Tips For Happier Dreams and Preventing Nightmares - ARTICLE 10/18/2007

You don’t want to live through a horror story in your dreams, not even if it has a happy ending, unless you’re Stephen King. Since he’s a horror writer, I’ve joked about him relishing nightmares, looking forward to them as he smiles on his pillow, eagerly awaiting new material for his novels.

If you want to learn how to be happier while you’re asleep, I’ll share tips that help me sleep better, wake up to have more joyful days, and prevent nightmares. Friends and strangers have thanked me for the advice.

This led me to write this article. Besides, according to studies, poor sleep can cause stress, fatigue, and heart problems, and at AIR Equation.org we’re about healthy happiness.

1. GO TO SLEEP IN A BETTER MOOD

* Do something that relaxes you and makes you happy before bedtime. Read a nice book. Take a soothing bath. Play a relaxing CD like one with natural sounds. Use aromatherapy such as scented candles, particularly ones with lavender--an essential oil that promotes sleep.

* Avoid debates and things that create a negative mood. If you use the AIR Equation, this shouldn’t be a problem for the most part. Offer people acceptance, inspiration, and respect before you go to bed. Fear, anger, sadness and similar moods are not good to take with you to la-la land.

Despite the negatives that happen during the day, my wife tries to mellow out and be more courteous as bedtime nears. She even waves to me and the children as she heads to bed, forgiving us for whatever we did that upset her earlier. Ah, the old marriage motivational of not going to sleep angry. She’ll often end the evening watching an inspirational show that fills her with positive thoughts.

* Avoid unpleasant subjects. Tune out negative news, talk, and reality shows on TV. If you’re a big sports fan and your favorite team just lost, don’t stay up to watch highlights you know will end badly. Turn off that midnight horror movie (sorry Stephen King).

Don’t worry about things that make you depressed before you sleep. Be as happy as possible. Hey, visit us.

2. WATCH YOUR EATING

* Eat healthier. Chips, ice cream, pizza, or anything loaded with salt, fat, sugar, or caffeine aren’t good late at night or anytime, including when you’re hungry. Your body’s hunger is triggered more by lack of nutrients than lack of food. That’s why you can be hungry again soon after eating a whole bag of chips--they lack sufficient nutrients.

Eat fruits, vegetables, and grains that are nutritious. Lean toward lighter instead of heavier foods.

* Refrain from food within an hour before sleep. This gives your body time to digest the food efficiently and effectively while it’s revved up to do so. During sleep, almost everything in the body slows down so don’t give it a tough digestive job that’ll also take away your dream management.

3. DON’T OVERHEAT YOURSELF

This is one many don’t realize. I’m working to increase awareness of it. Meir Kryger, MD, chairman of The National Sleep Foundation, reported research on this and wrote the book, A WOMAN'S GUIDE TO SLEEP DISORDERS (though he’s a man and much of the information applies to men as well). He states heat hampers your sleep and ability to dream.

* Take the extra blankets and comforters off of your bed. The times I recall having nightmares, especially ones that woke me up in the middle of the night, I was sweating or just felt hot. My nightmares ceased when I started to sleep with only enough covers to keep me warm but not hot.

* Take off the extra clothes, and people. Try sleeping with as little clothing as possible. People and pets generate heat, so monitor sleeping too close to them (without damaging your relationship). Do what fits your comfort level.

* Put on something cool. Ice packs and cold wet rags on the head are examples.

* Lower the room temperature. Since you’ll be under the covers, you can lower the heater setting and save on your fuel bill too. Turn on a fan or open a window if climate permits.

* Change to a cooler room. If you sleep upstairs, which is plagued by the fact that hot air rises, go downstairs where it’s cooler.

Share these happy dream tips with friends and strangers too. Invite them over here for more, courtesy of AIR Equation.org, helping to spread happiness. If Stephen King reads this and starts sleeping under piles of comforters, I want a cut of his next novel.

HOW HAPPY ARE YOU?

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Happiness is a 3-Part Formula: The AIR Equation

Are you in pursuit of happiness? Are there negative people in your life who bring you down?

Do you wish that someday we’ll stop stumbling and find the secret to end wars, school shootings, and other atrocities that stem from unhappiness? The AIR Equation, a targeted 3-part happiness formula, may be the solution.
HAPPINESS SURVEY
In 2006, a research organization conducted a happiness survey project covering careers, love relationships, dating, friends, family, home life, and childhood. The findings:
1. There are 3 factors that significantly impact happiness: Acceptance, Inspiration, and Respect.

2. Together, these factors create an equation that explains 92% of happiness--very high accuracy.

3. Peace and love, trumpeted since the 1960s as sources of happiness, did not score high enough to be included in the final equation.

The AIR Equation was born, an easy-to-recall acronym for the 3 keys to concentrate on in life:

HAPPINESS = 50% Acceptance + 28% Inspiration + 22% Respect

Now you know the formula for happiness, spiritual inner items that don’t cost money. And researchers learned long ago that man-made materialistic items are not significant factors of happiness, so put your checkbooks, credit cards, and loan officers away.

A follow-up second survey is now underway. To contribute to the research and get a FREE happiness assessment to compare your results to worldwide averages, click here.
AIR EQUATION EXPLAINED
Acceptance: Do you have a need for more tolerance, cooperation, approval, or agreement? Discrimination falls under this factor, making diversity and related issues very important for human resources professionals. Half of one’s happiness is based on acceptance--whether it’s from another person or themselves--making true happiness virtually impossible without it. Abraham Lincoln had a strategy for this: “I destroy my enemy by making him my friend.”
Inspiration: Are you yearning for a revelation, elevation, vision, encouragement, or enthusiasm? Expectations and thoughts about your future affect inspiration. For many workers, “glass ceilings” hurt motivation and morale. The brighter you believe tomorrow will be, the happier you’ll be.

Respect: Does your life lack appreciation, recognition, courtesy, esteem, dignity, or honor? Many of our institutions value honor. It adds joy to careers, parent-child relationships, and marriages. Bono--activist, U2 band leader, and Liberty Award winner for DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa)--said, "To be one, to be united is a great thing. But to respect the right to be different is maybe even greater."

This provides context to what drives protesters into the streets when a public figure does or says something that violates one of these 3 factors. It makes them unhappy! Despite the source of darkness in your life, there is no need to go on a revengeful rampage. You always have the liberty to be forgiving, good, and happy anyway.
Think about Helen Keller who, after accepting her deafness and blindness, traveled all over the globe to inspire millions, garnering respect from the greatest world leaders. Look at Alexandra Scott and the Alex's Lemonade Stand phenomenon this young terminally-ill girl created. From a Roman prison, Saint Paul inspired himself and his free-but-troubled comrades hundreds of miles away by saying, “In the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.”

APPLYING THE AIR EQUATION
If you’re like me, deep down you not only want to know how to be happy but you also want others to be happy so they’ll stop dishing out the opposite! Use the AIR Equation to prioritize your pursuit of happiness (or help someone else’s pursuit). Here are some tips.

Acceptance: This factor comes first. Your greatest source of acceptance should be yourself. Don’t dwell on your negatives or unacceptance, but rather focus on your positive strengths. Avoid judging others or yourself. As social animals, humans tend to herd in their reactions to things. When they herd around negatives, resist the temptation to follow--rise above this animal nature.

Inspiration: Surround yourself with people who add inspiration to your life and reduce time with people who don’t. Join groups with people who share your traits and interests. Dream. Then set goals to achieve that dream. You’ll feel better about your future when you work toward something positive and rewarding, and believe that the payoff will come.

Respect: Be proud of yourself. Again, focus on the positive things about you that most people don’t have, like certain admirers, awards, and abilities. Let these credentials be known. Carry yourself as one worthy of respect. And treat others with respect as well. When you become known as a respectful person, you’ll be surprised at how much people will come to your defense when your own respect is threatened.

Give AIR: Happiness follows the law of supply and demand, too: the less of it there is, the more valuable it becomes. Giving happiness to others is a great way to get happiness back. This philosophy dates back more than 2,500 years, from Confucius’s teachings of helping humanity to modern day Positive Psychology. Milton Hershey, founder of the namesake chocolate empire, claimed that, “One is only happy in proportion as he makes others feel happy, and only useful as he contributes his influences for the finer callings in life.”

A purposeful happy soul is a productive healthy soul. Negative quotes such as “Good guys finish last” and “Revenge is a dish best served cold” are counterproductive and detract from happiness. Use positive quotes instead. Respect people for their strengths, offer inspiration to use them, and accept people for their weaknesses. Aid instead of insult their improvement.

Don’t take AIR from others: Avoid peer pressure to do bad things to gain acceptance, or lower others’ inspiration to feel better about your own, or bully people to gain respect. It makes the other party revengeful. Happiness is often a two-way street.

Those who choose solitary lifestyles or have high esteem may not need AIR from others, feeling they generate it for themselves. Granted, they’re not taking AIR from anyone, but they miss out on the reward that comes from helping humanity.

SPREAD AIR

Albert Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” According to Mahatma Gandhi, “We must become

the change we want to see in the world.” Start a new peace sign for the new millennium--AIR, a symbol for happiness.

Join the cause. Take an assessment and see how happy you are compared to the society averages. After applying the Equation, you’ll probably end your pursuit of happiness successfully, relieved and ready to “Give me some AIR!”
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