Prioritizing sleep in 2025 will change your life

Published: December 26, 2024

Prioritizing this one habit in 2025 will change your life

By Movieguide® Contributor

Of all the things you prioritize in your life, is sleep one of them? Studies say it should, and as we head into the new year, getting enough sleep could be key to your New Year’s resolutions.

Researchers from the University of South Carolina, CQUniversity Australia and the University of Surrey conducted a study on the importance of getting some Z’s every night and found that it matters the most.

“When our ability to control what we do is depleted by sleepiness, we tend to operate more on ‘autopilot’ with minimal thought.” said Amanda Rebar, associate professor of health promotion education and behavior and director of the Motivation and Health Behavior Lab at the USC Arnold School of Public Health. “Our study shows this definitively: people were more likely to act habitually when they reported feeling sleepy. While this can lead to higher levels of good habits, it can also cause individuals to fall back on bad habits.”

About a quarter of Americans feel tired on a daily basis, and that’s not a good thing because it can affect our ability to complete tasks. Rebar added: “Acting on our preferences requires intentional determination. Feeling drowsy diminishes our ability to exercise that resolve over other competing desires and temptations. That can cause us to habitually act in a way that goes against our goals.”

Being sleepy can also prevent us from making positive changes.

Study co-author Benjamin Gardner said: “When we try to make positive changes in our behaviour, feeling sleepy can put us at real risk of falling back into our old, unwanted bad habits. Decay can cause us to lose faith in our ability to change and cause us to give up.”

Along with mental well-being, sleep is also vital to our physical well-being.

“Sleep affects every system in your body – cardiovascular, muscular, nervous, endocrine, skeletal, lymphatic, respiratory, digestive, urinary and reproductive. Sleep also affects metabolism and is closely related to weight gain and loss. Poor sleep has also been linked to cancer, injury, poor brain health and even an increased risk of glaucoma. disclosure.

If you’re not getting enough sleep, consider adding it to your list of New Year’s resolutions.

Mayo Clinic suggests six steps to improve your sleep quality:

1. Stick to a sleep schedule

2. Pay attention to what you eat and drink

3. Create a restful environment

4. Limit daytime sleep

5. Include physical activity in your daily routine

6. Manage worries

Avoiding screen time at night can also improve your sleep, which will ultimately benefit your health, quality of life and overall well-being.