Eating Habits, Sleep, and Stress Management: What Goes Wrong?

 Eating Habits

Underweight people are often found to suffer from malnutrition due to lack of adequate nutrients in the body. Many of
them do not get the right amount of calories to fuel their bodies thus, they tend to lack the energy to do regular tasks at
home, school, and work. Their immune system also gets weak and compromised, making them prone to health risk issues
such as anemia and osteoporosis.
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder wherein a person is abnormally underweight, has an intense fear of gaining,
and an abnormal understanding of body weight, often due to coping with emotional problems stemming from self-worth.
People with anorexia use extreme efforts to prevent weight gain and keep on losing weight by restricting food intake,
exercising excessively, or misusing diet aids, diuretics, and laxatives. These tend to significantly interfere with activities in
their lives.
Overeating is also found to be one of the leading causes of overweight and obesity. Eating too much, especially
processed food and sugary drinks, coupled with a sedentary lifestyle contribute significantly to weight gain. The calories
consumed, particularly from fats and sugars, have to be burned off through physical activity or exercise. Otherwise, these
calories will be just be stored in the body as fat.
Overweight and obese people often encounter a lot of physical and emotional struggles in their daily lives. They often
have a hard time doing simple tasks such as tying their shoelaces or walking up a short flight of stairs. They also find
themselves the subject of bullying. Furthermore, they are also at risk of developing other health conditions such as
cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, among others.

 Sleep Management
Sleep is essential to everyone’s health. Normally, we need about 6 to 8 hours of night sleep every day to allow the
body to rest and regenerate. However, a lot of people, in particular teens, practice bad sleeping habits such as the following:

1. Staying up all night - This is the most common bad sleeping habit of most people. In order to submit a project, a paper, or
some other work at the last minute, they cram to finish it, staying up all night until they are done. Some people just spend
the night reading or doing other stuff that they just do not want to postpone for another time.
2. Internet Addiction - Social media is massively addictive. Many people would spend a lot of their time browsing social media
sites such as Facebook and YouTube. They are awake all night to converse and play with their friends and forgo sleeping on
time. This results in tiredness and unproductiveness in work, in school, and even at home.
3. Eating Before Sleeping - Eating could be one of the things we do that give us comfort—but should be discouraged just
before bedtime. Eating before sleeping can cause discomfort preventing us from falling asleep easily. When we eat too close
to our bedtime, it means that we go to our bed while digesting. This can cause acid reflux which makes a person lose sleep. It
is best to eat 4 hours before falling asleep so we can be sure that our digestive system has done its job.
 Stress Management

Stress happens for many reasons – environmental factors, fatigue, too much work, illness, and loneliness. It is inevitable;
hence, needs to be handled properly. Handling stress seems to be tough to do but we need to learn how to cope with it the
right way. If not properly dealt with, it can lead to many health concerns—difficulties in sleeping, poor immunity,
hypertension, and even heart disease. One may also perform poorly in physical activities because of stress. However, while
some may be able to deal with stress, others may not and resort to ineffective—or worst, unhealthy—means of dealing with
stress.
Examples of such means that can be detrimental to health are the following:
1. Smoking
2. Bad Eating Habits – Skipping meals and/or overeating
3. Excessive alcohol intake
4. Excessive sleeping
5. Procrastinating – Trying to hide and escape the problem using delaying tactics rather than facing the problem.

According to the World Health Organization, in 2012, out of 56 million deaths worldwide, 38 million were due to
cardiovascular diseases. Knowing this, making the decision to be aware of our health and to change to a healthier lifestyle—
through balanced diet, regular physical activity, and enough sleep— would be to our advantage.