12招打造完美睡眠.docVIP

12 Paths to Perfect Sleep 原文链接：HYPERLINK /author-ashley-koff-rd-and-kathy-kaehler/2012/08/lifeshelp/get-healthy/12-paths-to-perfect-sleep点击查看 are currently revolutionizing how we think about the value sleep brings to our lives. Cutting-edge science now shows how critical sleep is to our ability to stay focused, to learn new things and remember old things, lose fat and keep excess weight off, and generally lower the risks for a slew of health problems such as heart disease, obesity, and cerebrovascular disease. Seemingly magical events happen when you’re sleeping that just cannot happen during wakeful hours, and which help keep you energized and quick-witted. Sleep keeps you sharp, creative, and able to process information in an instant. Losing as few as one and a half hours for just one night reduces daytime alertness by about a third. It’s a myth that there’s a magic number of hours the body requires to sleep. Everyone has a different sleep need. Most people need seven to nine hours, and chances are you know what your number is. Think of the last time you went on vacation and slept like a baby for more hours a night than usual. That is probably your perfect number. Poor sleep catches up to most of us, and it’s practically impossible to make up a sleep loss because life keeps moving forward and demanding more of us. Not surprisingly, stress and staying up too late are the two big culprits to poor sleep, which is why it’s important to establish what’s called a healthy “sleep hygiene”—the habits that make for a restful night’s sleep regardless of factors such as age and underlying medical conditions. The goal is to minimize those factors’ effects on us so we can welcome peaceful sleep. Here are the 12 paths to a perfect night’s sleep: Get on a schedule. Go to bed and wake up at the same time seven days a week, weekends included. Try not to fall into a cycle of burning the midnight oil on Sunday night in preparation for Monday, letting your sleep debt pile up for th