Are You Getting Enough Sleep?

Surveys suggest 38 percent of people hit the snooze button at least once every morning. This simple action can be enough to put your stress-o-meter through the roof.

Why?

Being repeatedly jarred awake is as stressful to the brain as chronic sleep deprivation, since it repeatedly shocks you awake.

Instead of trying to sneak in more poor-quality winks in the morning, head to bed thirty minutes earlier and studies show you'll cut your stress hormone output as much as 37 percent.

Another technique to try is determining your Personal Sleep Quotient. Pick a bedtime when you're likely to quickly fall asleep. Make sure it's at least eight hours before you need to get up. Keep to this bedtime for the next week and note when you wake up each morning.

If you need an alarm to wake up, if it's difficult to get out of bed or if you're tired during the day, eight hours isn't enough sleep for you. Move your bedtime up by fifteen or thirty minutes the next week. Continue doing this each week until you wake up without an alarm and feel alert all day.

When you determine what you think is an ideal bedtime, cut fifteen minutes off it to see if you're sleepy the next day. If so, add those fifteen minutes back and you've found your Personal Sleep Quotient.