Care For Your Sleep

Archive for the ‘You and Your Sleep’ Category

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.

Many people are fighting against various sleep disorders like insomnia and others. They spend quite a lot of money on buying sleeping pills, visiting psychiatrists or other experts, changing the furniture in the bedroom, and other most popular tricks to combat insomnia. However, it is possible to substantially improve our sleep quality by using quite a simple and easy method. Wanna know what that is? Regular physical activities and exercise!

According to the latest findings of American specialists, only 150 minutes of physical activities a week can help us improve our sleep quality and feel more alert during the day. A group of experts at Bellarmine University carried out a survey and interviewed about 2,600 American people aged between 25 and 60. It turned out that 2,5 hours of moderate physical activities and exercise a week can be of a great help to those who suffer from insomnia and other related sleep disorders. It was estimated that by using the stated amount of physical activities can assist to provide more than 65 per cent sleep quality improvement, as well as help feel less sleepy and tired during the day.

Sufficient amounts of physical activities are very important for all of us to support our overall health and a proper function of all systems of the body. Brad Cardinal, one of the leaders of the research group and a specialist at Oregon State University said: “We were using the physical activity guidelines set forth for cardiovascular health, but it appears that those guidelines might have a spillover effect to other areas of health.” According to the expert, plenty of physical activities and exercise can play a role of a safe and unique alternative to sleeping pills known for their numerous harmful side effects like addiction, impaired memory, etc.

It is obvious that using physical activities to improve our sleep quality and combat such a common symptom as daytime sleepiness will lead to numerous improvements and other amazing benefits to our general health. In particular, during the study it became apparent that such symptoms as leg cramps or the ability to focus can be deceased: 68 per cent of the participants reported about having less leg cramps, and 45 per cent told that they have improved abilities to concentrate. Physical activities can assist in weight loss and lowering bad LDL blood cholesterol levels, lowering the risks of serious cardiovascular diseases like a heart attack, atherosclerosis, and so on. Read more about the findings of this interesting study in the latest issue of Mental Health and Physical Activity.

Restless sleep, frequent waking up at night and inability to fall asleep again are very common problems in many modern people. It is believed that these sleep disorders should be attributed to our unhealthy diet, smoking and other bad habits, chronic stresses at workplace or in our private life, as well as to such things as climatic changes, our health disorders or improper environment for sleeping. However, recently, a group of scientists discovered that such factor as loneliness should also be taken into account, and those people who are feeling lonely and isolated usually experience various sleep difficulties and sleep disorders like restless sleep.

It turns out that loneliness can not only make us feel unhappy and depressed, have negative effects on our physical and emotional health, but also can affect our sleep to a great extent. Scientists of the Department of Health Studies at the University of Chicago carried out a series of experiments, and found out that lonely people have very poor quality of sleep compared to those people who do not suffer from feelings of being lonely and isolated. The findings of this interesting study were recently published in the November issue of the journal Sleep.

During the experiments, the experts from the University of Chicago closely monitored sleep patterns and chemical reactions in the brain of 95 volunteers from rural South Dakota localities. It became apparent that those of the participants who were feeling lonely and abandoned had much higher levels of fragmentary sleep, in other words, they tended to wake up at night way more often than all other participants. Such restless sleep causes fatigue, inability to focus and poorer overall performance, higher risks of developing serious health problems, etc.

“What we found was that loneliness does not appear to change the total amount of sleep in individuals, but awakens them more times during the night,” Dr. Lianne Kurina, who leaded the research, writes in the report about the findings. “It’s not just a product of very lonely individuals having poor sleep. The relationship between loneliness and restless sleep appears to operate across the range of perceived connectedness,” she adds. In addition to this, the scientists found out that the connections between loneliness and poor or restless sleep are much stronger in young people than in aged people, because the psychological effects of loneliness affect young people more than they affect older people.

The importance of regular good night’s sleep is very well known. Those who regularly sleep good have much better abilities to focus, improved memory, improved blood pressure, lower risks of developing many serious diseases, as well as other health benefits. And many of us want to know what is the best position to sleep? Some of us feel comfortable sleeping on the back, some like falling asleep laying in the side position, and some enjoy stomach-sleeping. Is there any recommended position which is considered the most comfortable and the healthiest to sleep?

According to the findings of a recent study, sleeping on the back should be considered the best position to sleep. This position allows total relaxation of our neck and spine, it helps us to find the most comfortable position for our head as well. Also, experts say that this is the best position to slow down formation of wrinkles on our face and prevent acid reflux. However, those who suffer from such sleep disorders as snoring or sleep apnea should avoid sleeping on the back because this position is not favorable for the mentioned conditions and can contribute in making then even worse.

Side-sleeping is also considered a great position for a good night’s sleep. This best position to sleep allows us stretch and completely relax our spine, prevent back or neck pains, decrease snoring and prevent acid reflux. The position on the side is recommended to pregnant women as it helps to improve blood flow to the baby. Specialists suggest that women on the latest stages of pregnancy should choose to sleep on the left side. At the same time, side-sleeping is linked to increased pressure on the shoulders, therefore, those who like sleeping on the side should stretch their shoulders in order to prevent pains and muscle soreness.

As the study have shown, stomach-sleeping should be considered the worst position to sleep. Those who like sleeping this way have minimized risks of suffer from snoring and sleep apnea, but along with that, stomach-sleeping is liked to elevated chances to suffer from neck and back pains, tightness, stiffness and numbness, higher risks to develop wrinkles and breast sagging. This position is not recommended due to extra pressure to the digestive system, too, and it can lead to irritated nerves and other unwanted health conditions.

Fragmented sleep is something well familiar to most of modern people. Waking up at night, sometimes waking up repeatedly and being not able to fall asleep again, is becoming something very common for many people around the world. However, fragmented or interrupted sleep can be very dangerous and cause a number of unwanted effects which can seriously damage our health. In particular, according to the findings of the specialists from Stanford University, chronic fragmentary sleep is strictly linked to developing such problems as Alzheimer’s disease, because  in contrast to continuous sleep, fragmentary sleep affects normal function of our brain. In particular, it causes inability to build memories, this way causing troubles for us with remembering some important or familiar things.

Specialists came to these conclusions after working with the groups of lab mice. The control group which had chronic interrupted sleep has demonstrated problems with recognizing things and object well familiar to them. At that, the scientists underline that as a result of using optogenetic techniques which help to disrupt sleep without actual waking up, the sleep of the control group members was only fragmented, but not insufficient or too short. Therefore, interrupted sleep turns out to be very dangerous and possible even more harmful than a lack of sleep.

Specialists are sure that we accumulate and process our memories exactly during our sleep, that is why continuous sleep is very important for normal processes of memorization. The conclusions of American sleep experts were recently published in one of scientific magazines and widely discussed. “Sleep continuity is one of the main factors affected in various pathological conditions that impact memory, including Alzheimer’s and other age-related cognitive deficits,” Dr Luis de Lecea, one of the leading specialists of the group, wrote in the publication. The experts concluded that: “Regardless of the total amount of sleep or sleep intensity, a minimal unit of uninterrupted sleep is crucial for memory consolidation.”

Moreover, during the research it was found out that interrupted sleep has obvious negative effects on those people who have alcohol dependence, as well as on those who suffer from a condition known as obstructive sleep apnea, linked to narrowing of the throat during sleep, causing a lack of oxygen and interrupted sleep. Therefore, in order to avoid developing serious sleep disorders, memory loss and related diseases, as well as other serious consequences and health conditions, it is essential to be sure that our night sleep is continuous and not interrupted.