Tag: average amount of sleep

Pop It Til You Drop: Sleeping Pills and You

There are lots of ways to deal with sleep issues and most of them involve putting something in  your mouth. If you snore, you may use a mouthpiece like this to assist in getting that oxygen through the proper airway. If you grind or clench your teeth while sleeping you’re still going to be putting a mouthpiece in at night, just a different kind. For those who have trouble sleeping you might find yourself looking towards sleep aids in a pill form. Whatever your method, there are pros and cons to each option. When it comes to sleeping pills a lot of people tend to be concerned that it might cause dependency, which is a valid concern. Just like there are different types of sleep issues, there are different types of sleeping pills:

Not all sleeping pills are created equal, and not all of them work for every type of sleep problem. That’s why the American Academy of Sleep Medicine has released a first-of-its-kind set of guidelines for doctors on how to prescribe—or not prescribe—14 different medications and supplements for the treatment of chronic insomnia in adults.

About 10% of people meet the criteria for chronic insomnia, which lasts at least three months and occurs at least three times a week. The new guidelines suggest that certain medications may be helpful in addition to talk therapy, which should continue to be a first line of treatment for people struggling with ongoing sleep issues.

Some drugs, for example, should be prescribed to those who have trouble falling asleep (sleep onset insomnia). These include zaleplon (Sonata), triazolam (Halcion), and ramelteon (Rozerem), the new report states.

Other drugs are recommended for treating people who have trouble staying asleep throughout the night, classified as sleep maintenance insomnia. These include suvorexant (Belsomra) and doxepin (Silenor, Zonalon, and Prudoxin).

A few medications were given the green light for both types of insomnia: Eszopiclone (Lunesta), zolpidem (Ambien, Edluar, Intermezzo, and Zolpimist), and temazepam (Restoril) are suggested for either sleep onset or sleep maintenance problems.

The difference in recommendations is largely because some drugs last longer in the body than others, says lead author Michael J. Sateia, MD, Professor Emeritus of psychiatry and sleep medicine at The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. “It’s a reminder to clinicians that it’s important to choose an agent that has an appropriate duration of action for the particular type of insomnia you’re treating,” he says.

Dr. Sateia points out that these recommendations are only for long-term cases of insomnia. “What we’ve laid out here does not necessarily apply to the very common occasional night or a few intermittent nights of poor sleep,” he says.

He also stresses that the recommendations are based on the best available data from clinical trials, and aren’t meant to be the final word on whether a doctor prescribes them.

Via: http://www.health.com/sleep/sleep-pill-guidelines

Every person is created differently and that’s why it’s important to realize that what works for one person may not work for another. We all have different factors to consider and different issues at play. Even general terms like insomnia don’t relate the fact that there is more than one kind of insomnia. Most people hear that word and think ‘Oh, a person who can’t sleep at night’ when that might not be the only thing at play. The point is that just because you try one thing and it doesn’t work doesn’t mean that you are doomed to never getting rest. Perhaps you need to spend a night in a sleep lab to find out just what exactly is going on when your eyes are closed. Maybe you need to start a journal at your bedside where you can clearly take notes on times and situations when you wake up or have trouble sleeping. Taking that information to your next health care appointment can teach your health care professional so much. There is hope.

Prove You’re Not Lying with this App

If you live with someone who snores, you have probably been told that you’re making it up when you confront them with the snoring issue. Many people who snore are either blissfully ignorant of the fact that they can rattle windows in their sleep or truly believe they don’t snore. As someone who is sharing a bed with a snorer in denial you might find yourself fighting a losing battle every time you try to bring it up. Your option might be to stay up all night to try to record them snoring, but that won’t be doing you any favors. So what’s a person to do? That’s where this handy app comes into play:

Snore Metrics has launched Snore Report – an iPhone app aimed at monitoring sleep and snoring. Snore Report will allow FitBit integration, and is available for download in the Apple App Store for free right now, with Android launching in the spring of 2017.

The app works by recording your sleep overnight. In the morning, the app provides a “Snore Score” assessment with the option to listen to the recording in its entirety, along with computed analysis and analytics.

Developed by world class engineers from the United States, China and Ukraine, SnoreReport features sophisticated algorithms to factor out the megahertz of the television sound, ensuring that it does not compromise, or interfere with the Snore Score. The app integrates the sleep tracking data with FitBit, to incorporate the heartbeat and provide a more comprehensive assessment of sleep quality.

“The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that drowsy driving was responsible for 72,000 crashes, 44,000 injuries and 800 deaths in 2014,” continued Fallon. “Snore Report allows you to monitor your sleep in the comfort of your own home. Sleep disorders are a silent killer, and we are working with Dr. Robert Lebby, a Board Certified Sleep M.D., to consult on further advancing the accuracy and analytics of the app.”

Via: https://appdevelopermagazine.com/4709/2016/12/12/New-app-records-your-snoring-then-gives-you-a-report-to-help-you-stop-it/

BAM! All you have to do is install this app on your phone and leave it running one night to pick up your partner’s snoring. The catch here is if you also snore, you won’t know who the app is tracking. You might be better off sneaking to another room for the night to ensure that the app captures the right culprit (or, why not wear a mouthpiece like the Good Morning Snore Solution to practically guarantee that it isn’t you that is snoring). Not only will this app provide a written report it will also allow a recording to be played. There’s no denying the fact that someone snores when you’ve got this much proof. This app is more productive than Johnson in accounting!

If your blissfully unaware snorer still denies they have an issue even after all of this, you might need to rethink everything. Chances are, one confronted with this proof they may be willing to at least have a conversation about it and you can work together. Dispelling some sleep myths right off the top is a good idea. Teamwork is what makes a relationship thrive so don’t just try to blame them for this issue they really can’t control when they’re unconscious. Maybe you need to review your habits and activities to ensure that you both can have a happy, healthy, quiet sleep.

How Much Sleep is Actually Enough?

sleeplessDepending on what stage of life you’re at you might be thinking that it’s not a big deal if you sacrifice your sleep to get ahead in life. Sure, you can live on four hours of sleep a night so that you can make sure you watch all the episodes of that popular show on Netflix or work the three jobs to afford your fancy car. Our minds like to tell us all kinds of things and sometimes we shouldn’t listen to them. Is your brain a medical professional? Probably not. You might like to think you are because of your personal connections or what you read online but unless you went through grueling medical school, you probably aren’t a doctor or nurse.

There is a reason we’ve been told we need no less than eight hours of sleep. It’s not just a random magical number; it serves a purpose.

Humans need sleep just as much as they need food or water. Sleep is an indicator of overall health and well-being. The amount of sleep one needs depends on a number of factors like age, quality of sleep, previous sleep deprivation, etc.

Most people accumulate what is called “sleep debt” wherein people try to make up for sleep lost during the week during the weekends. But that doesn’t really work. In fact, getting as little as three to four hours of sleep a night is as bad as pulling an all-nighter. Staying up for 24 hours straight and then driving is like driving with a blood-alcohol content that is considered legally drunk in all 50 states.

Shortage of sleep can be blamed for nearly 100,000 traffic accidents, 76,000 injuries, and 1,500 deaths every year. So how much sleep do you need?

The National Sleep Foundation in 2015 came out with a study that recommends different amounts of sleep based on age. The study had 18 researchers comb through 320 research articles to come to its current “sleep time duration recommendations.”

Children aged six and above need at least nine to 11 hours of sleep and teenagers need eight to ten hours of sleep. Seven hours of sleep should do for some but sleeping for over 11 hours a day can cause health issues. But some teens may need some extra sleep during puberty.

Via: http://www.medicaldaily.com/whats-minimal-amount-sleep-we-need-stay-healthy-395429

It’s important to eat a balanced meal and it’s important to drink plenty of water. Just like these basics that have been drilled into us since our youth, sleep is something that is required to have a healthy life. It does get harder as we get older and various stressors come into our lives. Demanding jobs, young children or pets that require a lot of attention tend to eat into our sleep time.

You are the master of your body and it’s up to you to make sure that your temple is in great shape. As much as you schedule in your weekly workout or that coffee date with the guy/girl next door, you need to make sure that you get proper sleep or you’ll pass out into your latté which will probably end your dating chances for a while.

So draw yourself a nice lavender bubble-bath after dinner and try to leave the list of chores and to-dos out of your brain until you’ve had a nice soak. Have a warm cup of tea or milk before you head to slumber land and give yourself the appropriate time to nod off before your alarm screams in your ear.