The subjects in the study both ate healthy, low calorie diets to promote weight loss. Both groups (sleep deprived and well-rested) lost weight during the study, but the sleep deprived group lost mostly lean body mass with only 26% of their weight loss being fat. The well-rested group experienced a fat loss of 57%!

In another study, a control group that received 10 hours of sleep per night and ate a normal diet didn’t gain any weight while the sleep restricted group gained weight while eating the same diet.

The bottom line is that adequate sleep is beneficial to your weight loss efforts. Adequate sleep is really quite important to any area of health, so it’s important you do what you can to ensure a good night’s rest.

If you are distracted by noise at night (snoring partner, yapping dogs), you have a several sleeping earplug options. Foam earplugs are the most comfortable and you can purchase them in different sizes for smaller ear canals. Women tend to have smaller ear canals and obviously, children do as well. Reusable sleeping earplugs also work quite well, and they can be used for other purposes around the home (studying, mowing the lawn etc.).

Maybe noise isn’t the issue. Some people can’t stand the silence of night. If you need soothing music or sound to lull you to sleep, your solution may be a sound pillow. This is my favourite new product because I happen to be a big music fan (surely you’ve learned this by now!). My husband, on the other hand, does not like to listen to music while falling asleep, so the sound pillow was the perfect solution. He doesn’t hear a thing!

Your difficulty falling asleep may have nothing to do with noise, lack thereof or otherwise. Perhaps it’s light! I love my black satin shut-eye shade. It’s really comfortable, and I even seem to wake up with less crinkles, creases and puffiness around my eyes. You know what they say. As we get older, those little sleep lines stay on our faces longer throughout the day and eventually, become permanent!

If you still have trouble sleeping, you might consider changing your evening routine. I find that watching too much television before I go to bed keeps my mind working overtime. Instead, I started reading for a bit and taking a warm bath in lavender water (add a few drops of lavender oil to your bath). Afterwards, I climb into bed and sail off to sleep listening to my favourite artist of the day on my sound pillow!

Sweet Dreams!

Meghan

I’ve been using my sleep earplugs for quite some time, but I still had a problem. The morning sun! I like to sleep in a bit when I can, mostly at the weekend. It helps me catch up on sleep I may have missed over the week due to a hectic schedule. I’ve tried different shades over the windows, but they seemed to clutter up my windows and shrink my rather small bedroom. Macks Black Satin Shut Eye Shade was the perfect solution, and I’m so happy that my mother sent it to me!

The luxurious black satin is not only attractive, but it’s very soft and comfortable with a padded nose bridge that keeps the shade from pressing against my eyelids. If you work at night, this is a must have for sleeping during the day. I’ve noticed one other benefit that they don’t even use in their advertising. Because the padded nose bridge keeps the mask from pressing against my eyelids, my eyes look less puffy and creased in the morning! Could this be a small anti-aging benefit to the mask?

In addition, she sent me something that is helping me drift off to sleep to my favourite music, Mack’s Sound Pillow. This ingenious creation lets me plug my iPod into the 2 speakers found in the comfortable standard size pillow. I get to drift off while listening to my favourite piano music or on occasion, Keith Urban singing into my ear! And because my husband cannot hear the pillow (so your sleep partner is not disturbed), he doesn’t really need to know why I’m smiling! (he-he)

You know what else? I’ve found another use for Mack’s Sound Pillow! When my son has one of his famous temper tantrum meltdowns, I tell him it’s music time. Within a few minutes after he lies down on the sound pillow, he calms down and we’re able to actually talk about what he did wrong. It’s been an immense help!

Mack’s Sound Pillow can also be used for noise therapy for people who suffer from tinnitus (painful ringing in the ear). Tinnitus is usually the worst when the environment is completely silent like it often is at night. The sound pillow can provide noise and eliminate the problem. Noise therapy is also great for autistic children. Talk to your child’s team of medical caregivers to see if your autistic child would benefit from Mack’s Sound Pillow.