Archive for September, 2006

At various points in our lives, all of us suffer from a lack of sleep that can be remedied by making sure we have the opportunity to get sufficient sleep.

But, if you are spending enough time in bed and still wake up tired or feel very sleepy during the day, you may have a sleep disorder.

You may have a sleep disorder and should see your doctor if your sleep diary reveals any of the following:

• You consistently awaken more than a few times or for long periods of time each night.
• You consistently take more than 30 minutes each night to fall asleep.
• You take frequent naps.
• You often feel sleepy during the day, particularly if you fall asleep at inappropriate times during the day.

Common Signs and Symptoms of Sleep Disorders

Look over this list of common signs and symptoms of sleep disorders, and talk to your doctor if you have any of them:

• It takes you more than 30 minutes to fall asleep at night.
• You frequently don’t feel well rested despite spending 7–8 hours or more asleep at night.

Stick to a sleep schedule.

Go to bed and wake up the same time each day. As creatures of habit, people have a hard time adjusting to altered sleep patterns.

Sleeping later on weekends won’t fully make up for the lack of sleep during the week and will make it harder to wake up early on Monday morning.

Exercise is great but not too late in the day.

Try to exercise at least 30 minutes on most days but not later than 5 or 6 hours before your bedtime.

Avoid caffeine and nicotine.

Coffee, colas, certain teas, and chocolate contain the stimulant caffeine [Caffeine and Sleep Problems], and its effects can take as long as 8 hours to wear off fully. Therefore, a cup of coffee in the late afternoon can make it hard for you to fall asleep at night.

Nicotine is also a stimulant, often causing smokers to sleep only very lightly. In addition, smokers often wake up too early in the morning because of nicotine withdrawal.

Avoid alcoholic drinks before bed.

The best course of action to take sometimes isn’t clear until you’ve listed and considered your alternatives.

The following paragraphs should help clue you in to what the experts think is significant.

Everyone has perhaps heard that humorous sex reference in regards to quality over quantity.

However, what about when it pertains to a good night’s sleep? For most people, how relaxing you feel after a night’s sleep describes how your behavior will be for that day.

Every person’s sleep patterns differ, so one person might need eight to ten hours of uninterrupted sleep to feel rested while another person might only need about six hours.

Your quality of sleep is what actually counts in the game of life. You might say that you get eight to ten hours of sleep, but if the quality of that sleep was not good, that quantity does not account for much.

We all need sleep in order to function. Like breathing and eating, it is an essential of life. When you feel rested, thanks to a good night’s sleep, you probably feel like you could tackle anything that came your way.

The following article covers a topic that has recently moved to center stage–at least it seems that way.

If you’ve been thinking you need to know more about it, here’s your opportunity.

To nap or not to nap, that is the question.

There is a great debate as to whether or not napping finally hurts or helps you. Did you know that most mammals do not have sleep patterns like humans? In fact, most mammals nap off and on all day and all night long.

Meanwhile, you and many other people recognize a distinct daytime and a distinct night time when sleep should happen. But when that sleep is interrupted in any way, what does it lead to? The consequence is that you might feel tired the next day and catch yourself nodding off.

In other words, you are sleep-deprived [Sleep Deprivation]. Some people believe that taking a nap during the day will affect your sleep patterns at that night.

Another group believes that taking a short nap during the day will not hurt your probability of a good night’s sleep. So who is right and who is wrong? The answer could be both of them.

Individuals who have sleep-related breathing disorder appear significantly more likely to develop depression, with odds of depression increasing as breathing disorders becomes more severe, according to a study in the September 18 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, a theme issue on sleep.

Frequent pauses in breathing, labored breathing or reduced breathing during the night are hallmark signs of sleep-related breathing disorder, according to background information in the article.

The disorder has been linked to a variety of negative health consequences, including cardiovascular disease and difficulty functioning during the day.

Previous studies have suggested that depression [Sleep and Depression] improves when sleep-related breathing disorder is treated, indicating that these two common conditions are related.

Characterizing the relationship, the authors write, could “guide screening for depressive symptoms in patient populations with sleep-related breathing disorder, suggest strategies for managing sleep-related breathing disorder-related depression and alert clinicians about the possibility of untreated depression complicating adherence to sleep-related breathing disorder mitigation strategies and treatments ….”

Paul E. Peppard, Ph.D., and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Madison evaluated 1,408 adults (788 men, 620 women) who were between the ages of 30 and 60 at the beginning of the study, in 1988.

This interesting article addresses some of the key issues regarding pain with sleep.

A careful reading of this material could make a big difference in how you think about pain with sleep.

Twenty percent of Americans report that some kind of pain or discomfort disrupts their sleep a few nights per week or more.

This sleep disruption in turn causes deprivation of mood, behavior, energy level, and safety.

It was reported in the NSF’s Survey on Sleeplessness, Pain and the Workplace, that back pain and other body aches or joint pain were the leading kinds of pain conditions experienced at night.

The Consequences Of Pain With Sleep

Difficulty maintaining alertness, lack of energy, impaired mood, and trouble handling stress are the consequences of pain with sleep. A lack of sleep puts a person at a higher risk for injury, poor health, and accidents.

Sleep studies in patients with acute pain, such as postoperative patients, and chronic pain, such as neuropathic & rheumatologic conditions, show frequent arousals, a hard time going back to sleep, and decreased time in REM sleep.

The ability to control the bladder functions at night matures increases as a child’s body grows and his bed wetting is likely to decrease.

Most children who suffer from bed wetting outgrow it before their preteen years and if not, then by the time they enter their teenage years.

It is estimated that only 1% of adults suffers from the chronic problem of bed wetting.

However until bed wetting becomes a thing of the past it is significant to be supportive of a child who wets the bed.

1. Be sensitive to your child’s concerns and reassure him or her whenever they wish to talk about the problem.
2. Many children are anxious, embarrassed and frightened that their friends will find out that they wet their beds and they will then become the object of ridicule. Make sure your child knows that it is not anything he or she does that causes the bed wetting and that in time it will go away.
3. Do not get angry with your child for wetting his or her bed and do not make too big a deal of it, otherwise it is likely to affect your child’s self esteem. Don’t allow other siblings to laugh at or tease the bedwetting child about his or her problem or this could make the problem seem worse than it is.

The following article lists some simple, informative tips that will help you have a better experience with relaxation medication techniques that will help you to have a sound sleep.

Try a relaxation meditation if you can’t sleep because of stress. This can help distress you and relax you so you can sleep.

Here is a technique of relaxation meditation that can help you have a sound sleep. Lay in bed to do this. Make sure that you are comfortable and that you will not be disturbed. If you fall asleep this is fine.

Relaxation Meditation Technique 1

Lay there and relax for just a moment. Tighten up the muscles in your feet. Count to three and let go. Tighten up your calves. Count to three and let go.

Now tighten up your thighs. Count to three and let go. Tighten up the muscles in your buttocks. Count to three and let go. Your feet are very relaxed.

Your legs and lower body are very relaxed. They feel as though they are made of lead. They are very, very, very relaxed. Now tighten up your abdomen. Count to three and let go. Tighten your chest. Count to three and let go. Tighten your lower back Count to three and let go.