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| Are you always in a hurry? Do you dash from one task to another, never taking time to enjoy what you're doing? Rushing from one tiring day to the next... Take time to enjoy life every step of the way! Take time to live, time to think, time to smile, and time to play... time for just plain fun. Stop rushing around so fast. Think how much blood pressure and stress you are adding to the normal wear and tear of living. Boredom can produce stress, especially if you feel guilty for not accomplishing something important every minute. If this is your thinking maybe you need to revise your priorities. You don't always have to go to bed in order to rest... How do you spend your evenings? And weekends? Do you grow tense watching frightening news reports of starving children, hostile engagments, calamities, or exciting ball games? Or do you take time to splice in an hour or two on your favorite hobby? Remember, it's the activity that you thoroughly enjoy that is restful and may save your life. Maybe you enjoy working on old cars,making one over into a shining exhibit of your skill and creative ability. Or maybe you prefer painting or woodworking. Sewing,needlepoint, embroidery, knitting, crocheting, crafts, fishing, hiking, or just sitting on a country log(smile) meet well your need for something restful and beautiful in your life. When you rest for just half an hour the number of white cells in your blood increases dramatically! This means that with all these germ fighters active your resistance to disease is greater. Next time you have a cold, try resting more. You may get well quicker. When you are overly tired, you can't think straight. The wastes build up not only in your muscles but in your brain as well. Rest or a change of activity can help you to become more alert and refreshed. The degree of rest you get from your sleep may depend on how much you can lay your burdens down and hand your cares over to the Life-giver. Adequate sleep can help you to feel refreshed, with your mind keen, sharp, alert, and able to make wise decisions. Getting plenty of sound sleep is a good way to program your 10 billion brain cells, more complicated than a modern computer, to flash the correct answer to your problems. Sleep is important because it builds up your body in so many ways. It rebuilds the cells of your muscles(including your heart muscle), your kidneys, bone marrow, stomach, and brain. If you sprain an ankle, cut yourself, or break a bone, it will heal faster when you get extra sleep. Thats why it has been called the great restorer. Sleep prepares you for greater speed, accuracy, and efficiency both physically and mentally. It sweeps away fatigue and is one of natures most effective brain fresheners. When you sleep, your blood and lymph systems continue to carry off the wastes to your skin, your kidneys, and your lungs,where they are eliminated. They also deposit in your brain a fresh supply of glucose and oxygen, which the cells must have for your brain to work well. You experience two kinds of sleep: non rapid eye movement(NREM) and rapid eye movement(REM). As you drop off to sleep you may feel a floating sensation or find your thoughts idly drifting. Then within one to seven minutes you slip into a deeper sleep. You don't dream during these NREM stages of sleep. This is when your muscles rejuvenate and your brain cells rest. But as you move into the important rapid eye movement(REM) stage your brain becomes more active. It sorts, analyzes, and files new information. This activity improves your learning ability and your memory, and helps you to make emotional and psychological adjustments. Here you solve problems and gain better perspective of difficult situations. This REM stage of your sleep recurs approximately every 70 to 90 minutes after you go to sleep. So you have four or five of these active brain periods each night. But it is interesting to note that toward morning the NREM stages shorten and REM sleep lengthens. If you sleep only 6 hours your body may feel rested, but your brain needs those longer periods of REM sleep. We seem to work best and feel better when we maintain Regularity in our daily program of rest, activity, and eating. You will find that your brain works better in a strong body... Grab a hold on the lifesaver SLEEP and hang on there. ZZZZZ-ZZ-Z-zzzzzzz |