#sleepcosee

There is nothing more joyous than a well-rested and healthy body. Sleep is as essential as food and water for our wellbeing.

It helps in keeping our brains and hearts healthy, maintaining a strong immune system, regulating our appetite, elevating our mood, developing disease resistance, and whatnot.

Good sleep hygiene is needed to increase productivity during the day. People who had fluctuating sleeping habits were found comparatively obese and had higher blood pressure compared to normal sleepers.

Now that you know the surprising benefits of a regular bedtime schedule, you might want to get underneath your sheets.

Good bedding weighs a lot in aiding sleep and fighting insomnia. You can always experiment with sheets and pillows to make your body feel supported, and optimise your sleep environment.

Let's understand what happens to our brains and bodies during various stages of sleep.

FIRST STAGE OF SLEEP CYCLE

Rapid Eye Movement (REM) and Non-Rapid Eye Movement (Non-REM) sleep are the two basic types of sleep linked to our brain waves.

During shut-eye, you move from all the stages of non-REM to REM sleep, and reciprocally. An average sleep cycle takes 90-110 minutes to complete.

Let's see what changes happen during the first stage of the Non-REM cycle. This is the duration of light sleep.

When you transit from being awake to slumbering, non-REM sleep waves come into action. You might find yourself swinging in and out of sleep.

This lighter wave comes into action for a short duration before you enter deep sleep. It causes your muscles to relax, brings down your heartbeat and breathing rates.

SECOND STAGE OF SLEEP

You spend most of your night being in this “not too deep, not too light” stage of sleep.

This stage onsets you for deep sleep by bringing your heart rate and breathing level back to normal, making your brain waves slower, and dropping down your body temperature.

That's why some of you find it nearly impossible to sleep without wrapping a comfy blanket around your legs, no matter the weather!

This stage of sleep gives your cardiovascular system its much-needed rest. All these activities help in disengaging you from your surroundings.

THIRD STAGE OF SLEEP

This restorative stage of deep sleep, which is much needed for the growth and repair of body tissues is also called slow-wave sleep. The third stage of this sleep wave is much needed to enhance your daytime performance.

This stage takes your heart rate and breathing levels to the slowest, therefore, making it difficult for you to wake up.

If you’ve ever felt irritated and dazed for several minutes after waking up, then you might have come out of this stage of deep sleep.

REM sleep waves swing into action after you're 90 minutes into sleep. This makes your eyes move rapidly inside your closed eyelids. This sleep wave causes your breathing patterns to match your wakefulness levels.

The vivid dreams which help you process most of your emotions occur while you rest in REM. Your limb muscles tend to become temporarily paralyzed to prevent you from acting out of your dream.

A typical good night’s sleep has at least 4 or 5 REM/ non-REM cycles along with brief occurrences of wakefulness.

SOME SCIENCE-BACKED TIPS FOR A REJUVENATING SNOOZE

Keep your bedroom dark and temperature-controlled: Too cool or too hot a room can ruin your sleep schedule. For gearing up your sleep cycle, you can keep the room dark, quiet, and temperature controlled.

Power down your electronics an hour before: Lights coming out of your screen signals your brain to remain alert. Turning off your devices at least an hour earlier before going to bed can contribute a lot towards inducing an early snooze.

Music can lull you to sleep: Listening to your favourite tunes before going to bed helps in calming down your nervous system, thereby, making you sleep better.

Bed pillows and comfortable bedding: A pillow might help you in adopting a better sleeping position, and can even add some extra hours to your snooze. You can choose your favourite bedding in different fabrics, prints and sizes.

It’s not about getting 8 hours of sleep everyday. You need to focus on sleep quality and progress through sleep cycles to strengthen your physical and mental health.

https://sleepcosee.com/blogs/cosee-blog/the-stages-of-sleep-why-it-matters-to-your-health

Breast milk is the baby food loaded with necessary proteins, fats, sugars, nutrients and antibodies, in appropriate proportions as needed by an infant.

Since a baby cannot have solid foods until the age of 6 months or beyond, therefore, breast milk meets the optimal nutritional demands of the baby's life.

IS BREASTFEEDING IMPORTANT?

There cannot be one ideal way or a wrong way to feed your baby. Firstly, you need to experiment and find out what works for you and your little one. It's better to know a range of breastfeeding techniques and positions as you might start taking your kid out in public more often as he/she starts growing up.

There are different types of breastfeeding postures appropriated by different mothers. These can be laid back breastfeeding, side-lying position, upright breastfeeding, dangle feeding, cradle cross-cradle and more.

The most preferred and talked about is the one where the toddler is positioned facing the mother's body while their hips, head and shoulders lie in alignment with each other.

BREASTFEEDING POSTURE

Breastfeeding posture is important because it has much to do with a mother's postpartum stress and recovery. It's very important for a new mother not to stress her body out while being in the same position for hours.

Always focus on bringing the baby closer to your breast, and not bending over to him in order to put your breast in their mouth. Before you tuck your kid in a comfortable and stable position, you must get relaxed. You need to make sure that breastfeeding should not cause you any sort of pain.

So flex yourself in your comfortable armchair, grab a book or magazine, your mobile phone or T.V remote. Make sure that your child is in a good latching position and starts to suck with a wide-open mouth.

While you make sure to get your milk flowing, you should also make certain not to wake up with neck, shoulder or back pain. One thing that can help your child to lay comfortably is a good nursing pillow. A good comfy pillow lifts the baby to an appropriate height, making it easier for you to build your posture.

NURSING PILLOW AND ITS USES

Nursing pillows can make breastfeeding a lot easier, especially when it's done being seated. While shopping for a nursing pillow, there are particular things which are needed to be kept in mind:

Size and shape: Depends on whether you're willing to wrap it around your waist, or trying to snuggle the baby on your stomach with its support. The two most common types are U and O shaped. C shaped pillow hugs the front of your body, O wraps entirely around your middle section.

Material: Look for the pillow which is easier to clean or the one that comes with a removable cover as babies tend to salivate and the milk often gets spilt. Choose the material which can be machine washed and dried rapidly.

Adjustable: Look for a pillow that can raise the baby to different heights, depending on your position. Some of the good pillows come with three different elevations, creating more favourable positions for nursing mothers.

Design and style: Nursing pillows are often covered in beautiful fabric, which comes in different designs, colours and prints.

BREASTFEEDING PAIN

For new moms, experiencing the breasts to become heavy, hard and large, can be stressful, at times. It usually happens due to increased blood flow towards the nipples.

Swollen breasts can also be a result of a temporary oversupply of milk, or when your baby misses the feed.

In order to relieve the pain due to breast soreness, you can take warm showers, or use your fingers to release the pressure you feel in-between the feeds, or you can ingest pain-relieving medicines.