I have found an interesting article about sleep, with some interesting and surprising facts, and thought it might interest you.

7 Surprising Facts About Sleep

by Barbara Brody
Source: WomansDay.com

Can’t sleep? You have plenty of company. About half of all adults experience insomnia on occasion, and 1 in 10 battle insomnia on a regular basis, according to the Cleveland Clinic. If you fall into one of those groups, chances are you’re already following the tried-and-true rules for a good night’s sleep: Don’t have too much caffeine (especially late in the day), don’t exercise late at night, keep your bedroom at a cool, comfortable temperature, and make sure your bed, pillows and linens are comfy. Those are all good tips, but there are lesser-known things you can try to help you get more rest.

1. Set a Bedtime Alert
Most of us already use an alarm to wake up in the morning, but sleep expert Michael Breus, PhD, author of Beauty Sleep: Look Younger, Lose Weight, and Feel Great Through Better Sleep, suggests setting it at night as well. “I tell people to set their alarm for one hour before bedtime, which reminds them to begin what I call the power-down hour,” says Dr. Breus, who is also a spokesman for the Zeo Personal Sleep Coach. He says you should spend the first 20 minutes of that hour taking care of any necessary chores (like walking the dog or making your kids’ lunches), then spend the next 20 minutes on hygiene (washing up, brushing your teeth, etc.), and save the last 20 minutes before bed for relaxation. You don’t necessarily have to meditate, if that doesn’t appeal to you; you can also do deep breathing exercises, read a book or even watch a little TV (as long as it’s not too stimulating).

7 Surprising Facts About Sleep – Read the full article

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For the last two weeks the website was down for a few hours almost every day. If you arrived through a search engine, a link from another website, or just by typing the address for any page at SuccessCoinsciousness.com, you might have arrived to a blank page.

The server had problems fixing the issue, and in spite of email messages and telephone calls the problems continued. Sometimes it was possible to access the website, and sometimes there was just a blank page. I even couldn’t access this blog to add new posts. Finally I decided to leave the hosting company and find another one. For various reasons, I prefer not to disclose the name of my previous hosting company.

After making a search I found a hosting company with a really good hosting plan, and with a lot of useful tools, which can let in many more visitors, especially as I intend to expand the website and bring in many more visitors.

Finally, I have moved the website to the new hosting company a few days ago.

The move to the other company required uploading the whole website to the new server, changing some scripts, and checking that everything is working in order.

There were some problems with different scripts and with some email messages, which did not arrive, but most things are working okay now, as far as I know.

If you encounter any problem accessing a certain page, the blog or the forum, please email advise me.

I have written a short story several years ago, titled “The Power of Thoughts”. It is a story about a yogi and his disciple, who arrived to the big city with no money, but they needed food and a place to stay. The story is about the importance of concentration and visualization.

“One day, a yogi and his disciple arrived to the big city. They had no money with them, but they needed food and a place to stay. The disciple was sure that they were going to beg for their food, and sleep in the park at night.

“There is a big park not far from here. We can sleep there at night”, said the disciple.
“In the open air?” Asked the yogi.
“Yes”, responded the student.

The yogi smiled and said: “No, tonight we are going to sleep in a hotel and eat there too”.

The student was amazed. “How?”
“Come and sit down”, said the yogi.

They both sat down on the ground and the yogi said:
“When you focus your mind intently on any subject, it comes to pass.”

The yogi closed his eyes and started to meditate with full concentration. After about ten minutes he got up and started to walk, with his disciple following him. They walked through several streets and alleys, until they arrived to a hotel.”

Read the whole story

You cannot always change your environment and the events of your life, but you can learn to change your attitude toward them. A change of attitude changes the way they affect you. It is always advisable to learn, and to practise changing the attitude to a more positive one, and also learn to calm down the mind, but this needs to be done on a regular basis, and not only at the time when there are worries and problems. One needs to train himself, so he stays positive and calm in difficult times.

Suppose somebody who doesn’t know to swim falls into the water, and needs immediate help. You cannot start teaching him how to swim, but if he learned to swim before this event, there would have been no problem. It is the same with being free from anxiety and worry. When in the midst of a difficult time you can use some first aid to keep your head above the water, but to remain peaceful and calm, unaffected by problems and worries, you should have trained before that.

Here are a few simple suggestions:

- Engage in something interesting.

- When worried, try to be busy.

- Never lose hope.

- Analyze your worries: will they help you or waste your time and energy? Do you want them? What are they? They are just thoughts. If you keep thinking them they will grow and get stronger. Do you want that? No matter how difficult it might be, try to focus on solutions, not on problems.

- Visualize yourself free from the problem causing the worry, for example, visualize having a job or money at the bank.

Worry is a state of mind. So is happiness and peace, what do you choose?

Here are a few articles that might help:

www.successconsciousness.com/overcoming_anxiety.htm
www.successconsciousness.com/stress_management_tips
www.successconsciousness.com/peace_mind.htm
www.successconsciousness.com/blog/concentration-mind-power/how-to-overcome-disturbing-and-distracting-thoughts/

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- Are you aware of the thoughts that pass through your mind?

- Do you remember what you thought a few minutes ago?

- Do you know how many thoughts pass through your mind in 24 hours?

- Do all your thoughts originate in your mind? Are they your own thoughts or other people’s thoughts that you think are your own thoughts?

Thinking is very useful in every area of life, but people go too far with it. It has turned into some sort of slavery. Instead of thinking on what you want, when you want, you think all the time, every hour of the day. Every word you hear, everything you see brings thoughts to your mind. The mind is always busy, most of the time thinking meaningless thoughts as a reaction to external stimulus.

People have lost the ability to stop thinking when they don’t need to. Thoughts come and go whenever they want, distracting the attention, spoiling concentration, and keeping the mind in a state of endless mental activity. It is like a machine that is never switched off.

Many of these thoughts are negative, causing anxiety and worries, wasting one’s time and energy.

Instead of using thoughts to help in your affairs, you are being used by thoughts. They take your time and they take your energy, without giving you anything in return. They constantly produce noise in your mind, preventing you from experiencing real inner peace.

Are you able to stop thinking negative thoughts? Are you able to stop all those thoughts that keep moving your attention from one thing to another? Do you keep worrying, and do you expect the worst? Does your mind keep busy with what someone said about you, and do you keep thinking how life is bad for you, because someone at work got promoted, and you were not?

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