Make Your Bed

On the surface, the idea of making your bed might seem mundane. However, there are significant benefits to making your bed each morning. Many successful organizations, including the military and Psychology Today, have looked at the benefits that making your bed has for the brain.

It’s something that a lot of people often leave behind. You wake up, the room is dark, you take a quick shower, and go about your day. Then you come home at night and you see a big pile of blankets and sheets right in the middle of the bed and you accept that it still needs to be made. Sometimes it can even be a little bit stressful to not have your bed made when all you want to do is go to sleep.

There is mounting evidence to support the fact that making the bed in the morning contributes towards making a person happier and more successful. A recent online survey of 68,000 people, which is a fairly substantial base of people, found that 59% of people don’t make their beds and 27% do. The remaining 12% were people that have someone else, like a housekeeper, make their bed for them.

They also found that 71% of the bed makers consider themselves to be generally happy with their lives. 62% of non-bed makers admitted to being generally unhappy. Of course these results can vary by the life circumstances of the individual. It can extend to their job satisfaction, owning a home, exercising regularly, proper diet, feeling well rested. These things are all associated with people that fix their beds every day.

There is basis behind fixing your bed each morning. What happens is you wake up and right away you’re training your brain to do a task and attend to an activity that makes you feel good. As a result, you start your day with a sense of accomplishment. This sets the tone for the rest of your day and carries over to completing other tasks. It is the start of the snow ball effect that encourages you to keep a proactive attitude throughout the rest of your day.

When you stop and think about it, it only takes a couple of minutes in the morning to stop and make your bed. Start developing the habit, stick with it, and see what happens. I guarantee, it will help to start your day off on the right foot, because it’s the little things that make a difference.

Contributor Author: Dr. Michael Trayford is a Board Certified Chiropractic Neurologist and Founder of APEX Brain Centers in Asheville, NC. For more information, please visit www.ApexBrainCenters.com/memory.

The opinions expressed by contributing authors are not necessarily the opinions of the Dementia Society, Inc. We do not endorse nor guarantee products, comments, suggestions, links, or other forms of content contained within blog posts- that have been provided to us with permission, or otherwise. Dementia Society does not provide medical advice, please consult your doctor. www.DementiaSociety.org

Sleep, Establish and Routine

When it comes to sleep, establishing a routine is critical. Sleep-wake cycles are for the brain what your transmission is for your car. Further, sleep issues are often associated with dementia and may very well be a catalyst for dementia onset and severity.

In this day and age a lot of people are simply going to bed whenever they crash or whenever their kids or life demands allow them to crash. When they wake up, it’s rarely of their own accord. Instead they tend to wake up to loud alarm clocks blaring at them, somebody else waking them up or something else like the dog jumping on the bed.

Sleep routines are critically important for brain function and it can be as simple as setting a time to go to bed and a time to wake up, then sticking with it to make it a part of your regular routine. Establishing a routine helps your body find homeostasis with hormone production, regulating blood pressure, as well as other things like the glymphatic system which removes toxins from the brain while you sleep.

This is often easier said than done. Family life, career demands, pets and a lot of other distractions can make it challenging to establish a set sleep routine.

There’s no magic number for the number of hours you need to get each night, although 7-9 hours is a good rule of thumb. The brain needs a good solid two to three deep sleep cycles per night and you can’t do that if you’re only getting three or four hours of sleep per night.

The key is to listen to your body. Ideally you want to establish a sleep routine where you’re falling asleep easily at a set time and when you wake up in the morning you feel energized, alert and ready to face the day.

Some people might only need six hours of sleep while other people might need eight or even ten hours! There are some people that meditate quite regularly and the deep state training involved in the process means they may only require five or so hours of sleep each night.

Sleep science is constantly changing as research reveals more and more of the positive benefits of sleep and how to incorporate a positive sleep routine in your daily life.  What it boils down to is the routine that is best for you, your body and what makes you feel the most rested. 

Contributor Author: Dr. Michael Trayford is a Board Certified Chiropractic Neurologist and Founder of APEX Brain Centers in Asheville, NC. For more information, please visit www.ApexBrainCenters.com/memory.

The opinions expressed by contributing authors are not necessarily the opinions of the Dementia Society, Inc. We do not endorse nor guarantee products, comments, suggestions, links, or other forms of content contained within blog posts- that have been provided to us with permission, or otherwise. Dementia Society does not provide medical advice, please consult your doctor. www.DementiaSociety.org