Blog #3 Preventative Practices

When I think about my health, a lot of times I only use certain categories to rate it. I often overlook the amount of sleep I get, the way I handle stress, and the social wellbeing aspect. The healthy idea planted into my brain is, are you eating the right amount of fruits and vegetables, are you drinking enough water, are you exercising, and  lastly do you smoke or drink. I tend to focus primarily on the physical wellbeing of myself, and often overlook the social, mental,and spiritual aspects. When I rated myself, I found that I am not 10 out of 10 which makes me wonder how I could miss such important factors in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Now that I have seen that I am missing some very important health practices, I need to make a change. 

I know that if I could get 1-2 more hours of sleep, I would feel so much better throughout the day. But by the time 10:00 PM rolls around, I cant seem to settle down. I feel this sense of stress that I need to study for an hour or two longer or that I could use that time to clean or catch up work. I realize now that this is effecting the way I study and do my work throughout the day because I am so tired sometimes. I try to stay up to accomplish more, but I end up accomplishing less because I cannot focus on anything throughout the day except for my really soft, warm, wonderful bed. So to better my health, I am going to implement a new schedule. I will write down a two week look ahead so that I can see what needs to be done everyday and how much time I will need to devote to those things. Then I can plan on setting a strict bedtime, reverting back to the days when I was 5, and sticking to it for two weeks. If I feel better, I can stick with it. However if I do not feel better, I can adjust it to meet a good 7-8 hour sleep schedule. It can help fight disease, help with mood 

I really feel that most people overlook how important sleep is. It's the time our bodies can rest and reload for the next day. I often put this health factor last and when I really think about it, I should be considering sleep as my number health factor. With out it, you really cannot  function to your best. Maybe a few days out of the week will be okay but after that it starts to catch up to you. Harvard health Publications posted something very important about six reasons why getting enough sleep in crucial. It helps for memory consolidation, metabolism, mood and concentration, and overall physical health and immune function.Therefore, I am making a better effort to make this my number one priority and will hopefully see the improvement in the other areas of my life. 

Importance of sleep : six reasons not to scrimp on sleep. (n.d.) Retrieved from

   http://www.health.harvard.edu/press_releases/importance_of_sleep_and_health

Regards,

Sara Abbasi