Can Sleeping 8 Hours Kill You Faster?

A recent study done by the University of California and the shocking finding of it: "People who sleep 8 hours or more have a 50% higher mortality (death) rate than people who sleep less."

However, does this mean that sleeping longer will create a higher chance of death and disease for you?

No. There's no solid proof for that, but as you read about this study, you might have realized the connection between less sleep, your daily energy levels, and the strength of your immune system.

As you might notice, it's during deep sleep that your body undergoes major physiological changes to repair your muscles, power up your immune system and replenish your energy.

The question really isn't "how long should I sleep?" The question really is...

"How can I optimize my sleep system to gain POWERFUL and QUALITY sleep?"

You see, there is a difference between quantity, and quality. The problem, and the challenge is that most people don't understand sleep. They think sleep is a very basic thing that happens to us every night. I mean, think about it, we sleep, we wake up, and we magically feel refreshed, right? Because of this misunderstanding, many people live today with very out-of-balance sleeping systems that deprive you of your energy, without even being aware of it.

Sleep is actually quite a complex and fascinating system. Here, briefly, are the effects of sleeping longer:

1) Sleeping longer than you need to will weaken your sleep system, as you reduce your prior wakefulness, exposure to sunlight, activity levels, and your body temperature at a low for too long.

2) As a result, your melatonin hormone levels will stay high longer, you'll be more tired and drowsy during the day.

When you sleep for long periods of time, your body temperature doesn't rise as quickly in the morning. This results in feeling very drowsy and tired for the early part of your day. If you stay inactive, this body temperature pattern will lead to poor sleep, which will prevent you from sleeping deeply.

This weakened sleep system and inability to get proper restful and energizing sleep creates low energy levels and a weakened immune system.

People usually sleep longer because their sleeping system is not being taken proper care of. They feel low on energy during the day, and think they need more sleep. In actuality, they feel low on energy because they have a weak sleep system, not because they're sleeping too little.

If you're currently sleeping around 8 to 10 hours and you feel LOW on energy during the day, it's not because you need more sleep. YOU NEED LESS SLEEP, and MORE ENERGY from your sleep.

Sleeping less actually INCREASES the strength of your sleeping system. The problem is, most people don't know anything about proper sleep system hygiene, or how to strengthen their inner sleep system. Only with the proper knowledge can you learn to optimize and strengthen your sleeping system, to have more energy and a higher level of health. Only once you've optimized your sleeping system for maximum performance can you reduce your sleep.

Kacper Postawski is an innovative sleep science researcher and the creator of the Sleep Wiz, your surefire natural remedy to end insomnia forever and enjoy energizing sleep in as little as 3 days! He can show you how to fall asleep effortlessly, create more time, and an abundance of energy in your body by optimizing your sleep system! He dispels the “8-hour sleep myth”, tells you what most people never realize about sleep, and what the drug companies DONT WANT YOU to know.

Surefire Way To Battling Against Tossing And Turning

We've all had those nights that we just couldn't find the comfortable part of the bed and spent hours tossing and turning till the break of dawn. Why does this happen?

Well, your desire to “toss and turn”, really isn't the result of you not being comfortable, it's the result of you not feeling relaxed. On a deeper feeling our mind wants to relax, but most of the times we interpret the message as “find a comfortable spot on the bed”. True relaxation comes from within you, and has to be triggered by your inner thought process.

For example: You could be in a hammock on a hot summer day in Hawaii, but if you're thinking about whether the stock market will rise or fall, and you've got a 100 million dollars on the line and it's REALLY bothering you, it won't matter what position you're in that hammock, you won't relax!

If you're lying in bed and you get the urge to toss or turn, wait it out, you'll be surprised how quickly it fades! When you get the urge to toss and turn, ask yourself “How can I focus on something else right now to feel more relaxed?” As you lie there for about 15 seconds, you'll be surprised at how the urge to toss and turn simply fades, and you realize that all you really want to do is relax.

Understand that if you do start tossing and turning, it will not end with just ONE toss or turn, because of the momentum effect, you will just keep tossing and turning till the break of dawn!

Sometimes the urge to move is really intense, or maybe you really are in a very painful position on your bed. If you absolutely MUST move, do it in this way:

1) Move, but move very slowly. Remember what it feels like when you wake up in the morning and you're very sleepy, do you move very quickly then?

2) As you move very slowly, put a big bright smile on your face, and take a deep breath.

Another reason why tossing and turning keeps us awake is because we do it very quickly, and the more we do it, the more it agitates us! So do it very slowly, and make sure to smile and breath deeply, you will feel the difference.

Kacper Postawski is an innovative sleep science researcher and the creator of the Sleep Wiz, your surefire natural remedy to end insomnia forever and enjoy energizing sleep in as little as 3 days! He can show you how to fall asleep effortlessly, create more time, and an abundance of energy in your body by optimizing your sleep system! He dispels the “8-hour sleep myth”, tells you what most people never realize about sleep, and what the drug companies DONT WANT YOU to know.

Power Napping: How To Fall Asleep Anywhere

Today, I’d like to continue by talking about how you can fall asleep no matter where you are. This is useful for napping in airports, couches, or at your desk if need be.

The trick is the use sleep MP3s such as these. They are essentially MP3s that play white noise for the duration of the nap, and then slowly wake you up by playing a variety of sounds. What's great is that you can play them on your computer speakers, or make them portable by putting them on your iPod or cell phone.

They are so helpful (and far superior to a traditional alarm clock) for a few reasons:

It's too easy to make mistakes when setting an alarm for a nap. Alarm clocks are designed to be changed rarely, and used over and over at the same time each day. The math that is required to count x minutes ahead and get all the buttons right, while being sleep deprived, is just asking for errors.

It's too easy to make mistakes when setting an alarm for a nap. Alarm clocks are designed to be changed rarely, and used over and over at the same time each day. The math that is required to count x minutes ahead and get all the buttons right, while being sleep deprived, is just asking for errors.

Napping is not dependent on the time of day, it’s dependent on the length. The length of the MP3 never changes, so it is as simple as pressing play to get it right.

These MP3s use white noise to block out other sounds and and soothe you to sleep. When I first heard it, I found it a little bit annoying, but I quickly grew to enjoy the sound, and it works better than earplugs to block out unwanted noises.

They wake you up gradually. Some start with relaxing clucking of chickens or a rooster, then play some music, and end with loud explosions and a human voice letting you know it's time to get up if you still haven't gotten up. This is much more effective (and pleasant) than a single tone that you will angrily turn off.

They are portable. I have one of these MP3s on my blackberry so if I need to fall asleep, I just put in my standard headphones and I'm out. You can also carry them on your iPod.

Some finals tips for the perfect nap:

If you are sensitive to light, you may want to combine this with a sleep mask which will block out the light.

Make sure you are as warm as possible, since just having cold feet or hands can be enough to prevent sleep.

Finally, if you normally like to sleep on your side, and you don’t have a pillow handy, you may have to try sleeping on your back. This will allow your head to be in a natural position without a pillow. Even though I never sleep on my back in bed, I’m able to nap in this position, so give it a try.

Using these simple techniques, you will likely be able to fall asleep in most environments, and wake up ready to take on the day!

Brian Armstrong is an entrepreneur who sleeps 2-3 hours per day using polyphasic napping. He became financially free running his own business at the age of 23, and today seeks to help others quit the 9-to-5 corporate world to start their own business. For more great tips visit his blog.

How To Design The Perfect Nap

Most people enjoy a good nap now and then, but are you really utilizing their full power?

A correctly performed nap can give you a great boost in energy, focus, and concentration, but a poorly executed nap can leave you groggy and more tired than when you started.

Several cultures around the world use a “siesta” in the afternoon to stay productive, and many workers in the U.S. have reported success avoiding afternoon drowsiness with a nap. Some people (myself included) have even excelled at nothing but six well-timed naps per day, during polyphasic sleep.

Taking six naps per day has given me a chance to design the perfect nap. The single most important aspect of a nap is making it the right length, and it requires a little background explanation to understand why.

It turns out that dreaming is the most important part of sleep. Test subjects who were deprived of dreams (meaning they were woken up when they started to dream, but otherwise allowed to sleep as much as they wanted) performed on tests as if they had not slept at all. Furthermore, the longer they were deprived of dreams, the more frequently their brains attempted to start dreaming. Mice who were deprived of dreams for more than a few weeks died!

You may have noticed this on your own if you ever took a quick nap, and vividly remembered your dreams afterwards. When exhausted, you will tend to dream more.

So what does this all mean? It means that your goal during a nap is to enter the REM sleep phase quickly (this is where most dreaming occurs), and to wake up as soon as the REM sleep phase is over. If you sleep past the REM phase you’ll enter deeper phases of sleep and it will be really difficult to get up!

The only reason this is difficult is that everyone sleeps differently. For most people, their optimal nap time (where they can wake up just as they finish REM) is between 15 and 30 minutes, but you’ll have to test to find yours precisely.

What makes it more difficult is that you have to take into account how long it takes you to fall asleep. When you are first perfecting your naps, it could take quite a while to fall asleep, so I’d suggest starting with a 30-35 minute nap, and working your way down.

Don’t be surprised if after a 30-minute nap you are exhausted. You may have gone right through REM into a deeper sleep phase. It will feel like being woken up in the middle of the night, and during these times I’ve had trouble with even the most basic tasks like keeping my balance or forming sentences.

Each day, try a different length of nap, reducing the time by 3-5 minutes, and record your energy levels. As you learn to fall asleep quicker, and close in on your optimal time, you’ll notice a remarkable thing: it’s possible to wake up from a nap totally refreshed and alert!

This is the sweet spot you are searching for. Next week, I’ll delve further into optimal light and sound conditions for power napping, and show you a little trick I use to fall asleep anywhere (airports, desks, couches, etc).

Brian Armstrong is an entrepreneur who sleeps 2-3 hours per day using polyphasic napping. He became financially free running his own business at the age of 23, and today seeks to help others quit the 9-to-5 corporate world to start their own business. For more great tips visit his blog.

Sleep Too Much – 9 Practical tips for eliminating dark, under-eye circles

Getting great night sleep is important but not always possible. Recent surveys suggest as many as 45% don’t get adequate sleep each evening. The reasons are as varied as the individuals. They include worry/stress/anxiety, studies, parenthood, jobs, insomnia and countless others.

Sleep too much ends up giving you the panda look due to poor sleep quality. But you can still look your best if you try one of the many tips that follow and see if you don’t look like you’ve been cuddling with the sandman instead of burning the midnight oil.

Topical Tips:

1. Try a light application of almond oil before retiring. Be careful not to stretch or pull the skin. Eyelids and the under eye area need gentle, delicate treatment to look their best.

2. Lie down with your feet elevated. Apply a cotton ball moistened with rosewater or cold milk and leave in place for about ten minutes.

3. Purchase an over the counter eye gel remedy. There are a number of great products on the market, most $10 and under. Look for products with soothing botanicals such as chamomile. Again, remember to apply gently without stretching the skin.

4. Buy an eye mask – if you don’t have one use a cool cloth. Keep this on your eyes for about five minutes. This strategy will help constrict blood vessels under the eyes as well as eliminate some of the darkness.

5. Apply a quality moisturizer to the under eye area before you shower. Your skin will drink in the moisture and the appearance of lines and circles will be minimized. Gently remove the moisturizer with a damp cloth after your shower.

6. Opt for regular application of Vitamin K cream, which is thought to reduce pigment, and thus dark coloring, around the eyes.

7. Keep a collagen boosting, anti-aging remedy such as alpha-hydroxy acids around to plump up your eyes helping them look younger and more rested.

8. Try Preparation H (believe it or not!) for a quick fix, eye energizer.

9. Lie with your feet elevated. Place cool tea bags over your eyes for about 5 minutes. You can also try this remedy with cool cucumbers.

Kacper Postawski is an innovative sleep science researcher and the creator of the Sleep Wiz, your surefire natural remedy to end insomnia forever and enjoy energizing sleep in as little as 3 days! He can show you how to fall asleep effortlessly, create more time, and an abundance of energy in your body by optimizing your sleep system! He dispels the “8-hour sleep myth”, tells you what most people never realize about sleep, and what the drug companies DONT WANT YOU to know.

The 3 Shocking MYTHS About Sleep That You Don't Know About—Which Are Depriving You of Your Life Energy.

MYTH #1: “If you sleep longer, you'll be more awake and have more energy in your life.”

TRUTH: Sleeping Longer ROBS You of Energy and Damages your Sleeping System.

There are several reasons why sleeping longer damages your sleep system. What most people don't know is that there is a very important element of your inner sleep clock which is prior wakefulness. When you sleep longer you limit your prior wakefulness which puts stress on a number of other factors such us your melatonin hormone levels, your exposure to sunlight, and your body temperature rhythm.

Getting longer sleep or "catching up on sleep" only weakens your sleep system, which in turn can even lower your immune system. The common belief that trying to sleep less makes you tired and low on energy is simply because people don't understand how the bio-temperature rhythms work (what you will learn soon).

MYTH #2: You need to “Catch Up on Sleep” if you missed some before.

TRUTH: Unless you...

Unless you go on a huge sleep deprivation marathon, you do not need to "catch up on sleep", if you downloaded the 2 free chapters of the powerful sleep eBook, you learned precisely why this is true. It is only during the first 3–4 hours of sleep that we experience most of State 3 and Stage 4 sleep. Sleeping longer than you usually do isn't physically beneficial to you in anyway, and puts your body temperature rhythm out of balance.

MYTH #3: “I feel so low on energy, I Must Get More Sleep.”

TRUTH: More Sleep DOES NOT Provide You With more Energy!

You don't need MORE sleep, you need QUALITY sleep.

People think that sleep is a very basic thing. We don't really think about it do we? We sleep, we wake up, and we magically feel refreshed, don't we? In truth, sleep is actually quite a complex and fascinating system that most of us take for granted. Because most of us don't understand how our inner sleep system works, we aren't even aware of all the actions we're taking in our lives that are damaging our sleep systems and depriving us of energy. There is a difference between MORE sleep, and POWERFUL sleep. The only way to make your sleep more physically energizing is to learn about the inner science of sleep! Only once you learn how to optimize your sleeping system for maximum performance, can you try to get some restful sleep.

We barely scratched the surface of these vitally important understandings here. What we briefly talked about here is completely covered in rich detail in the Sleep Wiz Revitalizing system.

Kacper Postawski is an innovative sleep science researcher and the creator of the Sleep Wiz, your surefire natural remedy to end insomnia forever and enjoy energizing sleep in as little as 3 days! He can show you how to fall asleep effortlessly, create more time, and an abundance of energy in your body by optimizing your sleep system! He dispels the “8-hour sleep myth”, tells you what most people never realize about sleep, and what the drug companies DONT WANT YOU to know.