Laura Motes – Healthy Living and Planning your Day

Laura Motes worked for the Athens-Clarke County Police Department for twenty-one years. She rose to the rank of a sergeant, and has a lot of experience with staying healthy within a tough job.

Healthy living is a challenge for many people simply because they don’t plan their days properly.

There are a few things that you need to know that will make living healthy easier for you.

First, our metabolism and energy requirements are lower in the second half of the day. This is why you want to consume more calories in the morning, and have light snacks and a light dinner in the afternoon.

Secondly, your body has multiple cycles during the day that last ninety to 120 minutes. These cycles are known as ultradian rhythms.

We function better and more efficiently when we are not fighting our natural body cycles. This is true about working in the daytime versus working at night when you need to get some sleep. This is also true about staying tuned with your ultradian cycles during the day.

At the peak of such a cycle you would usually experience a state of high activity. This state is ideal for both performing and learning. Your perceptions are sharp and clear. You can sustain your focus and attention. This stage usually lasts for about an hour.

What comes next is the recovery phase. Your functions slow down. You feel like you need to take a break. You become inefficient at what you’re doing and you’re prone to errors.

The solution to this problem is simple: you need to take a break. Eat a little bit of food. Read or go through your non-demanding tasks.

The goal is to schedule performance times when you are at your peak and non-demanding work when you need a break.  This will help you distribute your energy throughout the day and avoid negative emotions, which is especially important for people like Laura Motes, who has been a police officer for a number of years.

Laura Motes – Healthy Living and Sleep

As someone who has worked as a police officer, Laura Motes knows about the importance of being focused and getting enough sleep.

Sleeping is the most important source of recovery and energy for humans after breathing and eating. The vast majority of people today are sleep deprived, yet very few of them are aware of how drastically inadequate sleep influences the levels of their performance and engagement, both in their professional and personal lives.
Even small amounts of sleep deficit have a powerful effect on our physical energy, strength, cardiovascular system, and mood. Over fifty studies have shown that memory, analytical reasoning capabilities, reaction time, and concentration all decrease steadily when sleep deficit goes up.

Laura Motes

Sleep needs vary by occupation, age, gender and genetics, but the overall consensus of scientists is that the average human being needs seven to eight hours of sleep a night to function well.

The specific time of sleep also affects health, energy levels and performance capabilities. Shift workers that work night shifts have twice the number of accidents while driving their cars compared to day workers. The number of accidents that occur during night shifts are also considerably higher compared to daytime accidents.

Sleeping is also the time when significant growth and repair of our bodies occurs. During sleep, cell division is very active. Repair enzymes and growth hormones are released into our bodies so that muscles can regenerate. We rest and grow during the periods of our deepest sleep.

This is why sleep is so important for people who, like Laura Motes, always need to be focused on their jobs.