READing Your Style: Dream State

Vogue, June 2012

Vogue has an awesome article in its June issue that addresses eating smart to sleep better instead of using sleeping pills, for a correlational study published in the BMJ Open Journal found that people who take as few as eighteen prescription sleeping pills a year are 3.5 times more likely to die than non-users. Although, correlational studies do not prove causality, in my fashion, using drugs and medications makes me wary (especially when I think about the commercials on television that advise attorney options for users of recalled drugs). Besides, according to the author of the article and her findings, Jancee Dunn, found that people who took popular prescription sleeping pills fell asleep a mere 12 minutes faster than those who took a placebo, and slept for a grand total of eleven minutes longer. I like to think that if we as humans were getting on fine in ancient civilizations without advanced medicine and technology, how would we survive, which is why I put so much reverence in alternative medicines and solutions.  If you are the type that has trouble going to sleep at night, maybe considering these daily dietary needs will aid you in reducing your sleep deprivation. Sleep is paramount to healthy body function, and if you aren’t getting the right type of sleep you need, simply put, I fear for your look.

I’ve taken the liberty of condensing the article into a nice and easy chart for you to review and take away what information you find most valuable. I find that a lot of what is prescribed in this article is a quite simply a diet for general healthy eating, so follow these guidelines if you are looking to follow a healthier lifestyle.

Dunn reported that she kept to the following diet for 2 weeks and said that she had realized she sank into sleep more quickly and woke up with more energy: Breakfast, an egg-white omelet with berries and whole grain toast; Lunch, salad with grilled chicken and fruit; Dinner, a lighter grain such as faro, vegetables, and tofu or a small piece of fish. In my fashion, this is an excellent basic daily diet for not just going to sleep easier, but staying healthy in general. All one has to do is adjust your portions to how much you feel your body needs (not wants) and over time, hopefully, you will feel some differences in your body function. If one gets tired of the same routine, you can switch up between similar foods, and that to me is what helps to open your mind to new ways of keeping healthy and exploring life. Finding your own formula to life should be the goal.