Jumpstart Your Dream Life

Drinks, Drugs, and Dinners: How Diet Affects Your Sleep

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It’s that dreaded time again.

Not when you have to get out of bed. Not when you have to step into a meeting. It’s when the clock strikes, signaling time for you to sleep.

As you crawl into bed, you wonder if things will be different. Will you shut your eyes and finally fall into slumber? Or will you once again stare at the ceiling, waiting until you drift asleep? If it’s the latter, you’re likely to end up exhausted the next morning, even though you went to bed early.

There are numerous reasons why we have difficulty falling asleep. Sometimes, it’s psychological. Other times, it’s due to the stresses that life cruelly throws at us. But what about our dietary habits?

We carefully plan out our diets to energize ourselves, trim our figures, and improve our overall health. Yet, the substances we ingest take a secondary role when it comes to sleep.

Here are four dietary factors that might be affecting your sleep:

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The Only 5 Things You Need In Order to Live a Good Life

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“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” — Confucius

Overload has become the norm.

Every single day, we’re barraged with copious amounts of information. We’re told how we should spend our time, what we should eat, and where we should go. While we search endlessly for the answer, we usually end up where we began: in a bottomless well.

When you add in factors such as the rise of automated technology, increasing choices, and the pressure to keep up, is it any wonder that we feel swallowed up in everything?

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Are You Stuck in a Rut? Here Are the Signs.

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Sometimes it’s hard to notice when we’re stuck in a rut. You could go through the dull, numbing pain of everyday activities and not feel any desire to change anything. After all, as humans we have the amazing ability to adapt and cope with nearly any situation.

The downside though, is that we get used to things that make us unhappy. Ideas or places we used to resist eventually become the same things we cling onto, not out of need or want, but out of familiarity.

Here are some signs that you may be in a rut.

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How Late Should You Be Drinking Your Daily Coffee?

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Imagine it’s a Monday morning. You wake up to the beeping of your alarm and slowly open your eyes. After lying in bed for a few more minutes, you slowly get up and rub your eyes.

Groggy and bleary-eyed, you get dressed and prepare yourself for another start of the week. You glance at the clock and realize that you’re running late, so you leave for the office ASAP.

When you arrive, you turn on the computer and put down your things before heading to the kitchen. Now, here’s a question: what drink do you make for yourself?

If you chose coffee, well, you’re in good company.

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Are Books Superior to TV? How They Affect Our Minds in Different Ways

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There’s a perception that books are good, while TV is bad. Spend a day curled up with a book and you’re an intellectual, but spend a day watching your favorite show and you become a couch potato.

Similar to how candy gives you cavities and sun tanning is bad for our skin, it’s common knowledge that reading books is good for you. It increases your knowledge and makes you think. Watching television on the other hand kills off brain cells.

But why is that? Why can’t watching TV be just as educational as reading a book? For example, does watching the show Game of Thrones lower your intelligence, while reading the books does the exact opposite?

After all, there are all sorts of books. Some good, some poorly written. The same applies to shows as well. Is the situation as simple as categorizing books as good and TV as bad?

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Energy Surplus vs. Deficit: Treat Your Health Like a Bank Account

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These days, working long hours is seen as a badge of honor. Having little time to relax has become a source of pride that people frequently refer to when discussing work. You might hear about a hospital worker enduring 36-hour shifts, start-ups that use all-nighters to get ahead, or a company employee who burns the midnight oil to stay competitive.

“I’ll sleep when I’m dead,” seems to be the popular rallying cry of today.

A lot of the remedies we use to counteract low energy are immediate and have a short-term effect. For instance, a grueling week’s work is remedied by downing energy drinks to stay afloat. A grumbling stomach is fixed by ordering a cheesy pizza dinner.

These are quick methods that keep us going through long hours. The problem is, they aren’t sustainable in the long run. It’s like treating a wound with a band-aid: it’s fine for now, but something’s got to be done about it sooner or later.

Enter the Concept of Energy Surplus vs. Deficit

Think of your energy levels like a bank account. A healthy account has a sufficient amount of funds, where more money is deposited than taken out. Run your account into the negatives, however, and you face penalties that drain your account even more. Too many lapses in payments and your account can shut down completely. [Read more…]

How to Fall Asleep Within Minutes

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How would you feel after a restless night?

How about two nights? Or 10 nights in a row?

On December 28, 1963, Randy Gardner, with the help of two classmates, went on a mission to find out how his body would respond if he stayed awake until January 8, 1964, making a total of 264 hours (or 11 days).

To begin, he woke up bright and early at 6 am, alert and energized. But by the second day, he had trouble focusing on his surroundings and recognizing objects given to him. By the third day, Gardner became grouchy and his speech began to slur. The day afterward, he imagined himself to be a Paul Lowe, a 200-pound football player, while he was barely 120 pounds.

The experiment was originally meant for a high school science fair, but news spread to Stanford researcher William Dent, who flew down to San Diego to get involved[1].

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How to Breathe to Reduce Stress and Anxiety – A Step-by-Step Guide

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I know what you’re thinking. “Breathe? I know how to breathe.”

It’s so easy, even a fish can do it.

photo credit: Nemo

photo credit: Nemo

And you would be right. But there’s a right way to breathe and a few ways you might be breathing ineffectively. Chances are, you might not be breathing properly.

Over time, you breathe a certain way. It can either be by inhaling too much air, taking shallow breaths, or unknowingly holding your breath. The way you breathe eventually becomes something you do as a habit.

Is the way you breathe just getting you by, or are you breathing in a way that optimizes how you work and perform?

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