How Poor Sleep Affects Your New Year’s Resolutions: The Role Of Sleep Tests
Every year, like clockwork, millions of Americans make commitments to change their lives for the better. They’re called New Year’s resolutions. Some sign up for a gym membership; this is the year they will get healthy and start looking fit. Some decide to change their diets; they pack their refrigerators until they’re overflowing with nutritious foods. Others buy self-help books and commit to reading a certain number of pages daily, all year. Unfortunately, these pages are often unread, healthy foods wind up in the trash, and the gym membership forgotten. What causes this? One factor that plays a significant role than you might think is poor sleep. Let’s look at how poor sleep can prevent you from achieving your New Year’s goals and how a sleep test can help you identify your problem.
What you may not know about getting good sleep
Sleep isn’t just about getting up in the morning and feeling rested; it is a foundational pillar for physical health. Good sleep directly impacts your ability to set goals and keep them. It also hinders your productivity. Poor sleep can:
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Reduce your willpower: If you’re not sleeping well at night, you can wake up with low mental energy, making it hard to resist the temptation to give up on your goals for the year. You’re more likely to shrug your shoulders and say, “I’ll start over on Monday.”
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Reduce your energy: Poor sleep can deplete you and rob you of your willpower to refuse an unhealthy treat. Many healthy foods don’t provide the quick energy your body craves.
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Reduce your cognitive function: It is hard to focus when you’re not getting good sleep, making reading those self-help books a chore and applying what you’ve learned even more laborious.
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Drop your physical performance: Sleep is essential for muscle repair and helps keep your energy levels up. If you’re not sleeping well, it can lead to a decision to give up your new gym membership.
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Increase your anxiety and stress: Sleep deprivation impacts hormone levels, can put you out of balance, and can lead to emotional changes impacting your motivation to stay on track and produce new, healthy habits.
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Weaken your immune system: A consistent lack of sleep can weaken your body’s defensive system and make you susceptible to getting sick. This can derail your progress on your goals and lead you to give up.
There is a lot of scientific data and real-world testing to support these points. Is sleep the only factor in failing to meet New Year’s goals? Not at all. But the link is one you should not ignore.
How do you fix the problem of poor sleep?
You may not know that you’re getting poor sleep. The first step is to find out. You can do that by ordering a sleep test and performing the test in the comfort of your own home. What can a sleep test do for you?
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A sleep test can alert you to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and other sleep-related issues. The primary purpose of a home sleep test is to detect sleep apnea, which is the most common issue with the greatest impact on health.
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A sleep test can measure the severity of the sleep apnea symptoms, such as detecting breathing patterns and oxygen levels.
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A sleep test can alert you to underlying health issues, such as a problem with your heart or lungs.
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A sleep test can send you in the right direction to correct your sleep problem.
Along with a sleep test, you can implement a strategy to improve your sleep.
How do you improve your sleep?
If you do not have sleep apnea, there are ways you can get better sleep. Here are a few quick tips:
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Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. Doing this will help you regulate your body’s sleep-wake cycle.
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Create an environment conducive to sleep. Consider installing blackout curtains, removing electronic devices, and buying a noise machine.
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Prepare for sleep. Winding down before going to sleep helps. Let your body know that it is time to shift gears. Try listening to relaxing music or avoiding your cell phone and other electronics.
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Get a new mattress, pillow, and sheets. These can improve your sleep quality.
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Limit caffeine and alcohol, particularly close to bedtime, as these can disrupt your body’s natural sleep patterns.
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Avoid eating a heavy meal before bed. While a light snack is okay, heavy food will keep your body busy digesting and distract you from getting deep sleep.
Steps like these can have a significant impact. For more serious problems, such as sleep apnea, a sleep test can help you find a solution provided by a medical professional.
The next step is to order your sleep test today!
If you have questions about anything we covered today, please reach out through our contact page. You can order one here if you’d like to proceed with a sleep test. We look forward to helping you get better sleep for your health and well-being.
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New Year’s resolutions are made with the best intentions—hitting the gym, eating healthier, and committing to self-improvement. Millions of people dive in, signing up for memberships, filling their fridges with fresh produce, and stacking self-help books on their nightstands. But as the months go by, workouts slow down, nutritious meals are replaced with convenience foods, and those books remain unread. Why do so many resolutions fail? One major factor that often gets overlooked is sleep. Poor sleep can derail motivation and energy, making it harder to stick to your goals. Let’s explore how a sleep test could be the key to staying on track.
