Sleepless in Seattle (or Elsewhere)

With Daylight Savings Time launching early Sunday morning—hooray for more post-school/post-work sunlight!—the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) has deemed March 7-13, 2010 National Sleep Awareness Week. When the clocks roll back one hour, everyone loses an hour of treasured sleep. So the NSF uses this time every year to highlight the importance of hitting the hay. How are your sleep habits?

This year’s Sleep in America poll found that sleep trends vary based on ethnic background. Apparently, Asians reported racking up the most time snoozing (seven hours per night average), while Blacks generally slept the least (six hours per night).

But what’s one thing nearly all 1,007 respondents (76-83 percent of them) agree on? That a lack of sleep is related to health issues. So what’s keeping the most people up at night? Financial issues. And nearly one in five surveyed had missed a family event because they were too tired!

Sleep is a must for me…I feel best when I get between eight and nine hours each night. What’s your ideal sleep level? Some experts say you have reached your optimal sleep level when you can wake up without an alarm and feel rested after a night’s sleep.

I know that, while exercise tends to increase my energy exponentially, it’s also hard to find the drive to work up a sweat after a tiring and busy day at work. But an active lifestyle can improve sleep duration and quality, so skimping on gym time can actually be a vicious sleep-stealing cycle.

Not sleeping enough can be detrimental to your waistline by making exercise feel tougher, by encouraging your body to seek out high energy foods and by affecting hormone levels and metabolism.

Here are some of my favorite quick tips from the National Sleep Foundation for those looking for more shut-eye:

• “Create an environment that is conducive to sleep that is quiet, dark and cool with a comfortable mattress and pillows.
• Exercise regularly, but avoid vigorous workouts close to bedtime.
• Save your worries for the daytime. If concerns come to mind, write them in a ‘worry book’ so you can address those issues the next day.
• If you can’t sleep, go into another room and do something relaxing until you feel tired.”

But no matter what you do regarding your sleep patterns, please don’t try products like  ”Sleep ‘n Slim!”

(Image from Product Review Site)

Given the Green Light

I’ll make this spinach news snappy so you can go grab some at the grocery store! New research gives supermarket spinach displays a big thumbs up. Clear containers and fluorescent lighting actually boost the levels of vitamin C, K, E and folate, as well as beneficial pigments in the leaves. Scientists compared store display spinach to similar greens stored in the dark. Certain vitamin concentrations in the produce increased as much as 100 percent after nine days of light exposure!

This research, published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, may be used to determine the best ways to keep this superfood fresh and nutritious longer before consumption. Neat!

How to use all of that tasty and crisp spinach? Try one of these healthy recipes from Eating Well magazine!

(Image from iVillage)

Water cooler conversation starter: A chef makes lemonade out of lemons…well, sort of. When chef Daniel Angerer’s wife was causing the family’s freezer to overflow with breast milk, he got to work doing what he does best: making creative cuisine. Angerer, from New York City’s Klee Braisserie, didn’t want to “waste gold,” so he began making breast milk cheese. The recipe was such a hit after the chef posted it on his blog, Angerer now offers a dish utilizing the unique cheese at his posh restaurant.

His wife hopes that he can make even more lactation creations before she stops making milk—she suggests gelato. This is a frugal concept, I guess, but also quite “different” (in gentle terms).

You’ve most likely tried cow, goat and/or sheep cheese, but this seems like a whole new permutation. Would you be willing to try dairy products made with human breast milk?