Insomnia is a common ailment nowadays, while bad sleep directly affects our health and daily life. The most common causes of it are depression, stress and anxiety. There are also medications that can disrupt sleep, such as pills for blood pressure, pain killers and other prescribed drugs.
If you've had sleep problems you may have considered sleep-inducing medications but these are not healthy in the long term and can actually worsen the situation.
An unsuspected effective sleep aid is banana tea. These exotic fruits have a high content of magnesium and potassium, with magnesium helping treat sleep disturbances. If you'd like to try this type of tea, make sure that your bananas are 100% organic, otherwise they'd be filled with pesticides and chemicals.
You need just 10 min. to make this sleep-inducing beverage. Prepare it 20 min. before bed. You need 1 organic banana, a small cup of water, 1 tsp cinnamon. Peel the banana, cut it into small pieces and put it in a pot of boiling water. Add the cinnamon. Leave to boil 10 min. Strain the beverage and drink up after it cools.
Below are several interesting facts about sleep you can ponder before drifting off into sound, healthy sleep.
Just 12% of people dream in black and white. Before the invention of color TV, just 15% of people dreamed in color.
A cat spends 2/3 of its lifespan sleeping, while humans spend 1/3 of it sleeping.
The world record for the longest anyone has gone without sleep is 11 days. It was set by Randy Gardner in 1964. But this is not recommended, as trying to stay awake that long can have disastrous health effects. Gardner was saved miraculously.
Humans are the only mammals that delay sleep intentionally.
Sleeping on one's belly can help digestion.
According to a study by the Sleep Council organization, people who get the best quality sleep also earn more.
It should take you about 10-15 min. to fall asleep at night. If it takes you less than 5 min., the chances for low quality sleep increase.
Within the first 5 min. of waking up, people forget 50% of their dreams. After another 5 min., they forget 90%.
