Do you know how your sleep affects your ability of problem solving? One good reason why your ability of problem solving can improve well after 7 or more hours of sound sleep is the effect of sleep on memory.

When you are sleeping, information moves from your short term to long term memory.

Hence, you can deliver the problem solving information that is required to the other parts of your brain, which will actually know how to solve the problem efficiently.

Therefore, it is always essential for you to improve your sleeping patterns to develop better problem solving ability.

Some scientists evidently said that during sleep your brain consolidates and organizes memories of what you have seen and done during your day. When these memories are merged and organized, you will able to access the information that is required for you to solve any particular task.

So, if you want to improve your problem solving ability, it is always suggested to improve your sleep patterns. There are many ways to improve your sleep. Some of the most effective ways mainly include:

Stick to particular sleep schedule!

There is a strong association between depression and sleep deprivation.

The suicidal behavior associated with depression has been described as a public health problem and that the full implication might not be scientifically addressed in relation to children and adolescents to the depth that it should be.

Moreover, the suicidal behavior in adults can start in childhood and it should be recognized early.

The study, authored by Maria-Cecilia Lopes, MD, PhD, of Sao Paulo University in Brazil, focused on 303 individuals with pediatric bipolar disorder and pediatric unipolar disorder during depressive episodes. The presence of sleep complaints and suicidal behavior were detected by face-to-face interviews during depressive episodes.

According to the results, 83.8 percent of the patients had sleep disturbances. Poor sleep was more frequent among those with pediatric bipolar disorder and pediatric unipolar disorder, and this was clearly detected by the presence of initial insomnia and sleep maintenance insomnia.

Surprisingly, there was a significant association between suicidal behavior and the presence of sleep complaints in both groups. The proportion of subjects who reported suicidal behaviors with sleep complaints was higher among bipolar than unipolar patients.

Sleep is significantly disrupted for hospitalized pediatric patients and their parents, especially for younger children and on the first night of hospitalization

The 22nd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS) is one of the first to demonstrate the negative impact of hospitalization on sleep quantity and quality in children and their parents, in particular for younger patients and on the first night of hospitalization.

The study, authored by Lisa J. Meltzer, PhD, of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, focused on 81 children between six and 21 years of age and 82 parents, who completed the Sleep in a Children’s Hospital questionnaire, providing information about sleep habits at home, the previous night’s sleep while hospitalized, and sleep disruptors (e.g., pain, noise, procedures).

According to the results, sleep patterns significantly differed during hospitalization, with younger children reporting a later bedtime, later wake time, more night wakings, and shorter total sleep time, and older children reporting a significantly later wake time, more night wakings, and longer total sleep time.

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An acute session of moderate aerobic exercise, but not heavy aerobic or moderate strength exercises, can reduce the anxiety state and improve the sleep quality of insomnia patients.

The study, authored by Giselle S. Passos, of Federal University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, focused on 36 patients (eight men and 28 women) with primary chronic insomnia, who were divided into three experimental groups (moderate aerobic exercise, heavy aerobic exercise, and moderate strength exercise) and a control group.

According to the results, after the exercise session, reductions were shown in sleep onset latency (54 percent) and wake time (36 percent) in the moderate aerobic exercise group, while increases were shown in total sleep time (21 percent) and in sleep efficiency (18 percent).

A significant increase in the total sleep time (37 percent) and reduction in the sleep onset latency (40 percent) were observed in the sleep log of volunteers of the moderate aerobic exercise group. Finally, a significant reduction (seven percent) in the anxiety state was also observed after moderate aerobic exercise session.

These findings indicate that there is a way to diminish the symptoms of insomnia without using medication

Source: ScienceDaily

According to the research, Bright light therapy may improve a mother’s nocturnal sleep, decrease daytime sleepiness and be beneficial to her well-being.

Sleep plays a vital role in promoting a woman’s health and well being. Getting the required amount of sleep is likely to enhance a woman’s overall quality of life.

Yet, women face many potential barriers — such as life events, depression, illness, bad sleep habits and medication use — that can disrupt and disturb her sleep. Overcoming these challenges can help her enjoy the daily benefits of feeling alert and well rested.

“Having a low birth weight infant in the ICU can intensify sleep disturbances for mothers because of extended periods of exposure to the artificial dim light in the ICU and stress related to the infant’s medical condition,” said Dr. Lee. “Impaired sleep may have negative impact on the mother’s well-being.

Bright light therapy given through use of the special visor may improve mothers’ nocturnal sleep, decrease daytime sleepiness, and be beneficial to their well-being.

Source: ScienceDaily

Teenagers who use their cell phone excessively are more prone to disrupted sleep, restlessness, stress and fatigue, according to a research.

According to the study conducted on two groups, young people with excessive use of cell phones (both talking and text messaging) have increased restlessness with more careless lifestyles, more consumption of stimulating beverages, difficulty in falling asleep, disrupted sleep, and more susceptibility to stress and fatigue when compared to the group with restricted use of cell phones.

“Addiction to cell phone is becoming common. Youngsters feel a group pressure to remain inter-connected and reachable round the clock. Children start to use mobile phones at an early stage of their life. There seem to be a connection between intensive use of cell phones and health compromising behavior such as smoking, snuffing and use of alcohol,” said Dr. Badre.

“It is necessary to increase the awareness among youngsters of the negative effects of excessive mobile phone use on their sleep-wake patterns, with serious health risks as well as attention and cognitive problems,” said Dr. Badre.

It is recommended that adolescents get nine hours of nightly sleep.

Source: ScienceDaily

If you choose alcohol as your sleep aid, then it is very essential for you to realize that alcoholism, which is used as source to get good sleep, can lead to certain sleep disorders.

Therefore, in order to understand how these two things are interrelated to each other, you must look into the depths of these two different topics, alcohol and sleep.

Alcoholism and sleep!

Alcoholism is an illness in which you can become addicted to excessive alcohol consumption. Identical to consciousness, sleep is an active process that is controlled by your nerve centers in brain stem. These nerve centers usually produce certain chemicals that controls the regulation of REM (rapid eye moment) state of your sleep, where your eyes move more rapidly.

So, whenever you consume excess amounts of alcohol, the functioning of these chemical messengers mainly affects your sleep and causes various sleep disorders.

Sleep disorders related to alcoholism!

If you are already suffering with any kind of sleep disorders, particularly sleep apnea, then extreme consumption of alcohol can certainly make the condition much worse. It is believed that excessive alcohol consumption in addition to sleep apnea can certainly kill the person.

GPs can now offer a melatonin on prescription to treat older adult patients diagnosed with primary insomnia.Primary insomnia disrupts daily life, resulting in clinically significant distress and impairment of social, occupational and daily functioning.

Circadin, the first pharmaceutical grade licensed melatonin, is a prolonged-release formulation of synthesized melatonin that is released over several hours, in order to provide the body with melatonin at an adequate physiological level during the normal hours of resting.

The key to managing primary insomnia is to restore the quality of sleep, rather than the quantity of sleep. Changes occur in the full sleep cycle with age and part of this could be due to a correlation between increasing age and declining levels of melatonin.

Treatment with Circadin may replenish that deficiency and restore the normal sleep cycle for restful, restorative sleep and normal next-day functioning.

Treatment with Circadin has been shown to significantly improve quality of sleep (QOS) and behavior following wakening (BFW), also referred to as next day-functioning, and both contribute to improved quality of life.

Circadin is effective within three weeks of dosing, and helps to induce and maintain sleep.
Source: Medical News Today