A Great Anti Aging Technique: Get Enough Sleep!

If you're like most Americans, chances are you don't get enough sleep at night. However, this is one of the most important things to incorporate into your day if you want to slow down the aging process. Of course, aging will occur anyway, but there's no doubt that you will have both a longer and healthier life if you get enough sleep. If you do, you'll both look and feel better. If you don't, there's not much doubt that whatever else you do to slow down the aging process is not only going to be less effective, but may be entirely negated altogether.

Why Do We Need Sleep?

Sleep both heals and restores. As you sleep, your body uses energy and resources that would normally be given to more active waking hours to repair your body. When you sleep, cells regenerate, your immune system is restored, and other healing activities take place as you rest. So, if you want to slow down the aging process, make sure you get enough sleep.

What Is Enough Sleep?

For most people, eight hours of sleep is required every night. You may require more or less based upon your lifestyle and needs, since each person is different. To find out whether you're getting enough, first of all, are you constantly tired? To test yourself, pick a day when you don't have to get up to go to work or do another activity. Sleep simply until you wake up without use of an alarm clock, or by the dog needing to go out for a walk, etc. If you wake up at about the same time you get up every morning, without an alarm clock or other artificial means, then you probably get enough sleep. However, if you need an alarm clock or other artificial means to wake yourself up, then you probably aren't getting enough sleep.

Second, the quality of your sleep is also important. So to improve it and to make sure it becomes as important a part of your routine as any other, consider the following:

· Although it's fine to have a snack of between 100 and 150 calories an hour and half to two hours before bed, don't eat more than that and don't eat any later than two hours before bed. This is because your body will then need to work on the digestion of your food, leaving you uncomfortable; it might even give you indigestion. It also makes you more likely to gain weight, since your body's metabolism is lower when you sleep than at any other time during waking hours.
· If going to sleep in complete silence and darkness unnerves you, try using a soothing tapes, music, "white noise" or other sound distractions to help you sleep. Meditating an hour before bed can also help relax you.
· Instead of watching television before bed, listen to quiet music, or do some meditation or quiet activity. Television can make you excitable and make it harder for you to go to sleep.

Simply put, sleep is probably the best antiaging tool out there, along with good nutrition and exercise. Try getting enough sleep and see what it can do for you. You'll both look and feel better.