Archive for September, 2007

Patients who have obstructive sleep apnea had more than two and half times risk of developing heart attack compared to people who do not have apnea. The more severe the sleep apnea, the greater the risk of developing heart disease and stroke.

In obstructive sleep apnea, upper airway narrows or collapses during sleep. Apnea ends with partial arousal that may disrupt sleep hundreds of times a night. Many patients are unaware of their snoring and disturbing sleep during night.

During sleep, your heart and blood pressure drop. This allows your heart to rest. Snoring, pauses in breathing and gasping or choking for air prevent you from getting deep sleep your body needs. This can result in hypertension.

You are familiar that changes in hormones can affect your good night sleep.

You face sleep problems during hormonal fluctuations which can lead to insomnia.

A woman can face sleep problems during menopause.

But, there is another problem that women are facing, which is thyroid imbalance. The thyroid imbalance can cause sleep problem throughout your life.

If you don’t have any health problems and everything is balanced in your life, but still you are not getting good night sleep, then you might be having hormonal imbalance.

Thyroid is a gland located in the neck and helps to control body’s metabolism and energy. Hypothyroidism is a problem in which the thyroid is underactive and hormone levels too low. Everything slows down in hypothyroidism and you feel extreme fatigue.

If a person gets seven hours of sleep, he or she wakes up refreshed in the morning, but with hypothyroidism the person feels fatigue even after eight, nine or ten hours of sleep. If you have hypothyroidism, your sleep will be unrefreshed, means you feel exhausted.

SwaddleMe Cotton – Small

SwaddleMe Cotton provides swaddle with soft fabric wings that hugs your baby close.

A separate leg pouch can be popped quickly for changing diapers when required.

As your baby grows, the wings can be adjusted.

Swaddling soothes your infant and your baby sleeps quickly.

According to the new research, swaddling also helps in reducing sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and promotes better baby sleep.

They can sleep on their backs with this SwaddleMe product.

Swaddling also helps to soothe and comfort newborn babies, which helps to sleep better and also helps in reducing colic.

SwaddleMe is available in small sizes and large sizes also. You can select the size according to your baby size. It is also available in different colors.

If you want different colors of this product, get here:

http://www.baby-wise.com

Dex "Secure Sleeper Ultra" 3 in 1 Sleep Positioner

This is a three in one sleep positioned. As there is risk of sudden infant death syndrome, babies are made to sleep on their backs.

Sleep Aid Therapy - Sound Machine Spa

Want to sleep without any stress? This sound machine spa is a great stress release sleep aid therapy.

This is a portable machine, so you can carry wherever you go. It lulls you into restful sleep while flying, in the bus or train.

Different sounds of nature are available in this sound machine spa. You can get sunrise, rain forest, waterfall, brook, summer, beach, heartbeat, and spring rain sounds.

You can operate this sound machine with 2 AAA batteries. It consists of free neck strap so that you can carry it easily. Free headphones are available with this machine. Volume can be adjusted. You can block the outside noises and disturbances with this machine.

To know more about this product, visit:

http://www.ninistores.com

Sweet Dreams Sleep Mask

This sleep mask completely blocks outside light and you feel comfortable when you wear it. It enhances your relaxation with the lavender scent on the mask.

It consists of an elastic strap and Velcro closure which provides a perfect fit and within few minutes after wearing the mask over your eyes, you get into sleep.

Metabolic syndrome is defined as collection of risk factors of heart disease which increases the chances of developing stroke, diabetes and heart disease.

According to new study, teenagers with sleep related breathing disorder are at increased risk of developing metabolic syndrome.

Sleep apnea and risk of metabolic syndrome:

When a person is having sleep apnea, soft tissues in the throat collapse during sleep and your breathing stops many times in the night.

You have to wake up to restart your breathing. If you sleep apnea, you will have the symptoms like daytime sleepiness and snoring.

You have metabolic syndrome when you are diagnosed with high blood pressure, high density lipoprotein level and triglyceride level. Metabolic syndrome commonly occurs in people who have central obesity, diabetes mellitus, and high triglyceride to HDL ratio of greater than three.

Due to repeated sleep interruptions due to sleep apnea, oxygen dips can raise the body’s levels of stress hormones like cortisol.

Due to the raise in stress hormones, blood sugar and blood pressure levels increase and problems with cholesterol metabolism increase. Teenagers who are obese and have metabolic syndrome should be tested for sleep apnea.

Stress is the natural consequence of extended work hours and the increased demand on your productivity.

As the technology is moving much faster, creativity and productivity are increasing. You have to move faster to reach your goals in order to reach your creativity and productivity.

So, stress becomes normal part of your life. You don’t even notice that stress is the cause for serious health problems in you. You will never think that your sleep problems can be due to stress. Due to less time for relaxation and leisure, you become sleep deprived.

Once you are sleep deprived, you experience difficulty in falling asleep or staying asleep, waking up in between the sleep and not able to sleep again. When you are sleep deprived, it results in daytime sleepiness. It also affects your mood, performance, concentration and behavior.

How stress affects your sleep?

Stress makes your muscles tense and prevents you to be in the relaxed state, which is necessary for sleep. Not only extended work hours, children and modern living also cause stress, which affects your sleep. Managing and preventing stress is the main thing for a healthy and peaceful sleep.

Kids who don’t get enough sleep are more likely to be obese than those who gets plenty of sleep. This ensures that adequate sleep is important for controlling weight. According to the research, sleep deprivation increases the levels of hunger hormone and decreases the hormone levels that make kids feel full.

Lack of sleep lowers the leptin levels, a hormone that stimulates metabolism and decreases hunger. Lack of sleep increases the ghrelin concentration, a hormone that increases hunger.

Due to the decreased levels of leptin, your kid feels he needs adequate amount of food if he already has been consumed. Due to increased levels of ghrelin, kids tend to feel hungry during sleep hours. This results in increased risk of overweight in kids.

Sleep hypnosis can help in the treatment of various sleep disorders such as bed wetting and insomnia.

Through hypnosis, underlying emotional problems which disturb your sleep can be explored.

Hypnosis is a therapy where you are guided into a state of deep relaxation.

When you are hypnotized, you enter into trans-like state where your mind will be open to suggestion within a narrow focus.

The hypnotist identifies your stress and triggers of stress during trans state and helps in inducing peaceful sleep. You will gain control over sleep disorders with hypnosis.

The hypnotist keeps you hypnotic state to reinforce positive behaviors. Remember that sleep hypnosis is different from normal deep sleep because your mind and body are influenced by hypnotist.

Hypnosis alters your sleep disorders and reaches to effective sleep pattern. It trains your mind and releases your day-to-day worries and makes you to concentrate on sleep.  With this therapy, your mind can achieve a relaxed state to reach deeper sleep levels.

Hypnosis can treat many sleep disorders:

Insomnia: Insomnia can be mild, temporary or chronic. You can get insomnia with emotional problems, depression, and medications. When you take sleep hypnosis treatment, insomnia responds well. [Self Hypnosis for Insomnia Cure]