Care For Your Sleep

Archive for the ‘You and Your Sleep’ Category

Many today’s moms are looking for an answer to the question, how much time sleep for teenagers can be enough? Earlier studies used to support the idea that due to very hard studies in schools and other realities of modern life, the present time’s teenagers need a lot of sleep. Some specialists in the matters related to teenagers and sleep are suggesting using not less than 9 hours a night, and for children between 7 and 12 not less than 11 hours of sleep is required. However, as the findings of a new study published recently in  the Eastern Economics Journal have shown, the need in sleep of today’s teenagers is as much as seven hours only, and those of the young people who sleep too much can actually fall behind their school programs and their peers’ most common activities.

A group of scientists at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, monitored sleeping patterns and academic success of over 1720 American kids, secondary and primary school students. The main assessment was made on how many hours of the day they sleep, and what score they manage to achieve in standardized tests. It turned out that for primary school children aged below 10 sleeping time is 9 hours a night, for children aged between 11 and 12 it is 8 hours a night. 7 hours of sleep for teenagers between 12 and 17 turned out to be linked with a higher academic performance and good overall health. Eric Eide, one of the leaders of the research group, commented on the findings of his colleagues: ‘We’re not talking about sleep deprivation. The data simply says that seven hours is optimal at that age.’

At the same time, Brigham Young University scientists underline that not only such factors related to teenagers and sleep as sleep hours are linked to increased academic success. According to the findings, all schoolchildren aged between 12 and 17 can achieve better academic success and demonstrate better performance in case if their sleep is regular and of a good quality. Also, lower amounts of daily lie-ins are linked to a better performance in school, the scientists found out. Other factors that are linked to academic success of today’s teenagers include the level of their parents’ education, economic situation and psychological climate in the family, and many more.

According to the findings of another study carried out by the experts of the University of Chicago, those male teenagers and adults who sleep less than 5 hours a night for as long as 5 consequent nights have significantly lower levels of testosterone in the body compared to those men who sleep over 7 hours a night. It is a known fact that male hormone testosterone is closely linked to male libido and sexual power in men, therefore, the first drive of the men with less than 5 hours of sleep is put off their sexual life. Other important side effect of such decrease in sleep is decreased levels of energy. The experts found out that due to such sleep routine, the levels of testosterone in adults can fall down to the levels of a 15-year old teenager. Read more about these findings in one of the last year issues of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Our personal behavior during and after the most intimate moments of our life is very important, and some certain behavioral patterns of our partners can be interpreted as good or bad signs of our relationships.

In particular, according to the findings of a recent research, carried out by a group of experts at Albright College in Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan, all women whose partners tend to fall asleep right after sex should never worry about their relationships. If men tend to fall asleep after sex, it can be a sign of greater affection and stronger bonds between the two partners.

The study was led by Daniel Kruger, NIMH Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, an expert at the University of Michigan, and his team of psychologists. For the experiments, over 450 participants were invited who took part in anonymous online survey. They were asked a series of questions about their sexual life and sexual experiences in order for experts to make assessment of desires and feelings of two partners who enter intimate relationships. The questionnaires including the questions like “Who is usually the first to fall asleep after sex?” or “Who usually goes to bed and falls asleep first, not after sex?”.

It turned out that those men who used to fall asleep right after a sexual intercourse had actually stronger feeling and stronger bonds with their female partners. Besides, the findings of the experts did not prove the common stereotype stating that men have a tendency to fall asleep earlier after sexual intercourse compared with women. Instead, it was proven that women actually tend to fall asleep earlier than men in those nights when there are no sexual intercourse. “Perhaps men stay awake longer as an artifact of mate guarding – making sure the woman doesn’t leave them for another partner,” one of the researchers from the study group commented.

Certainly, many experts confirm that not sleeping or falling asleep after sex is a very individual factor that is influenced by many personal issues, including the levels of stresses, social life, psychological condition, and even economic situation in the family. Thus, the findings of the American experts can be valid only for the certain social layers, some experts say. Those who are interested in receiving more information about the findings, the expert opinions and assessments regarding this study can read more in the December issue of the Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology.

By Treisha Marle

Why do we need sleep?

Sleep is vital to our health, along with air, water and food. While we sleep, our body undergoes a passive retreat repairing and detoxifying our systems. Essentially, sleeping helps us carry on our daily lives charged with energy. Without proper and enough sleep, our body becomes weak, as we’re unable to regain strength.

Skipping 24 or more hours of sleep does not only make us feel stressed, cranky and clumsy; in the long run, sleep deprivation wreaks havoc on our health. It hampers our brain, leading to serious mental and physical impairment. It causes stress hormones to rise, fosters heart diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes and memory loss. If the brain is concerned, then every aspect of our life will be comprised. Given this, we cannot afford to shirk on sleep!

What does sleep have to do with our brain?

Our brain stops functioning when we are asleep—not true! In fact, while asleep, our brain functions more wherein it stores all the necessary data we’ve gathered when we were awake. Sleeping helps the brain convert memory to a more permanent and enhanced form. To explore further, described are four phases occurring when we sleep:

• During the first stage, we may not sleep deeply so generally we’re easily wakened. This is when our muscles begin to slow down and your eyes move very slowly.

• We spend about half the time we’re asleep at stage two. This is when our muscles relax and our brain waves tend to slow down.

• At stage three, as the sleep deepens, brain waves become larger and slower. Our breathing becomes rhythmic, our muscles remain relaxed and we encounter non-rapid eye movement.

• At stage four, our muscles stop moving completely while our breathing and heart rate become rapid and irregular. This is when we encounter rapid eye movement when our eyes move rapidly in bursts of activity. Scientists can’t explain why but this is the phase when we dream. They believe this indicates that the brain is using this time to sort and organize our memories. This is also the point where blood flow to the brain is diverted to the muscles to restore energy. REM lasts about 90 minutes long and recurs about every 90 minutes throughout our sleep.

The temporal lobe of the cerebral cortex is one that is highly active while we’re awake learning and having verbal exams. This is the part which processes language and our memory. The bad impact of sleep deprivation on this area is that we’ll have slurred speeches and short-term memory loss. Also, in this last stage of sleep, neurons are being regenerated. Here are the parts of the brain’s cerebral cortex that get damaged when we don’t attain this:

• The parietal lobes correspond to math and logic subjects. If you didn’t sleep much, you can still solve math problems although with less speed and accuracy than a well-rested individual.

• The frontal lobe is that part sparking our creativity. Sleep-deprived people have difficulties thinking of imaginative words or ideas. They tend to be repetitive of their statements and are unable to deliver and communication their messages well. They also have a more difficult time reacting to unpredicted circumstances.

• The prefrontal cortex controls our judgment, impulse, attention and visual. This region regenerates during the first stage of sleep, thus if we only had a short nap, we’d feel refreshed despite taking only few minutes of sleep.

Conclusion

Because of the hype of schoolwork, office work, household chores and other errands these days, sleep deprivation is turning out to be a normal epidemic. If you think that this is not a serious case, think again.

Since different regions of the brain rest during different stages in our sleep, sleep cannot be cut short. Recognize that sleep is a very important part of our life.

Don’t underestimate this form of rest as it brings great impact to our brain. Learn to allow your mind to be at peace so you can get the rest you need. Get yourself a Comfortable Bed Mattress and start a regular sleep schedule for more brain power.

Author Bio:

Hi there!! My name is Treisha and I’m a part time manager for Uratex blog. I love creative writing, socializing with friends, learning new things and travelling to tropical places. I am a green and healthy living advocate. I wish to collaborate with you can reach me via treisha@uratexblog.com.

We all see dreams. Sometimes our dreams can be comforting and cozy scenes to spend night at, and sometimes they can take us to some really horrible and terrifying places. Most of us would think that there can not be an element of control, except just a small part: some studies have shown that our dreams are usually reflecting the events that we lived through the day. However, today’s scientists are convinced that we actually can control and rule our dreams. Moreover, it was recently discovered that it is possible to use the environment of our dreamworld for training our personality and developing very important skills like decision making, being more resistive to negative effects of stresses, as well as numerous other cognitive skills.

Very often, when our sleep enters the phase of lucid dreaming, we find ourselves being still technically asleep but already very close to actually being awake. That is the time when we are very close to controlling our dreams, and those who can actually be in command of their dreams have quite a lot of advantages. As the studies in Bonn University have shown, being able to manipulate and control own dreams makes a dreamer wake up with a very clear mind and with a slight feeling of euphoria.

Besides, a group of scientists at Yale University led by Dr. Peter Morgan, found out that those people who can take control over their dreams have better function of the brain’s ventromedial prefrontal cortex: in particular, such people have shown much better performance in such activities as playing card games or gambling. This way, a group of Dr Morgan can to the conclusions that using controlled lucid dreaming as a therapy can assist greatly every person in developing better cognitive skills, improve own social control, master more effective decision making skills, and so on.

Other benefits that those who can control their lucid dreams can take advantage from include less risks of developing mental problems and psychological disorders like inability to focus, a lack of social skills, behavioral problems, and many others. Those are the findings of a group of Austrian psychologists led by Georg Gittler and Evelyn Doll, which were published in International Journal of Dream Research in October, 2009. According to Doll, those individuals who have the abilities to control their dreams usually have a more realistic self-esteem, tend to act with more of self-confidence and generally have greater satisfaction with life.

Most of sleep experts and sleep medicine professionals would tell you that in order to improve your sleep quality it is better to remove from your bedroom as many electronic devices as possible. For many years it was considered that dim light and low noises that come from all sorts of electronic devices damage our sleep and can even cause insomnia and other sleep disorders. Such appliances as TV sets, computers, mobile phones, and others were considered especially dangerous due to their dangerous searing effects which were believed to slow down melatonin production in the brain and thus affecting our sleep.

However, a group of scientists from the University of Sydney carried out a study and found out that neither light or noises coming from electronic devices can damage our sleep, and there are hardly a serious connection between the number of electronic devices we have in our bedrooms and our sleep quality. Australian scientists used a very interesting and creative approach, which embraced taking into account the factors and data which could possibly impact the average sleep duration of people in the years of 1992, 1997 and 2006.

After analyzing the data, it became apparent that in 1992 the average time people used to spend sleeping in their beds was about 8 hours 20 minutes, and 14 years later, in 2006, it slightly increased and raised to 8 hours 30 minutes. At that a great deal of factors were taking into account, starting from days of the week and ending up with the time of year. Thus, for the stated period of time there was no significant change in average sleep duration of most people, though the number of electronic devices in today’s people bedrooms has increased several times.

It is interesting that such factors as having a high education, working 9-10 or more hours a day, working shifts, having more money for entertainment and fun, usually tend to make our average sleep duration decrease. Besides, such important factor as having more than 2 children in the family was found out to decrease the time parents can spend sleeping in the bed. It was also found out that average sleep duration of modern adults is 40 minutes longer in weekends compared to the one in the week days. Besides, most of us tend to sleep 12 minutes more in winter compared to the time usually spent sleeping in the bed in summer time.