How Binge-watching TV Affects Your Sleep

You already know that watching television too much leads to a sedentary lifestyle that will cause you to gain weight and lose muscle tone. However, binge-watching television can also affect your sleep patterns along with the quality of your sleep. Here is how watching too much television before bedtime alters your sleeping patterns.

Watching Television Changes the Levels Of Your Hormones

Many of your body’s hormones are regulated by light, and a television screen emits a lot of light. While you might close the draperies or turn off the lamps in your bedroom, when you are watching television, your body still responds to the light from its screen by reducing the amount of melatonin released from your glands. Melatonin is the primary hormone that helps you to feel sleepier along with ensuring that you sleep throughout the night. If there is a lot of light in a room, then your body won’t release melatonin, making it difficult to sleep. 

Your Brain Thinks That It Is Still Daytime

If you have ever worked a job late at night, then you probably had to sleep during the day. Adjusting to daytime sleeping is difficult, but experts recommend making your bedroom as dark as possible along with following the same type of bedtime routine. However, if you stay up late into the evening watching television, then your brain thinks that it is still the daytime because of the bright lights from the television screen. Avoid watching too much television, and also, keep your television in the living room instead. 

Electronic Devices Make a Bedroom Hotter 

When you have a television in a bedroom, it can emit a lot of heat, making the area hotter. Trying to sleep in a hot environment can make you feel restless, causing you to wake up frequently. In addition to turning off the television in your home, you should turn off the lamps in a bedroom to create a cooler environment. If you have a television in your bedroom in the summer, then when you have it turned on for several hours, it can lead to a bedroom that is sweltering. 

Television Programs Can Stimulate the Brain’s Imagination 

If you watch certain types of programs before going to sleep, then the images remain in your mind, making it difficult to become calmer. You may have noticed this problem with your children because they will often have nightmares after watching a scary movie on television. While you are sleeping, your subconscious mind is also affected by what you see in television programs. 

Your Circadian Rhythms Can Change From Watching Too Much Television 

Your body has a natural circadian rhythm that typically operates on a 24-hour schedule of daytime activities and sleeping at night. When you must work a nighttime shift on a regular basis, your body adjusts to this new schedule gradually. If you alter your sleeping schedule, then it can disrupt your body’s natural circadian rhythms. Having bright light and noise in your bedroom before it is time for you to sleep can alter your body’s normal circadian rhythms. 

 

The Powers Of Vitamin D

How Can You Increase Your Body’s Vitamin D Levels? 

Today, researchers are learning more about the powers of vitamin D. This nutrient is found in several foods, and when you are exposed to sunlight, your body also manufactures vitamin D. Some of the foods that contain vitamin D include:

• Egg yolks
• Cheese
• Beef liver
• Fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel and tuna

In addition to eating these foods, you should go outside frequently to expose your skin to sunlight. It is nearly impossible for you to get enough vitamin D naturally, so many physicians recommend taking dietary supplements. If you live in an area of the world where there isn’t enough daily sunlight, then taking vitamin D tablets or capsules is imperative. 

Seven Ways That Vitamin D Can Improve Your Well-being

1: Keeping Your Teeth, Bones and Muscles Stronger

Vitamin D is essential for the health of your teeth and bones because it regulates the absorption of phosphorous and calcium. When a child doesn’t ingest enough vitamin D, she will develop rickets, leading to softer bones. The symptoms of vitamin D deficiency include having pain in the bones of the spine, pelvis, legs and arms. In addition, you will have poor muscle strength and delayed tooth formation. 

2: Controlling Blood Sugar When You Have Diabetes Mellitus 

By increasing your body’s vitamin D levels, you can have more insulin resistance to avoid developing diabetes mellitus. If you are already diabetic, then talk to your physician about taking vitamin D dietary supplements. 

3: Preventing Certain Types of Cancer

If you have more vitamin D in your bloodstream, then you are less likely to develop colorectal cancer. Colorectal cancer primarily affects adults over the age of 50. Most colorectal cancer begins with polyps in the bowel that become cancerous. 

4: Protecting You From Heart Disease

New research indicates that if you have a vitamin D deficiency, then you are more likely to have heart disease or other cardiovascular conditions. Some of the conditions that you might develop from lack of vitamin D include high blood pressure or peripheral artery disease. 

5: Boosting Your Immune System

It is important to have more vitamin D to boost your immune system. Scientific studies show that your body produces over 200 peptides to fight against the microbes that can make you ill when you have a high level of vitamin D in your bloodstream. 

6: Improving Your Overall Mood

If you don’t have enough vitamin D in your body, then you can become depressed. If you are feeling sad, then go outside to have more exposure to sunlight or buy a specialized lamp that creates simulated sunlight. In addition, consume more foods that contain vitamin D or take vitamin D supplements. 

7: Preventing Alzheimer’s Disease

When you have Alzheimer’s disease, you may also have low levels of vitamin D in your blood. You can increase your body’s vitamin D levels by spending more time outside in the sunlight or taking a dietary supplement to maintain your brain’s cognitive functions. 

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How Meditation Can Help Self-doubt and Boost Your Confidence

What Is Meditation and Anxiety? 

Thousands of individuals practice meditation each day to clear their minds in order to relieve stress or to reach a higher state of consciousness. There are several ways to perform meditation, and it provides additional benefits, including reducing self-doubt and increasing confidence levels. Self-doubt is damaging because it makes you worry about your abilities and actions, leading to doing nothing so that you won’t make any type of mistake. If you have self-doubt, then you may develop extreme anxiety, making it impossible to do anything. Anxiety can become a debilitating condition that causes physical symptoms that include: 

• Headaches
• Nausea
• High blood pressure
• Perspiration
• Inability to mentally focus 

Reasons For Lacking Self-confidence 

There are several reasons why you may begin to doubt yourself, including losing a job or going through a divorce. When a traumatic event occurs in your life, you might begin to question your choices that led to the event. If you get stuck in feeling doubtful about your actions or abilities, then your self-confidence is eroded, making it difficult to try anything new. When you stop trying to do anything, you will become more doubtful about your abilities. 

How To Meditate To Increase Confidence Levels 

Fortunately, it is easy to meditate at home, work or any other location to reduce your self-doubt. Some individuals find it easy to meditate while others must practice to clear their minds. With meditation, it is possible to stop your obsessive negative thinking. If you find it difficult to meditate with other people, then you need to find a special place such as a quiet corner of your bedroom. You may need to close your eyes to meditate, or you might gaze at an object that makes you feel calmer. Meditation focusing objects can include a statue or flower. In addition, you might relax more by listening to certain types of music, and you can create a soothing ambience with burning scented candles. 

Ways That Meditation Reduces Self-doubt 

Meditation can reduce your self-doubt and improve your confidence in a variety of ways, including:

• Stopping your compulsive negative thinking
• Keeping you from caring about the criticism from others 
• Helping you create future positive goals
• Trusting your own intuition
• Making you more creative
• Ensuring that you live in the moment

Meditating To Boost Your Self-confidence

Scientific neurological research reveals that your brain waves and body chemistry change during meditation. An important aspect of meditative practices is thinking positive affirmations. If you suffer from self-doubt, then you may find it difficult to remember the great things about yourself, making it impossible to boost your confidence levels. However, meditation helps to clear away your negative thoughts so that positive thinking can begin. When you begin to have positive thoughts, your mood will change, helping to reduce your self-doubt. Here are a few ways to begin meditating on a daily basis:

• Sit in a comfortable chair 
• Close your eyes 
• Listen to relaxing music
• Focus on your breathing 
• Have a mantra to help you focus mentally
• Begin with short sessions

If you are having problems relaxing before meditating, then you can enjoy a hot bath, yoga session or gentle massage first. With regular practice, meditation will increase your mindfulness to increase your self-confidence levels. If you are feeling unemotional constantly due to self-doubt, then meditating may help you to release difficult emotions so that you can overcome a traumatic experience in order to boost your confidence. 

How Much Caffeine Is Safe?

Studies consistently find that healthy adults with no medical issues can safely consume up to 400 mg of caffeine daily. The standard recommendation is to limit pregnant women to 300 mg daily and children to just 2.5 mg. 

You can hit that figure in anywhere from one to 12 drinks, depending upon what you are consuming. Some examples of 400 mg of caffeine include:

• 1 Starbucks Venti brewed coffee
• 2 Shots of 5-Hour Energy
• 2.5 Monster Energy Drinks (16 fl.oz. each)
• 5 Red Bulls (8 fl.oz. each)
• 5.2 Shots of espresso
• 11.7 Servings of Coca Cola (12 fl.oz. each)

The average daily consumption of caffeine is 165 mg. Most of that comes from coffee. Most people get about 105 mg of caffeine from coffee. Brewed coffee contains between 95 and 165 mg of caffeine per 8 ounce cup, so this is about one cup of coffee.

On the up side, the study suggested that drinking an extra 2 cups of coffee a day can reduce the risk of cirrhosis of the liver by 44 percent. This type of liver damage is associated with eating too much and drinking too much alcohol. 

On the down side, caffeine consumption has also been linked to heart disease and high blood pressure. Additionally, women who drink more than two caffeine drinks per day are at increased risk of miscarriage.

However, these statistics are aggregated from studies of large groups. They do not necessarily tell you how much caffeine is safe for a specific individual. Guidelines for consumption typically come with a lot of provisos. Certain medications or medical conditions can impact your caffeine tolerance and some people are simply highly sensitive to caffeine. 

A better guideline is that you can safely consume caffeine as long as it isn't causing obvious side effects. The most common early stage side effects include jitters, nervousness, restlessness, increased heart rate or insomnia. In some cases, caffeine can also cause nausea, anxiety, arrhythmia (irregular heart beat), vomiting and even cardiac arrest.

If you want to establish how much you can safely consume as an individual, you can keep a food journal to find out for yourself. Ideally, you should track it for at least four weeks. Every day, write down everything you consume that contains caffeine. Also, record when you had it and how much you consumed. Check the label for any pertinent information and do some calculations to get a good idea of how much caffeine you are actually consuming. Make sure you note any side effects, such as insomnia or nervousness. 

Keep in mind that caffeine is dehydrating. You may need to drink additional non caffeinated beverages to stay properly hydrated, especially in hot weather, if you are also drinking alcohol or taking medication, or if you are getting on years. Older people are prone to dehydration. 

Chronic, low grade dehydration is thought to be a widespread, serious problem in the elderly. It contributes to other health issues, such as dizziness, confusion and constipation. These can be the basis for yet more problems, including accidental falls. Accidental falls are a major problem in older people. Having one fall increases the risk that it will happen again.

The standard recommended safe limit for caffeine is up to 400 mg per day, or about four cups of coffee. However, because tolerance varies from one individual to the next, the best way to know what is safe for you is to track your consumption and side effectsvin a food journal for at least four weeks.

Kickboxing and How it Can Change Your Fitness

As an older adult, you might be wary about taking on an exercise that involves the word "boxing." However, the sport of kickboxing has seen some growth in the older generations. There are numerous benefits to this exercise, including stress relief. Discover the world of kickboxing, and how it can change your fitness level in only a few sessions.

Flexibility Improvements

Kickboxing requires you to use your core, arms and legs in a coordinated effort. You'll perform these movements with a lot of repetition involved. As a result, you'll have greater flexibility with each workout. Your muscles, tendons and ligaments will soon become accustomed to stretching and moving in certain directions. Because you're more flexible, your body can bounce back from injury better than before. Reaching for an item across the table is simple, and it won't involve a strain that can occur when you're tight and out of shape.

Heart-Centered Workouts

As you kick and punch throughout a session, your heart receives a HIIT workout. High intensity interval training involves intense exercise combined with relaxed movements as you move the heartbeat up and down. Because you're working the heart out, you're achieving cardiovascular goals. Working this muscle only preserves its strength as you enter your 50s and 60s. The blood vessels respond too with stronger walls than before. Because heart disease is a widespread ailment, protecting your heart with a good, kickboxing workout is a smart way to live a long life.

Natural Fall Protection

Kickboxing involves coordination between your mind and muscles. You're actually creating new pathways for signals to move across the nerve synapses. Because of this nerve-signal strength, you have a better chance at avoiding falls. Losing your balance and falling is one of the major reasons why seniors have failing health. Those falls result in broken hips and other ailments. When you participate in kickboxing, your body has more control between the mind and limbs. If you lose your balance, it's easier to catch yourself before an ultimate fall to the ground.

Muscle Growth Across the Body

As you age, muscle tone naturally declines unless you workout on a regular basis. Kickboxing is a great way to build that muscle once again. Striking a target with your arms and legs creates a resistance against your muscles. The tissues respond by developing more muscle for your next session. By participating in regular workout sessions, the muscle will build. You'll have a toned appearance without any bulk. Strong muscles lead to denser bones, which ultimately help you live well into your 70s and 80s.

Weight-Loss Perks

Each kickboxing session can last an hour or longer. During these sessions, you're using and building muscle. The result of your efforts is weight loss. You'll gain muscle while losing fat. When you enter the retirement years, you want less fat because excess tissue can lead to chronic conditions, such as diabetes. Eat a healthy diet so that your muscles can perform during these kickboxing sessions. The fat will seem to melt away as you gain strength and agility. A lean frame is associated with fewer ailments in the senior years.

Kickboxing classes are usually offered several times during the week based on experience levels. Look for beginning classes along with any senior sessions. The popularity of this sport is slowly rising, and it's not unusual for a senior class to be held several times a week. Get to know this sport so that you can kick your way to good health.