Care For Your Sleep

Seeing bad or disturbing dreams is not something unusual for many of us. Sometimes we can not have a restful and peaceful sleep because of too hot temperature in the room, too noisy environment or too many stresses, and see bad dreams all night long. Some people get really scared of bad dreams, and some just tend to laugh at them. For many years scientists have been trying to understand the nature and hidden meaning of bad dreams, and recently they came up with the following conclusions.

It became apparent that up to 85% of people see bad dreams at least once a year. At the same time, the results of the study show that the majority of the dreams we see evoke more negative than positive emotions. However, the scientists are convinced that seeing bad dreams can help us manage our negative emotions and give us signs that we are having certain emotional problems at the moment.

According to the findings of the research, bad dreams stimulate those parts of our brain, which are responsible for our emotional condition. And those are bad dreams which sometimes help us to solve our emotional problems, because when we wake up, we are very happy to realize that what we’ve seen was just a dream. Bad dreams can be really dangerous and harmful only in those cases, when they go on disturbing us in the daytime. And, the scientists are convinced that those people who have real emotional problems and depressions are usually bothered by their bad dreams and negative thoughts both in the daytime and at night.

The scientists from the University of Sydney started questioning a poplar idea that it is not good to eat before going to bed. Their researches ended up with finding scientific evidence of the fact that it is not recommended to go to seep on an empty stomach and it is easier to fall asleep after a light supper which includes fruit, vegetables, yogurts and other foods that are easily digested. Ambitious scientists underline that the study has only preliminary results, but they are convinced that their controversial theory can open a new way to creating an effective  insomnia treatment.

Michele Korti, one of the leaders of this interesting scientific study, has recently reported about the findings of his colleagues and underlined the importance of these theories. He says that there’s nothing wrong about eating a plate of fruit or vegetables before going to sleep, but what we have to beware doing before the bedtime is drinking strong tea, coffee and all possible alcoholic beverages, as well as all the beverages with caffeine. However, he recommends talking to a health care specialist before using the theory of having a bite before the bedtime as a therapeutic approach to insomnia treatment.

Australian researchers also underline that those who want to try improving their sleep quality by using small bites before going to bed should choose only natural foods rich in dietary fiber. Consuming such foods is linked to gradual rise of glucose level in blood. At the same time, eating the foods with great amounts of carbs is associated with increased production of tryptophane, a type of amino acid, which stimulates serotonin production in our brain. Serotonin causes sleepiness, therefore, to fall asleep faster one could try eating a little of grains or potato meal before going to bed.

It is a known fact that having a good and peaceful sleep is sometimes priceless. And if you are the one who is regularly having good and sufficient amount of sleep – you are a lucky one! According to the findings of a recent research, carried out by a group of British specialists, it turned out that the majority of modern British people value an hour of a good sleep more than an hour of good sex. Amazing??!! Unbelievable!

The scientists interviewed about 8,500 British men and women, and it became clear that most of them have regular problems with sleep, and many suffer from serious sleep disorders, like sleep apnea or insomnia. Only 8% of the participants said that they sleep about 8 hours a day, and 40% of the participants are convinced that they can not do they work and daily activities effectively if the had ha less than 7 hours of sleep.

It became apparent that every 7 of 10 men and women have serious sleep disorders, and every one of 4 people have to fight against regular insomnia. Finally, about 79% of the participants of this research expressed their opinion that they would rather have an hour of a good and peaceful sleep than have an hour of good sexual pleasure.

Specialists go on warning us that chronic lack of sleep is closely linked to very serious problems and diseases, like hypertension, cardio-vascular diseases and other illnesses. Also, many modern people need extra concentration and focusing at work, but constant lack of good sleep causes ineffectiveness, failures and lack of professional success. The experts underline that an average person needs not less than 7.5 hours of sleep a day for normal function and maximum effectiveness at work.

Many people have a tendency to believing that daytime sleep has very few positive effects and is linked to aging and inability to be active all day long. We are naturally adjusted for being awake in the daytime and have the best sleep at night, but some people still need to have a nap at the daytime. Moreover, according to the results of the latest studies carried out by groups of independent scientists and specialists on different continents of the world, daytime sleep is connected with great rest and significant improvements of our brain function and mental abilities.

In particular, a group of Canadian specialists found out that a short nap in the daytime gives perfect rest to our brain and can stimulate our brainwork pretty well! Their experiments involved brain scanning and analyzing brainwork of all the trial participants. It turned out that even 30 minutes of afternoon nap helps people to be more effective in problem solving and assists in concentration and focusing. Therefore, instead of thinking about the problem again and again, the scientists recommend to take a nap, and then the solution will most likely come out itself very soon!

According to another study carried out by the specialists at the University of Haifa and the scientists at the Sleep Laboratory at the Sheba Medical Center, a 90-minute daytime sleep can effectively improve our memory consolidation. The experts measured motor activity of two groups pf the participants, and it turned out that the member of the group who had regular afternoon sleep demonstrated much better task performance and improved skills compared to the group which was awake all day long. The same results were received as to memory consolidation.

Finally, German specialists claim that according to the results of their experiments and studies, even 6 minutes of daytime rest will be enough for our brain to rest and get ready for new tasks and higher problem solving effectiveness. The experts say that it takes only 6 minutes to refresh and recharge our brain for new activities and higher performance. Therefore, even a very short rest can help you improve the effectiveness and make your memory and brain work much better. Long live a 30-minutes daytime sleep, ladies and gentlemen!

Women always wonder, why do men never wake up when their child suddenly begins crying at night? Do men just pretend to be asleep, or they seriously do not care? It is a known fact that a sound of baby crying in the middle of the night can wake up any woman, no matter if she has children or does not. But what about men? Why do they go on sleeping? Finally, psychologists got interested in this dilemma as well, and recently, a group of British specialists leaded by Dr. David Lewis carried out a series of interesting experiments, directed on finding out what sounds can wake up men, and what sounds can wake up women.

The experiments involving male and female volunteers took place at the MindLab institution. The specialists studied sleep environment of men and women and used various sounds to check out which of them can disturb the sleep. The results were overwhelming: it turned out that men can be waken up by absolutely different sounds than women, and there are very few similarities in the top 10 list of the most disturbing sounds  which can interrupt sleep of both men and women.

Thus, three most disturbing sounds which can wake up men are a sound of car alarm, a sound of strong howling wind and a sound of buzzing fly. Also, men’s sleep can get disturbed to a great extent by a sound of snoring, clock ticking or chirruping of crickets. At the same time, the most disturbing sounds which can wake up women are child’s cry and the sound of a dipping tap. Such sounds as a sound of drilling, outside noises or a sound of snoring also have significant negative effects on women’s sleep. At that, howling wind and car alarm are somewhere in the bottom of the women’s list.

Therefore, this research shed the light on one more interesting difference between the genders. “These differing sensitivities may represent evolutionary differences that make women sensitive to sounds associated with a potential threat to their children while men are more finely tuned to disturbances posing a possible threat to the whole family,” the scientists comment. The results of the study were recently reported by Daily Mail newspaper.