Alexander Larkess - The Power Of Good Sleep: Improve Your Sleep For a Better Life

THE POWER OF GOOD SLEEP

Improve Your Sleep

For a Better Life

Alexander Larkess

About the Author

Sleep plays a crucial role in the life of every human being, and it heavily affects the quality of our lives. Understanding the mechanisms underlying sleep allows you to improve its quality, and offering people effective tools at no cost to enhance the quality of their lives is the motivation behind the work of the famous neuroscientist and sleep expert Alexander Larkess.

Copyright 2020 by Alexander Larkess

All right reserved

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Table Of Contents

Dedication

To Charlotte, Andrew and Elisabeth

Introduction

What is sleep for you? Is it that thing you do between watching an episode of your favorite show and taking a shower so that you can get ready for your workday? Is it your form of self-soothing, or a favorite hobby that you enjoy partaking in as often as possible? Is it a greatly missed memory from days gone by, interrupted now by a busy schedule and growing demands on your life? Or, is it a reward that you get for reaching all of your goals on a day to day basis?

Each of us sees sleep through our own unique lens of what sleep is, how we enjoy it, and how it affects our lives. And while we may all have our own unique relationship to sleep itself, the truth is that at its very core, sleep is the same thing for each of us. It is a necessary, important process that our body needs to engage in on a day to day basis in order to provide us with adequate energy and optimal health to continue living a healthy life. Sleep is when your body engages in many different functions that cannot be performed during your waking hours, each of which is necessary for your wellbeing. This is why when you get a sound, healthy sleep you wake up feeling rested, refreshed, and excited to go about your day. When you do not get a sound, healthy sleep, however, you wake up feeling groggy, tired, and as though the day ahead will be seemingly impossible. Compounding multiple good periods of sleep, or multiple bad periods of sleep, back to back can drastically transform your wellness, and not just in terms of how you feel. It actually changes the way your body functions, the quality of your immunity, your resiliency toward mental stressors and experiences, and many other things.

With sleep being such an incredibly important element of our wellbeing, it is surprising to learn that more people are not already talking about sleep and why we need to be engaging in proper sleep hygiene practices. Proper sleep hygiene practices, by the way, include practices that you engage in throughout the day, before bed, and while you sleep to ensure that you are getting the highest quality of sleep possible. People who have proper sleep hygiene practices notice it, as it changes their lives in ways that can only be understood by someone who has been engaging in these proper practices. People who do not have proper sleep hygiene practices notice it when they feel exhausted, under the weather with no clear reason as to why, forgetful, and generally unwell and miserable on a day to day basis.

Learning how to improve the quality of your sleep hygiene is not just about putting yourself in a better mood so that you do not snap at your family members over breakfast or find yourself too exhausted to hang out with loved ones after work. This is about learning how to take proper care of yourself so that you can improve your health exponentially, providing you with a higher quality of life. The proper way to perceive the importance of sleep is to recognize it as being equally as important as nutrition, exercise, and bodily hygiene practices. As with each of those, sleep also has necessary things that should be done to improve your sleep diet, effectively giving you the best quality of sleep possible.

In The Power Of Good Sleep , we are going to dive deep into why sleep is an essential wellness practice, what you gain when you get a good nights sleep, how to get a good nights sleep, and how to continue improving the quality of your sleep in the long run. At first, making these changes may seem challenging, or even a little pointless. As you begin to realize the importance of sleep, however, and as you recognize the tangible impact that a good nights sleep has on your wellbeing, you will begin to realize why this guide and everything within it is so important.

If you are ready to transform your sleep, your mood, and your health, you have come to the right place. Please, grab yourself a nice warm mug of chamomile tea and cozy up to read this excellent, life-changing title, and lets begin!

Chapter 1

Why It Is Important To Sleep (Well)

If you are diving into this book and your initial thought is something to the effect of: But I am already sleeping every day, why isnt it enough? Why do I still feel this way? then you are not that different from others who are still learning about the importance of sleep and proper sleep practices. Many times, people are aware of the fact that there is something wrong with their rest because they feel a general sense of unwellness and tiredness on a day to day basis. They may not realize, however, why they are feeling this way or what they are doing that is contributing to them not being able to get a proper sleep. Even if you attempt to go to sleep earlier or cut your caffeine out sooner, you may have an overwhelming feeling that this is not enough and that you are still not getting the amount of rest that you actually need.

The reality is, there are many different things that can contribute to, or take away from, the quality of your sleep. In order for you to find the optimal sleeping pattern for your needs, you are going to need to develop a more intimate understanding of what happens in your body while you sleep, and how different activities affect these processes. Before we can dig into that, though, I want to address one very important question that you might have: Why should I take this seriously?

Upon stumbling into this book, you may have come under the impression that you would simply make a few adjustments to your schedule or your bedtime routine and then be on your merry way with a better sleep and a better sense of wellbeing overall. While you could technically walk away from this having only experienced that takeaway if you want to, I suggest going much deeper into the process of respecting and caring for your sleep cycles. After all, they are incredibly important and they have a much bigger impact on your overall wellbeing than you likely think.