Care For Your Sleep

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.

It is a known fact that some people feel better when they wake up early and come to work as the sun rises. Other people love sleeping till afternoon and can come to the peak of their activity closer to the evening. The first are called “larks”, and the latter are called “owls”. It is also a known fact that the most of “owls” have really big problems with waking up early in the morning to start their working day. Those “owls”, who need to be at their working place in the office or in the shop by 8 a.m. have to wake up not later than at 7 a.m. How to change own biological rhythm and turn from an “owl” to a “lark”? Below, you can find some recommendations for such situations.

• If you can not spend a day without a cup of refreshing coffee, be sure that you drink it before 3 p.m. After 3 p.m. you can drink only a mint or Melissa tea, which can help you relax and calm down, as well as not to get concentrated on the everyday problems and worries.
• When you are back home from the work, change your clothes immediately. This will help you to feel free from all the stresses and troubles you have to fight against every day. Also, when you are back home, take 3-5 minutes to lay down in your bedroom, relax and concentrate on something pleasant and calming.
• Eat a light, healthy, but warm dinner. Warm meal in the evening will help you to warm up your soul and make you feel calmer. Also, never go to bed when you feel hungry. Drinking a glass of warm milk or a herbal tea with honey will help your stomach to get busy for some time and not to bother your efforts on falling asleep.
• At 9:00 or 9:30 p.m. close your TV and cell phone, take a shower or have a 20-minute bath with your favorite relaxing aroma. Then, go to bed and take a magazine or your favorite book. You can turn on you favorite slow and relaxing music.
• Do not plan anything. Do not say to yourself: “I’ll fall asleep at 10:30 and wake up at 6:30, making it 8 hours of sleep”.
• If it is already late and you still can not fall asleep, think about how great it is staying in bed in total silence and calmness.
• Even if you can’t fall asleep at the same time for 3-4 days, do not give up and go to bed at the same time every night. Usually, it takes from 7 to 12 days for your body to change its natural rhythm and start getting used to waking up early in the morning.
• Thus, be aware that within the first 7-10 days your mornings will be really terrible. For many of us this can be very hard and unbearable, waking up early in the morning. However, very soon your body will understand and accept the changes, and you will experience again, what a great thing is to have a “good morning”!

Many of us spend hours and lots of efforts looking for a special effective treatment for insomnia. We tried everything: lowering caffeine consumption, getting rid of bad habits, avoiding stresses and worries, drinking melissa tea, going to sleep at the same time every night, changing the color of our bedroom and many other recommended tips that were promised to work out well. But still it was too hard to combat this serious problem, and we go on tossing and turning in our beds for hours and then feeling tired and restless all day long.

A new idea (which is actually not a new thing, but the thing which does not come to our mind, when we are thinking about a possible treatment for insomnia) was offered by the scientists from the University of Pittsburgh, who carried out a series of experiments with the volunteers suffering from regular insomnia. It turned out that opening a bedroom window and letting some fresh air in before the bedtime can substantially improve our sleep quality. In addition, during the experiments it also proved to be effective to place a piece of wet fabric on the forehead. Cooling effects of the wet fabric helped the participants to relax and fall asleep much faster.

It is a known fact that when we sleep, our brain activities slow down. But those who suffer from insomnia demonstrate no slowing down in brain activities. In this context, the scientists are convinced that giving more of fresh air and cooling down the forehead can help to slow down chemical processes in our brain and set it up for sleeping and rest. The experts from Pittsburgh University point on the fact that good amount of oxygen in the air can have very positive effects on our sleep quality and become a new alternative treatment for insomnia. They recommend everyone keeping the bedroom window opened at least for 10-15 minutes every time before going to sleep.