Sleep Yourself Younger in Eight Easy Steps

Sleep is the 6^th Pillar of Youngevity. Deep in our DNA we're programmed to respond to cues of light and darkness that--- when properly understood and acted upon--- can add years to your life and significantly improve your health. Here are eight suggestions for better sleep from The 7 Pillars of Youngevity (now just $129 $99)

Go to bed an hour early. You really can't change your sleep habits by staying in bed later in the morning. It works much better if you actually go to bed an hour earlier.

Try taking a nap. Many famous figures in history- Winston Churchill among them- found naps very refreshing and very rejuvenating. You might, too.

Try melatonin. It's a terrific supplement and it's not just for jet lag. I talk about it both in my book, The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth, and also in The 150 Most Effective Ways to Boost Your Energy. It may help you fall asleep and it seems to have other health benefits as well.

Exercise early. If you exercise late at night it keeps you up. If you exercise earlier in the day it's much more likely to get you back on that track of the natural rhythm of activity and rest I talk about in The Seven Pillars of Youngevity.

Cut back on caffeine. That sounds like a no-brainer. I'm not anti-coffee at all but let's remember that it stays in your system a lot longer than you might think it does. Cut it out after 4:00 PM. Have the coffee that you want to have, but stop drinking it around 4:00 PM. It makes a big difference in your ability to sleep.

Set your internal clock. Get on a schedule. A lot of people don't like schedules, but your body actually disagrees with you. It actually loves that regularity. Try going to bed and waking up at the same time each day, even on the weekends. Sticking to a sleep schedule, preferably one that actually allows you eight hours of sleep, seven to nine hours of sleep, will get you back in the rhythm of your internal clock and make a huge difference in your daytime energy.

Turn off the TV. Have you ever fallen asleep with the TV on? All of a sudden you've got dreams of infomercials and thigh masters and they're mixing in with your sleep because your half-hearing them. You absorb that stuff. You hear that stuff. That interrupts your sleeping. It interferes with REM sleep. It creates dreams that are disruptive and unpleasant. You really don't need that as a sound track to your life. Get the TV out of the bedroom, as a matter of fact. It will help your sex life, too. That's a promise.

Don't make the bedroom a second office. You're not Hugh Hefner. Your bedroom isn't your office. It just doesn't work that way. You don't need a computer in there. You don't need a Blackberry. You really don't need a TV. Try to make the environment more conducive to the real purpose of the bedroom; sleep, lovemaking, but definitely not working. The bedroom should not be a place to worry.

The Seven Pillars of Youngevity reveals a lot more about the nature of sleep and its relationship to long life.

It includes 6 fantastic Free gifts (like Free Shipping) and I've recently slashed $30 off the price!

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Undersleeping Increases the Risk for Heart Disease

According to a new report in the Nov 10 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, getting too little sleep may be associated with a future risk for heart disease. In the present study, the magic number was 7 1/2 hours a night.

A combination of little sleep and overnight elevated blood pressure increases the risk even more.

We already know from previous studies that sleeping too little increases the risk for obesity. Undersleeping also raises stress hormones, and plays overall havoc with your general health.

In the new study, researchers at the Jichi Medical University in Japan monitored sleep in over 1200 individuals with high blood pressure, and followed them for a little over 4 years. The researchers took note of how long the participants slept each night, monitored their daytime and nighttime blood pressure and, of course, kept track of cardiovascular disease events like stroke, heart attack and sudden death.

During the follow-up period, 99 cardiovascular disease events occurred. And it occurred at a significantly higher rate among the folks who were sleeping less than 7.5 hours a night.

Now granted, the actual number of people affected was small- but it's still worth mentioning because of the many other problems we know about that relate to not getting enough shut-eye. I don't know that it has to be 7.5 hours exactly, but I do know that the 4-5 hours some of us are getting just ain't cutting it.

In my soon-to-be-released DVD program "The Seven Pillars of Youngevity" I discuss sleep at length, largely because it's one of the pillars of good health and long life.

Consider this: A lot of what we know about healthy diet comes from looking at what our primitive, caveman ancestors ate before the advent of processed food and food products. Those Paleolithic ancestors of ours ate food from what I call the "Jonny Bowden Four Food Groups": food you could hunt, fish, gather or pluck. Maybe Paleolithic man has something to teach us about sleep as well. After all, the cavemen hit the sack at sundown, and woke up at sunrise. Their sleep habits were nicely in tune with the universe's rhythm.

The best diets mimic the Paleolithic diet. Maybe we should try to emulate our Paleolithic ancestors in the area of sleep as well!