Friday, June 22, 2018

6 Powerful Tips To A Better Sleep

Many Americans are having difficulties falling asleep at night. Instead of sleeping and dreaming they roll around in their beds trying to fall asleep. The result usually is people not rested enough in the morning and tired all day. This results in stress and less performance on the job or at home. We have developed a list of 6 powerful tips that have helped us to achieve better sleep.

1) Room temperature: Keeping the temperature in your bedroom at 70 degrees Fahrenheit or below is recommended. Too often an overheated bedroom is causing sleep problems. Scientific studies show that the body can better relax with temperatures at 70 degrees or slightly below.

2) Reduce caffeine. A recent study showed that caffeine is not metabolized efficiently and fast enough at night. The effects of caffeine last much longer than most people expect. The result is difficulty falling asleep. Studies have shown better sleeping patterns if no more caffeine is consumed after 6.00 PM.

3) Avoid alcohol. Alcohol will keeps the body from reaching the deeper stages of sleep, where the body does most of its healing and resting. The result of drinking can be a very light sleep or difficulty falling asleep in general.

4) Beds are for sleeping. If you are used to watch TV in bed or even work while being in bed, you may find it much harder to relax and to fall asleep. Remove the TV and do not work in bed. Sleep requires your brain to slowly shutdown and any distraction will cause sleeping problems.

5) Go to bed at around the same time every day. Don’t change your bedtime back and forth. Having a certain schedule developed it will be easier to fall asleep pretty much at the same time every day. A recurring schedule will help your body to get into a sleep pattern and make it easier to fall asleep.

6) Remove the alarm clock from your view. Starring at the time will only create the feeling that you have to sleep, but you are not. These worries will make things even worse. Losing the feeling for time by not seeing the actual and how long you have been awake has shown to improve healthy sleep.

Wednesday, June 20, 2018

Sleeping Without The Pill

While scientists are figuring out why people have to sleep, many people are just as puzzled in figuring out why they can’t sleep. Occasional sleepless nights may be due to stress, anxiety, heartburn, or drinking too much caffeine or alcohol. The condition of having difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep is called insomnia. However, when this problem of falling asleep, maintaining sleep, or experiencing non-restorative sleep occurs on a regular or frequent basis and often for no apparent reason, it becomes chronic insomnia.

Though insomnia affects all age group, the condition is more prevalent among women and the incidence increases with age.

Since insomnia is a symptom and not a diagnosis, treatment should be personal and must be focused on the underlying 

condition. Treatment and therapy may include the following: 

.Improving sleep habits

.Correcting sleep misconceptions

.Controlling your sleep environment

.Behavior management

.Light therapy

.Medications

Very few people seek medical advice and remain unaware of the behavioral and medical options available to treat insomnia. Most people would easily resort to prescription and over-the-counter sleeping pills. However, better sleep doesn’t have to come in a pill and several studies have been reported to support this view.

According to a report in The Journal of Family Practice, studies show that simple behavioral and psychological treatments work just as well, and sometimes better, than popular medications. Last year, the medical journal Sleep reported on 5 high-quality trials that showed cognitive behavioral therapy helped people suffering from insomnia fall asleep sooner and stay asleep longer. 

From American Journal of Psychiatry, the analysis of 21 studies showed that behavioral treatment helped people fall asleep nearly nine minutes sooner than sleep drugs. 

Overall, sleep therapy worked just as well as drugs, but without any side effects. Most people don’t believe that these behavioral strategies for better sleep can really make a difference because they appear to be so simple to produce results.

One of the most effective methods of cognitive behavioral therapy is stimulus control. It prohibits a person from watching television, eating or reading in bed. Going to bed should be done only when you are sleepy. It encourages you to get up at the same time every day, and not to take catnaps during the day. If after 15 minutes and sleep remains elusive, get out of bed and do something relaxing, but avoid stimulating activity and thoughts.

Sleep therapy also involves sleep hygiene which includes regular exercise, light-proofing your bedroom to keep it dark, and making the bed and room temperatures comfortable. People suffering from chronic insomnia should eat regular meals and must not go to bed hungry. Limit intake of beverages, particularly alcohol and caffeinated drinks, around bedtime. Avoid looking at the clock and do not try too hard to fall asleep. Turn the clock around so you don’t get to see it. Watching time pass is one of the worst things to do when you’re trying to fall asleep.

Simple though these steps may seem, but they really make a significant difference for people with insomnia. According to a report of Family Practice, these interventions are based on the notion that thoughts and behaviors can “hyper-arouse” the central nervous system and deregulate sleep cycles, resulting in chronic insomnia. 

Should these steps fail, consult your doctor about a referral to a sleep therapist, who can give you additional relaxation techniques to help bring on sleep. A sleep therapist may help you reset your sleep-wake schedule which involves adjusting your bedtime each night over the course of a few weeks.

Sunday, June 17, 2018

Fantastic Methods To Sleep Like A Baby

There are people who are in drastic need of sleep but just can’t seem to will their bodies to go to dreamland. They toss and turn until the sheets come off their beds, and they get the bitter realization that counting sheep doesn’t actually work.

Insomnia doesn’t just mean not being able to sleep a wink. It also means waking up lots of times during the night, or getting the feeling that you didn’t get a good night’s sleep, or waking up too early in the morning and not being able to get back to sleep.

Almost half of America’s population suffers from insomnia, and practically everyone has experienced it at least once in their lifetime. Some suffer this disorder for years. Insomnia is something you have to be concerned about because it greatly affects your life and those around you. 

It makes you cranky and moody, makes you lose your concentration, and in effect makes you lose friends. It could also weaken your immune system, making you more vulnerable to illnesses. So if you’re suffering from sleep deprivation, you’ve got to take steps to cure it ASAP.

You’ve got to diagnose what kind of insomnia you’re suffering from. You don’t need a doctor to do this for you. You can do it yourself. 

Insomnia is caused by a lot of factors. 

Psychological factors include depression, sadness, or anything that gives you negative feelings. These may arise from traumatic events that you couldn’t get out of your mind (like embarrassing incidents, financial problems, or death of a loved one). Stress, anxiety, excitement, and nervousness may contribute to insomnia.

Physical impediments may also cause insomnia. You have to see your doctor to determine if you’re suffering from any illness. Heart problems or medication may cause sleeplessness. 

The food that you intake may also be a factor contributing to insomnia. Don’t take anything that has caffeine in it. This includes coffee, chocolate, and tea. Check the food you eat and trash those that contain caffeine. The same goes with alcohol and nicotine. Like caffeine, these are stimulants that help to keep your mind awake. Alcohol does help induce sleep, but it doesn’t give you a GOOD night’s sleep because of certain compounds it contains that keep some organs (like your stomach) active. 

Don’t engage in any exercise too close to bedtime because it increases heart rate, akin to making you excited, and in effect making you unable to fall asleep. 

Make sure that everything is nice and quiet by the time you get to bed. Find a bed that you’re comfortable sleeping in. Turn out the lights to help you sleep better. 

Stop looking at that clock! You will get stressed out if you do, and it could keep you awake even longer. It would be better if the clock is nowhere near your bed. If you need an alarm clock, turn its face away from you.

Some people actually find some sounds to be helpful in lulling them to sleep. A droning sound that goes on and on, like the whirring of the electric fan or the air conditioner, can help filter out irritating sounds like the noise of horns honking in the night.

Set your room to a temperature that makes you comfortable enough to fall asleep. 

Decide on your sleeping schedule and stick with it. Even if you have work and it entails different shifts, stick to a schedule that you could follow most of the time. 

Don’t take too many naps because it reduces the likelihood of you falling asleep right away at night. 

Don’t keep on complaining about not being able to sleep. It just makes you stressed out. Relax. Have a nice warm bath to relax and soothe your body. Try herbal remedies. You could also attend therapy sessions that help relax your body, like meditation. Sex is another great cure. The main purpose is for you to relax enough to fall asleep. 

These are some tips to get rid of insomnia. You shouldn’t ignore the consequences brought about by insomnia because it produces stress and negatively affects your health. Try out these methods, and have pleasant dreams!

Thursday, June 14, 2018

Baby Sleep Tips Developing Sleep Associations

Everyone who has had the experience of being a parent knows all too well the difficulties of getting your baby to sleep soundly throughout the night. The dark circles around the eyes of new parents are usually familiar to all those that have been around them. In terms of baby sleep tips, one of the most important things you must try and establish as a parent is getting your baby to learn to fall asleep on his own. The process by which your child begins to fall asleep on his own is one that involves a natural transition from falling asleep with the mother to falling asleep in an independent fashion. One of the best ways in which you can speed up this transition is to encourage your child to develop sleep associations that he or she can recreate independently.

Naturally, everyone – and babies in particular – will develop sleep associations. These are the things that you associate with bedtime, and allow you to create an environment in which it is easy to fall asleep. When your baby is at an extremely young age, he will naturally develop sleep associations involving the mother, as he will often fall asleep in her arms. As you attempt to get your baby to sleep in his own, however, it is crucial that you work to change these associations.

If you always put your child to sleep by holding him, or allowing him to use a pacifier, you create a sleep association with these things. Then, when your child wakes up in the middle of then night, he can’t go back to sleep on his own because he is unable to recreate his sleeping environment without you: he needs you to feed him or rock him in order to sleep.

As you begin to try and get your child to sleep on his own, you should introduce items into his sleeping routine that he can sleep with, such as a particular blanket or a stuffed animal. What this will do is create associations for your child with these items for sleep. Then, when he awakes in the middle of the night, he will be able to recreate a sleeping environment without your assistance by grabbing his stuffed animal, etc. It can also be beneficial to introduce “transitional items” into your baby’s bedtime routine: Allow him to have his stuffed animal or blanket with him during a final feeding and before-bedtime activities, and allow him to take these things with him to bed.

No matter what you do, your child is going to be creating his or her own sleep associations. Your job is to try and create associations with items that are under his or her control. By giving your child as much control over his sleeping environment as possible, you allow him to begin to achieve sleep independently. The most difficult transition in early parenting is the one towards independent sleep for your child, and if you introduce new items into your child’s sleeping place, you will hasten this transition, which will soon allow both you and your child to get a good night’s rest.



Copied with permission from Plrplr.com.

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

To Sleep Is Divine To Be Deprive Of Sleep Is Disaster Copied

People’s lifestyles now a day are so fast-paced. Most are in the rat race. Busyness has ruled their lives. And because of this more and more people are having a hard time falling asleep or having sleeping deprivation. Lack of sleep can really affect a person’s equilibrium and decreased productivity.

Usually, a person needs 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night in order for them to be mentally alert during the day. A good quality sleep is essential, proper rest is adds to a person’s vigour. Aside of lost productivity of sleeplessness it can cause motor or vehicle accidents. 

Getting enough sleep at night or taking naps in the afternoon can help prevent serious accidents. Consulting a physician is very important when signs of sleep disorder such as insomnia occur.

TYPES OF INSOMNIA

1. WAKING UP TOO EARLY

2. DIFFICULTY FALLING ASLEEP

3. NO PROBLEM FALLING ASLEEP BUT MAINTAINING TO STAY ASLEEP

TREATMENT OF INSOMNIA:

After a proper diagnose if it is a medical or psychological problem and identifying what is the main cause of insomnia, treatment can also include the following:

1. SLEEP RESTRICTION- spending too much time lying in bed in order to get some sleep doesn’t really help. A restriction program allows only a few hours of sleep during the night.

2. RELAXATION THERAPY-soft music and other relaxing sounds can help reduce tensions and anxiety. A good massage can also do wonders for it helps the body or muscles to relax. therefore inducing a restful sleep.

3. THE USE OF BRIGHT LIGHT- If you have troubles falling asleep at night. It helps to get much bright light in the morning as this reset the internal clock to an earlier time at night for sleep.

TIPS ON GETTING YOU TO SLEEP

? Exercise more often

? Limit your coffee, tea, chocolate and soda intake

? Manage stress

? Don’t eat heavy snacks before going to bed

? Don’t nap during the day 

? Before getting to bed try to relax and not to worry much. Worrying contributes having insomnia

Sleeping pills can help in some cases, it can be unsafe to use if you have certain health problems.

A well known brand such as Rozerem can treat insomnia. Rozerem is sedative, also called a hypnotic. It affects chemicals in your brain that may become unbalanced and cause sleep problems. This medication causes relaxation will make you fall asleep. You can get this medicine at an online reputable Pharmacy such as Drugstoretm.com, which sells other leading brands such as prescription tramadol.

When Getting A Good Night

Getting a good night’s sleep is essential for feeling refreshed and alert during the day. When we sleep, our body rests and restores energy levels. However, sleep is an active state that affects both our physical and mental well-being. A good night’s sleep is often the best way to help a person cope with stress, solve problems and get a full recovery from illness. But, with all the stresses of everyday life, not everyone can now afford to have the needed eight hours sleep. Eight hours of uninterrupted sleep is what an average adult needs to maintain an optimal mental and physical health. 

Sleep is prompted by natural cycles of activity in the brain and consists of two basic states: rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, which consists of Stages 1 through 4. During sleep, the body cycles between non-REM and REM sleep. Typically, people begin the sleep cycle with a period of non-REM sleep followed by a very short period of REM sleep. Dreams generally occur in the REM stage of sleep.

According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, over 40 million Americans a year will suffer from some sort of sleep disorder. Many of them will go undiagnosed, or turn to over-the-counter sleeping aids for relief. While insomnia is the best-known sleep disorder, over 100 types of sleep disorders actually exist. In order to get a proper diagnosis, it’s important to understand the symptoms and causes of the most common forms of each sleep problems which also include sleep apnea, Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS), and narcolepsy.

Insomnia is itself often a symptom of other problems. Typical patterns of insomnia include the inability to fall asleep or stay asleep at night, waking up earlier than usual, and daytime fatigue. Most people with insomnia even fall asleep in inappropriate situations, like when they are driving. If this does occur, it may signal that a medical disorder (such as sleep apnea) is the cause of insomnia.

Excessive daytime sleepiness is the primary symptom of sleep apnea. Some people will deny sleepiness but still, they feel fatigued throughout the day. Other symptoms of sleep apnea include snoring, snorting, and gasping sounds when one sleeps. More often, it is first noticed by a sleeping partner. Restless sleep is also typical, as are headaches in the morning.

The primary warning sign of Restless Leg Syndrome or RLS is the irresistible urge to move the legs shortly after getting into bed, in the middle of the night after awakening, or even when wide awake during the day. The sensations of discomfort can be quite varied. Kicking or twitching leg movements during sleep, and sometimes while awake, may be warning signs.

Excessive sleepiness during the day, alleviated by naps, is a symptom of narcolepsy. Dreaming during naps and experiencing dream-like hallucinations while asleep are also warning signs. Loss of muscle control called cataplexy that occurs with emotion, such as laughing or anger, and the inability to move during sleep or when one has already awakened (called sleep paralysis) are also symptoms.

To determine if someone has a sleep disorder, first pay attention to a person’s sleep habits and lifestyle or daily routine. If a person with sleep disorders is planning to visit a doctor, it is helpful to record sleep habits. Sleep history will help the patient and the doctor find the cause of the sleep problems. A person with a sleeping disorder can address most common sleep problems through lifestyle changes and improved sleep hygiene, but it is important to see a doctor or a sleep specialist for a diagnosis if sleep does not improve.


https://goodsleepnostress.blogspot.com/

Sleep Studies Helping Out Determine Sleep Problems Copied with permission from: http://plrplr.com/77673/sleep-studies-helping-out-determine-sleep-problems/

All night long, you have been tossing and turning on your bed, but still you can’t fall asleep. No need to fret about your night time struggles. You are not alone in your battle with insomnia. Sleep problems affects millions of Americans and the numbers seem to rise with each new year. While some people suffer from mild sleeping problems, such as having occasional nightmares, others have extremely severe sleep disorders that can negatively affect their health, if left untreated. This astonishing number means that a huge number of people aren’t getting the treatment they need, putting them in danger of permanently damaging their health.

Sleep disorders involve any difficulties related to sleeping, including difficulty falling or staying asleep, falling asleep at inappropriate times, excessive total sleep time, or abnormal behaviors associated with sleep. There are more than 100 different disorders of sleeping and waking that have been identified. They can be grouped in four main categories such as:

Problems with falling and staying asleep

Problems with staying awake

Problems with adhering to a regular sleep schedule

Sleep-disruptive behaviors

But there are certain types of diagnostic sleep studies that are given by physicians to determine the causes of sleep problems. Sleep studies are tests that watch what happens to the body during sleep. The most common sleep studies or diagnostic procedures include the Polysomnogram, Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT) and Multiple Wake Test (MWT).

Doctors may request a patient take polysomnograms to determine what is going on during sleep during the course of the night. The tests are done in a sleep laboratory. Patients are advised to avoid naps, caffeine, and alcohol on the day of their polysomnogram. This test records several body functions during sleep. Once in the sleeping room, monitoring devices are applied to the body of the patient or volunteer as a means to collect information. Sensors monitor the brain waves (EEG activity), heart rate (EKG), eye movements, leg muscle activity, and chest and stomach movement. Air flow from nose and mouth are also recorded. A sensor that clips onto a finger monitors the amount of oxygen in the blood.

If the doctor has specific questions, other monitors might be applied. Information is gathered from all leads and fed into a computer and outputted as a series of wavefront tracings which enable the technician to visualize the various waveforms, assign a score for the test, and assist in the diagnostic process. Usually, a polysomnogram ends around six o’clock in the morning and the patients can return to their usual daytime routine.

An MSLT test is a series of recordings to monitor a person’s sleep patterns. This test measures how long it takes for a person to fall asleep during naps taken over the course of a day. Electrodes are placed on the face and head to record eye movement, muscle tone, and brain waves. The tests usually held from 8 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon. A technologist will glue “recording electrodes” on the patient’s scalp and face and a special jelly is applied to each electrode. The patient is taken into a “sleeping” room with lights turned off and the patient is asked to sleep for 15 to 30 minutes. Recordings are taken while the patient is asleep, even if the patient cannot sleep during the test, the information taken will still be useful.

The Multiple Wake Test is also called maintenance of wakefulness test, and is intended to measure the ability to stay awake during a designated wakeful time. This test is given during the daytime. MWT usually follows an all-night sleep study. It consists of a series of 40-minute trials, during which the patient tries ti stay awake. The test is given every two hours throughout the day, with each trial lasting about 40 minutes, During each trial, sensors and electrodes record data on body functions such as heartbeat, breathing, etc. Sleeping problems are very common among us but there are different resources one can get answers for all their sleeping woes, and the tossing and turning can be just a thing of the past.



When Getting A Good Night S Sleep Remains A Dream

Getting a good night’s sleep is essential for feeling refreshed and alert during the day. When we sleep, our body rests and restores energy levels. However, sleep is an active state that affects both our physical and mental well-being. A good night’s sleep is often the best way to help a person cope with stress, solve problems and get a full recovery from illness. But, with all the stresses of everyday life, not everyone can now afford to have the needed eight hours sleep. Eight hours of uninterrupted sleep is what an average adult needs to maintain an optimal mental and physical health. 

Sleep is prompted by natural cycles of activity in the brain and consists of two basic states: rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, which consists of Stages 1 through 4. During sleep, the body cycles between non-REM and REM sleep. Typically, people begin the sleep cycle with a period of non-REM sleep followed by a very short period of REM sleep. Dreams generally occur in the REM stage of sleep.

According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, over 40 million Americans a year will suffer from some sort of sleep disorder. Many of them will go undiagnosed, or turn to over-the-counter sleeping aids for relief. While insomnia is the best-known sleep disorder, over 100 types of sleep disorders actually exist. In order to get a proper diagnosis, it’s important to understand the symptoms and causes of the most common forms of each sleep problems which also include sleep apnea, Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS), and narcolepsy.

Insomnia is itself often a symptom of other problems. Typical patterns of insomnia include the inability to fall asleep or stay asleep at night, waking up earlier than usual, and daytime fatigue. Most people with insomnia even fall asleep in inappropriate situations, like when they are driving. If this does occur, it may signal that a medical disorder (such as sleep apnea) is the cause of insomnia.

Excessive daytime sleepiness is the primary symptom of sleep apnea. Some people will deny sleepiness but still, they feel fatigued throughout the day. Other symptoms of sleep apnea include snoring, snorting, and gasping sounds when one sleeps. More often, it is first noticed by a sleeping partner. Restless sleep is also typical, as are headaches in the morning.

The primary warning sign of Restless Leg Syndrome or RLS is the irresistible urge to move the legs shortly after getting into bed, in the middle of the night after awakening, or even when wide awake during the day. The sensations of discomfort can be quite varied. Kicking or twitching leg movements during sleep, and sometimes while awake, may be warning signs.

Excessive sleepiness during the day, alleviated by naps, is a symptom of narcolepsy. Dreaming during naps and experiencing dream-like hallucinations while asleep are also warning signs. Loss of muscle control called cataplexy that occurs with emotion, such as laughing or anger, and the inability to move during sleep or when one has already awakened (called sleep paralysis) are also symptoms.

To determine if someone has a sleep disorder, first pay attention to a person’s sleep habits and lifestyle or daily routine. If a person with sleep disorders is planning to visit a doctor, it is helpful to record sleep habits. Sleep history will help the patient and the doctor find the cause of the sleep problems. A person with a sleeping disorder can address most common sleep problems through lifestyle changes and improved sleep hygiene, but it is important to see a doctor or a sleep specialist for a diagnosis if sleep does not improve.



Sleep Studies Helping Out Determine Sleep Problems

All night long, you have been tossing and turning on your bed, but still you can’t fall asleep. No need to fret about your night time struggles. You are not alone in your battle with insomnia. Sleep problems affects millions of Americans and the numbers seem to rise with each new year. While some people suffer from mild sleeping problems, such as having occasional nightmares, others have extremely severe sleep disorders that can negatively affect their health, if left untreated. This astonishing number means that a huge number of people aren’t getting the treatment they need, putting them in danger of permanently damaging their health.

Sleep disorders involve any difficulties related to sleeping, including difficulty falling or staying asleep, falling asleep at inappropriate times, excessive total sleep time, or abnormal behaviors associated with sleep. There are more than 100 different disorders of sleeping and waking that have been identified. They can be grouped in four main categories such as:

Problems with falling and staying asleep

Problems with staying awake

Problems with adhering to a regular sleep schedule

Sleep-disruptive behaviors

But there are certain types of diagnostic sleep studies that are given by physicians to determine the causes of sleep problems. Sleep studies are tests that watch what happens to the body during sleep. The most common sleep studies or diagnostic procedures include the Polysomnogram, Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT) and Multiple Wake Test (MWT).

Doctors may request a patient take polysomnograms to determine what is going on during sleep during the course of the night. The tests are done in a sleep laboratory. Patients are advised to avoid naps, caffeine, and alcohol on the day of their polysomnogram. This test records several body functions during sleep. Once in the sleeping room, monitoring devices are applied to the body of the patient or volunteer as a means to collect information. Sensors monitor the brain waves (EEG activity), heart rate (EKG), eye movements, leg muscle activity, and chest and stomach movement. Air flow from nose and mouth are also recorded. A sensor that clips onto a finger monitors the amount of oxygen in the blood.

If the doctor has specific questions, other monitors might be applied. Information is gathered from all leads and fed into a computer and outputted as a series of wavefront tracings which enable the technician to visualize the various waveforms, assign a score for the test, and assist in the diagnostic process. Usually, a polysomnogram ends around six o’clock in the morning and the patients can return to their usual daytime routine.

An MSLT test is a series of recordings to monitor a person’s sleep patterns. This test measures how long it takes for a person to fall asleep during naps taken over the course of a day. Electrodes are placed on the face and head to record eye movement, muscle tone, and brain waves. The tests usually held from 8 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon. A technologist will glue “recording electrodes” on the patient’s scalp and face and a special jelly is applied to each electrode. The patient is taken into a “sleeping” room with lights turned off and the patient is asked to sleep for 15 to 30 minutes. Recordings are taken while the patient is asleep, even if the patient cannot sleep during the test, the information taken will still be useful.

The Multiple Wake Test is also called maintenance of wakefulness test, and is intended to measure the ability to stay awake during a designated wakeful time. This test is given during the daytime. MWT usually follows an all-night sleep study. It consists of a series of 40-minute trials, during which the patient tries ti stay awake. The test is given every two hours throughout the day, with each trial lasting about 40 minutes, During each trial, sensors and electrodes record data on body functions such as heartbeat, breathing, etc. Sleeping problems are very common among us but there are different resources one can get answers for all their sleeping woes, and the tossing and turning can be just a thing of the past



When Sleep Becomes An Age Old Problem

Over the past years, only a handful tried to question the prevailing wisdom that sleep starts to deteriorate in late middle age and steadily erodes from then on. Majority of sleep researchers believe that the best way to know more about sleep problems is to ask an elderly, and you will surely get a litany of complaints.

According to Dr. Michael Vitiello, a sleep researcher who is a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington, “older people complain more about their sleep. They just do.”And for years, this has been the basis of most sleep scientists who thought they knew what was going on.

Recently, however, new findings are giving experts more reasons to have second thoughts and may lead many to change their minds about sleep as they know it. It came as surprise to them that sleep does not really change much from age 60 onwards. Research shows that sleep problems are not due to aging itself, but mostly caused by illnesses or the medications used to treat the elderly.

“The more disorders older adults have, the worse they sleep,” said Sonia Ancoli-Israel, a professor of psychiatry and a sleep researcher at the University of California, San Diego. “If you look at older adults who are very healthy, they rarely have sleep problems.” 

Recent studies are proving that difficulties in sleeping can be traced back to poor health. One of the most common causes of sleep disruption is pain, and a restless night can make pain worse the next day. And when pain becomes worse, it follows that sleep becomes even more difficult. The situation becomes a vicious cycle common in people with conditions that tend to afflict the elderly, like back pain and arthritis.

Two parallel lines of research have brought up this new view in sleep problems. The first tried to find out what happened to sleep patterns when healthy people grew old. The second sought to discover the relationship between sleep and pain. In order to find out what really happens with aging, Dr. Vitiello and some investigators, chose to study a group of elderly who reported no sleep problems. The group actually make up half of the people who are over 65 years old.

The group were not really spared by age-related changes in sleep. In fact, their sleep turned out to be different from sleep in young people. The group of elderly said that their sleep were lighter, more often disrupted by brief awakenings, and shorter by a half hour to an hour. The reason for these, according to Dr. Vitiello, was that the age-related changes in sleep patterns might not be an issue in themselves. Something else was making people complain about their sleep.

Another question Dr. Vitiello and his colleagues also asked was that what normally happened to sleep over the life span. It had long been known that sleep changes, but no one had systematically studied when those changes occurred or how pronounced they were in healthy people.

The results based on the analysis of 65 sleep studies, which included 3,577 healthy subjects ages 5 to 102 once again surprised the team of experts. Most of the sleep pattern changes occurred with people between the ages of 20 and 60. In comparison with teenagers and young adults, healthy middle-aged and older people slept a half hour to an hour less each night, they woke up a bit more often during the night, and their sleep was lighter. But to those who were above 60, there was no remarkable change in sleep, at least in people who were healthy.

Changes in sleep during adulthood were subtle. Middle-aged and older people, for example, would fall asleep without much difficulty. The only change in sleep latency, as it is called, came out when the investigators compared latency at the two extremes, in 20- and 80-year-olds. The 80-year-olds took an average of 10 more minutes to fall asleep.

Contrary to their expectations, the investigators did not find any increase in daytime drowsiness among healthy older people. Even aging has no effect with the time it took for people to start dreaming after they fell asleep. However, the most significant change was the number of times people woke after having fallen asleep.

According to Dr. Donald Bliwise, a sleep researcher at Emory University, healthy young adults sleep 95 percent of the night. “They fall asleep,” he said, “and don’t wake up until the alarm goes off.” Healthy people are asleep 85 percent of the night when they reach the age of 60. Their sleep is disrupted by brief wakeful moments typically lasting about three to ten seconds.

Real sleep problems arise when people have conditions that make them wake up in the night, like sleep apnea, chronic pain, restless leg syndrome or urinary problems. What to expect and what to do about it will involve studies of the relationship of sleep to pain. There is no question that pain can disrupt sleep. What’s more interesting is that a lack of sleep can somehow increase the sensation of pain.


Drug Free Ways To Treat And Heal Insomnia

Insomnia is a very important problem because one-third of the population has symptoms of insomnia. There are three different types of insomnia. These are transient, acute, or chronic insomnia. Transient insomnia lasts only a few nights to a few weeks. This is often the result of jet lag, medication side effects, caffeine, transient stress. Acute insomnia lasts over a period no longer than six months, no shorter than 3 weeks. Chronic insomnia occurs nearly every night for a period of a month or longer.

You can heal insomnia naturally without resorting to sleeping pills by developing these simple habits:

Basic Sleep Hygiene:

– Exercise at night.Insomnia is often caused by too much stress. Doing exercise at night makes blood to flow in our brain and body. This in turn makes us calm and stress free. 

– Temperature reduction and optimisation. A slight lowering of body temperature which occurs at night plays a very important role in modulating the chemical signals which induce sleep. While trying to fall asleep in bed always take steps to achieve a comfortable temperature as being too hot or too cold can inhibit sleep. If you are bothered by cold feet in the night, or wake up in the night feeling cold, wear socks to bed. The average optimum temperature for quality sleep is 19 degrees, although this may vary from person to person. 

– Read books not TV watches.Read books, magazines or anything that interests an insomniac instead of watching television. Television enhances attention, which makes a person awake. Reading on the other hand while in bed causes the eye to get tired and creates a sleepy feeling. 

– Use organic cotton bedding. Permanent press bedding can give off low-grade chemical fumes while you sleep. Your body can deplete nutrients such as zinc and magnesium trying to detoxify these types of chemicals. 

– Take a Warm Bath. It is a great way to relax your body. Do not overdo it, however. You merely want to relax your body, not exhaust it. Too long in hot water and your body is drained of vitality. Use bath salts, or throw in Epsom salts and baking soda


Sleeping Pills Science S Answer To The Sandman S Magic Dust

There’s a song that goes, “Mister Sandman, bring me a dream.” Do you remember the folklore that old people used to tell kids to lull them to sleep? It’s about this mystical person that brings sleep by sprinkling magic dust into children’s eyes. Enter Sandman.

Sleeping disorders have become more and more prominent over the ages. More than 60 million American adults encounter difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or sleeping well. Stress and environment also contribute to sleep disorders. Stress causes sleep disorder in such a way that the brain is active as the person thinking about things such as finances, marital problems, health issues and extreme boredom to name a few. Environment also plays a role in such a way that a noisy neighborhood can disrupt your sleep if not stop you from getting your well deserved rest. Living in a loud environment, working on the night shift, excessive consumption of caffeine-containing products, these may cause you to lose sleep.

The three most common of sleeping disorders are: sleep apnea (snoring), restless legs syndrome (RLS), and insomnia. The term apnea was derived from the latin prefix a- for absence, and the suffix -pnea for breathe. Snoring starts when the air passage is not fully open and it air is forced through it. Those with RLS feel a strong urge to move their legs, it is characterized by a tingling feeling in the legs while sitting or lying still as if something is crawling on the legs. Worst cases of RLS prevents a person from falling asleep. Insomnia, being the most common among the three disorders listed, is the inability to fall asleep, remain asleep or sleep restfully through the night; this may include constantly awakening too early.

There are several ways to work around insomnia. Regular exercise, especially during the afternoons or early evenings have proven beneficial to getting a good night’s sleep. Engaging in relaxing activities such as reading, watching TV, or taking a warm bath is also helpful to induce sleep as it calms the mind and body. In cases where hunger is the reason for having difficulty sleeping, a light snack might help. Resisting the urge to smoke before bedtime also helps as nicotine is a kind of stimulant that may keep you awake for the rest of the night. The best way to get around it is to establish a regular bedtime until the body has been accustomed to sleeping at a specific time of day.

If all else fails, take a sleeping pill. Sleeping pills are sleep-promoting medications that are generally used to establish a sleeping habit when all other natural means have failed. These medications are closely related to sedatives as is a mild form of sedative. Heavy doses are prescribed for people with anxiety disorders. It is only effective if difficulty sleeping is still on its early stage. Once insomnia has been on-going for a long while, it will prove to be less helpful as no sleep-inducing medication should be used as long term treatment.

According to recent surveys, health professionals have decreased prescribing sleeping pills. Only when the sleeping disorder proves to be hazardous to a patient’s health do they advise the use of these pills. Over the counter sleeping pills are available in the market, though it is advised that sleeping pills should never be taken if it isn’t prescribed by a doctor as side effects might emerge.

Side effects of sleeping pills being used for long periods of time include increased mortality rate. Research shows that people who use it long term are more likely to die early than those who smoke. Sleeping pills doesn’t cure chronic insomnia, but continuous ingestion of the medication may cause chemical dependency to it. It may also affect short-term memory, giving you a sort of hangover effect. Sleeping pills intensify certain neurotransmitters that stop the lungs from firing up, causing asphyxiation. People with sleep apnea must not use sleeping pills because it will increase the number of pauses and lengthen the pause time in breathing which may cause serious brain damage due to lack of oxygen.

Sleeping pills, however convenient it is to use, isn’t a cure for any sleeping disorder. It cannot be used to treat insomnia’s underlying causes, it can only give you temporary relief by giving you the rest you need at the moment. It is best to exhaust all natural means of getting through sleeping disorders as their effects are longer lasting than that induced by sleeping pills.

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Insomnia Medication Side Effects

I seldom have a sleepless night but remember an occasion when I had difficulty falling asleep. Being awake when I should have been asleep was very annoying. Since I work at night, the problem may have been too much sunlight coming in through the window when it was time to go to bed. In the winter time the light isn’t bright enough to bother me.

Light influences the production of a hormone that regulates when we get that sleepy feeling. Too much light tends to make us wake up. Unfortunately, light is only one of the factors that influences our ability to fall asleep. Stress, caffeine use and a host of other factors can also contribute to a case of insomnia.

Insomnia can be described as the inability to fall asleep, the inability to stay asleep or waking up too early. There are three categories of insomnia. Chronic insomnia is long term and happens most nights for a month or longer. Two to four weeks of poor sleep constitutes short-term insomnia and the transient form of insomnia lasts but a few nights.

Benzodiazepines could be prescribed to help one fall asleep on a short term basis. Long term use of sleeping pills can become addictive.

Lorazepam is a benzodiazepine used for insomnia and anxiety relief. Lorazepam also goes by the names Lorazepam Intensol, Loraz, Alzapam and Ativan. In Canada you might find the names Nu-Loraz, Novo-Lorazepam or Apo-Lorazepam.

There are a number of side effects that a Lorazepam user might wish to be aware of. Among them are clumsiness, drowsiness and dizziness. Other possible side effects include, decreased sex drive, difficulty urinating, nausea, constipation or diarrhea. There are more potential side effects, ask your pharmacist for more information.

The human body can be viewed as a system made up of other systems. There are a number of systems that work together to make up the miracle of human life. Whenever introducing an external force to one of these systems in the form of a drug, the potential to interfere with or cause problems in other systems always exists. For this reason, you should work closely with your doctor or pharmacist when taking any medication. If you are fortunate to have a doctor who is willing to entertain alternatives, this will broaden the arena of options that are available to you.

Keep in mind that many drugs are synthetic imitations of substances that occur in nature. Sometimes a doctor who is willing to utilize these natural alternatives can be of great benefit.

Consider that this article is for information purposes only. It is not intended to give advice. It is also not intended suggest treatment, diagnosis or prevention of any health condition. Consult your primary care physician for any health related issues you may be facing.


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Insomnia Treatment Start To Sleep Well Again

For people who are suffering from insomnia, there is nothing so important as finding a good insomnia treatment. After all, the persistent inability to sleep, the constant fatigue, and the frustration of failing to get any rest night after night takes its toll. Fortunately, there are plenty of options available for people who suffer from insomnia, and an effective insomnia treatment can be found by those who need one.

The first thing to do when looking for an insomnia treatment is to look at insomnia prevention. Eliminating caffeine in the evening hours, exercising in the early evening, avoiding television and the internet near bed time, and getting to bed early are all excellent ways to prevent insomnia before it starts. And prevention is the best way to start treatment.

Probably the best-known insomnia treatment is the classic glass of warm milk. For as long as anyone can remember, when somebody has trouble falling asleep, someone has recommended a nice glass of warm milk. The reasons for its effectiveness are still not entirely understood, but warm milk does help people fall asleep. Though it will not necessarily help someone who is suffering from chronic insomnia, it will help people who just need a little something that will help them relax enough to get to sleep.

When the insomnia is a little more stubborn, stronger methods may be necessary. There are several herbal insomnia treatments available and they can be very effective assistants when someone is having trouble falling asleep. The most common herbal treatments include ingredients such as lavender, chamomile, or valerian and they can be very effective when sleep will not come otherwise.

Another option for people who need help falling asleep is melatonin, a naturally-occurring hormone. This hormone is vital in regulating human sleep cycles and, when taken in pill form, it can help people get their insomnia under control and fall asleep when they need to fall asleep. And because it is a naturally occurring hormone in mammals, it is not as hazardous as some of the stronger insomnia treatments.

Unfortunately, some people do not respond to any of these methods and need a stronger insomnia treatment. Which means, of course, sleeping pills. Admittedly, sleeping pills are very effective. However, they also carry a risk of dependency and even addiction and should, therefore, be used sparingly. But, for people who are suffering from extreme, chronic insomnia, there is sometimes no other choice and sleeping pills are needed to finally get a good night’s sleep. While it is not a method that should be taken lightly, serious insomnia sometimes require serious measures and sleeping pills are an extremely effective insomnia treatment.

Insomnia treatment is vital for people who want to start getting a good night’s sleep again. And there are several treatment options available for people who are suffering from an inability to sleep, ranging from simple methods of prevention to the use of sleeping pills. But the best method is one created by sitting down with a doctor and putting together an insomnia treatment plan that tailor made for the person who is struggling with sleep.



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Baby Sleep Tips Some Tricks For The Transition

As a new parent, one of your priorities will be to establish good sleeping habits with your newborn. Your baby needs to learn to sleep on his own; the transition from sleeping with his mother to sleeping by himself takes some time. Of course, as add added bonus, if you get your baby to learn to sleep on his own you will also get some much needed rest yourself. To instill good sleeping habits in your baby, research and try to employ different baby sleep tips: try a lot of things and see what works for you, and don’t be afraid to trust your instincts.

Many baby sleep tips center on the idea of establishing routines and associations for your child between nighttime and sleep. The sooner you child begins to associate bedtime with sleep, the more likely he is to be able to go to sleep without a fuss. A period that is often overlooked, however, in establishing day vs. night associations, is the period of “transition” – that is, the one between being awake and falling asleep. Here are some transitioning techniques to try:

Try what is sometimes called “fathering down.” Just before placing the baby into bed, the father should cradle the baby in such a way that the baby’s head rests on the father neck. The father should then talk gently to the child. Because the male’s voice is much deeper than the female’s, babies are often more soothed by it, and will fall asleep more easily after being exposed to it for some time.

You can also try what is sometimes referred to as “wearing down.” This is effective if your baby has been active throughout the day and is too excited to go to bed easily. All you have to do is place your baby in a sling or carrier – “wear him” in other words – for about half an hour before his bedtime. Simply go about your regular household activities: being close to a parent and slowly rocked about before bedtime will provide your child with an easier transition from being awake to being asleep.

Finally, if you’ve exhausted other options, you can go for the tried and true method of “driving down.” Most parents are probably familiar with this as a last resort: place your baby in the car and drive around for awhile until he falls asleep. This one, while inconvenient, usually works every time, and if you desperately need some sleep it can be a godsend.

Obviously, you don’t want to do things like drive around every night to get your child to sleep. Nor do you want to have to carry him around in a sling. The idea, though, is to start with these more drastic techniques and then slowly ease out of them. Keep in mind what a major transition your baby is going through when he is tiny: he’s never slept on his own before. He simply doesn’t know how to transition himself from being awake to being asleep. By employing these transition techniques you will be slowly teaching him how to do so, and as they are gradually removed your baby will learn good sleeping habits, which will ensure that both you and your child get a good night’s rest.


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