According to a German medical journal, every fifth person has some sleeping disorder — women more so than men, adults more so than youths, town dwellers more so than people in the country. Some have difficulty in feeling asleep, others wake up too early, and still others wake up many times during the night. What can you do about it if you have such problems?

1. Stop worrying and start sleeping - Usually there is no danger in being without sleep for a period now and then. A likens sleep to a dove. If you hold your hand out gently, it comes voluntarily and settles on it. But if you try to grab it, it flies away.
Indeed, analysis of the sleep of persons who claim to suffer from sleeplessness shows that they often sleep more than they think they do.

2. Find the cause – It is important to find the real cause of your sleeping problem, if indeed you have one. Sleeplessness may be a symptom of some physical disorder, such as hypertension or upset stomach. But often, the cause is in your mind rather than in your body. Are you worrying about something? Try to reason it out with yourself in a balanced way. Prayer, offered in faith, can put a person’s mind at ease.
Consulting a wise and mature person regarding your problem may also be beneficial.
Perhaps the problem is not you but that of your environment. The ventilation of the bedroom may be poor, or the temperature may be too high. Try keeping it between 59 and 62 degrees Fahrenheit (15 to 17 degrees Celsius). Rather high humidity in the bedroom is usually good. If you take the chill off your bed before lying in it, you may fall asleep more easily, as a cool bed has a stimulating effect.
Is your bed well-suited to you? You should be able to move in it without difficulty. Since your bed is where you spend one third of your life, get the best you can afford. Make sure it is correctly placed in the room. Most people prefer to sleep with their head toward the window. Even the material in the mattress and the bedclothes may affect your sleep. For example, a nightdress of synthetic fiber might cause discomfort.
The bedroom light may disturb you. Some need complete darkness and even have to wear an eye mask, while others want a soft night lamp burning. There may also be annoying sounds. Have a new washer put in that dripping faucet. If nothing else helps, use earplugs — although it takes some time to get used to them, and they are not a good idea for people with chronic ear problems.
3. Reset your day and night rhythm – Do not try to force yourself into sleep. Some people simply cannot get sleepy until the early morning hours. Doctors have found that it is much easier to adjust their internal clocks by advancing them than by trying to “move the hands back.” Some lifetime insomniacs were cured by simply postponing their bedtime a few hours each day until their cycles advanced to a normal bedtime. “During treatment, I felt, like a zombie (a walking dead person),” admits one cured patient, but the final results were good.
Some people who complain about poor night sleep actually rob themselves by sleeping during the day. So, if you find it difficult to fall asleep at night, try to avoid that nap after lunch. “But I get so drowsy!” some will say. Well, at those times why not do something else that may be refreshing, like taking a quick walk? Think of your sleep as money in the bank. If you spend it in naps, you won’t have it at night when you really need it.

Eating Habits plays very important role in fitness and health of an individual. The main aim of healthy eating is to consume variety of foods to get proper amount of energy and nutrients, without getting too much calories. Therefore, healthy eating is important to remain fit, proper functioning of body and staying away from health problems.

Here are 8 healthy eating tips so you will feel light and stay fit all the time. Following are the essentials of a truly nutritious diet -

1. Avoid too much fat. Thankfully, there are more low-fat products in the market today such as milk, ice cream, and cheese.

2. Buy food products low in sodium. Check the nutritional information found at the back of the package or label for the sodium content of the snack food or produce. Nutritionists say that one should take no more than 1.000 milligrams of sodium a day.

3. Try to consume foods low in salt. Salt flavors food but too much may cause fluid retention in the body and increase blood pressure. Bear in mind that there are other seasoning options available. Why not try natural herbs to spice up the flavor of your food?

4. Stay away from additives. Try to choose meat, chicken, and fish that do not contain additives. There are organic food stores where such products are found.

5. Eat starch. Rice, potatoes, corn, grains and grain products have starch that, through digestion, is converted into sugar, which supplies energy to keep you up and about the whole day.

6. Consume a variety of food in moderate amounts. Take in different foods like meat, fruits, vegetables, breads, etc. in moderate amounts. Aside from being a healthy practice, this also gives you the opportunity to savor a variety of flavors!

7. To prevent weight gain, avoid sweetened soft drinks and fruit juices in favor of water or artificially sweetened drinks. Although many women swear by artificial sweeteners, scientists have long debated whether they actually help regulate body weight. Researchers conducted a study that suggests that people can lose or maintain weight simply by incorporating artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame (found in NutraSweet) and saccharin into their diet. Forty-one overweight people, mostly women, with similar eating and exercise habits were divided into two groups. They consumed comparable amounts of either sugar-sweetened or artificially sweetened foods, drinks, or supplements daily. After ten weeks, body weight increased in the sugar group (by 3.5 pounds) and decreased in the artificially-sweetener group (by 2.2 pounds). Also, blood pressure went up in the sugar group and went down in the sweetener group. The study found that the sugar group ate more calories and carbohydrates compared with the artificial sweetener group, but the groups’ intake of fat and protein did not substantially differ. Beverages were by far the largest source of sugar intake).

8. To help you stay healthy, stick to low-cholesterol and high-fiber dishes.

Obesity refers to the condition of having an excessive amount of body fat. The worst enemy of health today is surplus fat. Obesity aggravates cardiovascular degeneration, diabetes, biliary and renal ailments, arthritis and many other disorders, and increases surgical risks and accident proneness.

Causes of Obesity :

There are numerous causes that are related to the onset of obesity like:

1. Heredity or genetics
2. Hormonal imbalances
3. Environmental factors such as cultural habits, etc.
4. Inadequate physical activity.
5. Eating habits such as overeating or improper diet.

Among the above, the major cause of obesity is improper eating habits.

Eating habits: The once great cause of overweight is overeating – taking in more than your energy output demands. Our appetite is no longer a reliable guide for eating the right amount of food. Mostly now-a-days people are exposed to large amount of rich goods, Under such conditions, it is easy to form incorrect habit of eating. Most of us have our habits fairly stabilized by the time we are twenty-five years old. This includes habits of eating as well. But as we grow older our energy expenditures are lessened, we cannot burn up all the energy value of the food we eat, and excess energy is stored in our bodies. Obesity creeps up when our activity slows down but the appetite of our vigorous year still continues. Thus, improper eating habits are responsible for causing obesity.

A person should learn to make permanent changes in dietary habits in order to remain away from weight problems, like:

1. Go easy on fats and fatty foods, particularly those high in saturates, such as butter, hard margarine, fatty meal and meat products, crisps and fried food. Choose instead lean meat, fish and dairy products with a lower fat contents such as cottage and skimmed or semi skimmed milk.
2. Be sparing with salt and sugar, and with food that contains large quantities of added salt and sugar, Highly salty food includes smoked products, savoury shocks such as peanuts and crisps, processed meat products and some breakfast cereals. Watch out for sugar in drink, breakfast cereals, yoghurt and processed foods, as well as sweets, cakes and biscuits.
3. Reduce total caloric intake by 250 to 500 Kcal per day to accomplish the desired weight-loss goals.
4. Go easy on alcohol.
5. Go out for regular work out to burn extra fat from the body.

Effect of Obesity :

Obesity can be directly related to -

1. Changes in normal body function: Changes in body vary from individual and with degree of obesity.

a) Respiratory problem are quite common among people with obesity.
b) A person become lethargic.
c) Abnormal blood clotting.
d) Enlargement of heart.
e) Congestive heart failure.
f) Lower exercise tolerance.

2. Increased risk for certain diseases: Obesity is also associated with certain chronic degenerative diseases such as

a) Coronary Disease
b) Hypertension
c) Diabetes
d) Arthritis due to extra load on joints because of overweight.

3. Detrimental effects on established disease: Obesity can contribute to further development of certain diseases and medical conditions, and weight reduction is usually prescribed as an integral part of treatment, Conditions that are generally benefit from weight reduction includes -

a) Heart attack.
b) Hypertension.
c) Congestive heart disease
d) Diabetes.
e) Orthopedic Problems.

4. Emotional Effect : Emotional or psychological problems might be caused by obesity. In our society, obesity carries a social stigma that contributes to psychological reactions for the obese people.Our media typically glamorize only people with extremely slim and lean bodies.

Drugs are not new to the world. It is not always considered as negative. No one can deny benefits of drugs in fighting diseases, allaying pain and stimulating an exhausted body. But these days, drugs are misused and abused.

Drug addiction is a state or condition in which a person has lost the power of self-control with reference to the particular drug. Addiction to Drugs involves three different phenomena :

Tolerance – It is characterized by a diminished effect on the addict of the same dose of drug over a period of time.

Physical dependence – It is illustrated by what happens to the addict when he does not get his drug. He experience the intense discomfort of withdrawal symptoms.

Habituation – It refers to the emotional or psychological dependence of the addict on narcotic drug. In other words he seek the drug to escape from emotional problems.

Effects of Drugs on Individual

1. Individuals become addicted.

2. Lack of interest in studies, sports and other activities of daily life.

3. Loss of appetite and decrease in body resistance to disease.

4. impairment of intelligence, memory and body coordination.

5. Damage to brain cells.

6. Indulgence in crime.

7. Accidents and mishaps.

8. Tendency to commit suicide.

Effects of Drugs on Family

1. Family becomes hostile to drug abuser because he demands for money and sometimes even steal money and other household goods.

2. Poor reputation in neighbours.

3. Quarrels in family.

4. Sometimes drug abuser may develop disease like AIDS, Hepatitis B etc due to sharing of syringes and needles with other drug abusers and when he live with family, other members of family are also at greater risk of having such diseases.

Effects of Drugs in Society

In any society if youth are fell prey to drugs, then no society or nation can progress for the development. Education will suffer,  jobs and occupation will suffer. society becomes victim of crimes. Expenditure of government will increase as drug de-addiction centres have to establish. Then surveillance teams have to make the keep check on drug dealing.

Everyone loves swimming if seen in view of sports but had you ever came to know about its benefits in our daily life. Alot of people may not be familiar with its benefits and enjoy swimming only as a sport but swimming is a great exercise for the whole body that provides lifetime health benefits.

Benefits of swimming :-

1. Swimming helps in removing dirt, bacteria and other micro-organisms from your skin pores thus preventing the origin of acne and pimples on your skin.

2. While doing stroke swimming breath is to be held for sometime which proves to be an excellent exercise for lungs as it increases lung capacity further helping in prevention of disease like asthma.

3. Swimming requires much more workout of the body muscles burning about 8 calories per minute of our body resulting in significant body weight loss.

4. Swimming is a great exercise for the whole body as it requires workout of each and every body muscle thus providing great strength to the cardiovascular system of your body.

5. Regular swimming prevents your body from joint pains in later stages of life.Moreover it provides relaxation to your mind and relief from stress.

6. Risk of any heart disease and stoke can be reduced by as it reduces the chorestrol levels and helps in lowering blood pressure of the body.

7. Swimming also helps an athlete to maintain his/her fitness level. When an athlete is injured, He/She is often told to swim because muscles have to work hard due to the resistance of the water without experiencing the pain being experienced on the land.

Instead of only health benefits, many people use swimming for developing other qualities like time management , sportsmanship, teamwork or team spirit, goal-setting etc. One should know that while swimming he/she should not consider the distance or the speed, it’s the time you spend on swimming that matters. So start swimming regularly to gain profit of the lifetime health benefits of swimming.

Nowadays people are too health conscious and perform many different exercises to remain fit and healthy. One of the best practice is yoga, it is a physical exercise performed using a series of body postures. It can be performed anywhere as it does not requires any special equipments. Have you ever tried yoga? If not then just start performing it regularly and you will came to know how beneficial is it for keeping our body and mind healthy.

Some of the Health Benefits of Yoga are -

1. Yoga includes stretching your body to the extent that you will become much more flexible than before and have less chances of joint pain in later stages of your life.

2. Meditation is a great aspect of yoga, it helps you to relieve from mental stress,increases your concentration and helps you to achieve peace of mind and calmness.

3. Yoga provides many breathing exercises such as pranayam, anuloma, viloma which helps to improve overall functioning of body organs and blood circulation is also improved.

4. Performing yoga on regular basis helps in making your body to resist many ailments as it keeps the blood pressure in control and healing rate of an injury or a wound is also improved.

5. It helps to make our immune system strong helping our body to fight against many ailments such as headache, fatigue etc.

6. Yoga also enhances your body postures and improves your muscle tone providing relief you from back pains and other joint problems increasing your strength.

7. It also provides a natural glow on your skin making it look healthier.

8. Yoga is the best practice which will help you to increase your coordination, concentration and memory power if performed on regular basis.

9. One of the most important benefit of yoga is that it helps in preventing obesity.

10.Yoga is the best way to improve your body Posture, Eye-Hand Coordination, Balance, Steadiness, Immunity.

The overall conclusion is that yoga is the best medicine for all kind of ailments and it is a great refresher of human mind, body and soul. It helps to make an individual physically and mentally active. So every one should start performing yoga regularly to stay fit and healthy for whole life .

Importance and Benefits of Drinking Water - Everyone knows that how essential is water to survive but had you ever came to know about the other benefits of water? Human body has 60-70% of water and is a very  important nutrient which is beneficial for our body and health in many ways.

Some Important Benefits of Drinking water are listed below -

1. Human health is dependent on the immune system and drinking sufficient amount of  water a day flushes out toxic chemicals from the body making the immune system strong to fight against different ailments like dehydration, fatigue, headache etc.

2. During summers our body loses too much fluid in the form of sweat and drinking good amount of water in these conditions helps to replace the lost fluids and lowers the body temperature.

3. It enhances the skin to look younger by providing natural moisture to the skin  because drinking more water makes the skin hydrated hence making the skin look more fresh and young.

4. Drinking enough amount of water helps in proper digestion of food hence preventing the body from constipation and discomfort.

5. Drinking more water helps in proper absorption of  essential vitamins of the food providing the body with a boost of energy to perform our daily activities.

6. Drinking water also helps in reducing your weight as it flushes out unnecessary fats, toxic, chemicals from the body. It also reduces hunger which indicates our body to eat less resulting in weight loss.

7. As the brain is mostly made up of water so drinking more water helps the brain to circulate fresh-oxygenated blood through the body making our body physically and mentally alert and healthy.

Now as you have came to know that how important is water for our body, you must be thinking of how much water one should drink in a day? The answer is 8-10 glasses or 2 liters of water, yes! you should drink this much amount of water a day to keep your body fit and healthy.

Concept of Health Education – Health education is one important activity that is commonly undertaken to promote health. It is the communication of information that enables people to make decisions about to follow those health-related activities at all stages of life which are conducive for proper health.

Health Education

It is concerned with communicating on those areas that are related to water supply, sanitation, community health, mental health, disease control, personal hygiene, disaster management cycle, reducing the risk of communicable disease and its transmission, proper nutrition, alcohol and drugs, accident and first aid etc.

The Aim of Health Education should be -

1. Help students to assimilate the body if knowledge appropriate to health education.
2. Expose students to a variety of activities and experience related to health education.
3. Help individuals develop a sound understanding of their total development and enable them to attain positive self-images.
4. Provide opportunities for students make personal decisions related to their intellectual, physical and emotional development.
5. Allow students to experience social relations that will encourage desirable behaviour, leadership and co-operation with others.

Objectives of Physical Education -

For Students -

1. A positive attitude towards physical fitness and good health.
2. A personal value system and satisfactory relationship with peers.
3. increased self-awareness and a positive self concept.
4. independence, interdependence, and a sense of responsibility.
5. An understanding of human sexuality.
6. An understanding of appropriate factual information and concepts.

For Patients and Public -

1. To increase public awareness that disease are significant public health problem.
2. To increase public awareness of symptoms and signs of disease.
3. To improve the knowledge and attitudes of patients about detection, treatment and control of disease.
4. To promote the family and community educational material essential for positive lifestyle habits.
5. To create public awareness about the ill=effects of alcohol, smoking and drugs, etc.

For Health professionals -

1. To increase knowledge, attitude and skills of all health professionals regarding sign, symptoms and management strategies for health hazards to improve disease control.
2. To encourage health professionals to treat patients carefully.
3. To develop resource and material for use of health professionals.
4. To promote research all over the world to curb health hazards.
5. To encourage continuing educational programmes on accurate information on diagnosis and treatment of diseases.

Circuit Training – Benefits and Advantages

Circuit training is an excellent way to simultaneously improve strength and endurance. Taking part in circuit training dramatically improves the fitness level of the individual.

Following are the advantages and benefits of circuit training -

Circuit Training

1. The quick pace and constant changing nature of circuit training places a unique type of stress on the body, which differs from normal exercise activities, like weight training and aerobics.

2. The demands of circuit training tend to prepare the body in the very even, all-round manner. Circuit training is an exceptional forum of exercise which aid in the prevention of injury. circuit training is the best way to condition all body. Hence total fitness is developed.

3. Large number of players can be trained at same time.

4. Circuit training can be totally personalized. Whether a person is a beginner, or an elite athlete, training can be modified as per his/her fitness level.

5. Load can be increased gradually.

6. Fighting spirit can be inculcated e.g. if we take the time of the individual circuit, the other player gets the target to finish circuit in least time and this gives a room for improvement.

7. Circuit training is time efficient. No wasted time between sets. It gives maximum results in minimum time.

8. Circuit training can be done anywhere – at parks and playground areas, indoor stadiums, etc. thus it fulfils the desire for interesting environment.

9. Circuit training doesn’t require expensive equipment.

10. Another advantage is that it’s great fun to do in pairs or groups.

Principles of physical fitness are the scientific and systematic approach to improve physical fitness, these guide us that how one should proceed to develop further.

These Principles of fitness development are -

1. Regular Exercise – One should do exercise daily and do it regularly without any long break. The person may become lazy and deshaped if there is no regular exercise. The principle of use should be adopted strictly. One may have any type of activity or exercise daily.

2. Proper Loading – Athlete or player should be loaded properly to improve further. The over-loading should be in a systematic and scientific way and should be increased after the previous load adaptation. It should be increased gradually. The principle of progression should be followed for further progress.

3. Scientific and specific training – One should follow scientific and specific training of exercises according to the requirement of the activity (game or sport). It means the physical fitness programmes should clearly reflect the fitness for a particular sport.

4. Individual difference - This is to be considered properly because every one is different from each other. Work should be done according to an individual’s limit, need and requirement, so that it may be performed through one’s ability. this difference may be because of age, sex, weight, height, heredity or environmental factors.

5. Recovery - Proper rest, relaxation and sleep should be given after work, so that one should recover from fatigue and again ready to take furthur work-load. Minimum 7-8 hrs sound sleep is suggested each day. Lack of sufficient rest and sleep results in fatigue and adverse effect on the performance or progress of the individual.

6. Proper warming up and cooling down – The work should be started after proper warming up and cooling down after the load or workout. This play an important role in prevention of injuries.

7. Progression- The work should follow proper progression. It should start from easy to difficult or follow simple to complex method.

8. Safety and Prevention – Prevention is always better than cure, so we should keep in mind the safety measures and perform work preventing injuries etc.