Tag: Sleep deprivation

A Way To Overcome Sleep Apnea

posted by under ZQuiet ,

Sleep is a luxury in our modern, technologically-crazed world. We have so many tech distractions that it is hard for us to get some well-deserved R&R when we get home after a day of going after our personal pursuits. Most adults are overworked and stressed out from the daily grind that all they want to do when they get home is to sleep, but unfortunately, it isn’t as easy as it seems.

Sleep disorders can be the bane of some people’s existence. Imagine tossing and turning each night until the wee hours of the morning because no matter how you will yourself to sleep, you can’t. Other times, the awful loud snoring of your partner keeps you up all night. If the latter, you’re really going to want to check out ZQuiet. And it’s even scarier for the person with sleep apnea because of the occasional pauses in their breathing that is quite deadly, if you ask me.

Sleep apnea is a serious condition in which you repeatedly stop breathing or have shallow breaths while you sleep. When this happens, you may snore loudly or making choking noises as you try to breathe. Your brain and body become oxygen-deprived, and you may wake up. This may happen a few times a night, or in more severe cases, hundreds of times during the night.

More than 18 million American adults have sleep apnea, and many cases are undiagnosed.

Main types of sleep apnea

Obstructive sleep apnea. This is the more common form, which occurs when throat muscles relax. When the muscles relax, your airway narrows or closes as you breathe in, and you can’t get an adequate breath. This may lower the level of oxygen in your blood.

Your brain senses this inability to breathe and briefly awakens you from sleep so that you can reopen your airway. This awakening is usually so brief that you don’t remember it.

You may make a snorting, choking or gasping sound. This pattern can repeat itself five to 30 times or more each hour, all night long. These disruptions impair your ability to reach the desired deep, restful phases of sleep, and you’ll probably feel sleepy during your waking hours.

(Via: http://www.mankatofreepress.com/healthyhabits/do-i-have-sleep-apnea/article_677198f2-2f3d-11e7-908e-d3b73a4eac4b.html)

You’d be surprised that many people actually suffer from it. However, let us just make it clear that not all snorers have sleep apnea. It’s just that snoring is one of its most popular yet annoying symptoms. But past the irritating sound, it actually is a serious condition that needs medical attention. There are a lot of reasons for this, but it is critical to remember that we are talking about breathing, and obstruction that makes breathing difficult during sleep. It’s no joke!

Technology is bringing relief to people who suffer from sleep apnea.
Instead of a big, loud, clunky mask, a small implant in the chest is helping patients get a better night’s sleep.
Joe Truglio tried everything to cure his sleep apnea.
“I was stopping breathing 30 times an hour, now I don’t at all,” he said.
He also suffered from asthma and A-Fib, and he was stressing out his wife and daughter.
So he listened when his cardiologist suggested he get the latest technology: an implant that would make sure once he fell asleep, it was lights out.
“The first day they turned it on, that night I slept 10 hours straight without getting up, first time in my life,” said Joe.
He said his mood, skin and energy level are all better. “I don’t get tired in the afternoon anymore,” he said.

(Via: http://abc13.com/health/new-device-helping-people-who-suffer-from-sleep-apnea/1952220/)

While we often blame technology for keeping us wide awake when we should be sleeping already, you can actually benefit from it now and offer relief if not a total cure from sleep apnea. Why suffer in silence when there is help available. All you need to do is to seek help and get medical attention because doctors can offer real and sometimes quite inexpensive solutions to your sleeping issues. If you want another option, you can also try other mouthpieces so you no longer miss out on that much-needed snooze, especially when the lights are off and everyone else is asleep except for you.

The Cost Of Getting A Good Night’s Sleep

posted by under sleeptight , ,

People will go to great lengths just to be able to sleep soundly again. Some even shell out the extra dough for treatments and services that promise a better and longer shuteye even just for a while. Sleep, or better yet, the lack of it, has a major impact on people’s lives. You perform poorly at school or at work and always feel sleepy during the day. You even raise your risk of getting injuries or into accidents because you feel drowsy most of the time.

There are different reasons for sleep deprivation. Sleep apnea and restless leg are two of them but it can also be caused by other distractions. It is more difficult for people whose sleeplessness they have no control over with. Like with sleep apnea, there is little you can do about it given that it is still incurable. However, there are plenty of sleep management procedures and products one can try to help them overcome their sleep issues. But prior to treatment, a person is often asked to undergo a sleep study. This in itself is quite costly already and not all the time covered by insurance. Once the results are in can treatment really begin. Yet throughout this entire ordeal, you have to ensure your pocket is deep because diagnosis to management does not come cheap.

A lot of people are spending that much and more in search of the elusive good night’s sleep.

More than a third of Americans don’t get the recommended seven hours of shut-eye and as many as 70 million people have a chronic sleep disorder, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Center on Sleep Disorder Research.

Sleep studies, the gold standard for diagnosing sleep disorders, are such big business that the number of accredited sleep centers across the nation has soared from 500 in 2000 to 2,600 today.

Independence Blue Cross, the largest private insurer in the Philadelphia region, has seen a 28 percent increase in the number of sleep studies it has been billed for over the last five years, with about 32,390 studies in 2017 alone.

(Via: http://www.philly.com/philly/health/health-costs/high-cost-of-a-good-nights-sleep-20180606.html)

The sleep industry is a thriving one these days. Not only do they cater to patients with disorders or conditions that prevent them from getting a restful sleep like sleep apnea but individuals whose lifestyle prevents them from enjoying a good night’s sleep also spend a fortune to somehow give their tired bodies the rest it needs because no amount of money can essentially take the place of a long and restful slumber.

No matter how pricey these treatments are, people who are really struggling with sleep do not hesitate to pay for it because it is their chance to become normal again. If you opt to buy sleep apnea mouthpieces such as the GMSS and SleepTight to address snoring and sleep apnea, it is also an additional expense but a slightly cheaper option compared to an invasive surgery or CPAP.

  1. Soak up some sunshine

Expose your eyes to light first thing in the morning by opening your blinds and turning on your lights as soon as you wake up. Take a walk outside in the morning and over your lunch hour — you’ll get exercise and healing light at the same time. If you have a window in your office, position your desk so that you face it, or are at least perpendicular to the window.

  1. Rethink your lighting

If you’re stuck in a windowless office all morning, invest in the LED light bulbs created by Definity Digital. Their “Awake and Alert” light bulb produces blue light to keep you awake, and it’s bright enough to help affect sleep-wake cycles. You can also use a special bulb like Definity Digital’s “Good Night” light bulb, which filters out the blue light in the afternoon and evening, when it’s best to avoid fluorescent and LED lighting.

(Via: http://www.businessinsider.com/sleep-help-how-to-fall-asleep-restless-insomnia-mental-health-doctor-2018-5)

You should no longer be proud that you are losing sleep because of too much work. Learn to care for your body first or all your nasty habits or negligence will take its toll on your health over time. When you are getting insufficient sleep, everything else in your body suffers. If you are not blessed with having a deep pocket, then you can try more natural remedies that help address sleeplessness. But they only serve as an adjunct management to your treatment plan if you are diagnosed with a condition like sleep apnea because it warrants medical attention.

Making positive lifestyle changes can make a big difference in your life without hurting your finances. One of the best things you can do for yourself is to distance yourself from too much electronics especially when it is nearing your bedtime. They emit harmful blue light that can mess up your body’s circadian rhythm and further mess up your chances of sleeping soundly through the night. Do your research because you don’t always have to spend money in order to do something good for your health and well- being.

The Ugly Truth About Sleep Deprivation

posted by under SnoreRX , ,

Sleep is a luxury. Many will agree with that premise. The more advanced our technology becomes, the more likely we are to lose sleep. It is a sad truth that we have learned to live with over the years. There are simply so many things that need to get done that we unconsciously put off our sleep and will ourselves to stay awake until the wee hours of the morning in our ruse of being more productive. In reality, we are doing more harm than good by depriving ourselves of precious sleep. It is not just the lost hours that we are talking about here, it is what you subject your body to endure. Are you even aware that chronic sleep deprivation does not just deprive you of sleep of essential oxygen needed by every single cell in your body? As a result, you become more prone to numerous diseases and afflictions like debilitating and deadly ones such as heart attack and stroke.

People these days like to portray being a night owl as something cool. Imagine going to all the coolest clubs and hotspots in the dead of the night when the supposedly uncool people are already tucked in bed fast asleep. Unfortunately, our body gradually suffers from each all-nighter we pull. There is a reason why we sleep at night and we are not about to start an argument on science about it. Sleep should is a restorative process that not only heals our bodies from the strain and stresses it had to put up with throughout the day but also to prepare it for what lies ahead tomorrow. But when you stay up all night long doing God knows what, you essentially miss out on the benefits of sleep and subject yourself to the dangers of chronic sleeplessness.

“We certainly know that a lack of sleep will actually prevent your brain from being able to initially make new memories, so it’s almost as though without sleep the memory inbox of the brain shuts down and you can’t commit new experiences to memory,” he says. 

However, that’s not the worst of it. Lack of sleep can also lead your brain to develop a greater concentration of beta amyloid, a toxic protein that’s linked to Alzheimer’s disease. 

“It is during deep sleep at night when a sewage system within the brain actually kicks into high gear and it starts to wash away this toxic protein, beta amyloid,” Walker explains.

“So if you’re not getting enough sleep each and every night, more of that Alzheimer’s-related protein will build up.

(Via: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/sleep-deprivation-video-effects-body-mind-human-health-cancer-alzheimers-dementia-brain-damage-a8153851.html)

Different parts of your body can feel the impact of sleep deprivation. Your body’s defenses go down the more nights you stay up thereby leaving your body unable to fend off pathogens and infections in case you are exposed to one. You easily get sick and feel sleepy, tired, and generally exhausted and irritated the whole day. You increase the risk of you developing and succumbing to certain diseases like cancer because again, your defenses are down and you did not give your body a chance to recharge by neglecting sleep when you were supposed to be sleeping soundly in bed at night.

He describes how lack of sleep creates problems with anger and violence control, and is linked with “aggression, bullying and behavioural problems”. What was that I remember about Donald Trump living on just four hours of sleep a night?

And for more gory detail than you would probably like, sleep starvation also massively compromises a man’s testicles, virility and testosterone levels: “The hormonal blunting effect (of lack of sleep) is so large that it effectively ages a man by 10-15 years in terms of testosterone virility.” Sperm counts are on average 29 per cent lower than for men who sleep better.

(Via: http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2127905/wake-its-time-stop-treating-sleep-deprivation-badge-honour)

Saying that sleeplessness is an epidemic is more of an understatement. It is an epidemic we gladly put ourselves in without having second thoughts as to its repercussions in the coming years. Don’t be a victim of this mentality and learn to care for yourself first because you only have one body to last you a lifetime. The truth is, your lifetime and the quality of your life depends on how well you take care of your body and that includes adopting a regular sleeping schedule and sticking to it religiously aside from practicing a healthy lifestyle overall. If you happen to suffer from a sleep disorder, head to the doctor right away. Don’t simply shrug it off as a mere inconvenience but think of it as the medical condition that it is.

Sleep apnea, for instance, poses more danger than we like to acknowledge and we are not just focusing on the annoying snoring sound these people makes. If you haven’t seen a doctor yet for whatever reasons, protect yourself from more harm by using anti-snoring mouthpieces such as https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/snorerx that not just reduces the snoring sound but address the anatomical problem to prevent breathing gaps that characterizes sleep apnea. CPAP isn’t a popular choice for patients and here’s why https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/why-a-cpap-machine-is-probably-not-for-you.

Lose Sleep From More Screen Time

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Almost everyone is hooked on technology these days. It no longer comes as a surprise seeing how much technology there is in the world right now. It basically makes the world go round and we seem to like it that way. Not only adults but even the young ones seem to have adopted this way of life especially that they grew up seeing technology all around them. Kids as young as two have their own tablets to help them pass the time and keep them entertained, so it just makes sense why they have carried this habit well into their childhood and teenage years. As convenient technology has made our life, it has some nasty downsides and it all boils down to our health.

We all know how too much exposure to technology can mess with your sleep. Instead of sleeping, you end up pushing your bedtime into the wee hours of the morning as you try to satiate your fear of missing out. Back then, people rarely cared about what their friend had for dinner last night or what their favorite celebrity did during their vacation but since we have access to all those things now, it seems like an insatiable desire to know as much as we can. The television is not the only distraction. Your own smart devices and smartphone are excellent platforms that allow you to connect to the web and do all sorts of exciting things to keep you entertained as you wait for sleep to come.

Caitlyn Fuller, medical student, said the results — published in the journal Global Pediatric Health — may suggest a vicious cycle of technology use, poor sleep and rising BMIs.

“We saw technology before bed being associated with less sleep and higher BMIs,” Fuller said. “We also saw this technology use being associated with more fatigue in the morning, which circling back, is another risk factor for higher BMIs. So we’re seeing a loop pattern forming.”

Previous research has found associations between more technology use and less sleep, more inattention, and higher BMIs in adolescents. But even though research shows that 40 percent of children have cell phones by fifth grade, the researchers said not as much was known about the effects of technology on a younger population.

(Via: http://news.psu.edu/story/496770/2017/12/05/research/screen-time-bed-linked-less-sleep-higher-bmis-kids)

Parents these days just hand their kids with gadgets to keep them preoccupied as they struggle to multitask on a lot of things. Many of these kids can’t last a few hours without tinkering with their devices and the long-term results of this kind of neglect are yet to be determined in the coming years but we can already see dangerous patterns and immediate effects of too much screen time to both young and old people. Sleep is the first thing they lose and it triggers a domino effect of innumerable conditions that are worsened by the lack of sleep. We all know that sleep is crucial to growing up strong and healthy, the very things that kids need for optimal health.

Past studies have found that teens are particularly likely to struggle with technology addiction. This study suggested kids often have a difficult time self-regulating their screen time, which can take a toll on both the quality and quantity of sleep they get.

“When children were reported by their parents to use one form of technology at bedtime, they more than likely used another form of technology as well,” Fuller said.

Curbing technology use at bedtime can help “encourage childhood development and promote mental health during the childhood and adolescent years,” she said.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that parents set boundaries for technology use, such as requiring kids to put away their devices during meal times and keeping phones out of bedrooms at night. 

(Via: https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/screen-time-before-bed-can-disrupt-sleep-and-nutrition-in-children-121117.html)

First and foremost, it is the parent’s responsibility to limit the tech use of their children. They have the parental control and authority to do so yet how can you expect them to do this when they themselves struggle with managing their own habits that likewise involve screen time. For starters, parents can set schedules as to when their children can use their devices. Homework should be done first and there should be plenty of time left before bedtime so their bodies have a chance of mellowing down for the night and not too triggered anymore over the last post they saw online. Regularly changing the WiFi password will also work so that they don’t have a choice but to call it a night like what children do in the past in the absence of modern contrivances.

This only works to bad habits involving too much screen time. If your problem is of medical origin like sleep apnea that is one of the major reasons why people can’t sleep fitfully at night, you need an entirely different solution. Aside from CPAP and surgery, more convenient alternatives like anti-snoring mouthpieces such as https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/good-morning-snore-solution and https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/sleeptight can help you sleep better through the night and hopefully save your life and sanity too.

Tech Use At Night Compromises Sleep Health

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Humans are meant to sleep at night. That’s what our body clock tells us. Sleep at night is different from sleeping at other times of the day. Your circadian rhythms tell your body when it is sleeping time in order to allow your body to rest and recharge for what awaits you the following day. Many restorative processes happen once you drift off to dreamland, which is why you should get that recommended eight hours of sleep daily for your optimal health.

Smart gadgets are a huge part of our lives. Most people can’t stop tinkering with their gadgets even if it is already bedtime. Unfortunately, using these gadgets prevents you from drifting off to sleep earlier or on time. The blue light they emit is also harmful to your health as your brain perceives it as sunlight making you more alive, alert and awake more than ever. Your brain should be able to cool down from working hard the entire day but it stays sharp and wide awake because of the gadget you are using. Today, it is rare to see somebody not yet hooked to smart gadgets especially if you are living in big and populated cities.

Fifty percent of teens report feeling addicted to their cellphones and a new study in the journal Child Development shows nighttime usage of a cellphone can increase anxiety and depression in teenagers and reduce self-esteem.

This is the first study that shows a direct link between screen time and mental health.

Researchers note that rates of anxiety and depression in young people have risen 70 percent over the past couple of decades.

Psychologist and CBS News contributor Lisa Damour told “CBS This Morning” that what’s important about this study is that it shows a “pathway” between using cellphones at night and disrupted sleep. 

“We’ve suspected that there’s a problem here, we’ve seen correlational studies, but this shows us that teens using their phone late at night leads to disrupted sleep which leads to increased depression, emotional fragility and sometimes acting out.”

(Via: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/late-night-cell-phone-screen-time-teens-mental-health-sleep/)

Not only are adults at risk of losing sleep from tech use, but even teens and young kids too. They often already have access to these devices early in life, something most adults didn’t have way back then. Constant use of smart gadgets can have a negative impact to sleep as well as influence certain developmental milestones a child is supposed to achieve that may lead to stunted growth and the development of sleep disorders.

“I find that winding my brain down at night, I find that incredibly difficult,” admits Falcone, who was averaging about three hours sleep a night.

“It’s this really interesting state of tiredness but an inability to go to sleep. In my brain I was running through my invoice data entry job that I had been doing that day, finishing it off in my brain. But I was too tired to get out of bed to go to the computer to actually do it.”

SLEEP EPIDEMIC

According to the results of a new survey by an independent research company (commissioned by Nourished Life), 65 per cent of respondents suffer from sleep deprivation or disturbed sleep. 

Of the 1003 Australian adults surveyed, 30 per cent said they slept soundly “most of the time” while only 5 per cent said they slept well every night.

Like Falcone, many (35 per cent) said they experienced memory loss as a result of their exhaustion, one in three (33 per cent) reported that they were too tired to have sex and one in five said there were times they felt too unsafe to drive.

(Via: https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/well-good/teach-me/94372390/why-95-per-cent-of-us-cant-wind-down-our-brains-before-we-go-to-sleep)

Likening sleep deprivation to an epidemic actually quite fits the bill. People these days don’t mind losing sleep if it means they have more time to browse their newsfeed or stream a new movie. In exchange, you become more sickly and perform poorly at work/school/home because your body wasn’t able to rest properly the night prior. The solution is actually simple. Resist tech use and put your gadgets out of sight a few hours before bedtime. You won’t die if you won’t be able to read about the latest news on social media but your health will suffer if you constantly deprive yourself of precious sleep.

But if your problem is more physiological, getting professional help is a must because sleep remedies aren’t always that effective. For instance, sleep apnea shouldn’t be ignored and you should try both old and new treatment options to find out what works best for you. Of course, anything you try should always have your doctor’s approval even if it is just the use of a simple anti-snoring mouthpiece device like https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/good-morning-snore-solution or this one: https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/sleeptight.

Why Sleep Health Continues To Deteriorate

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People often sacrifice sleep in pursuit of other life priorities thinking they can always catch up on lost sleep once they meet their deadline or when they have the time. But more often than not that time never really comes and you end up compromising your health because of passing interests. The human body does not work that way. You’ll never catch up on all the slumber you lost mainly because you can’t turn back time and there are new tasks and responsibilities that will demand your attention. Your body gradually suffers if you constantly deprive yourself of sleep and you’ll feel its consequences over time.

It’s no longer a mystery why you end up putting off sleep much later when all around you there are tech distractions meant to take your time away every single day (or night). Sleep deprivation is a growing concern in the medical field because people miss out on the many restorative properties of sleep that are meant to let your body rest and relax but rejuvenate too. You don’t need any magical formula or discover the fountain of youth for long life. Just make sure you eat right, exercise, and get plenty of sleep. That’s all your body needs. If you can’t stop yourself from constantly fidgeting with your smartphone and clicking on links after links after links on social media, then you have a problem and only you can solve it.

“Many of us are working more erratic hours and sleeping less, while the pace of our lives seems to be accelerating,” said Owen in a statement. “We know that this sleep disruption affects us in some ways and that some people feel the impact more than others, but there’s surprisingly little research into exactly how our brains deal with these sleep deficits.”

In particular, Owen said, researchers hope to glean new answers to questions including how sleep and sleep deprivation affect specific regions of the brain, how much sleep is enough, and how brain health is affected by sleep deprivation in the short- and long-term.

“We have the opportunity in this study to learn far more about the brain’s response to sleep than we have ever had before. And what we learn ultimately has the potential to change how millions of people go about their daily lives.”

(Via: http://globalnews.ca/news/3557137/western-study-to-look-at-how-sleep-sleep-deprivation-affects-the-brain/)

Chronic sleep deprivation can lead to clumsiness, daytime sleepiness, fatigue, and weight issues. So if you suddenly experience some weight gain or weight loss issues, don’t just blame your eating habits right away. Aside from that, sleep deprivation impairs brain function and attention that may consequently affect performance and cognitive function. Although it is understandable to miss out on a good night’s sleep now and then, don’t make it a habit of doing it every single night because you will regret it big time.

Sleep deprivation is linked to a variety of serious health problems, including heart attack, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. It stresses you out because your body overproduces the stress hormone cortisol when it’s sleep deprived. While excess cortisol has a host of negative health effects that come from the havoc it wreaks on your immune system, it also makes you look older, because cortisol breaks down skin collagen, the protein that keeps skin smooth and elastic. In men specifically, not sleeping enough reduces testosterone levels and lowers sperm count.

Too many studies to list have shown that people who get enough sleep live longer, healthier lives, but I understand that sometimes this isn’t motivation enough. So consider this—not sleeping enough makes you fat. Sleep deprivation compromises your body’s ability to metabolize carbohydrates and control food intake. When you sleep less you eat more and have more difficulty burning the calories you consume. Sleep deprivation makes you hungrier by increasing the appetite-stimulating hormone ghrelin and makes it harder for you to get full by reducing levels of the satiety-inducing hormone leptin. People who sleep less than 6 hours a night are 30% more likely to become obese than those who sleep 7 to 9 hours a night.

(Via: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sleep-deprivation-is-killing-you-and-making-you-fat_us_594c1d77e4b0f078efd97fe0)

Modern life is like living in the fast lane. We seldom have time to pause and take our time to enjoy the view and breathe the flowers. We try to multitask to the best of our abilities at the expense of our health because we feel that we are invincible. But if you look around you now, you’ll see that younger people get diagnosed with chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease in their thirties or even younger than people did in the past. It’s our lifestyle that is catching up to us. You’ll be spending less time here on earth if you don’t slow down and take the time to rest and look after your body.

People often blame technology for their chronic sleeplessness but at times it can be a sleep disorder you totally have no control of. To understand better, think of sleep apnea. It’s not just that awful snoring sound you should be worried of but the dangerous breathing pauses in your slumber as your brain chooses between sleep and oxygen. To save yourself and your sanity from the negative effects of sleep deprivation, try some of the handy anti-snoring mouthpieces sold on the market today like https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/good-morning-snore-solution or https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/snorerx that may not be as effective as CPAP but does the job of reducing the snoring and preventing the breathing pauses by correcting certain inborn anatomical deformities that predisposes you to sleep apnea.

Lack Of Sleep Effects: Are You Getting Dumber?

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Some people have a love-hate relationship with sleep. It just does not make any sense how some people can loathe sleeping when it offers us a temporary reprieve from all of our worries in life. Aside from that, we feel better upon arising because our body had a chance to rest and recuperate in our slumber. Sleep has a lot of benefits and it’s pretty obvious why we need it in our lives even if we aren’t always thrilled that our body demands it so much from us.

However, the world is now filled with tech distractions that take our time away from what few hours we have left for sleep. During the day, our schedule is often jam-packed from sunrise to sunset as we try to survive the daily commute, daily grind, and everything else everybody expects from us throughout the day. More often than not, we sacrifice sleep to increase our productiveness. We extend our day all through the wee hours of the morning as we try to catch up on deadlines. What we fail to realize is that we do our body more harm by skipping sleep than what we like to believe.

A chronic lack of sleep not only impairs cognitive abilities but also increases the risk of heart disease and diabetes. Current research discussed at the Congress of the European Academy of Neurology in Amsterdam show that not only the amount of sleep is important but also whether it is done at the right time.

“Too little sleep reduces our cognitive abilities and has a negative impact on physical health. Unfortunately, this crucial topic is still all too often undervalued in the health care sector,” warned Prof Pierre Maquet, head of the Neurology Department at Liège University in Belgium at the 3rd Congress of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) in Amsterdam.

1.5 hours less sleep than our grandparents

On average, Americans today sleep 6.5 hours a night and Europeans about seven. Prof Maquet: “This is about one and a half hours less than our grandparents used to sleep. That means we suffer from a chronic lack of sleep.” Not least, this situation impacts the processing of information in the brain. Prof Maquet: “Above all else, a lack of sleep impairs the ability to retain new information in the memory. The information can be absorbed but not permanently stored in the brain. Instead, it is lost in the long term. Apparently the memory traces laid down following every new item of information remain fragile until they are firmed up and incorporated in the long-term memory while a person is asleep.”

(Via: http://www.news-medical.net/news/20170624/Chronic-lack-of-sleep-reduces-cognitive-abilities-negatively-impacts-physical-health.aspx)

Sleep deprivation can leave you like a literal walking zombie. You may be awake but your mind is drifting somewhere else because it is simply exhausted. Your body has a natural sleep drive that will signal your brain it needs sleep but if you keep on ignoring it, it may start to malfunction.

Don’t forget that new memory and learning pathways are formed during sleep. You need to sleep adequately for these pathways to even form. Moreover, memories are only formed once your brain encodes it. But the brain can only encode a certain memory if you paid attention to it when you did it. You’ll have a hard time remembering anything that happened during the day if you weren’t able to consolidate all these information at night during your sleep.

Perhaps you won’t realize how you’re slowly becoming unhappy since not lack of sleep also inhibits your basic brain functions. Such important daily activities as problem solving skills, creative thought, and stress management become crippled with seven or less hours of sleep. According to a University of Rochester study, when you’re asleep, your brain works to remove toxic proteins from itself. However, it is unable to do this while you’re awake, and the greater the buildup of these toxic proteins, the worse it is for your mind.

Not all sleepless nights happen by choice. Issues like anxiety, an overabundance of school work or insomnia are just a few major contributing factors to not being able to sleep. However, these are generally not choices people make to be part of their lives.

Next time you’re hanging out with friends and one of them gloats about their lack of sleep, understand what they’re advocating for – becoming a dumber, fatter cry baby of a person and putting reciprocal pressure on others to be this way as well, because, as the author John Ray once wrote – misery loves company. 

(Via: http://www.montanakaimin.com/opinion/college-sleep-culture-is-toxic/article_addb1112-f4a3-11e6-8f05-0340dc8dc135.html)

There is nothing worth glorifying when you boast about your chronic sleepless state. Your body sacrifices greatly if you keep up this lifestyle. Your health deteriorates and you perform poorly on various aspects of life especially on activities that require you to think and solve problems. If you are not intellectually-gifted yourself, try to save yourself from more misfortune or embarrassment by getting that needed shut-eye each night. Your body deserves to rest after a hard day’s work, so don’t deprive it of the chance to rest once night time falls. Tomorrow is another day and leave your work as it is.

Other times, you lose sleep not of your own volition. Certain sleep disorders prevent you from enjoying a good night’s sleep. Take sleep apnea for example. The loud snoring sound isn’t just absolutely irritating but the breathing pauses in your sleep are even scarier. If you aren’t comfortable with CPAP and are looking for a more convenient solution to your snoring, https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/snorerx may be an excellent choice for you. Another alternative can be https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/good-morning-snore-solution. These mouthpieces are designed to correct certain anatomical problems to reduce the breathing pauses and the consequential snoring that follows.

Smart Devices Can Mess Up A Kid’s Sleep Big Time

posted by under SnoreRX , ,

Sleep is important for normal growth and development regardless of age. However, it is more important for kids to get enough sleep each night than adults as their bodies are growing. If you see infants sleeping most of the time and see rapid growth and development over the first year of their life, it is the same for toddler and young kids.

Unfortunately, there are more distractions now than the last time most adults were kids themselves. If play and a little television used to distract kids back in the days making them hate taking naps or sleeping early at night, smart gadgets are the latest craze these days. Most kids now have their own smartphones, iPad or tablet that they can use whenever they want. Parents are also mostly busy and unable to supervise what their kids watch or how often they stay glued to the screen.

Touchscreen devices like smartphones and tablets are now fixtures of many households, so it comes as little surprise to learn that young children who don’t work or go to school are among their most active users. In the first study of its kind, researchers have learned that infants and toddlers who spend more time on these devices sleep less at night. It’s a troubling finding, but the reasons for these sleep disruptions are still unclear.

Traditional screen time, like television and video games, has been linked to sleep problems in children, but less is known about portable touchscreens, such as smartphones and tablets. In the first study to investigate potential links between touchscreens and sleep in young children, a research team led by Tim Smith from Birkbeck University of London has found that the same sleep disruption effect applies to these modern devices. By surveying parents about their kids’ touchscreen use and sleep patterns, these researchers have found that every additional hour of tablet or smartphone use among children between the ages of six months and three years results in about 15 minutes less total sleep. These findings now appear in Scientific Advances.

(Via: https://gizmodo.com/kids-who-use-touchscreen-devices-sleep-less-at-night-1794270842)

Allowing young kids to have daily continuous access to smart gadgets is the norm these days. Parents indulge their kids with unlimited gadget use so the youngsters can pass the time without bothering their busy and often stressed out parents.

There’s been a sharp rise in the number of children admitted to hospital with sleep problems, and the North West has some of the worst numbers in the country.

Hospital attendance for sleeping disorders has tripled over last decade and it’s claimed there’re big gaps in support for parents across the North West.

(Via: http://www.itv.com/news/granada/update/2017-04-10/why-has-there-been-an-increase-in-children-with-sleep-problems/)

Children have a hard time drifting off to sleep at night on a regular bedtime schedule because it’s mainly their parent’s fault for being too lenient. Everyone suffers when they lack sleep and you wouldn’t want to compromise the health of young kids because lost sleep is lost sleep, period.

Ogunbosi told NAN on Thursday that children under the age of five were often admitted into the hospital for sleep disorders.

“The most common cause of their sleep problem is ‘sleep apnoea’, where breathing is interrupted during sleep.

“However, sometimes there is no obvious cause of a child’s sleep problem.

“Children and teenagers need at least nine hours of sleep per night. Sleep problems and lack of sleep can have negative effects on a child’s performance at school.

“It could also affect the child’s extracurricular activities and social relationships.”

According to the paediatrician, accidents and injuries, behavioural problems, mood swings, memory and learning problems, performance problems and slow reaction to issues are often attributed to sleep disorder.

(Via: https://lifestyle.thecable.ng/children-teenagers-doctor-sleep/)

The problem is that kids these days get to tinker with technology at a very young age, which should not be the case. Parents should also enforce a regular bedtime schedule for kids to follow at all cost. Smart gadget use should be limited and they shouldn’t be allowed to access all sites that they want. Kids need enough sleep to rest and recharge like what adults need or they may end up lacking the energy to go through their day and feel tired and sleepy at school that may eventually affect their grades.

There are times when children also suffer from sleep disorders like sleep apnea despite their young age. They can benefit from GMSS: https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/good-morning-snore-solution or the leader in the MAD field, the SnoreRX: https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/snorerx to help them sleep better. Conventional treatments like CPAP and surgery are often not ideal for younger children because of the discomfort and risk involved. What’s easier to do is to take that gadget away from your kid and let him/her experience life first-hand and not through games or videos they see on the web. With active play, they would likely end up feeling exhausted at the end of the day and won’t have a hard time falling asleep by themselves.

Is There Help Available For The Sleep Deprived?

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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.

How Sleep Affects Your Health

posted by under SnoreRX ,

You don’t have to be a genius for you to realize that sleep is crucial to good health. You feel better and more energized if you were able to sleep soundly through the night. It seems like you can conquer whatever the world throws at you during the day. The experts haven’t discovered yet the reason why we sleep but we now know the positive links between good sleep and improved cognitive function, metabolism, immune system, learning, along with other vital functions.

You feel refreshed and energized when you wake up in the morning after at least an 8-hour of sleep at night. You won’t have a hard time doing your daily tasks whether it is at work or at school. Remember that deep sleep at night plays a crucial role in storing and linking memories as your brain is in excellent shape to retain even the smallest of details.

The need for sleep is a critical one. An ordinary people is vulnerable to death due to sleep deprivation rather than having eating disorder problems.

Sleep is also extremely important for our brain. There are brain cells acting as a biological clock to sleep. They are called suprachiasmatic nucleus. When the external environment goes light, it will wake you up. Conversely, when the external environment becomes dark, it will make us sleepy.

During a sleep, your body still works to metabolise energy and restore health. Also, the muscles in the body are grown. If you have a lack of sleep, your body cannot perform these operations well. So, sleep-deprived people often feel fatigued and lack of energy.

In particular, the information acquired through the five senses when you are awake will be reorganised during sleep. Your brain will rearrange what you have seen and heard. All important information will be stored in the memory. Anything that does not matter will be removed out of your memory.

(Via: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sleep-to-healthy-living_us_58f825cae4b081380af518d1)

Getting a good night’s sleep should be a conscious effort for all especially that distractions are everywhere. If we can only sleep soundly like babies then we no longer have to deal with the bothersome issues like insomnia, sleep deprivation and other sleep disorders that plague most people today.

When you want to slim down, the plan probably looks a bit like this: Step one, toss out the junk food; step two, pull out the running shoes; and step three, renew that gym membership (and actually use it). But a growing body of evidence suggests that getting a good night’s sleep should be on—or at least near—the top of the list.

Few experts would disagree with the idea that we’ve become a nation in need of a pick-me-up. We stay up too late, we wake up too early and, increasingly, we’re overweight. While there’s plenty of data showing that poor sleep can lead to weight gain and possibly even obesity, some new research also shows that the opposite may also be true: that getting the right amount of good quality sleep may actually help you shed a few pounds.

“Getting a full night of sleep is one of the most under-appreciated factors contributing to healthy weight maintenance,” says Matthew Walker, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies the effect of sleep on weight.

(Via: http://time.com/4757521/sleep-yourself-slim/)

Sleep can also help greatly if you have weight issues. Although it is not a quick fix that delivers instant results, it can help you stick to your weight loss plan with ease. Enough sleep can help curb your appetite so you don’t easily give in to temptations of carbs, sweets, sugared drinks etc. You also feel fuller for longer without the need of drinking weight loss supplements. You can finally say goodbye to hunger pangs without feeling constantly annoyed or irritated.

We all know how energized you feel with the help of sleep. It is but a must to maintain healthy sleep habits now despite the technological distractions or increasing work demands and responsibilities at home because the longevity and quality of your life are affected in the long run. So go get checked in case you are suffering from a sleep disorder like sleep apnea because there is no reason for you to suffer for longer. The ZQuiet mouthpiece: https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/zquiet can offer relief as well as the no-complaint SnoreRX: https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/snorerx. There are other anti-snoring gadgets you can also use if you aren’t comfortable with more conventional treatments like CPAP. The bottom line is that your sleep and overall health need not suffer any longer because help is readily available if you just ask.