5 Bad Sleeping Habits Preventing Your Good Rest
Many people blame poor quality mattresses or pillows for the results of their less than acceptable sleep at night. While there are legitimate claims to be made for old, distressed sleeping implements, in a vast number of cases, the culprits for reducing quality and quantity of sleep often lies in various other bad sleeping habits.
Those who regularly attain a quality nights rest understand the benefits to their lives. Increased energy, a feeling of being rested and having a clear mind upon waking, even performing better in their jobs, school or relationships. The positive effects to good sleep habits are so widespread one might seriously consider reevaluating the current state of their sleeping affairs.
The following list of five negative sleeping habits are far from inclusive. For those suffering from irregular sleep patterns, try one of more of the items on this list. Once a new, better habit has been mastered seek out another and make it a part of ones good sleep hygiene.
Overcome These 5 Bad Habits and Get Rewarded With Good Sleep
- Reducing / Eliminating Allergens: This might be more than the serious pet loving sleeper is willing to accept. However, if one suffers, even in the slightest to pet dander and other allergens born from owning dogs, cats, and other furry animals, having them around during sleep is likely wreaking havoc on your body as it attempts to rest. If possible, train pets to sleep elsewhere, away from the bed or even the room where one is attempting to get a good nights rest.
The same goes for displaying fresh flowers or other blooming plants in the vicinity of the bedroom. Whatever might be affecting the waking individuals allergies will assuredly cause mischief during the sleep cycle.
- Monitor Sleeping Positions: Chances are the position of ones body is causing its share of challenges with extended, resting periods. Though curling up on ones side may seem natural and comfortable for a moment while conscious, sleeping for extended amounts of time in a fetal position will cause lower back strain. Consequently, upon waking, one feels tired, sore, and lacking in the stamina to make it effectively through the day.
- Temperature Check: The colder the ambient temperature of the sleeping room, the more likely the body is to curl up in an attempt to remain in comfortable stasis. The challenge with this, as in the previous bad sleeping habit, is the body is now out of position for receiving a quality nights rest. If possible, turn down the air conditioner, sleep with fewer blankets, and get good rest.
- Dim the Lights, Turn Off the Television: Distractions of any form will cause interruptions in ones sleep patterns. Attempting to get good rest while a television or music is playing is simply not conducive. Having lights on in the sleeping room, likewise prevents the mind from fully resting and providing the body with the recuperative time it needs to prepare for the coming day.
- Wake Up On Time: This is one of the easier sleep habits one can implement. Stick to a steady time for going to bed and getting up every day. Figure out how many hours feels best and then maintain that amount of sleep. Even the occasional sleeping in will put one off their regular schedule resulting in grogginess and quicker exhaustion than desired.
While some of the new, better sleeping habits on this and other lists may be challenging at first to incorporate, stick with it. In the end, getting the quality and quantity of sleep ones body and mind requires will pay dividends well worth the effort and hassle of making the changes and eliminating bad sleep habits from ones life.
Andy West is a freelance writer that writes on a variety of topics like health and fitness, nutrition, CPAP supplies and Going Green.
Back in Phoenix; Time For R & R
Even though the business travel this month was not as arduous as usual, and there were only 3 cities, I’m still extremely fatigued after my first night back home here in the Phoenix area. All of the hotels I stayed at, while on the inexpensive, budget side, were very comfortable and offered nice amenities for their fees.
Perhaps it was all of the baseball I was able to take in? No, I think that is not possible! While I did attend more games this month than I have in a while, most of them were spent entertaining clients and their family’s in some cases.
Maybe it was that entertaining that really got me extra tired. You always have to be on guard and at the top of the sales game when you have customers out for a night (or day game!) on the town. But you come to expect this as a part of the process of being a traveling salesperson who spends the majority of their time on the road.
So for the next week or so, I am planning on doing my office work in the late morning to mid afternoon. I’ll do all this inside while it’s the hottest out in the Arizona sunshine. During the earliest morning hours and where needed into the early evening I am hoping to get some physical labor put into some of the many projects that have been hanging out on my To Do list for quite some time.
One right at the top of the list is finishing the cleanup from the damage that was caused when my hot water heater died a few months ago. The landlord was great about having the new tank installed. He even made sure his investment in nearly brand new carpeting was protected by having a water extraction team completely dry out the carpet and its padding underneath.
There was a number of other cosmetic issues which needed to be tended to and I’ve just been kind of lazy and have put it off. Well, this coming week to 10 days is my time to get those items checked off the list. If I’m diligent about it, I hope to get enough done to be able to catch the first couple of home games next week down at the Diamondback’s ballpark. Yup, more baseball. Don’t hate me!
Take Me and My Clients Out To the Ball Game
The flight into Chicago from San Diego was pretty uneventful. You know that for me uneventful is just the most perfect way to travel. Business travelers like myself do so much moving around that everything which happens tends to get magnified and multiplied. Late departures usually put everything else out of sync. Baggage claim delays add precious time in getting to the hotel; which usually means less sleep or having to call the client and reschedule a business meeting.
Just because I’m willing to settle for a cheap hotel in downtown Chicago doesn’t mean that I want shortcuts taken in other aspects of travel. I sacrifice on the higher priced accommodations so I’m able to take in more Major League Baseball. I take clients to games, and simply use the sport as a lovely mental, physical and emotional distraction from the weightiness of every day working life.
This week is sort of a bonanza for me with respect to heading out to the ballpark. As I’ve mentioned in the past, the major metropolitan areas that have 2 baseball teams are always a treat to visit. Why? Because you are almost guaranteed there will be a home game played while you’re in town.
Chicago is no exception to this. I’ve landed smack in the middle of a 10 game home stretch for the Cubs. While my sales schedule didn’t allow for me to do much with the games from Sunday through Tuesday, I was able to not only get out to that elusive day game, but I was able to take my very best Chicago client and his 2 young sons to today’s game.
If you think the act of taking your customers to a sporting event is over rated, and simply something that is done for the benefit of the sales person, you should have seen the look on those youngsters faces. More to the point, you should have seen how happy and satisfied my client was to be able to get away from the daily grind of his office responsibilities.
It was almost devilish the way he snatched up his sons from their school with the serious intent on playing hooky the rest of the afternoon. This caused me to remember those precious few moments from my very own childhood when I was able to attend a day game with my father and grandfather. Perhaps this is the real reason why I love the game so much. Perhaps it’s why I work so hard to incorporate visiting games with customers into my professional life as well.
San Diego Budget Hotels Have Made My Weekend GREAT!
Fortunately my choice of San Diego budget hotels offered me the option of choosing a Gas Lamp destination for my week here in Southern California. The All Star game had most of live baseball locked up for the first part of the week. Games resumed all around the league starting Friday. By staying in the downtown section of San Diego, I was easily able to walk over to Padres baseball stadium for games on Friday and Saturday.
My business travel allows me to indulge in some niceties during sports season. Ever the baseball fan, I am very fortunate to be able to combine my love of the sport with my professional responsibilities. As a traveling sales person, I am expected to do my fair share of the “wining and dining” of our customers and potential clients while out on the road.
So, I choose to use professional sports as my sales processing medium. When you’re out on the road as much out of each month as I am you need to find activities which will distract you from the tedium of traveling day in and day out. Summer and early fall allows me to use professional baseball as that diversion.
Given that it is perfectly acceptable to take a client to a ball game, I’m doubly excited when time comes to head out to the ballpark. One aspect of taking customers to games that I truly miss is when it was basically socially acceptable for business folks to take in day games.
I suppose there is still some level of acceptance for this, and every now and again I’m able to actually take in a 1:05pm day game with a client. Not often, but it does happen. Even the schedulers of pro ball realize that it is much harder for today’s working person to take the afternoon off in order to attend day games. The number of scheduled afternoon games has decreased dramatically over the past few decades.
And that’s too bad, as the game has a completely different feel when it is played under the sunshine and billowing clouds versus the bright shiny lights. Of course, I’ll never turn down the chance to see the boys of summer play, day or night!
Did You See That Amazing All Star Game?
I’ve been in San Diego since early Sunday evening. Having spent nearly a week in Houston I was ready to move on to my next destination, sunny southern California.
Not sure if I’ve mentioned on this site since I started doing this blogging thing that I used to live in San Diego. All over San Diego county, in fact. I was younger then, had just gotten out of the Navy, and really didn’t have much focus or direction for my life.
Even back then in the late 80’s and early 90’s one of the things that I learned quick was there were always awesome San Diego hotel deals but you had to do some research. Today, of course, most of that can be done from your home computer with very little effort.
Since I’m here this trip for nearly a full 7 days, it was important to me that I got a room that while inexpensive, was still going to have the amenities I needed to be comfortable. The Major League Baseball All Star game was this week, so I knew I wasn’t going to miss out on much live ball. Fortunately, however, it looks like some free time just opened up to allow me to attend this Friday night’s game down at Petco Park. The Padres are playing my home town team the Diamondbacks this weekend. The best part of that is I’ll be able to attend both games on the company as I’ve successfully secured great seats and have one existing client and one potential customer that are big baseball fans like myself.
After last night’s exciting game, I’m definitely ready to head back out to the park for some live action. Fortunately the hotel I’m staying at here in San Diego had a lovely and quite comfortable lounge where I was able to enjoy the NL vs. the AL with food, drink, and the camaraderie of fellow business traveling sports fans.
I’ll report back this weekend and let you know how the games were on Friday and Saturday. If you’re watching the game look for me on the TV. I’m pretty good at catching foul balls!
Becoming a Travel Agent Saves More Money
If you are planning on heading over to Texas this summer or early fall, be sure to do your travel planning early enough. There are a slew of discount hotels in Houston that will save you money without costing you comfort. Being able to get the most for your travel budget is one of the core concepts of my professional life.
Every month I’m traveling around this country meeting with clients. While our company does pretty well, and is relatively recession proof, it doesn’t mean we aren’t constantly chided to be stingy with the money we require to do our travels. Having been in the traveling sales business for just over 15 years, I am constantly in the mode of refining my needs and tastes as well as learning tips, tricks and techniques for getting the absolute best value for my business travel dollar.
One of the things I learned about 5 years ago was the concept of becoming a travel agent. As with most industries, the Internet has completely transformed how travel agents operate their businesses. In fact, if you compared the number of proper agencies today with just a decade ago, I’m betting there is probably a decrease in the range of 75 or 80%.
The reason has to do with the access the Internet gives to just about anyone with a connection. Over the past few years several organizations have sprung up that allow you to sign up and become a fully credentialed travel agent. Sure it costs you a few bucks up front, however if you travel enough, you’re first year savings easily covers those start up costs.
Most of these online travel groups are set up as multi-level marketing operations. If you’re a bit squeamish about the concept of multi-level, don’t worry. With near instant communications being what they are today, it is near impossible to create the pyramid schemes of the 70’s and 80’s.
I don’t personally use my affiliation to recruit others and develop downline and all that sort of thing. Not that there’s anything wrong with getting involved with these companies in order to generate residual income, etc. I just prefer to use my agent’s discounts to get the very best rates for hotels, rental cars, and airline flights.
The more I get to save on travel expenses, the more I’m able to justify heading off to a ball game whenever possible. You know how much I enjoy that. Right? 
Closing the Deal at a Baseball Game
This month I’m only stopping in 3 cities. As such, I was able to pack a bit lighter than normal, and have been able to move around the traveling spots much easier than when I have that extra baggage to carry along. I was sure to do some extra research during my scheduling time and knowing I’d be heading to Texas, I found some killer Houston hotel deals. And this of course, as I’ve been harping since mid-April, has allowed me to catch a couple of the Astros home games while I’m in town.
Theoretically, the Houston Astros shouldn’t have much of a problem during the games I may be able to catch. They played Pittsburgh Tuesday, yesterday and have a 1pm game today. As much as I’d love to skip out on everything and take in today’s day game, I just have too much to do, too many people to do it with.
The Astros are ahead of both the Pirates and the Cardinals in their division. This weekend will see Houston playing St. Louis on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I fly out on Sunday, so that game is out, however, I very well may be able to catch games on Friday and Saturday night. An evening game on the weekend is a bit unusual, but you know me, I’ll take all that I can get!
I suppose the next thing I need to do as I get better with scheduling my trips to synchronize with baseball being available is to try and find clients and potential clients who are baseball fans like myself. There is little more powerful than to take a client to a game, have a few beers and bratwursts and soak in the sun or temperate evenings.
One of the things I’ve found over the years is that when you try and plan for time to discuss business, usually you fail miserably. That’s one of the professional reasons why I enjoy going to a ball game. It is long enough that business conversation is usually quite easy and a natural happening.
Almost inevitably my client or potential customer will slip in a comment or question about our products, my servicing of their account or some other business related topic. When this happens, I know the cost of those tickets just became completely justified. We’ll end up talking about their needs, concerns, and hopes for attaining the best quality from my company.
There have been so many deals I’ve closed or enhanced over the course of a ball game that my associates back at the company often refer to me as Mr. Baseball! And that’s a nickname I certainly don’t mind having!
Happy Birthday America!
Okay, so I pretty much slacked off on finishing up my travel scheduling this weekend. But to my defense, it was a holiday weekend, and there were home baseball games to be seen!
I was able to catch the Diamondbacks on Friday and Sunday, a home stand against those pesky in-division Los Angeles Dodgers. It was a lot of fun, and on Sunday, two of my good friends brought their wives and children.
This is when I get the best of both worlds. I spend every now and then with my best friends and their families, and I get my fill of what it’s like to have some of my own. The great thing (for me, anyway) is that when the event is over or the holiday has passed, I get to go on with my own life and not have to continue on the responsibilities of have a family of my own.
Some of my buddies (there wives to be exact) tell me that I’m going to regret not having a family of my own some day. Still not sure how that’s going to play out. Having seen both scenarios with my own relatives, I’m not sure that I have much to be worried about.
I’ve one aunt who never married, never had children, and while she’s now in her late 80’s (and spry as ever) she seems happy as a clam with her life, past, present, and not surprisingly her future.
Then there is a great uncle that I know who worked very hard in his life, made a lot of money and built quite the car wash empire. I watched (from afar) how his kids and grandkids fought for what they felt they deserved even before my uncle passed away.
His life, towards the end, just didn’t strike me as one that was all that happy go lucky. He even confided in me a number of times that he’d wished he had remained single and childless like I had. In my heart he was always a decent, hard working fellow that just got caught up with a family whose soul seemed to be more about the wealth and less about the man who’d worked so hard to earn it.
So as I sit here this morning working out all sorts of great deals on hotels (there’s tons more baseball this summer, you know!) I sometimes drift off to thoughts about family (and lack there of.) Fortunately I have a brother who had 2 kids with his first wife and a little sister with one child of her own. And that little girl is all grown up now, and we just found out she’ll be giving birth sometime toward the end of this year.
As the afterglow of America’s birthday passes I know that there will be enough extended family around me so I’ll not have to worry about either the pluses or the minuses of having had my own offspring. And I’m pretty okay with that!
Back Home To Phoenix in Time For the Diamondbacks
Wow! I’ve finally made it home to the Phoenix airport and have to say that I am glad to have a few days off. Getting into Corpus Christi was like trying to pry my way into a clam. One that new it was going to get cooked just as soon as it opened up!
I suppose it could have been worse, of course. I remember when I first started to seek out economy hotels for my business travel a few years ago. It seemed I’d get some amazing rates and once I got into the establishment I would just scratch my head and wonder what the heck I’d been thinking about.
Of course, that was before our latest recessionary times and even the cheesy places didn’t feel like they had to work very hard to get your hard earned business budget. But today, if you’re not receiving some decent value for your buck, you simply move on. Those that may be at the lower end of the hospitality chain are just not going to be able to compete with companies that actually put a little love and energy into making your stay with them the best it can be. Even if that means there are few frills and perks.
As I’ve been sharing over this past month or so, because I’ve been able to save money on my lodging I’ve been attempting to grab some Major League Baseball. As fate would have it, now that I’m home for a week or so, I’ll be able to grab several Diamondback games as they are starting a 10 game home stand tomorrow night.
Should be some good fun. I’ll have to call up a few of my local buddies and see who’s going to have the time to go hang out this weekend. It’s always tough to be spontaneous on the 4th of July weekend, but then, that’s one of the things I love about my life! Being single with few family responsibilities means I can pretty much get up and do what I want.
And that means baseball for the next few days. Don’t hate me!
Oh, and have a nice holiday weekend with your friends and family, whatever you decide to do. Be safe as well!
Thank Goodness For Soundproof Walls!
Normally I don’t associate economy hotels with sound proof rooms. And I can hardly use last night as an example of whether the rooms are quite enough or not. Seems like everything that could go wrong getting out of Miami did go wrong. Waiting in the terminal nearly an hour past the stated boarding time.
Then, we seemed to sit in the plane, on the tarmac for at least 45 minutes while “stuff happened”. If you know me at all, you’ll understand that this one act is just about my least favorite part of business or personal travel. Heck, if we have to wait, keep us in the comfort of the terminal where we’re not hassled to death should our bladders decide they need some exercise!
And irony of ironies, when we did land successfully in Corpus Christi, they must have had to ring the on-call baggage unloaders cause we all were huddling around the carousel for nothing short of 25 minutes before the darned thing even turned on! What’s up with that?
So, even though it is a bit on the early side, I think I’m just going to have a light dinner at the cafe next door, and will likely give the room sound proofing a test early tonight. Seems that I only slept about 4 hours before having to rise and head out on the road for my sales calls this morning.
But it’s all groovy. Being able to catch not one, but two baseball games while in Miami was definitely the highlight of my journey this month. If it were not so darned hot and muggy in South Florida, I might actually consider the place if I ever decide to relocate.
I know I say that about every cool place I visit! But this country is filled with some extraordinary places to live. People that aren’t as lucky as regular business travelers just have no idea of what all is out there. For this, I’m definitely very grateful.
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Who Am I?
Just a fellow business traveler who's been hopping from city to city across the country for years now!