Category: Sleep Health

Natural Ways To Kiss Snoring Goodbye

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Snoring has been the bane of existence of many people. It is so bothersome that both the snorers and their spouses lose sleep on a day to day basis without any promise of relief any time soon. Sleep apnea happens to be incurable and people with the condition only receive palliative treatment so the quality of their lives do not deteriorate that much and they get to sleep better too.

When you think about sleep apnea and snoring, you’d likely associate its treatment with surgery or CPAP, both of which aren’t the cheapest option nor the safest or most comfortable either. Fortunately, over the years, there have been newer and more convenient stop snoring products alternatives in the form of sleep apnea mouthpieces. They are fairly easy to use and quite cost-effective too. You don’t have to spend a fortune to get one because many even offer a free trial so you get a feel for what the device feels like before actually paying for it.

In fact, heavy snoring and sleep apnea may be linked to memory and thinking decline at an earlier age, according to a 2015 study published in Neurology. Since sufferers involuntarily stop breathing during the night, sleep apnea is a serious disorder that requires medical attention. But if you’re ready to put an end to “simple” snoring, try these five lifestyle changes for a more peaceful

slumber.

Monitor your weight.

Once you doze off, the muscles in your throat relax. Then, the walls of your “floppy” throat begin to vibrate as you breathe in and out (and the narrower your airway, the more obnoxious the snore).

“In general, people who gain a few extra pounds will develop a little fat in the airway,” Dr. Cortes says. Her important dietary tip: Avoid food and alcohol at least three hours before bedtime because they can make the soft tissue more flaccid.

(Via: https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/wellness/g4481/how-to-stop-snoring-naturally/)

Oral appliances like the ZQuiet and VitalSleep are rising in popularity because they enable people to overcome their sleep apnea symptoms and live a normal life again. This often entails the ability to be able to sleep soundly through the night once more.

If you want a more natural approach, a few tweaks to your lifestyle can get you your lost sleep back without even spending a penny on it. They are simply just living healthily and feeding your body right. Keeping your weight in check, sleeping on your side, using nasal drops (when necessary), and a few more tips can transform your sleep experience allowing you to wake up feeling recharged and full of energy the next day.

  1. Keep your bedroom clean

Snoring can be often made worse by dust and allergens found in your bedroom.

Make sure to hoover your bedroom on a regular basis (including carpets and curtains), change your sheets and pillowcases every week and get new pillows every two years.

  1. Try nasal strips

Nasal strips can help to open nasal passages, to help you to breathe easier and alleviate snoring.

  1. Use peppermint products

Rubbing some peppermint oil around your nose may also work to open-up your nasal passages.

(Via: https://www.dailystar.co.uk/health/698734/how-to-stop-snoring-naturally-home-remedy-national-stop-snoring-week-2018)

Avoiding vices like drinking alcoholic beverages and smoking should also be at the top list of your don’ts as both worsens sleep apnea symptoms and make it doubly harder for you to get a wink of sleep at all. Do not hesitate to explore your options because there are a lot of remedies out there that are really effective and good for your overall health too. They may not provide instant relief but they are baby steps in the right direction.

With the help of your doctor or a sleep expert, you can undergo a better and more effective sleep management plan that can beat sleep apnea the natural way and put your awful snoring at bay. It takes a lot of patience and discipline to stick to healthy living but it will trigger a domino-effect of positive changes in your body, and consequently to your health, which can solve most of the health-related problems you are experiencing right now.

Recognizing The Dangers Of Snoring

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Humans have peculiarities that may seem funny at first but are actually threatening to one’s health. A fine example is snoring. People often snicker at the sound of another person’s snoring because they have associated it as an embarrassing and annoying sleeping habit some old people have when in reality, it actually is a dangerous health condition that can even put your life in grave danger in your slumber.

Snoring isn’t just a habit but is actually the sound people make when air can’t freely pass a constricted airway and cause this hallmark symptom. In layman’s term, a person who snores (and often is diagnosed with sleep apnea) suffers from periodical breathing gaps all throughout their sleep. It is an involuntary response that is often triggered by a physical anomaly in body parts involved in the essential act of breathing.

So, every time a person snores, he/she is actually having a hard time breathing and the brain has to make the risky choice between breathing and sleeping. Imagine being in this delicate state every day, like every time you sleep there is always the risk of not being able to wake up.

The Sleep Lab has four fully equipped hotel-grade rooms for overnight sleep studies. Pulmonary or sleep medicine fellows study real-time data in a separate room under the supervision of a consultant sleep specialist.

Snoring and OSA can lead to serious health risks such as heart failure, heart attack, high blood pressure, stroke, neurocognitive impairment and accidents due to sleepiness. OSA causes breathing to repeatedly stop and start during sleep.

Be worried when the snoring is punctuated by periods of silence, followed by a snort, a loud gasp or a body jerk.

(Via: http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/295043/worried-snoring-punctuated-silence-body-jerk/)

If you are a habitual snorer, don’t put off any longer a trip to see the sleep specialist. While not all snorers have sleep apnea, snoring remains to be a major symptom of patients diagnosed with sleep apnea. There is always the possibility of you actually suffering from some type of sleep apnea. So, better get yourself checked and interventions can be initiated.

They may recommend a sleep test, wherein you’ll be required to stay for the night to be observed in your slumber. You’ll be strapped to devices that will give the doctor a better idea how your body works when you are asleep.

If a person does have sleep apnea, a more aggressive treatment may be necessary.

For some people, a dental oral appliance — a device that looks like a mouthguard — can propel the lower jaw forward and open up the airway sufficiently. But some patients experience jaw or bite alignment issues with these devices, according to Lee.

The primary treatment for severe cases relies on a continuous positive airway pressure or CPAP machine: a device that forces air pressure through a mask into a person’s airway. It provides enough air pressure to keep the airway open throughout the night.

Not every patient needs a device like the CPAP at the start, according to Lee. But she cautions that sleep apnea is a progressive disease that tends to get more serious as people get older. As we age, “everything tends to sag a bit more,” she explained, and that’s true inside your airway, too. A patient who can use milder treatments for a while might still eventually need a CPAP.

(Via: http://uk.businessinsider.com/how-to-stop-snoring-2018-5)

As soon as a diagnosis is made, you can explore various options on how to address this condition. There are conventional management methods like CPAP and surgery but both have their risks. However, CPAP remains to be the best intervention for sleep apnea even if its compliance rate is low. It is because CPAP isn’t exactly comfy and surgery is obviously invasive. Most people right now prefer the use of anti-snoring gadgets because it is more affordable and convenient to use and also effective in reducing snoring without all the discomforts associated with CPAP use.

At a time and age when modern science almost has an answer to everything, there is no reason for you to continue suffering in silence or being deprived of sleep. Most anti-snoring gadgets offer a free trial like ZQuiet while SnoreRx offers a 30-day money back guarantee, so give it a try while you are still exploring your other options.

Sleeping With Shleep

posted by under sleep apnea treatments, Sleep Health , , ,

Sleep or better yet the lack of it is fast becoming a global problem these days. More often than not, you’d struggle to get that forty winks because of numerous distractions to your environment. You don’t even have to go far to do something about your sleeping problems because traditional remedies included counting sheep. However, we have long since upgraded ourselves with the help of technology. Why do things manually when you are not even guaranteed of successful results if there are tech innovations that are designed to make our lives easier and at the same put an end to many of the problems we face today. It is not a futile effort too as we all know now that a lot of people are struggling to get a good night’s sleep because of the myriad of distractions that are littered in the online and real world.

Some of these innovations are actually kind of interesting and amusing to the general public because they have some of the weirdest ideas but at times they do work. It may not work for everybody but it does for some and that’s all that matters. The market for sleep technologies is so big that someone is bound to find a specific gadget useful in their life. And the market is so big, always keep that in mind. Who needs to count sheep when you can try a state-of-the-art device like Shleep, and it sounds catchy too it is easier for name recall.

If you’re part of the wellness set, plenty of sleep is the new status symbol – a luxury ideal to be coveted.  With this comes an opportunity to monetise the elusive ability to power down. The sleep industry is a multi-billion-dollar market. Like many other lifestyle areas, there is now a plethora of apps, gadgets and wearables supposed to help us sleep better and make counting sheep a thing of the past.

From smart bulbs that emit a type of light that helps you fall asleep, to goggles that claim to reset your internal clock by emitting a green-blue light for up to half an hour a day, there is no shortage of tech solutions if you’re having trouble trying to get quality shut-eye. A new device, Sense, “sits on your bedside table, helping you to fall asleep, improve your sleep, and wake up feeling great”. The Nightingale is a white noise machine that works with the acoustics of your room to cancel out sleep-disrupting noise in surround sound. And Magnesphere, a huge circle you sit in while your body is hit with magnetic resonance, is meant to balance the nervous system.

(Via: http://stream.aljazeera.com/story/201705022320-0025428)

The good thing about sleep technology is that you can now customize it. Most makers allow for an interactive experience where you can input your details and they will come up with results that are unique to you and depends on your response to the gadget. All these things are designed to help as many people overcome their sleep woes because only a small percentage of the population today still get to sleep that recommended eight hours of sleep daily.

Yes, it has a funny name but in an emerging tech field from Alibaba to Zenith, the new sleep app Shleep is getting a lot of attention for its clever interface, its complex approach to assessing energy and sleep, and a platform backed by hard science and a Dutch team’s deep background in sleep studies.

Debuting at CES 2018, Amsterdam-based Shleep held its own against a raft of sleep-related apps and technologies ranging from to a four-part system that includes a visor, a cream, and neuroacoustic software.

Instead of gadgets and gizmos, the Shleep app offers a cool, comforting interface featuring company mascot “Shleepy,” but it’s one built around a philosophy involving understanding and behavior change. In short, the company believes the better a person understand that certain behaviors lead to disturbed sleep and increased risk of disease, the easier it is for them to change their behavior.

(Via: https://www.digitaltrends.com/home/shleep-sleep-ces-launch/)

We need sleep in as much as we need money to live. Remember that your body will make sure you pay for all the neglect and abuse you are doing to your body now while you are still younger. Everything degenerates over time and it includes your body. Sleep is a restorative process and it is meant to recharge your body so you are always in your best shape but because sleeplessness has become an epidemic as of late, you need more than just your willpower to overcome it. Hence, these sleep technologies may come in handy at times when you always find yourself tossing and turning each night rather than getting that much-deserved snooze.

However, most of these devices won’t work for diagnosed sleep disorders like sleep apnea. What you need is a doctor-approved treatment plan or devices that are designed to get to the root cause of this disorder such as https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/zquiet and https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/vitalsleep that maintains your airway open while you are sleeping, eradicate the breathing pauses, and at the same time reduces the snoring sound many people find so annoying.

Visit A Sleep Disorder Center For A Good Night’s Sleep

posted by under Sleep Health, ZQuiet , , ,

Sleeping is not just a luxury but a necessity in our lives. We need it in order to function normally and live healthily throughout all the days of our lives. Our sleeping requirement varies as we age. Babies do nothing but just sleep almost the entire day but the length of their sleep reduces as they grow up. Kids still have the biggest requirement because of the rapid growth and development they go through and it is evident in their growing bodies. Once you enter adulthood, sleep becomes more of a luxury because of heavier workload and more responsibilities you have to juggle day in and day out. Yet even if you can claim that your body has reached maturity once you hit adulthood, it does not mean you need less sleep than your younger counterparts.

Sleep is essential for everyone no matter what your age is. Adults need it too because they do so much more now they need the energy to help them last throughout the day and night. They can’t just reason out that they lack sleep as an excuse to skip school or miss work because they should know better that their bodies need to rest too or else they succumb to sickness. It’s the reason why sleep clinics are on the rise these days. Many people finally admit that they lack sleep for a lot of reasons but it should not stop them from getting this lost sleep back with the help of modern science. We are not just simply talking about insomnia or some other sleep distraction but of more chronic, debilitating, and deadly conditions such as sleep disorders.

Dr. John Geyer and his staff at the Bryan W. Whitfield Memorial Hospital Sleep Disorder Center help the community sleep at night, literally. As medical director of the sleep center, Geyer evaluates patients and orders sleep studies based on their problems. Once Craig Schumacher, RPSGT, RST, performs and grades the studies, Geyer reviews the data to decide what treatment is right for his patients.

“The study is primarily to figure out what they have. And then we tailor a treatment for that,” Geyer said.

Treatments may include special equipment, mouth pieces, positional therapy or medication.

(Via: http://www.demopolistimes.com/2018/01/15/bwwmh-sleep-center-helping-patients-get-good-nights-rest/)

Sleep apnea has already been prevalent years ago but it’s only now that people are starting to recognize it for the health risk it really is. Imagine people with sleep apnea experiencing multiple breathing pauses during their sleep and that leaves them lacking in oxygen that is crucial for various body processes that keeps us alive. Back then, we only think of snoring, the most prominent symptom of sleep apnea, as a nasty habit most older uncles are guilty of doing when they sleep. We just simply shrug it off and laugh at them for their silly habit. But we know better now.

One of the largest professional societies focused on sleep issues is moving beyond its original roots.

This week, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) announced that it would expand its mission with a new patient-focused membership group called the American Alliance for Healthy Sleep.

AAHS, a 501(c)(4) organization, will bring together individual patients and healthcare providers and focus on policy, public awareness, and patient support.

Because the organization includes both of these groups, AAHS says it “will be in the unique position to break down barriers to collaboration while facilitating discussion and solutions that address the concerns of both patients and providers together.” 

(Via: https://associationsnow.com/2018/01/sleep-medicine-group-launches-offshoot-focused-patients/)

It is high time the world at large gives importance to sleep and not discredit it anymore. We can only live a healthy and normal life if we get enough sleep at night. Even sleeping during the day could not make up for the many recuperative processes that take places when you snooze at night, so seek help for your sleep woes if you have problems with it because sometimes what you need is medical help. Don’t ever rely on sleeping pills because it is not the best answer to your dilemma. It’s just a temporary patch and should not be abused. It’s not advisable to be taken in the long run especially if you have a diagnosed sleep disorder like sleep apnea because you need something else to address the underlying problem that results to your chronic sleepless state.

If you are undecided yet as to what treatment plan you want to try, you can try something that offers relief and at the same time addresses the major worries in sleep apnea such as anti-snoring mouthpieces. https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/zquiet and https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/snorerx are great for starters and they don’t cost a fortune either. You not only put an end to the awful snoring sound but also opens up the airway so you save yourself from the deadly breathing pauses that happens countless times in your slumber.

How Sleep Can Help You Lose Weight

posted by under Sleep Health , ,

People these days struggle with a lot of things. If there are two things they struggle on the most, it has to be about sleep and weight. People can obsess over these two things a lot because it is almost next to impossible to get quality sleep and maintain your ideal weight when the world is full of temptations that are meant to lure us into the easy life. Sad to say, though, that the easy and carefree life we thrive in does not necessarily help promote healthy living. Eating fast food, staying up all night and fidgeting with your smart devices, not exercising, all these things add up over time and result in weight problems. Now don’t be surprised why obesity is a major problem in the world when we do so little in ensuring our bodies are healthy and cared for every single day.

You don’t really have to starve yourself or spend long hours in the gym when simply sleeping better can actually help you shed off that excess weight. It may not be fast but it sure is effective. You see, sleep has powerful restorative properties that make us feel like we can take on the world if we only get the recommended 8 hours of sleep each night. Take note, sleep at night not just daytime sleep. Certain chemicals are released only at night that aid in sleep restoration that you miss out on if you pull off an all-nighter and decide to sleep the day after. If you are well-rested and get a decent sleep each night, you can easily do your tasks next day without having to rely on anything to boost your focus and concentration.

That extra sleep showed some real-world benefits that could help explain why lack of sleep is associated with obesity. The sleep-trained group ate an average of 176 fewer calories a day; in comparison, the control group ate only seven fewer calories every day. Best of all, those calories were cut from less healthy sources. Those who slept more cut ten grams of sugar from their diets every day, while the others changed their sugar intake by less than a gram. The newly better sleepers also ate reduced their daily carbs by 22 grams, while the shorter sleepers actually ate 3 more grams.

Even with better sleep and dietary habits, the participants didn’t show much weight change over the course of the study, but the results are consistent with past research linking sleep with a healthy weight, like one study that found people burn more fat when getting a full night’s rest.

(Via: https://www.rd.com/health/diet-weight-loss/sleep-affects-diet/)

Skip the snacks and sweets or drinks loaded with caffeine to help you get through a boring class or give you the energy you need at work because sleep is enough to keep you focused and alert all day long. As a result, you spare your body the extra calories you get from these equally addicting treats thus you can easily maintain your svelte figure. Just imagine your sleepy self trying to trudge through a day’s worth of work. You would gladly grab that snack bar or go on endless trips to the pantry to make yourself coffee because you are sleepy and don’t have the energy to do your tasks. That’s how you end up putting weight faster than you can burn it.

The amount of sleep participants got each night proved to have a positive correlation with their diets. The researchers found that those who extended their sleep reduced their free sugar consumption by 10 grams when compared to baseline levels, along with a decrease in carbohydrate consumption.

“The fact that extending sleep led to a reduction in intake of free sugars, by which we mean the sugars that are added to foods by manufacturers or in cooking at home as well as sugars in honey, syrups and fruit juice, suggests that a simple change in lifestyle may really help people to consume healthier diets,” said principal investigator Wendy Hall, from the Department of Nutritional Sciences at King’s College London.

(Via: https://www.metro.us/body-and-mind/weight-loss/sleep-and-weight-loss-healthy-eating)

It is like a positive domino effect of good things to come your way simply by getting enough snooze at the right time. You don’t have to take any special pill, buy a special workout equipment, pay for a costly gym membership, or try a crazy and potentially harmful diet that does not guarantee any success because getting enough sleep is what you need first in living a healthy life. You can easily fight off cravings for sweets if you don’t feel that sleepy during the day.

Do it for yourself and your well-being. And while it may be hard for people with diagnosed sleep disorders, you should not just give up yet and instead make sure you go see a doctor for treatment. You can try an anti-snoring mouthpiece like https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/zquiet or https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/snorerx to relieve the symptoms and the snoring and it will help you sleep better too. And if you sleep better, losing weight and keeping that extra weight off will come naturally so it’s definitely a win-win situation for you.

Sleep Clinics That Are Up To No Good

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We rarely have a say when it comes to medical institutions. These facilities often do what they want and we just follow because their services are as valuable as our lives. IN the US, getting hospitalized is no joke as your medical bill can shock you upon discharge especially if you do not have medical insurance. Some people try to steer away from it as much as they can but of course, you can’t tell when medical emergencies may happen and off to the hospital you go. Not all our health problems will lead us to the hospital, though. At times, it is to relatively different medical facilities that are more specialized to handle your problem. It’s what sleep clinics are for. It is better for patients with sleep disorders and other sleep-related complaints to go here rather than in traditional hospital as they are equipped with the equipment and materials as well as manpower that are knowledgeable and skilled in handling such cases.

Seeing how many sleep clinics have opened up in and out of the country, we can clearly see how many people are struggling with sleep, or better yet, the lack of it. Sleep deprivation is a chronic problem that cripples most people whether they are young or old. Then there are those sleep disorders such as sleep apnea and insomnia that are so frustrating and can mess with one’s life and health. Hence, it is no longer surprising to see sleep clinics with tarnished reputations and accused of various scams or cases of unprofessionalism. Sleep clinics are essentially an extension of hospitals, so they need to uphold integrity and superior standard medical practices as well as ensuring the facility is clean and complete with all the necessary materials and devices. The staff is also expected to be professional at all times. Unfortunately, this is the exact opposite in many sleep clinics in the country today and it is raising alarm bells to the entire medical community.

The former owner of a Virginia sleep-study center has pleaded guilty to giving doctors kickbacks for treatment that wasn’t medically necessary.

The U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia said Dannie Ahn, 43, pleaded guilty to fraud charges Thursday.

Ahn is the former owner of 1st Class Sleep Diagnostic Center and 1st Class Medical, which provided sleep-related treatment at clinics in Northern Virginia and Maryland.

He also pleaded guilty to defrauding the federal government of more than $1 million.

(Via: http://www.heraldcourier.com/news/former-owner-of-sleep-study-center-pleads-guilty-to-fraud/article_ad518ec6-9c36-5a9a-b4a3-bd7a9e97cb0d.html)

Sleep clinics are a lucrative business now and it is easy to see why many end up scamming people as the temptation to get rich quick by duping people is glaring them right in the face. While not all sleep clinics scam people of their hard-earned money, a lot of them run their business without the proper accreditation or even bother to get accredited in the first place. Other times they not just scam the people but the government and health insurers too as they submit fraudulent claims in order to get more money like what this business owner openly admitted in court.

The indictment claims that the defendants and others recruited patients by offering cash in exchange for participation in a sleep study test. They are also accused of offering additional money to those who referred to others. The defendants recruited patients despite knowing that no doctor had prescribed sleep study testing for them and whether or not the testing was even needed.

Vishnevsky is accused of failing to interpret the data or allowing anyone to interpret it. Vishnevsky is also accused of billing some patients for two sleep studies, despite only visiting the clinic for a single night. It is believed that the defendants submitted more than $11 million in fraudulent claims. At this point in time, the defendants remain innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

(Via: http://brokernewswire.com/california-clinic-owner-and-ups-driver-indicted-for-bogus-sleep-study-scheme/)

Seeing that a lot of people are now getting themselves checked and treated for sleep-related problems, scams have occurred far more common too. The rising awareness of the dangers of sleep deprivation and disorders like sleep apnea scare them, so off to sleep clinics and study centers they go. The overnight stay in a sleep clinic is costly in itself but the financial burden has lightened as public and private health insurances cover these check-ups and treatments. Sleep testing services are highly lucrative and it has subsequently resulted to insurer spending to skyrocket primarily because of getting basic sleep testing first, patients are prescribed with far more expensive and advanced testing procedures they may actually not need or treatment that is just as pricey.

Sleep apnea, for instance, is especially deadly and may ultimately compromise your health in the long run if not treated right away. At times, cheaper devices like anti-snoring mouthpieces e.g. https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/zquiet and https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/vitalsleep can alleviate symptoms without breaking the bank. It also comes in handy for patients who can’t tolerate using the CPAP. Rather than risk their health (and life) each night, these contraptions can save their lives without costing a lot.

Resist Junk Food By Sleeping Longer

posted by under Sleep Health , ,

Nowadays, getting enough sleep and eating right seems like a big mystery that many of us can’t seem to get right most of the time. It is obvious with the rising numbers of overweight and obese individuals and the numerous sleep clinics catering to hordes of individuals having sleep issues. The distractions are endless and odd sleeping patterns are no longer surprising as the distinction between day and night blurs all the more as the days, months, and years pass by. More often than not, humans compensate for their lack of sleep by eating lots of sleep or drinking caffeine. It gives them a temporary energy boost they badly need to finish their tasks and make it through one more day. It is the reason why many are trapped in this endless cycle that not only affects the quality of their lives but also shorten their lifespan.

The solution to this growing dilemma has been staring us right in the face all along. We don’t really have to look far to be able to get a hold of our health and protect us from life-threatening complications. All we need to do is to sleep. Yes, sleeping longer is the key to living healthily as it allows you to stick to a clean and healthy diet without any fuss at all. It is like hitting two birds with one stone. You don’t need to be a genius to find out the connection between proper sleep and diet. The more shut-eye you get, the more energy you have to do more and explore the world and you won’t have to rely on food a lot especially the processed and sweet ones to keep you going even when you don’t feel like it.

Those of us partial to a lie in woke up to good news this week, as a new study showed that a good night’s sleep can help with weight loss.

We’re often told to eat less and move more to lose weight, but according to the research by scientists at King’s College London, simply spending an extra 90 minutes in bed could also be a solution.

Lack of sleep was already known to be a risk factor for obesity, because it alters levels of hormones which control appetite. The new research discovered that lifestyle factors are also at play. Participants in the study who get more sleep choose healthier foods within a week, eating on average 10 grams less sugar each day. They were less likely to pick sugary treats, or reach for comforting carbohydrates.

(Via: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/body/surprising-health-benefits-staying-bed/)

Of course, while sleep is crucial in the equation, the participants in this study were also told to steer away from caffeine, not to eat a lot before bed, and to try to do something relaxing before hitting the sack. Such pieces of advice are good in itself but when heeded by the participants, they were able to sleep for longer, which is what our body needs just like food, water, and air. Well-rested participants reduced their sweets and carbohydrate consumption unlike the participants belonging to the control group who did not experience any changes to their sleeping pattern. This just goes to show that a simple lifestyle change can trigger a domino effect of positive improvements that can boost your health and well-being.

Adults who increased the amount of sleep they had reported consuming less sugary foods and making better nutritional choices, according to the King’s College London (KCL) study. 

Researchers said the findings strengthened the link between lack of sleep and a poor quality diet.

The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, sought to increase sleep in 21 adults getting less than the recommended minimum of seven hours every night. 

The group undertook a sleep consultation aiming to extend their time in bed by 1.5 hours.  

(Via: https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/902337/Sleep-health-benefits-healthy-diet-Kings-College-London)

Perhaps in our subconscious, we are aware that we can take the big leap on our health if we just get that needed shut-eye each night but I guess old habits die hard. Along with our fondness of stretching our bedtime into the wee hours of the morning, we unknowingly harm our health by making our bodies crave for sweets and other sugary and high caloric food to compensate for our lack of sleep, so we somehow function normally in front of others throughout the day. Fortunately, just sleeping longer can apparently solve this perennial dilemma many are facing these days.

I wish it was also that easy to solve the problem involving sleep apnea, but sadly no. It is a medical condition that warrants a medical solution. CPAP is usually the first thing that comes to mind but many aren’t exactly thrilled at the thought of connecting themselves to that machine in their slumber. If you feel that the CPAP machine is too burdensome for you, you can always try the more convenient options like anti-snoring mouthpieces that may not be as effective as CPAP but still does the job of keeping you safe and alive one night at a time. You can take your pick from https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/good-morning-snore-solution or https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/snorerx. That way, you no longer have to worry about losing sleep and you don’t fall victim to obesity and its long list of health complications like most people do nowadays.

Sleep Apnea Diagnosis – Beatable, But Not Without Risk

posted by under Sleep Health ,

There are a lot of things you have no control over in this world: do not include your sleep in this list. Sleep is essential for our health and well-being even if it is often underappreciated. Nothing should ever stop you from getting that well-deserved snooze. However, there are instances that are beyond your power that has a big impact on your sleep. Sleep disorders, for instance, are the bane of some people’s existence but they do not just go away over time. Gone were the days when people just ignored snoring. While snoring may seemingly look harmless (and I am sure it is a small number of the population), most snorers actually do have sleep apnea. That is the problem. Sleep apnea needs to be addressed right away and not just be dismissed as an annoying habit some people have.

I’m sure snoring is embarrassing, but wait until you find out that you literally stop breathing in your sleep when you have this sleep disorder. It is usually a congenital problem, which is why some consider surgery if necessary. But the thing is these breathing pauses do not only happen once, twice, or thrice throughout the night, it happens multiple times, which is where the danger lies. Aside from depriving your body of essential oxygen, it predisposes you to various medical conditions that deteriorate the quality of your life over time. So, do something about it. The first thing on your list is to get yourself checked by a doctor, preferably someone who specializes in sleep health. You may even need to set an appointment in an accredited sleep clinic to get all the needed information from you and that requires you spending the night in that facility.

If you are doing your best to implement good sleep habits and are still having trouble sleeping, you might have a sleeping disorder. One major type of sleeping disorder is sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a disorder that occurs when a person’s breathing is disrupted during sleep, meaning the brain and the body lose oxygen. One form of sleep apnea occurs when soft tissues in the back of the throat collapse. Another form occurs when the brain stops sending signals to the airways. If you have sleep apnea look into getting a CPAP machine. CPAP stands for continuous positive airway pressure. These machines push air into your airways to force them open.

(Via: http://www.tgdaily.com/health/your-best-sleep)

There’s no need to panic yet, especially if you plan on seeing the doctor right away, since sleep apnea is a treatable condition. A surgery is not always warranted except in dire instances where the congenital anomaly is the only thing that can relieve you of sleep apnea. Sometimes, simple lifestyle changes can do wonders for your condition. Healthy practices like exercising, adopting a regular sleep pattern, quitting smoking (for smokers) and avoiding caffeine or heavy meals right before retiring to bed, may help in a way although medical experts still prescribe CPAP as the management of choice as it ensures the airway is always open while you’re deep in slumber and no breathing gaps will put your life at risk.

Oral appliances typically treat OSA by holding a patient’s lower jaw open and slightly forward during sleep, which prevents an obstruction of the airway; it’s a mechanism similar to the jaw-thrust maneuver employed during cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR.

But most prescription oral appliances—of which there are more than 100 and counting with FDA clearance in the United States1—must be custom fitted by a qualified dentist, who ensures the device is efficacious and reasonably comfortable for the specific patient. Finding the correct setting in millimeter increments can be accomplished in three ways, each of which can be used in conjunction with the others:

(Via: http://www.sleepreviewmag.com/2018/01/oral-appliance-titration-psg/)

Aside from sleep doctors, you may also need to see a dentist since they can also help in the management of sleep apnea. Specific oral appliances can help open up the airway, the first hurdle in this condition, especially with obstructive sleep apnea. They need to be fitted by a qualified dentist, even doctors won’t be able to help you with this. This is an excellent choice for individuals who hate having to use the CPAP every time they hit the sack. It is also the inspiration to anti-snoring mouthpieces that are growing in popularity nowadays. Take your pick from https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/good-morning-snore-solution or https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/snorerx for a more cost-effective yet effective solution to your sleep apnea while you are still waiting for results or deliberating with your doctor the best recourse for your condition.

Avoid These Foods To Sleep Better At Night

posted by under Sleep Health ,

Sleep becomes more of a luxury as you age. You may hate it as a young child but you soon realize its importance once many of the things you now do as an adult takes too much of your time and you have little time left to sleep. Such an irony, indeed. We may always put the blame on technology because it is indeed a major distraction on just about every aspect but don’t forget that there are other things you also do that has a negative impact on the quality of your sleep. Think about the food you eat and the time you eat them. Eating greasy, salty or sweet foods too close to bedtime can keep you tossing and turning at night and unable to sleep, not even a wink.

Think about it, it is basically your fault why you are unable to drift off to slumber once nighttime falls. Your stomach is full of unhealthy foods that take some time to get digested and give you a sugar rush you do not need when you should be preparing for sleep already. So, what should you do? It is pretty obvious. Avoid eating certain foods that are known stimulants and will keep you tossing and turning until the wee hours of the morning.

The wrong late-night snack choices can add to your weight and subtract from your sleep.

“It works both ways. A healthy diet improves the quality and duration of your sleep. And adequate sleep improves the quality of your diet by curbing hunger hormones,” explains Brigid Titgemeier, MS, RDN, LD.

Here, our dietitians list four types of snacks to avoid when you’re looking at options late in the day:

  1. Snacks that address boredom vs. hunger

“Having ‘something to do’ while you watch TV is not a good reason for eating,” says Kristin Kirkpatrick, MS, RD, LD. “You’re only addressing your boredom.”

Ideally, to maintain your waistline, it’s best to eat all your meals before 6 p.m., she notes.

If you’re not truly hungry, “a late-night snack is a waste of fuel at the end of the day,” she says.

  1. Snacks that are loaded with carbs

One of the worst offenders is cereal and milk. That’s because it’s hard to control how much you eat.

“Cereal is loaded with carbs, especially if sweetened — and let’s be honest, it typically is,” says Julia Zumpano, RD, LD.

(Via: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/2017/10/4-late-night-snacks-that-wreck-your-diet-and-sleep/)

Take care of your body and you won’t have a problem with it, especially in your youth. Sleep will come naturally because your body observes a natural circadian rhythm that tells your body when to get that needed shuteye and when to wake up in the morning. But if you don’t care for your body well and decide to feed it with unhealthy stuff, you have no one else to blame but yourself for whatever sleep problems you experience now and then.

There’s also a connection between sleep and how we metabolize food. Diet and food choices help regulate our circadian rhythm, the roughly 24-hour cycle that our body follows each day, Kristin Eckel-Mahan, PhD, Assistant Professor at the Center for Metabolic and Degenerative Diseases at The University of Texas Health Science Center of Houston, says. Our circadian rhythms keep our body clock running on time, which in turn keeps all of our bodily functions running on schedule — such as falling asleep at night, waking up in the morning, feeling hungry when we need energy and metabolizing the food we eat.

That means behaviors like shifting our eating patterns or altering what we eat drastically (like switching to a very high-fat diet) can actually reprogram the various clocks our body runs on, Mahan says, “putting them on a different time zone than the master circadian clock in the brain [which controls sleep].”

(Via: https://www.nbcnews.com/better/health/how-what-you-eat-affects-how-you-sleep-ncna805256)

As much possible, refrain from eating anything heavy or unhealthy a few hours before retiring to bed. Give your body enough time to digest the food before saying good night. Sleep allows your body to recuperate from the all the stresses of the day and recharges your tired body so you have enough energy to last you another day. You can only do that if you eat the right food your body should have and not just eat anything you like or give in to your cravings. Overeating, for instance, has been known to lead to poor sleep quality, so try to resist the temptation to munch on something and wait for breakfast to satiate your hunger instead.

While we are on the topic of sleep deprivation, a sleep disorder is also a factor why you lose sleep. Sleep apnea is often the first comes to mind because a lot of people have it especially the snorers. However, not everyone is thrilled at the thought of using a CPAP because of this: https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/why-a-cpap-machine-is-probably-not-for-you, so compliance is low and leads to the worsening of sleep apnea. Another management option is a handy anti-snoring device like https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/snorerx that works like CPAP minus all the hassle. It’s convenient to use, effective, and more affordable than conventional treatments aside from being non-invasive. Sleep like a baby once more with a gadget like this to keep you from snoring again.

How To Sleep Better At Night

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Who doesn’t want to sleep soundly at night? Just the thought of your warm comfy bed is enough to help you get through the day and make it home in one piece despite the daily grind. It is perhaps the same sentiments of the entire population who only want nothing but to retire to bed as soon as they can and revisit dreamland to temporarily forget about their worries in life. This restorative process does our body a lot of good, so we actually have a good reason why getting an extra snooze is good for our body.

Unfortunately, not everyone is blessed to be able to drift off to sleep once they hit the sack for a lot of reasons. First are health issues like sleep disorders that do not seem to go away no matter what you do. Then, there are those distractions in our environment that make sleeping impossible no matter how sleepy you are. Admit it that you have been putting off bedtime because you are still preoccupied with something that it becomes alright with you to lose sleep for several hours or more. This is the dilemma faced by many today as technology proved to be a powerful yet enjoyable distraction we all can’t resist even if it means sleeping a little later and ending up with bags under our eyes.

Despite these limitations, this study is the first to suggest any kind of strong link between purpose in life and sleep. Given how common sleep problems are, anything that may suggest new avenues for treatment are important to explore. Perhaps developing a sense of purpose in life could be as effective at improving sleep as following healthy habits, such as limiting coffee. In addition to promoting good sleep hygiene, doctors may end up recommending mindfulness practices or exploring one’s values as ways of helping older adults sleep better. Given how elusive a good night’s sleep has become for many, it’s well worth exploring. The impact of poor sleep goes far beyond our own personal health, as the side effects have the potential to wreak havoc on other people’s lives as well.

Developing a sense of purpose in life may simultaneously convey other benefits too in addition to better sleep. Research has linked experiencing purpose in life to a variety of other positive outcomes including better brain functioning, reduced risk of heart attack, and even a higher income.A person with a greater sense of purpose in their life would surely be better off while also serving as a positive example in the lives of those they know.

(Via: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-secret-to-a-better-nights-sleep-a-sense-of-purpose/)

We need to do a lifestyle check to determine where we are lacking and why we can’t establish healthy sleeping habits. It is not comforting to know that the diagnosis of sleep disorders is on the rise, which likely reflects our deteriorating sleep health and overall health, actually. And we are not just putting the blame on sleep disorders that we totally do not have control over. Our reckless behaviors concerning our health are what shortens our lifespan by a lot of years and that is a fact proven by science.

Food can determine a lot of things beyond your pant size — especially how well you sleep. But you can’t just keep stuffing pizza into your face until you pass out — in order to properly fill your belly for an epic night of zzz’s, you need to follow a handful of important tips. We talked to Dr. Rebecca Scott, PhD, research assistant professor of neurology at NYU Langone Health, about the best way to adjust your diet for a good night’s rest. With those factors in mind, we had recipe developer Joanna Keohane concoct these concepts into consumables, so you can just chill — which is pretty important if you want to sleep through the night.

Yes, tryptophan is important

If you’ve witnessed an American Thanksgiving in the last decade, then you’ve probably encountered an article about why you fall asleep on your aunt’s sofa after your third serving of turkey and mashed potatoes. Most have pointed to tryptophan, an amino acid that helps the brain produce serotonin, as the reason for the crash. That’s because without tryptophan, your body can’t make serotonin, and you only get tryptophan from the foods you eat.

(Via: https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/what-to-eat-to-sleep-right)

To get back all that lost sleep and ensure you do not compromise yourself and your health even more, you need to do a total lifestyle modification. It starts with the food you eat or must avoid eating hours before retiring to bed that may interfere with sleep. It can also mean disciplining yourself to live healthily like exercising and limiting tech use during bedtime hours among others.

There are many tips you can try to sleep soundly at night that are effective as long as your problem is not physiological in nature. However, it still depends on you how you live your life and how you value sleep. You can’t get back lost sleep no matter how much you oversleep the next day. That sleep deprivation is sure to impact your health sooner or later, so take the first step now before it is too late.

However, if you are suffering from a sleep disorder, there’s no denying that you’ll need medical help. At times your doctor will prescribe you with sleep aids that not only addresses the breathing problems associated with sleep apnea but ensure you sleep better too like https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/good-morning-snore-solution or https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/snorerx. They aren’t that expensive and are obviously more convenient to use than a traditional CPAP machine.