressure and cholesterol, which could lead to a stroke or a heart attack. Also, lack of sleep causes skin to lose its sheen. The face appears dull and saggy.

Your risk for developing cancer of the breast and colon too goes down by getting a regular quota of 6 to 9 hours of sleep every night. This is because those that stay up late at night have greater exposure to light which in turn leads to a reduction in the level of melatonin in the body-the hormone that makes us sleepy and protects us against cancer. Thus it is important that you have better night sleep.

Getting a good night’s sleep also keeps stress at bay which in turn translates to effective protection against high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke. It also reduces inflammation in the body, a major cause the deterioration of body and ageing. Now that we know that sleeping at night is crucial for our health, what can we do to have better night sleep? Well for one you should have a better sleep environment. Things like sleeping on a comfortable bed, using clean bed linen, ensuring adequate ventilation and insulation from disturbing sounds would go a long way in ensuring that you get a comfortable night’s sleep.

You should also ensure total darkness and silence for better night sleep. As you know by now that light impacts on the human body in a particular way, and even though you may like to sleep with the TV on your sleep quality does suffer because of the sound emanating from it, even though you may be fast asleep.