Archive for February, 2007

A bad night sleep can have an adverse affect on adult’s performance at work the next day.

In the same way, if there is a disturbed sleep for high school or middle school students, it affect’s their school performance.

According to the research published in the Journal of clinical sleep medicine, students who experience sleep problems are more likely to get bad grades in school.

It is examined that students of middle class and high class have sleep complaints frequently.

The students who got bad grades were more likely to have restless legs syndrome, difficulty concentrating during the day, difficulty waking up in the morning, excessive sleepiness during the day, snoring, and sleeping in the class.

According to the study, inadequate sleep, poor quality of sleep and irregular sleep patterns occur at high frequencies in students and significantly affect school performance. Difficulty in concentration and restless legs syndrome are the symptoms associated with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Parents should take care of their children and teen’s sleep related problems and should discuss the condition with the doctor.

During teenage, the body’s circadian rhythm is reset and tells the teen to fall asleep late in the night and wake up late in the morning.

Bed wetting, also known as sleep enuresis, is problematic not only for the child but also for the family members.

Parents agree that bed wetting ranks third sleep disorder in terms of stressors [Stress and Stressors] on the family.

It is an issue many families face every night. It is common under the age of five but sometimes it continues after the age of five.

Primary bed wetting occurs if the child has never been dry at night or is only occasionally dry at night. Secondary bed wetting occurs after a child has been dry at night for a prolonged period.

Kidney or bladder disorder and emotional situation is the rare cause of bed wetting. The parents should remember that children do not voluntarily wet the bed. Kids feel embarrassed and guilty about bed wetting.

Children do not participate in social activities that require sleeping outside their home. They often suffer from self image and their feelings can be greatly affected by the attitudes of their parents who feel that their efforts to stop the bed wetting have failed.

Many people with morbid obesity suffer from sleep apnea.

Obstructive sleep apnea is a condition which occurs when breathing stops as the soft palate at the back of the throat collapses and closes the airway during sleep.

The more your body weight, the greater is the amount of fat pressing down on your chest and lungs.

Morbid obesity results in fat deposits at the tongue and neck. Sleep apnea can occur regardless of age and gender but it is severe in obese people.

Bariatric surgery is the procedure to reduce morbid obesity. Surgery is the option for people who are severely obese and cannot lose weight by traditional ways. Bariatric surgery reduces overall excess body weight and fat deposits in the tongue and neck.

The operation includes weight loss by restricting food intake and in some operations, interrupting the digestive process. According to the clinical data, sixty percent of patients who are undergoing bariatric surgery have sleep apnea.

According to the research, obstructive sleep apnea was resolved in 85.7 percent of patients who have undergone bariatric surgery. If you want to go for bariatric surgery, you must be morbidly obese.

People with insomnia often depend on sleep aids to fall asleep. There are different types of sleep aids to get good night sleep.

Sleeping pills or the drugs are the sleep aids which are used to promote sleep and used by many people. These are called over-the-counter (OTC) drugs.

Herbs are the sleep aids which promote sleep naturally. These are called herbal sleep aids. [Natural Sleep Aids]

OTC sleep aids:

These OTC drugs are sold in medical stores and online for the treatment of insomnia. These drugs can also be purchased without prescription from the physician or doctor.

FDA approved sleep aids contain antihistamine as the active ingredient. Histamine is a chemical messenger in your brain that promotes wakefulness. Antihistamines produce drowsiness by suppressing the activity of histamine.

The sleep aids that contain antihistamines which are permitted by FDA are diphenhydramine citrate, doxylamine succinate and diphenhydramine hydrochloride.

The antihistamines used in sleep aids can produce side effects such as headaches, fatigue, daytime sleepiness, vomiting, dizziness and decreased alertness. Some side effects can be stronger in aged people. Daytime drowsiness can be severe in people who use antihistamines.

Kids who do not get enough sleep weigh more than those who get more sleep, according to the study of the researchers at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

They examined kids sleep behavior and its relationship with weight using detailed diaries kept by their families.

According to the study, kids who get less sleep weigh more after five years.

It is also determined that extra hour of sleep cut the risk of being overweight from thirty six percent to thirty percent in kids aged three to eight and from thirty four to thirty percent in kids aged between eight to thirteen.

The study was conducted on 2281 kids aged between three to twelve and data was collected five years later.

The sleep diaries recorded the number of hours kids slept, what time they went to bed for sleep and at what time they woke up in the morning. Along with sleep timings, their height and weight also recorded.

The researchers found that kids got less sleep were more likely to be overweight and have high body mass index than those who got more sleep.

Sudden infant death syndrome is the leading cause of death in infants under one year age.

It is a frightening prospect because it strikes without warning.

Parents and caretakers should give extra care during cold winter months which put your child in the risk of SIDS.

Over wrapping which leads to thermal stress, is one of the main risk factor of SIDS. Many parents are not aware of this condition. New parents do not know about the risk factors of SIDS and how to properly put their baby to sleep.

According to the recent studies, placing babies to sleep on their back is the safest position, but many of them continue to place their infants in side-sleep positions or face-down positions, both of which are risk factors of SIDS.

For unsafe sleeping position, if you add over-wrapping and viral or bacterial infections, it may increase the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

Several studies have shown that infants sleep with too many blankets or wraps and in crowded bed with family members. Infants who are sick need to expel the heat from their fever, so over-wrapping the infant is the worst thing in that situation.

Sleep paralysis is a condition in which you are unable to move either at sleep onset or on awakening.

You lie down on the bed for hours, trying to wiggle your fingers or toes, but you are paralyzed.

You cannot call out for help as you can’t draw a deep enough breathe to make the sound. After sometime you are able to move slightly and your body begins to respond. This can happen to anyone.

Sleep paralysis can happen at the beginning of sleep or end of sleep. The event lasts for few minutes and there is no harm with sleep paralysis.

It’s terrifying for the first time when the event occurs. You may feel a presence which is threatening or evil. It is vaguely felt and though to be watching or monitoring you.

Sleep paralysis occurs as the body is coming out of rapid eye movement sleep. During REM sleep, your brain will be very active but you are actually paralyzed.

The main symptom of sleep paralysis is partial or complete skeletal muscle paralysis during the hypnogogic states. Events can be associated with hypnogogic hallucinations. The hallucinations can be visual or auditory.

As you grow older, your sleep patterns change. You find difficult to sleep, wake more often and take long time to go back to sleep as you grow older.

You doze off easily while reading newspaper or while watching television. You easily wake up with slight noise and small disturbances.

Advanced sleep phase syndrome (ASPS) is a disorder in which the sleep episode is advanced in relation to the desired clock time which results in evening sleepiness. Due to the early sleep onset, the awakening is earlier than desired.

Symptoms of Advanced sleep phase syndrome:

The symptoms of advanced sleep phase syndrome (ASPS) are inability to stay awake until the desired bedtime, inability to remain asleep until the desired time of awakening, awaken spontaneously and the sleep episode phase will be advance in relation to the desired time for sleep.

Causes of Advanced sleep phase syndrome:

Advanced sleep phase syndrome (ASPS) occurs more common as people grow older. The other causes are medical illness, psychiatric illness, pain or depression.

As you grow older, you need less sleep. Actually, older people need same amount of sleep, but at a stretch they cannot sleep for that many hours.