October 13th, 2007 by Phil

Sleep deprivation is generally the cause of sleep disorders such as apnea, narcolepsy and insomnia. Sleep deprivation affects millions of people around the world and is the lack of sleep which is crucial for restoration and rejuvenation.

Contrary to what people think, insomnia is not defined by the number of hours a person sleeps. As we get older, we tend to need less sleep. Babies might need between 10 to 14 hours a night and children between 9 to 12 hours sleep. Sleep is important for growth as well as for restoring muscular energy.

The optimum amount of sleep for most adults is around 7 to 8 hours a night. Although as I said it really does differ from person to person, some people may need as few as 4 hours, or as many as 10 hours of sleep per night.

If you feel refreshed during the day and not sleepy until bedtime, then obviously you’re getting enough sleep. The amount of sleep required varies from person to person and depends on a number possible of factors including, age, genetic make-up, the amount of exercise you get, what you do during the day, the quality of your sleep and whether you are still growing.

5 hours of deep quality sleep is far better than 12 hour of broken sleep. It’s important to note that it’s the quality of sleep obtained at night and not just the quantity that determines how you feel the next day. There are various stages of sleep and it’s in the deeper stages that the body is able to restore.

Lack of sleep generally causes daytime tiredness, lethargy, aching muscles, blurred vision, headaches, nausea, irritability and frequent yawning. Although sleep deprivation is not life threatening it can adversely affect brain functioning. You may find that your ability to concentrate or carry out tasks more problematic.

You may find that after a good night’s sleep that you feel refreshed and energized. Sleep enables you to restore and rejuvenate many functions of the mind and body. Without sleep your immune system may weaken leaving you susceptible to illnesses. Sleep is essential for the release of growth hormones for proper physical and mental development.

Sleep studies have found that sleep deprivation can have the similar affects to those of excessive alcohol. Thousands of accidents a year occur due to falling asleep or loss of concentration, mainly while driving or operating dangerous machinery. Its total cost, in terms of illness, injuries, and decreased quality of life is staggering. A constant lack of sleep severely affects quality of life and can often lead to mental disorders such as anxiety and depression.

Sleep deprivation affects all ages including students in high school. In act in a recent study it was revealed that 1 in 4 students admitted to falling asleep in class. Most schools start early which prevents students getting enough sleep. Forced sleep deprivation over a long period can lead to insomnia. Fortunately in many school districts, opening school times have been delayed to give students more time to sleep.

However this doesn’t prevent the fact that people are working longer hours than ever and with electricity, the average amount of sleep a night has decreased dramatically.

With sleep deprivation becoming an increasingly growing problem and insomnia affecting a third of all adults, more needs to be done to counteract this problem. People need to be made aware of the seriousness of sleep deprivation and more importantly how to deal with it.

October 9th, 2007 by Phil

I was about to write a post on how to apply EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique). But as it’s a physical technique which requires explanation of the various tapping points on the body’s meridian system, I thought it would be difficult to explain with just words. I found this great video which gives a simplified version of the technique. Use this to combat stress anytime. If you want to know more about how you can apply EFT, as well as several other powerful techniques to beat insomnia, visit How to beat insomnia

Here’s the video for the stress busting technique:

October 6th, 2007 by Phil

Do we have control over stress? Some people wake up and feel that they are not in control of their thoughts and emotions, and they might wake up in a bad mood, with negative thoughts about themselves and the rest of their day. We’ve all experienced a bad day where nothing seems to go right.

What we all need to realize is that we do have control of our thoughts and emotions. In a relatively short space of time you can learn to handle stress and control your emotions. It’s important that we deal with stress as it can have detrimental effects on our physical and mental health.

Stress is an overproduction of adrenalin and other hormones, when these hormones are not expelled quick enough, we may experience a spike. In the short term this can affect our mental and physical state of being. We may feel upset, angry or hurt. Physically we may feel tense, irritable and on edge.

In the long run, too much stress will have a far greater impact than just a headache. Too much stress increases your chances of heart disease, stroke, heart attacks and psychological disorders. What’s more, stress is a major factor in causing sleep disorders.

So what can we do to reduce stress?

Here are some ideas you can try when you feel stressed:

In the next few post, I will show you how you can deal with stress using a simple yet highly proven and effective technique. In the meantime, take it easy on the cushion.

October 3rd, 2007 by Phil

I hope you enjoyed ‘The Secret’ video I posted a week ago. If you’re interested in how you can achieve your goals and desires, I recommend reading Ask and it is Given by Esther and Jerry Hicks.

Some people may think that the Law of Attraction is just a bunch of mumbo jumbo and that it’s impossible to achieve a desire by merely focusing on it. However, this is how I interpret it: I focus on a desire, say for example a beautiful home overlooking a beach. If I was to merely focus on the desire and just ‘hope’ it comes someday…I wouldn’t be confident in the slightest it would manifest.

However a true desire, is like an itch, it is not a throw away comment such as ‘I want to be rich someday’. Someday; a goal without a timeframe is not a goal. A true desire is an itch you want to scratch; it niggles at the back of your mind everyday and motivates you to work towards it, to take action and to achieve your goal.

This is how I see the Law of Attraction working. It’s all about taking action! If you have a big goal – break it down into smaller goals. Let’s start small; I want a glass of orange juice – I go to the supermarket, buy a carton of orange juice, go home and pour myself a glass and drink.

The glass of orange juice isn’t going to just materialize on my table is it? I have to take action and take small steps and achieve the smaller goals to reach the greater goal or desire.

I often visualize my desires and play them over in my head, because it puts me in a positive frame of mind and motivates me, thus helping me to achieve my goals. I truly believe it opens doors and creates new paths and opportunities to attain my desires.

Try visualizing yourself living in abundance, living without insomnia or achieving your desires.

October 2nd, 2007 by Phil

Most of my friends like me have projects outside of work, whether it is hobby related, voluntary work or personal projects. It’s so easy to get distracted and motivated especially when the last thing you want to do is more work after your regular day job.

What I’ve learned is that motivation is a habit. The more you do something, the more it becomes a habit. It’s hard to get the wheels turning initially, however once they begin moving, you just need to keep on it.

The key for me is discipline. It’s easy to be focused initially, with all the excitement of starting a project, however most people lose steam or give up from lack of results.

I used to make excuses, like ‘I’m so busy’ and ‘I don’t have time’ but now after living and working in Japan as a teacher, I feel ashamed of those thoughts.

Students in Junior High School are incredibly dedicated and hardworking. For example, one of my students is a member of the Student Council and he goes to the swimming club 5 days a week after school. He then goes to cram classes after, often getting home around 8 o’clock!!

When he gets home he has to start his homework. Bedtime is around 12am! Most students get to school by 7.30am in the morning for club activities!

On the weekend he has karate lessons and private English lessons. The guy is unstoppable!!! On top of that he is highly enthusiastic and motivated in everything he does.

I get pretty exhausted after work and then more work, teaching private English lessons in the evening and then my personal projects such as writing. However when I compare myself to my students, I’ve got it easy! So you see, I never complain of having no time and being too busy anymore.

My tip is to be disciplined and devote time to your projects everyday. I’ve made it a habit to do more after work, not just sit around watching TV (as much as I love lounging about!).

What I’ve found is, as I do more and continue to do more, the more it becomes a habit and the more I achieve.

I like this motto from a famous baseball player in Japan called Hideki Matsui:

 “If I change my mind, my behavior will be changed.

If my behavior is changed, my habit will be changed.

If my habit is changed, my character will be changed.

If my character is changed, my destiny will be changed.”

September 30th, 2007 by Phil

Did you know that the combined sales, of the top pharmaceutical companies in 2004 amounted to 550 Billion dollars? Just to reiterate, that’s Billion, not million in sales. Unfortunately a large proportion of their profits go into advertising campaigns rather than research. Unaware that these corporations are profit and success driven, we become susceptible to their advertising campaigns selling the dream of a perfect life.

As most of their profits come from prescription drugs, their campaigns have taken a strategic shift to maximize profits. One way they have done this is by targeting doctors. They even suggest that you go ‘Ask you doctor about …X drug’ in their advertisements. Considering that the average American spends three and three-quarter hours in front of the television a day, it’s unlikely that we have not been exposed to their advertising efforts.

Did you know that there an estimated 100,000 deaths in the US each year from adverse drug reactions? Unfortunately we never get shown or told the uglier side in these advertisements. Instead we are subjected to false hopes of a perfect and healthy life. Well it’s good to know that these big pharmaceutical companies aren’t just in it for the money and really have our health and well being in mind (sarcasm). So before you go rushing out to ‘Ask Your Doctor’ about the next life changing pill, watch this video:

September 30th, 2007 by Phil

You think with all these top scientists and advance technology that someone could beat insomnia with a magic pill. But what you need to understand is that insomnia is not a disease or a virus, it’s not a cancer that can be surgically removed or treated with kemo-therapy and it’s not a headache or a cough that can be bettered with a little medication.

Like with depression and anxiety disorders it needs to be treated in the mind. Although mental disorders tend to manifest physical symptoms, the source is in the brain. But like breathing, the mind already knows how to sleep. It’s the sub-conscious that is the key to unlocking your ability to sleep, that’s the ‘sleep in a bottle’.

Our ability to naturally fall asleep has developed over thousands of years, it’s been ingrained into our DNA. It’s our conscious mind that has hindered and counteracted our ability to sleep. Even if you have suffered from insomnia for years, there is hope and it can be overcome.

Relying on sleeping pills to fall asleep will only make conquering insomnia even more difficult in the long term. Insomnia sufferers often turn first to sleeping pills for a quick fix solution, to help them fall asleep. Sleeping pills may seem to help the problem at first, but they do not treat the underlying cause of insomnia and often lose effectiveness over the long term.

Many insomniacs who depend on sleeping pills become chronic users and will often change from one brand of sleeping pills to another as they begin to lose their effectiveness. Another danger is that many sufferers will increase their dosage without seeking professional medical advice. It has been estimated that there are over 1000 deaths a year due to overdosing on sleeping pills alone.

September 27th, 2007 by Phil

I don’t think there’s an awful lot I need to say other than what’s already in the title. If you’re serious about getting your life together and you want to know how to acquire all that you desire, then watch this video. Millions have watched this video and it has undoubtedly opened up people’s eyes, to what is achievable with the power of thought.

I thought I’d post this a) because I’ve watched it and loved it (I have it on DVD) and b) I’ve been searching for ages to find a free video available online and I wanted to share it with you. Oh, by the way there are Hebrew subtitles but they’re barely noticeable -sorry!)

Enjoy!

***This video has now been removed by Google video***

September 25th, 2007 by Phil

Want to know how to sleep better at night?

If you suffer from insomnia, you’ll be glad to know that there are effective solutions to help you regain a normal sleeping pattern. Insomnia doesn’t develop overnight, rather it’s a learned negative habit.

Just as you’ve learned these negative habits that prevent you from getting any sleep, you can learn positive ones to counteract your old habits. Sometimes sleeplessness can be triggered by a traumatic event such as a death in the family or troubling times.

More frequently, insomnia is the result of normal daily life; work, relationships and family life can all be factors in its cause. We live in a profit and success driven world where heart attacks, strokes and depression are becoming common place. Stress is an accepted part of our daily lives and yet it is one of the most destructive factors to our mental and physical health.

We often undermine its negative effects and ignore the body’s signal of excessive stress. In fact, even a little stress a day is bad for you. When we experience it in huge doses, you may experience headaches, tension, palpitations, blurred vision and irritability.

Too much stress can weaken the immune system and lead to psychosomatic illnesses, depression, anxiety disorders, heart attacks and strokes. This is why it is absolutely vital to deal with stress. The most effective and healthy way to combat stress is to deal with it before it emerges, so that it can be expelled quickly.

How is this done? There are too highly effective and powerful techniques you can try; EFT which stands for Emotional Freedom Technique, and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). Through these techniques you can learn to counteract stress before it unleashes its devastating effects on the mind and body.

Sleep is an integral part of life. It’s vital for restoration and growth and essential for health. It’s important to remember that the sleep process doesn’t begin as soon as you rest your head. The day reflects into the night. You cannot expect to rush around all day, with thoughts of worry, stress on your mind and expect to fall asleep soundly if you suffer from insomnia.

So pay attention to your day, deal with stress effectively. A life without stress is a happy and healthy life. Without stress sleep will come more easily.

If you enjoyed this article on how to sleep better, stay tuned for more!

September 22nd, 2007 by Phil

Learn hypnosis, EFT and NLP and much more. You can beat insomnia and attain deep refreshing sleep every night. Please watch the following video or visit How to Beat Insomnia

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