A new study is out revealing your sleep habits analyzing what your sleep positions say about you. According to a body language expert sleep positions can determine how stressed you are and make known such traits as stubbornness, bossiness, self-criticism and whether they feel they are in control of their life. The study of 1,000 sleepers, performed by Premier Inns, states that there are basically four types of sleep positions; the fetal, the log, the yearner and the freefallers. Read more »
Change Up Sleep Training Your Baby
While watching the movie Change Up Batemans character talked about sleep training his twins. What is sleep training and does it work? Many parents struggle to get their babies to sleep. Sleep training is developing a sleep routine that helps the baby learn how to fall asleep on their own and stay asleep all night. Some babies fall into this habit easily while others have difficulty settling down to sleep even if they wake up during the night. Read more »
Depressed Can’t Sleep Try Magnesium
Depression affects the way a person eats, feels, thinks and sleeps. Not getting enough sleep can contribute to depressive disorders. How can you stop this cycle and get some sleep? Depressed people can suffer from sleep onset insomnia which is not falling asleep easy or sleep maintenance insomnia that is difficulty staying asleep, both types result in daytime drowsiness, lack of concentration, moodiness, irritability and stress. Did you know in 2006 there was an article published in the Medical Hypothesis called Rapid recovery from major depression using magnesium treatment and that a magnesium deficiency can actually cause depression as well as other behavioral disturbances, headaches, muscle cramps, seizures, psychosis and irritability that can be reversed with magnesium repletion? WOW! Read more »
Side Effects of Lexipro (Lexapro) for Sleep Anxiety
Do you worry about not being able to fall asleep which causes you to stay awake even more? This is what is known as sleep anxiety an endless cycle of sleeplessness that results in chronic insomnia. Most people know they have this problem but are unable to stop it. If you have sleep anxiety you worry about how much sleep you get and how it will affect your ability to function during the day. As you worry about your insomnia the worse it gets. Your insomnia becomes part of your everyday life and instead of doing something about it you learn to live with it or you decide to take a drug like Lexipro to treat your sleep anxiety. Read more »
Link between Sleep and the Immune System
A new study from the researchers at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) has found evidence that there is a link between sleep and the immune system. Lack of sleep not only causes lack of concentration and moodiness, it can also reduce the effectiveness of vaccines. Their study’s link between the amount of sleep you get and the immune response to vaccines was analyzed by middle-aged participants in a sleep clinic who were monitored on a nightly basis to determine their sleep patterns than administered a three dose hepatitis B vaccine to see how strong their immune system responded. Read more »
Too Hot to Sleep Stay Cool with these Gadgets
Trying to sleep in hot weather leaves many of us tossing and turning drenched in our own sweat. Other than spending a lot of money running your air conditioner night after night try some of these cool, environmentally friendly gadgets that will help you sleep easy. Sleep experts believe the ideal sleep temperature is between 60 and 68 degrees any temperature above 75 and below 54 will disrupt sleep. Achieving the ideal room temperature during a heat wave isn’t always affordable. Read more »
For Teens Sleep Improves Memory for Better Grades
For teens, sleep and school performance go hand-in-hand, so make sure the transition from a busy day to a restful night’s sleep is smooth, and eliminate the types of things that tend to make sleep less than restorative. Problems with learning and memory from lack of sleep can lead to bad grades. How can they maximize their learning capacity? By getting more sleep! Sleep helps strengthens their ability to learn new things and convert new learning into long-term memories. Read more »
Calcium Magnesium Zinc and Sleep
Did you know a hair analysis can determine why you can’t sleep at night? Balancing your physical chemistry is important to promote sleep and without sleep your body can’t heal itself. Calcium, magnesium and zinc are known as the sedative elements. They are needed to promote a relaxing nervous system and sleep does not come easy when their levels are too low causing muscle tension and irritability. Your hair analysis can reveal if your magnesium and calcium levels are elevated and low in relation to your sodium and potassium. This is identified as the four highs pattern which is associated with stress. A four lows electrolyte pattern reflects an imbalance in the autonomic nervous system. Metal toxicity is common with a four lows pattern and as a result exhaustion is a symptom along with muscle cramps and anxiety due to the low levels of magnesium and calcium. High metal toxicity can also be measured by blood and urine tests as well as a hair analysis. Read more »
Why Do We Sleep
Why do we sleep? Scientists have developed many theories why we need sleep. Our bodies seem to regulate sleep the same why it regulates our eating habits and breathing. Sleep is good for the body and plays an important part in our health. We feel better after a good night’s sleep because sleep makes us more alert and energized to get through the day. Sleep like eating and breathing is another life sustaining activity and without enough sleep we function poorly. Looking at sleep patterns in other animals to see if there are similarities or differences that might tell us something about sleep’s role researchers have suggested the possible theories. Read more »
Reasons Why You Can’t Sleep
If you’re pregnant or having menopausal symptoms you know how hard it is to fall asleep easy at night. But there are other reasons that you should consider if you’re having trouble getting the sleep you need. No matter how old you are you could be suffering from one of these sleep stealers. Read more »
S.L.E.E.P. Tips
Spring break is here and a lot of us are planning to get away for some fun and relaxation. The days before leaving can be hectic getting ready for your vacation; packing, buying last minute items, arranging hotel stay or flight arrangements etc. Do you find that you are too excited to sleep? I know what you’re thinking that you can make up the sleep you lost once you get to your destination, right? In the meantime you’re cranky and short with your family and coworkers. Losing sleep whether excited or worried/anxious even for a short period of time can cause memory loss, irritability, impaired physical judgment and lack of concentration. Here are some S.L.E.E.P. tips to help! Read more »
Sleep Facts
The world record of no sleep is 18 days, 21 hours, 40 minutes during a rocking chair marathon. The record holder reported hallucinations, paranoia, blurred vision, slurred speech and memory lapses. People can take cat naps with their eyes open (I have personally witnessed this and it is creepy), so without medical supervision it is really impossible to tell if someone is really awake or not. More Sleep Facts ..... Read more »
Cheap Mattresses are Sleep Stealers
A recent survey revealed that many health and back problems are due to old or cheap mattresses. The Arc Consulting for the Better Sleep Council found that 82% of 400 surveyed adults believe that their sleep problems are caused by their mattress and almost half described the condition of their mattress as bad or very bad. Although they recognize that their mattress is in bad condition, they are fail to see that it is a sleep stealer and could end up contributing to other health issues. Read more »
Pumpkin and Sleep
Tryptophan is an amino acid that aids the production of melatonin and serotonin which control our sleep/wake cycle. Pumpkins are rich in tryptophan which can help people fall asleep easy. Foods, like pumpkin, that have tryptophan must be eaten with high glycemic carbohydrates for better absorption. This is why you feel lethargic after you have had your Thanksgiving meal of turkey, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. Mashed potatoes are high glycemic carbohydrates while turkey and pumpkin pie are loaded with tryptophan. Tryptophan works during the day to promote serotonin that helps with depression and anxiety, while at night it produces melatonin that causes us to feel sleepy. Read more »
Hotel Guests Lose Sleep
Since I travel a lot I get a bit picky about my hotel room. Not only is the size of the bed important for a good night sleep, the noise inside as well as outside the room is equally important. Location, location, location if the room is next to the elevator you will hear the mechanics all night. If the room is at the end of hall next to the stairwell you can imagine how many times you will hear the door slam in the morning. Having a room in the middle of the hallway you might be listening to children run up and down the hall all night. Then there is the lead foot that stays up all hours in the morning stomping overhead. So where is the best room location? I prefer to be a the end of the hall, away from the elevator, across from the stairwell on the top floor. If you are lucky enough to get an upgrade, such as with Hilton Honors or Priority Points, you might get a bigger room with some additional amenities with all the comforts of home, but in a bad location. So you have to make a decision, amenities or a little noise. Read more »
Cannot Sleep Ears Popping and Ringing
Cannot sleep ears popping and ringing could be a sign of tinnitus. WebMD.com defines tinnitus as a noise or ringing in the ears that is a symptom of an underlying condition, such as age-related hearing loss, ear injury or a circulatory system disorder. Tinnitus results in annoying sounds of hearing sounds including; ringing, buzzing, roaring, clicking, whistling and hissing when no external sounds are present. Also called phantom noises they vary in pitch and you may hear it in one or both ears. Tinnitus isn’t a sign of something serious, although, it may worsen with age and can be treated by identifying the underlying medical problem. Read more »
Sleepless in America Remembering 9/11
Today is the 10th anniversary when American Airlines flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City at 8:46 a.m. A moment of silence spread across America and around the world as we remember those that lost their lives. Obama read a psalm and family members began reading [...] Read more »
How Much Sleep Should a Teenager Get
How much sleep should a teenager get? According to MayoClinic.com most teens need about 9 1/4 hours of sleep a night and sometimes more to maintain optimal daytime alertness for their busy schedules. Due to school, homework, extracurricular activities, part-time jobs and social demands very few teenagers actually get that much sleep. A publication in the Journal of School Health reported that 90% of teens get less than the recommended hours of sleep and 10% of those teens surveyed are sleeping less than six hours a night. Accumulating a sleep debt of five to 10 hours by the end of the school week can have serious consequences. A tired teen can find it difficult to learn as well as finding it hard to fight afternoon sleepiness. Lack of sleep can also contribute to moodiness and behavioral problems. By the time the weekend rolls around many teens are not their usual selves and tend to sleep in to make up for their sleep debt. What can parents do to help with their teenagers and sleep? Read more »
High Blood Pressure Chocolate and Sleep
What causes high blood pressure? What is the connection between high blood pressure, chocolate and sleep? First we need to state the difference between primary and secondary hypertension. Primary hypertension accounts for 95% of all high blood pressure cases (roughly 72 million Americans) it is multifactorial, that means, there are multiple factors or causes that contribute to producing high blood pressure and is far more common than secondary hypertension that is caused by a specific abnormality. The basic causes are not always known but certain associations have been recognized in people that are prone to high blood pressure; like those that intake a lot of salt and are advancing in age, African Americans, obese, genetically predisposition and suffer from renal insufficiency. Read more »
Sleep Better with a Memory Foam Futon Mattress vs a Traditional and Innerspring Futon Mattresses
Today you can pick up a futon for as little as $150.00 at your local Wal-Mart or Target store and that includes the futon frame and the mattress. A futon is great for a smaller guest bedroom, basement or den. It still provides an option for a bed and a sofa and today’s futons are much more stylish and comfortable. I purchased a futon in 1994 for $300.00 and the mattress was very hard to sleep on. You have a choice of futon mattresses today; the traditional foam and cotton, the innerspring and the memory foam mattress. Read more »