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Staying Up Late: Why Everyone Should Go to Bed Earlier

“Sleep is that golden chain that ties health and our bodies together.”

Thomas Dekker – Actor

Should Go to Bed Earlier
Creative Commons License photo credit: Gian Franco Costa Albertini

Over the past year and a half I have developed the bad habit of staying up late. Really late. I rarely get to bed before 2am as I am up working on my business. And since I developed this bad habit I’ve noticed some of my other good habits fading away like dew in the sunshine. I don’t meditate as much, I am less patient and my health is not as strong.

In this post I want to give you a few reasons as to why staying up late is a bad idea and why we should all endeavor to go to bed a bit earlier.

What constitutes “staying up late”

So how do you know if you are staying up late? Is 10pm late? Is 1am late? Actually, it depends. You know you are staying up late by one single signal. You are tired. If you are up late enough to be tired you know that you are going past your body’s bedtime. And this bedtime is different for everybody. Some people need to be in bed by 8pm. Others can stay up all night studying and not feel tired at all.

Why we should go to bed earlier


Creative Commons License photo credit: marcandrelariviere

If you find that you often stay up late it might be worth while having a read over these points. I truly believe that people these days stay up far too late and that going to bed earlier is a key to many successes in your life.

If you know of any other reasons or perhaps you don’t agree with what I have written please leave a comment and discuss it. I am very interested to learn more about the issue of sleep.

1. Humans aren’t used to staying up late
Something that I have come to realize in the past few days is that humans are not used to staying up late. In fact, up until about 100 years ago most human beings would go to bed at a little after sundown. This is an interesting point as it indicates that staying up late is a very unnatural behavior.

Before electricity and light bulbs most people went to bed as soon as the days chores were finished and dinner was eaten. Sure, they had candles and fires but for the most part people did not stay up reading. They certainly weren’t up writing blog posts or watching Letterman! And going to bed early often means waking up early – until about 100 years ago everyone got up at dawn.

So perhaps staying up late is not healthy because we aren’t used to it yet. Perhaps humans are supposed to go to bed early and get up early – just like every other creature on Earth. And this leads me to my next point…

2. Staying up late is not nature’s way
I recently saw a video where the great Buddhist master Tai Situ Rinpoche said that staying up late and getting up late was not in tune with nature. I think he is 100% correct.


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Think about the world. Think about nature. Everything rises when the sun rises. The flowers start to open, the birds start chirping and so on. With the exception of nocturnal animals everything on Earth wakes up as the sun does. And in a similar vein everything goes to bed as the sun does. Flowers close, birds nest, etc. But humans stay up watching television or reading blogs. Does that sound right?

If something or someone goes against nature it usually has bad consequences. For example, if you spend your life eating unnatural foods it usually means you end up getting fat, diabetes or even cancer. So why is bedtime any different? Is it really a good idea to disturb this natural rhythm?

3. The morning is the best time for meditation
Throughout the ages, since the time of the Buddha, meditation masters have been telling us that the morning is the best time of the day for spiritual progress. For many of you reading this article your spiritual progress is the most important aspect of your life. So why are we sleeping in?

In the morning the mind is clearer, sharper and more at ease. It is easier to rest in the natural state of your mind and you have a lot less disturbing emotions such as desire, anger and attachment (apart form attachment to sleep!). Furthermore, Chinese medicine shows us that the internal energies (chi) of the body are ideal for meditation during the early hours of the day. Perhaps this has something to do with the natural rhythm that we talked about above?

If you want to become a great meditator or at least start to take your meditation practice more seriously I strongly urge you to start going to bed early and waking up early. You will find that progress comes a lot faster.

4. The morning is the best time for exercise
Last night as I was sitting on the computer eating a packet of crisps and drinking a chocolate milk the news lady told me that Australia is now the fattest nation in the world. I couldn’t believe it! My home country was now fatter (per capita) than the USA. And there I was up late eating junk food and depriving my body of sleep.

should go to bed earlier
The morning is the best time to go for that run

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Heart Disease Hope: 13 Ways to Live, Eat and Work for a Healthy Heart


Creative Commons License photo credit: timparkinson

Every 34 seconds someone in the United States dies from heart disease. That is 2,500 people a day! In my opinion there is not enough attention placed on the dangers of heart disease. Most of us are concerned about breast, prostate and skin cancer but these diseases kill far less people than heart disease. So why aren’t we more worried? Heart disease kills more people than any other condition. That is a fact.

This post is going to show you 13 ways that you can live, eat and work for a healthy heart. Each one of these tips is a powerful way to reduce your risk of a heart attack and help you improve the strength of your ticker. I hope that some of you take these tips to heart.

13 ways to live, eat and work for a healthier heart

1. Get out and move your body
Exercise is without a doubt the best thing you can do for your heart. This is a scientifically proven fact that no one can debate. It is vital that you get at least 20 minutes of exercise everyday if you want to have a healthy and fit heart.

You see, the heart is a muscle. And like any other muscle it needs to be exercised. If you don’t work out your biceps they soon go soggy and old and you run a greater risk of damaging or tearing them. The same is true of the heart. If you don’t get it pumping on a regular basis you are more likely to suffer a heart attack or some other form of heart disease.

Start by walking. Everyone can do this. You can park your car 20 minutes away from the office and walk the distance each day. That way it becomes part of your routine and is more difficult to avoid. Or, if you want to get really fit and healthy you can start jogging, doing martial arts, swimming or going to the gym. All of these things are a fantastic way to help your heart.

2. Start tackling your stress
We all get stressed. It is unavoidable. But if you do not start dealing with your stress it could wind up causing you some pretty serious problems. Research has shown that people who are highly stressed run a greater risk of heart attacks and coronary artery disease.

Scientists aren’t actually sure why stress causes heart problems. They know there is a link but they aren’t sure what it is. Some people say that stress itself is a direct cause for heart attacks while others say that stress makes other factors like cholesterol or blood pressure worse. Whatever the hard science says, it is clear that there is a link between stress and increase heart disease.

I have written many articles on stress as it is something I am constantly trying to deal with myself. The things that have helped me the most include meditation, exercise and overcoming procrastination. But these methods might not work for you. It is important that you learn how to deal with stress in your own way. It could be the best thing you ever do for your health.

3. Stop smoking right now


Creative Commons License photo credit: bradleygee

I am going to speak honestly here. I hope I offend some people. Smoking is a filthy habit. I feel really sorry for smokers as they are willingly and knowingly inhaling poison – poison they know is killing them. This is not the 1920’s. We know that smoking causes cancer and heart disease. So if you are a smoker and you are reading this post then stop right now because all the tips in the world are going to be 100% ineffective if you keep smoking cigarettes.

Cigarettes contain over 4,800 dangerous chemicals. Can you imagine going into your chemical cabinet in the basement and sniffing 4,800 of them? You just wouldn’t do it. So why keep smoking cigarettes? Now, I am sorry for sounding so judgmental and harsh but it is because I care. I don’t want you to die an agonizing and painfully slow death of lung cancer. I don’t want you to die of a heart attack before you get to say goodbye to your children. I want you to live a long and happy life. So I am saying it like it is.

There is an upside. The upside is this: If you are a smoker you have an advantage over everyone else. You have the power to make one change that will massively improve your heart’s health. All you have to do is quit smoking. If you quit smoking today you will add years on to your life. Literally… years. No other “healthy heart tip” is as powerful as this one. You might have known by now that there are several cessation programs and devices(I have heard vaping is a very good way to start on the path of quitting) you can use but it all starts with the mindset and will power to abstain from puffing that death stick. Give those nicotine patches or portable vaporizers (like the ones at www.DaVinciVaporizer.com) a try. That would be a good start for you.

4. Make your diet mostly fruits and vegetables
Many years ago when I was in high school I read a book that talked about the advantages of eating a diet mostly based around fruits and vegetables. In that book the author spoke about all the people and cultures throughout history who did this and all the benefits that they enjoyed. And now science is backing up this information by telling us that fruits and vegetables help keep a healthy heart.

In today’s modern world we eat a lot of processed foods. Chips, candy, soda, take out, etc. All of these foods are full of sugar, salt and a thousand types of preservatives all of which are bad for your ticker. It is time to switch to a natural diet made of mostly fruits and vegetables. This will help you avoid heart disease and other illnesses like cancer and diabetes.

It is not as hard as it sounds. Think about all the beautiful things you can make from fruits and vegetables – potato curries, fruits salads, Caesar salads, roast vegetables, Asian stir fry and so much more. And the best thing is that you always feel amazing after eating them. No feelings of heaviness of bloating.

5. Lose weight – especially fat on your stomach
There is a massive campaign going on in Australia at the moment which is trying to educate people on how dangerous it is to be fat. In particular, the commercials are telling us that new science has shown that belly fat in particular can dramatically increase your chances of having a heart attack. Take a look: [Read more…] about Heart Disease Hope: 13 Ways to Live, Eat and Work for a Healthy Heart

Poll Results: How Many Coffees Do You Drink Per Day?

Today is the last day of our poll on how many coffees readers of The Daily Mind drink per day. The results really surprised me. They were very different from what I had expected.

Take a look at a Pie Chart of the results:

Coffees per day Poll Results

The biggest section is the 2-3 cups per day which I think is pretty normal and to be expected. The next biggest slice of pie, however, is the NONE section meaning that 28.4% of readers drink no coffees at all. This really took me by surprise.

I wonder why all these people don’t drink coffee. Is it a health choice? I also wonder if readers of The Daily Mind are less likely to drink coffee because they seem to be interested in training their mind and coffee is seen as an obstacle to that? Who knows…

The next poll will be up later this week so make sure you come back and vote!

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