Tag: Sleep benefits

Is There Help Available For The Sleep Deprived?

People get grumpy when they lack sleep. You are easily annoyed and everything just pisses you off. You trudge through the day not really fully understanding what’s going on and you feel tired and exhausted all the time. With a good night’s sleep, you’ll have the energy to conquer your day and even have time to hang out with family or friends at the end of the day.

That is how important sleep is. Your day is pretty much ruined if you decide to go to work or school with only a few hours of sleep to fuel you. Sleep deprivation can either be acute or chronic and your lifestyle has a lot of influence over this. A lot of people these days are night owls who are up all night and sleep during the day.

Our nation is rife with over-worked, sleep deprived people. This epidemic seems to have become embedded into our realities, with only one third of adults reporting they get enough sleep every night. What makes sleep deprivation so harmful is that it doesn’t simply impact one area of health, but each physical, mental, and emotional aspect of it.

Our deepest hours of sleep occur during a period called slow-wave sleep. During this time, our bodies are less responsive to any sounds and movements going on around us. Not only is dreaming more common during slow-wave sleep, it’s also when the majority of mental and physical restoration takes place. When someone stays up all night, they disrupt this important period of sleep, potentially disrupting growth and cell-reparation.

In addition to growth and cell repair, a lack of sleep affects metabolism. A study in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine shows that getting four hours of sleep for four nights in a row makes people’s bodies resistant to insulin, which is a common cause of weight gain and diabetes. You’ve probably experienced a craving for junk food after not getting enough sleep. This happens because sleep deprivation lowers levels of leptin and raises levels of ghrelin, increasing our cravings for carbs and sweets.

(Via: http://www.phillyvoice.com/05999-heres-what-sleep-deprivation-does-your-body/)

Gaining weight is a common complaint among people who always pull all-nighters because the body actually has a hard time burning off calories when we lose sleep. Remember that there is a big difference between sleeping during the day and sleeping at night, which is how nature designed for our body to rest and recuperate.

What’s different today is that insufficient sleep — going to bed too late, getting up too early or both — seems to be more common, said B. Tucker Woodson, chief of sleep medicine at Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin.

“A lot of us live on less (sleep) and try to adapt,” he said. “We become used to it. We think we are performing well when we are not.”

The reasons are partly tied to modern life. We are more scheduled than ever; our eating patterns are inconsistent; activities extend into the evening; work never really ends. We live in a wired world, and it doesn’t stop at our bedroom door.

A 2014 survey by the National Sleep Foundation found that 62% of parents and 45% of children had televisions in their bedroom, while 45% of parents and 30% of children had a tablet or smartphone.

Only 16% of parents and 28% of children had no electronic device in their bedroom.

(Via: http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/health/breathe/2017/04/17/s-time-wake-up-dangers-sleep-deprivation/99877990/)

It is hard for people to sleep eight hours a day at night anymore. Technology has a lot to do with it so are smart gadgets. Back in the days, you have nothing left to do when you turn off the light at night but to sleep. If you can’t, then you just have to make do and count sheep. Unfortunately today, smart gadgets are everywhere along with access to the Internet. Instead of trying to drift off to sleep when we hit the bed, we can’t resist the urge to tinker with our gadgets and browse the web for the latest in social media.

Sleep deprivation is often associated with too much technology use but sleep disorders used to be the main reason why people have a hard time sleeping back then. Sleep apnea is the most commonly reported along with insomnia and you can usually get a confirmed diagnosis after getting yourself checked in a sleep clinic. https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/zquiet may offer relief to your long sleepless nights caused by sleep apnea. Meanwhile, you can also try https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/snorerx, another anti-snoring mouthpiece that can prevent those deadly breathing pauses and stop you from snoring too.

The Importance of Sleep

Getting eight hours of sleep daily is not just important, it is a must. Our day is packed with activities and stressors that the least we can do for our body is to give it a rest once night falls. Important body processes take place while we sleep without us knowing.

Imagine waking up the following day after a deep and peaceful slumber (that may be with help of this). It feels as if you are ready to take on the world. You feel more energized and in a better mood that no amount of sweets or energy drinks can manage to give you – only a good night’s sleep can. And the truth is, your overall health improves when you get that much-needed snooze each night.

A new study is making a huge claim about sleep, and particularly regarding those who have trouble getting to sleep: researchers at the European Society of Cardiology have just discovered that there may be a link between insomnia and an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.

The findings, which were published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, add to the growing volume of research about how important sleep is to our bodies and brains in so many different ways, but the level of impact it is how on our risk of stroke and cardiovascular disease surprised scientists.

(Via: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3229516/sleep-insomnia-risk-heart-attack-stroke/)

So, if you suddenly find yourself unable to sleep for whatever reason, try your best to revert back to your normal sleeping pattern or risk putting yourself at higher risk of deadly cardiovascular diseases.

Studies of more than 160,000 people found a clear association between sleep problems and a heart attack or stroke, the Express reports.

Experts say the results show that sleep should be prioritised as part of a healthy lifestyle alongside exercise and diet.

Difficulty getting to sleep, staying asleep, and waking up not feeling refreshed increased the risks by 27 per cent, 11 per cent, and 18 per cent respectively.

Women are at a slightly higher risk than men as they are more prone to insomnia because of differences in genetics, sex hormones and reaction to stress.

And since women are more prone to suffer from insomnia than men, the health risks are higher too.

“However, we do know that women are more prone to insomnia because of differences in genetics, sex hormones, stress, and reaction to stress.

“It may therefore be prudent to pay more attention to women’s sleep health.”

(Via: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3229516/sleep-insomnia-risk-heart-attack-stroke/)

So, there’s no denying the fact that you’ve got a lot to lose aside from your precious snooze. Unfortunately, we live in a day and age where losing sleep is common in both men and women, the young and the old. And in the United State, the numbers will show you just that.

Facts are that here in the U.S., we are not getting enough sleep. We are a nation that loses sleep working, studying, taking care of personal and family needs, having fun and too, slaying a few dragons. The demands and expectations of our fast-paced 21st century lives have placed increasing loads on our time. And more than ever, people are making up for those strains by cutting back on sleep.

At the same time, it is becoming increasingly clear that the cost of insufficient sleep is much higher than most people recognize. It can compromise output, resulting in reduced efficiency and overall poor productivity. Awareness can help you improve your sleep habits and in turn your well-being and productivity in order to “rise and shine” to accomplish what you really want (and need) to do on any given day. Here’s some of the impact that a lack of sleep has on our success with projects at work, school, or home.

And the immune system is one to get hit first (and bad):

Weakened immune system: Not being able to function at optimum health
While you are sleeping, your body recharges and rejuvenates your immune system. Conversely, sleep loss can impair your ability to fight off germs. So while you may feel very productive staying up late or even pulling all-nighters, you become more vulnerable to infections that can result in slowing your abilities and production way down, even to a standstill.

(Via: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/mar/31/health-sleep-and-productivity/)

Getting enough sleep is important no matter how old you are. You may hate being told to go to sleep as a child but you’d think of sleep more of as a luxury as an adult when adult responsibilities deprive you of your much-needed snooze. Your body will tell you that it needs sleep. All you need to do is to listen to it and say goodbye to all your cares in the world – at least for the night.