Another Light-Hearted Quote

"Laugh and the world laughs with you, snore and you sleep alone."
Anthony Burgess - Writer, 1917-1993, particularly famous for "A Clockwork Orange"

Want to Look Attractive and Healthy? Get a Good Night's Sleep.

There is a really cheap and effective way of making sure you look as attractive as possible: get plenty of sleep. You will also look much healthier, researchers from Sweden have reported.  They have just conducted a study involving 23, non-smoking, young adult volunteers, aged between 18 and 31. They were photographed twice, each time between 2pm and 3pm. The first photograph was taken after they had had a good night's sleep, while the second one showed what they looked like after sleep deprivation.

All pictures were taken in the same, well-lit room, with a fixed camera and at a fixed distance. None of the participants wore make-up, their hair was combed back, and had undergone similar shaving and washing procedures before each photograph was taken. The photographer asked them to assume a neutral, relaxed facial expression on both photo shoots.

The participants were not allowed to consume alcohol for a period of 48 hours before the study.

Sixty-five other people were asked to rate the photographs for attractiveness, health aspect, and whether or not the person looked tired. The photograph observers did not know the sleep status of the participants they were asked to rate.

The researchers reported that, in the vast majority of cases, the observers rated those who had had a good night's sleep as more attractive, healthier, and with more energy, compared to the ones which had been deprived of sleep.

I would seem then that it is a fact that our lack of sleep is visible to others so when we feel drained and think we look tired, we probably do.  Time to get help sleeping as soon as possible!

Turn Off Your TV For A More Restful Night's Sleep

According to a recent study presented at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, glowing television screens are the cause for most folks' chronic sleep deprivation.

Researchers looked at the sleep habits and rituals of 21,475 participants for three years. They found that during the two hours prior to bedtime, watching television ranked as the most common activity. This means more people may be staying up longer than normal to finish watching programs and those alarm clocks are waking people out of their slumber earlier than expected. These two scenarios lead to sleep deprivation, decreased alertness and impaired concentration throughout the day.

So be sure to minimize your nightly TV time in order to help you get seven to eight hours of uninterrupted restful sleep.  Think carefully too whether you REALLY want to watch  "The Walking Dead"!  

EFT - Have You Heard of This?

Excuse my ignorance but I've only just discovered this help method!  The Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is an effective and easy to learn acupressure method used by thousands of people to help with their problems.  Strange but true, by tapping on just nine meridian points on your body, you can quickly change your mood and attitude.  It was developed by Gary Craig, a Stanford engineer, out of his work with "Thought Field Therapy".  He contends that the cause of all negative emotions is a disruption in the body's energy system.  He learned that tapping on the body's energy system while focusing on the negative emotion or experience would relieve disruption.  It can help with anxiety, pain, phobias and other aspects of your present state which may be causing sleep problems - it can also help change your attitude to sleep itself!  The good thing about it is that YOU are in control, it is very safe to practise and you are not putting prescription medicines into your body which seem to work short-term but do not help sleeping in the long run.  Why not try a FREE download which focuses on anxiety relief - it will give you a good idea of how EFT works:
Video - Introduction to EFT + Anxiety Relief Session 
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