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Sleep Series: Sleepy Notes

sleepy notesIn the previous articles, we went into what influences sleep and factors that guide it. Today, let’s take a look at some sleepy notes to help you improve your sleep! 

Sleepy Notes To Improve Sleep 

  • Measure: Sleep is measured both quantitatively and qualitatively and both are important to score perfect sleep. For you to say that you slept well – scored 10 out of 10, myriad things have to happen during the 6-8 hours. You could use some kind of sleep measurement tools like the GOQii Smart Vital. You will get lots of data – as CXO folks say, “What gets measured gets managed!”
  • Bedroom: We saw earlier that bedroom should be DARK. Buy darkening curtains and blinds. 
  • Cool & Clean: It is ideal to sleep with the aircon on every day so that the temperature is uniform. Considering the air pollution, it is critical to keep an air purifier for Indian conditions with high levels of pollutants. Western blog writers have recommended 20 Degree Celsius – For Indian bodies, I reckon 24 is ideal, which is what I do.
  • Equipment: Sleep equipment includes the mattress, pillow, bedsheet and the comforter. Do your research – be as passionate as you are when buying a smartphone or car. You earned your sleep. Sleep comfortably! You spend one third of your life in it – this is NOT an expense – but an investment – Period. A good benchmark for investment is invest NOT LESS THAN the value of your CAR! You should also REPLACE them periodically.
    • Mattress: You literally want to bounce back to life. A mattress should allow body heat dissipation , if possible make it cooler, provide for the spinal contours and curves and overall invite you to sleep. Most mattresses allow a 100 days sleep trial. Don’t forget to change your mattress every 7+ years or so – but do change it once a while. A mattress is definitely NOT for your lifetime. Also ensure that you clean the mattress once in six months at least. Many service providers do vacuum and dust mite cleaning. Very important. Do not let millions of dust mites sleep along with you on your mattress. 
    • Pillow: Choose a pillow that doesn’t cause any pain to your neck. Pillow varieties can be confusing – I use a Memory Foam pillow. Try a few and stick to what suits you. Once again, trial is allowed here as well and make sure you replace them once in 2-3 years.
    • Bed Sheet: Choose one that allows heat dissipation to the mattress. Pure Cotton (bamboo is even better) and High Thread Count – Minimum 300 thread count is recommended for that 5 Star Hotel feel and conducting heat. Replace once in 2-3 years 
    • Comforter: Prevents heat dissipation and allows cooler air. Pure Cotton and high thread count. Replace them once in 2-3 years 
  • Power Nap: An afternoon nap for 15-30 minutes is very refreshing and powerful. I am aware of many CXOs sleeping in the office with lights switched off, wearing noise cancel headphones and eye masks. I found it useful and do this occasionally. Just in case you foresee working late on any day, a nap will help you keep going at full power till late into night.
  • Alarm for Starting sleep: I strongly suggest that you keep an Alarm for STARTING sleep, most likely you WONT NEED an alarm to wake up. Starting sleep at the SAME TIME every day is extremely critical to have good sleep.
  • Sleep Positions: Sleep how you feel comfortable. Side position with bent knees (closer to Fetal Position) is what suits most people.

We hope these sleepy notes help you! Do check out more from the Sleep Series by Srini on Healthy Reads. For tips on how to sleep better and meditation, tune in to LIVE sessions by experts on GOQii Play. 

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Take The Best Route Forward! Lakshmi Ajitha Gets Healthier With GOQii

Lakshmi AjithaBeing healthy is a consistent effort. No amount of crash dieting or overworking yourself at the gym for a few months can resolve health issues which have piled up over months and years. Many people find it difficult to follow a healthy routine. Sometimes, all you need is a little encouragement and the right guidance to get you started – something out player Lakshmi Ajitha realized through her association with GOQii! 

Life Before GOQii  

Lakshmi Ajitha is a 33 year old working professional from Bengaluru. She said that she’s always been on the heavier side since puberty. Post marriage, her weight only increased due to hormonal and lifestyle changes. Since the lockdown in March 2020, she only gained another 5-7kg. When someone would comment on her weight, she would turn to crash diets and quit them with zero consistency. Junk food, indulgence in sweets with no restrictions, eating out and lack of physical activities only contributed to her weight gain and slowly, all sorts of health issues such as thyroid and PCOS began creeping up on her. 

In August 2020, a fitness challenge was rolled out in her company, and all who registered, received a GOQii tracker with 3 month subscription. Being someone who always lacked the inclination to do any kind of activity, she thought this might finally motivate her. So, she registered for the challenge and then there was no looking back. 

Changing Habits To Improve Lifestyle 

Lakshmi says though she received the tracker and had a coach assigned, she never took it seriously for at least a month. Then in October, when she was away on a 2 week vacation, there were numerous messages on her app from her Coach, expressing concern over her inactivity and not interacting with her. She felt there was someone who was really worried about her health and wished to help her.  

She then had a call with her GOQii Coach Priyanka Mangla, who understood everything about her lifestyle, diet pattern and daily routine. She then slowly introduced small changes like a basic walk everyday to complete 5k steps, increasing water intake and cutting down on her tea intake from 5 cups a day to just 2 cups in a week. These changes also included avoiding maida, all kinds of processed food, reducing rice intake while increasing fruit and vegetable intake. Most importantly, her Coach taught her how to control sweet cravings which was a major challenge. 

Lakshmi Ajitha says her coach never forced anything, always gave alternatives and gently guided her to the right foods. She always gave a reasoning as to why she should or shouldn’t do something. The Coach was also strict with her logging food and activity everyday. 

Lakshmi says the best thing she liked about her Coach was that she appreciated even the smallest of her achievements, understood her body and suggested suitable options. 

On the physical activity front, the third month saw her completing 10k steps everyday and thereafter, she was slowly introduced to basic bodyweight exercises. Sometime during December, she experienced knee pain which turned out to be OsteoArthritis. Her coach shared exercises which would not strain her knees and now the pain is very mild and only aggravates if she does any jumping activity. 

Results After 6 Months Of Making a Lifestyle Change 

Her weight reduced by 14kg over the last 6 months. In October and November, where her monthly cycles used to be completely unpredictable, now they have regularised and that too without any medication. Her TSH which used to hover between 7 and 12 until October last year, has come down to 1.4 when she last checked in February. 

Lakshmi says what she liked about GOQii is that they focus on giving the best routes for the user rather than constantly nagging them about different plans and subscription renewals. She feels that’s the reason why she preferred to stick to GOQii rather than switch to competitors.  She also finds GOQii Play as a huge repository of interesting and varied content.

In her own words, “Taking the first step is the most challenging and Priyanka did manage to break through my laziness and pulled me on the track to good health! Her concern seemed genuine and she was well qualified which further gave me the confidence to follow her instructions”.

Does Lakshmi Ajitha’s story inspire you to make a lifestyle change? Then download the GOQii App and subscribe now! To read more inspirational stories, check out Healthy Reads. 

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Sleep Series: The Relentless Rivalry of REM and NREM

REN and NREMWhen we sleep, we go through a few stages. Prominent among them are REM and NREM. It is observed that for some non-specific reason, there is significant movement of the eyeball in all directions rapidly during REM sleep BUT does NOT send any visual signals to the brain. Hence, the name Rapid Eye Movement ( REM) sleep and the opposite – Non REM sleep. Some also say that they are “deep sleep” vs “shallow sleep” which I am not a great fan of. I believe they are simply various stages of sleep.

 

Sleep Series

Courtesy: sleepadvisor.org and Mathew Walker.

IF we draw a graph of brain neural activity, the graph will look something like this

As you can see, at the start it is the NREM which is occupying the real estate and the REM shows up intermittently. Approximately each of the cycles lasts for 90 minutes and then it changes. But in general, we can see the domination of NREM in the first half and REM in the second half. 

Interesting Facts on REM and NREM 

  • Dream your way to creativity: As homo sapiens came down from trees to sleep on flat grounds, they developed REM sleep as an evolutionary advancement. REM sleep is responsible for the evolution of creativity, memory and problem solving. It is during REM sleep, the neural network gets more intricately wired with new synapses being formed. In some sense, it is the REM sleep that contributed to the supremacy of humans over other animals.
  • Early morning school timing inhibits creativity: If schools, colleges or universities start pretty early in the morning, it is quite possible that the student has to wake up early and hence, foregoes some part of REM sleep. That is NOT good news for memory and creativity, which are most critical for studies.
  • Sleep algorithm is an enigma: NREM has been measured in 4 stages depending upon how deep it goes. The deeper it goes, the body gets better rest and the housekeeping activity of scavenging the brain of useless memory and storing of useful memory in the long term storage area happens – this is a totally involuntary activity based on an enigma algorithm. God/Nature is the first and best coder. 
  • Forgetting is beautiful: The brain decides to delete (forget) what is irrelevant. You will definitely not remember what breakfast you had the same day last week. Forgetting is an essential function just as much as remembering is. 
  • Striping emotion – REM heals: REM sleep is responsible for stripping emotion from past events over time. For example, you would remember the death of a close relative. But rarely you can recollect the emotions that were recorded when it happened. It is a blessing in a way. It is not the Time, but it is REM that heals! 
  • 7 hours or nothing: 5 cycles of 90 minutes – 450 minutes approx. 7 hours gives you a good full cycle. Anything less is like jumping 90% of the well! Short sleep leaves work undone and there is no use. You add to the pressure of work.
  • There can be no sleep “Deposit” and Sleep “Loans” ( this would appeal to the Finance community). You cannot oversleep to compensate for a past deficit nor you can accumulate a deficit to be cured by oversleep a bit later. It is 7.5 to 8 hours  a day, every day! You would now have understood why from the chart above.
  • You cannot “Live your dream”: The motor activity other than breathing is all frozen during REM stage , all muscles (particularly limbs) are frozen – imagine you swishing your sword or trying to run away when chased by a cobra! It protects you from getting injured!
  • You are not meant to remember your dreams: You will only remember that you had vivid dreams or nightmares. Dreams have been the subject of so much research. Only one thing is clear – every dream is made of illogical and impossible combinations. If you behave during the day like the way you behaved in your dream, you will find yourself in a psychiatric ward. It is the façade or alibi as the brain is reorganizing the hard disk.
  • Dreams have no meaning: Do not over analyze, dreams have no hidden meaning. If you need to know something, why would it be revealed in your dream? It would rather appear in Times Square visible to all.
  • NREM is all about detox and growth: NREM sleep detoxifies the body, grows tissues, improves immunity, repairs injuries. Breathing slows down, body temperature goes down, blood pressure drops and the body gets a deep relaxation to get ready for the next day. 
  • You need both: It is NOT that NREM is better and preferred than REM. Combined activity and result from both is critical for overall physical and mental health.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article on REM and NREM sleep. Stay tuned for more from the Sleep Series by Srini! To read more about sleep and sleeping techniques, check out Healthy Reads or tune in to LIVE sessions by experts on GOQii Play. 

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Sexual Confidence: How To Find Yours?

sexual confidence

I wonder if there is any other topic than sex that is surrounded by so many complicated and mixed notions. It can be as simple as an erotic act and as complex as our deep-set desires and beliefs. In a world where sex is either served wrapped in toxic messages such as it is sinful and wrong, or packaged in dehumanizing portrayal in the form of porn, how does one build sexual confidence? How do you rid yourself of shame and become sexually liberated?

How Can You Build Sexual Confidence? 

There is no simple answer to these questions. Sexual confidence isn’t about being up for anything and increasing your ‘score’ of sexual partners. It’s about knowing yourself, your wants and desires, your boundaries and the ability to communicate them. Your sexual self-esteem cannot be built upon something that has been taught to you or fed to you by someone else. You need to figure it out on your own and here are a few tips to begin with the process:

  • Get to Know Yourself: Sounds simple, right? Only if it really was. Based on your experiences, list what you like and what you don’t about your sexuality. Then dig deeper – think about the reason for those likes and dislikes. Based on these, set your own boundaries, so you know when someone oversteps or when it’s time to open a dialogue.
  • Get To Know Your Body: Are you comfortable looking at your naked body in the mirror? Look at your body and internalize that the mainstream definition of sexy isn’t really true. You can’t be confident until you’re comfortable with your body. Exercise, keep your body fit and healthy and listen to it to understand it.
  • Fire Up Your Imagination: It’s difficult to be confident about sex when you are not sure what you like and dislike. Begin with yourself first. Read some erotica, watch something sexy, explore and pleasure yourself. Sexual confidence stems from the awareness that the key to your sexual power lies with you. This is crucial for women – before you hand over the responsibility of pleasing you to someone else, make sure you know how to do that yourself.
  • Discover Your Sexual Script: We are conditioned by our families, society, media and friends about sex. Unlearn all of it and figure it out on your own. Let your experiences define your sexual script. If you are faced with sexual blockages or disturbed by certain experiences, reach out to someone you can talk to. Don’t let others define your story and take the control back.
  • Learn to Communicate: A 2017 study found that heterosexual women get fewer orgasms than everyone else. One of the primary reasons cited was that women aren’t vocal about their desires or pleasures. Women suffer from the cultural conditioning that instructs them to please and submit to a man’s desire. You have to take charge of changing that. Most of the men are misinformed about female desire and you need to take the control by explicitly stating if something is or isn’t working, or something you like and you want more. If you can’t articulate your needs, keep in mind that no-one else is going to do it for you.

All of us carry some amount of sexual shame. Slowly and gradually, with self-awareness and mindful sexual practices, we can unburden ourselves of this shame and find our sexual selves. Take it one step at a time and begin moving towards experiencing joy and connection in bed with sexual confidence.

We hope this article on Building Sexual Confidence helps you! Do leave your thoughts in the comments below. For more articles by our Sexual Wellness Expert Pallavi Barnwal, check out Healthy Reads or tune in to her LIVE sessions on GOQii Play. You can also connect with her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pallavibarnwalcoach

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Disclaimer: Reader discretion is advised. This content is for an older, mature audience who seek to improve their health and wellness. GOQii is not responsible for any misrepresentation of this information.

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