It’s not Netflix (but it’s not helping).
By John Gray and Tom Burns — Written on Nov 15, 2016
Have you ever heard anyone say, “Boy, I can’t believe I got so much sleep last night! I almost feel too rested”? Chances are, the answer is NO, because lack of sleep and insomnia have both become very serious health problems in the modern world.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 35% of US adults aren’t getting enough sleep, and 1 in 3 US adults admitted to routinely sleeping less than 7 hours in a 24-hour period.
That’s 83 million Americans who aren’t getting anywhere near the recommended 8 hours of sleep a night!
But how can we get more sleep without resorting to medication or giving up caffeine, after-dinner snacks, and everything else that’s fun in the world?
According to this new video from John Gray, best-selling author of Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, the key to better sleep revolves around one important word — RHYTHM.
Men and women don’t have enough rhythm in their lives.
And we’re not talking about salsa dancing — although you probably would sleep well after a strenuous night of tearing up the dance floor at your favorite Cuban restaurant.
In the video, John Gray discusses the various ways that men and women can combat sleep deprivation by restoring rhythm to their lives. He recommends that we all have to find that balance between work and rest that we too often ignore because we just feel too busy.
But, just like on the dance floor, the rhythms of men and women move at completely different paces.
Gray talks about how men need to create their own daily patterns, structured around working hard, resting, and spending time with their families. The rest period is essential because it’s during that timeframe, following hard work, that male bodies build up their reserves of testosterone, which is essential for a good night’s sleep.
For women, Gray argues that their essential rhythms aren’t as structured around work and rest. For women, it’s all about striking the balance between giving and receiving.
Too often, women are encouraged to give and give and give — without the expectation of receiving much help from the world at large. This can potentially be devastating to a woman’s sleep cycle, because they need downtime as much as the men.
To return to the salsa metaphor, in Gray’s opinion, women need to find that sweet spot between leading and following their dance partners. Women, of course, should take charge and excel when they can, but they have to balance that leading with periods where they allow themselves to accept help, wind down, and recharge their batteries.
And, if men and women can both find a way to keep their schedules regular, structured around those peaks of giving and taking, it can defeat insomnia and have a hugely positive impact on the amount of sleep they get every night.
In the video, Gray breaks down the male-female rhythm patterns even more and discusses the role that supplements can also play in regulating your body’s sleep rhythms. You should definitely take a look.
This is such an important aspect of our daily health that shouldn’t be ignored — insufficient sleep has been called one of the major public health crises of the 21st Century, so we all need to be sleeping more!
Hopefully, if you can find your right rhythm, you’ll be getting longer, better nights of sleep, which will give you more time and energy for fun things like salsa dancing (if you can find the right partner).
If you want more information on how men and women can get more fulfilling sleep, you can contact John Gray at his website, MarsVenus.com. He’s there to help!
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