Sleep; wake up to the benefits…

From sluggerotoole.com

Sleep is finally revealing its secrets and they are proving more sensational than we ever dreamt. Sleep, that part of human functioning we treat with such contempt and distain, might be a means of improving many aspects of our lives particularly our health. Sleep, of sufficient quality and quantity, is offering a panacea for a range of medical conditions plaguing modern life. But will we listen? We; fail to take enough exercise, eat too much poor quality foods; sustain bodies that are over-weight or obese and smoke tobacco in spite of convincing evidence that we should do none of these things.
Will the call to take, every night, a minimum eight hours of rejuvenating peaceful sleep be viewed as yet another patronising rant and prove too much effort? Yes, it will take effort to make a poor sleeper into a sleeping beauty but Adrianne Huffington has published a reasonable self-help book “The Sleep Revolution”. We are mainly the authors of our own insomnias.

Sleep became a nuisance around 1900 when the Industrial Revolution met the electric light-bulb. From that point on, with no imposed darkness in our days, sleep was for the weak and timid. Socially and economically sleep was seen as an imposition and heroes were those who claimed they needed little if any. Sleep deprivation -getting only 6 or 7 hours of sleep a night – is pretty toxic across a range of measures. We are more likely to develop; dementia, diabetes, heart disease and cancers, the list of linked diseases is rather impressive. Margaret Thatcher and Ronnie Regan both shunned sleep and both succumb to severely demented ends. Sleep deprivations has a huge impact on our mental health with a link to depression and more serious conditions such as bipolar and schizophrenia. It also affects our wake-time functioning with an estimated 100,000 US road traffic deaths linked to poor sleep and then there’s industrial accidents such as the Space Shuttle Disaster and Chernobyl where the link has been proven.


Sadly when sleep is poor or inadequate -mainly due to lifestyle – we suffer through our days dazed, confused and exhausted or we opt for sleeping pills. Recent findings cry out that we shouldn’t use sleeping pills because of the simple fact they kill us.

Chronic insomnia is a serious condition that needs treatment that is not in dispute. Its long-term consequences are well recognised but most sleep experts agree that sleeping pill, certainly for long-term use, is just silly and dangerous. A series of studies covered in a number of books on sleep such as Martin Walker’s excellent book “Why We Sleep”, outlines the consequences of long-term sleeping pill use. GPs get this and are battling hard to reduce the dependence on sleeping aids and they would be helped by better public awareness and understanding.

The problem with sleeping pills – and I include those sold over the counter as Nytol and Sominex – is they do not do what they say on the tin; they don’t make us sleep; they knock us out and during this time we are technically unconscious such as when anesthetised. For this reason sleeping pills alter the natural four stage sleep cycle that happens about five times a night and ensures tip-top mental and physical function. People who use sleeping pills long-term die earlier and the most common cause of death is surprisingly serious infection. When first noted this association seemed implausible and then, as more and more evidence emerged, it was recognised that the four cycle, five stages of human sleep rejuvenates the immune system. In sleeping pill users the immune system is shot to pieces.

We all need to improve our sleep and that will take some time. The first step is to recognise that there is a real public health danger from long-term sleeping pill use. We need better access to support so that poor sleepers and insomniacs can make meaningful changes to their lifestyles; no devices in the bedroom, reduce lighting and less stress. The benefits will be huge; how could it not be good when society is; less grumpy, self-centred and unreasonable which we will be if we learn, again, how to have a good night’s sleep.

https://sluggerotoole.com/2017/12/30/sleep-wake-up-to-the-benefits/

Can a Vitamin Deficiency Lead to Insomnia in Seniors?

From sunriseseniorliving.com

Getting a good night’s rest can be difficult for many seniors. In fact, insomnia is reaching the point where sleep experts say it presents a serious health crisis in our country. The lack of quality sleep has a variety of causes, including sleep apnea, stress, irregular heartbeat, and lifestyle.
We know our diets are important to our overall health, and sleep is no exception. Shortened or low-quality sleep can wreak havoc on your goal of healthy eating. That’s because it increases the body’s appetite for comfort foods, which are high in fat and carbohydrates.
A study from the University of Pennsylvania revealed that the key to a good night’s sleep might lie in eating nutrient-rich foods—ironically, something insomnia makes you less likely to do.

Can a Nutrient-Rich Diet Help Seniors Sleep Better?
 A study published in the Journal of Sleep Research reveals our bodies need amino acids, vitamins, and minerals to help us fall and stay asleep. When our diet lacks variety or contains a lot of processed foods, we miss out on some of those beneficial nutrients.
But when we eat healthy foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and quality meat, we give our body the best chance of falling asleep naturally.  The study, which was conducted at The Centre for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology at the University of Pennsylvania, uncovered interesting information on the potential link between sleep duration and nutrition.
Here are a few of their findings:

• Lauric acid: A diet rich in lauric acid helps keep the cardiovascular system healthy. Research shows people who have a healthy cardiovascular system enjoy a better night’s sleep. Foods containing lauric acid include milk, cheddar cheese, and coconut oil.
• Lycopene: Researchers found that people who consume too little lycopene have shorter sleep durations. Dried basil and parsley are two herbs that contain lycopene and can be easily incorporated into your cooking. Other good sources of lycopene are tomatoes, cabbage, watermelon, and asparagus.
• Selenium: Difficulty falling asleep is associated with reduced selenium intake. Selenium is found in meats, seafood, dairy products, grains, and nuts.
• Vitamin C: Many adults say vitamin C helps them sleep better, and foods high in vitamin C are easily added to your diet. Examples include berries, oranges, bell pepper, papaya, kale, parsley, broccoli, and cauliflower.

https://www.sunriseseniorliving.com/blog/december-2017/can-a-vitamin-deficiency-lead-to-insomnia-in-seniors.aspx?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS_Syndication

New Study Reveals Chemical Brain Imbalance in Smartphone Addicts

From observer.com

In the past decade, smartphones have made the Internet so accessible that technology has evolved to make online activity a first-world necessity completely interwoven into the fabric of our daily lives. New research suggests these technological advances are changing our brains, too. According to a Korean study recently presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), researchers have identified a chemical imbalance in the brains of adolescents addicted to their smartphones, social media, and the Internet.

Forty-six percent of Americans claim that they would be unable to live without their cell phone, the majority of whom are younger adults and teens, according to a recent survey by the Pew Research Centre. The same survey revealed that 64 percent of Americans own a smartphone, despite the fact that 19 percent of them consider the cost to be a substantial financial burden, risking economic hardship in exchange for devices they consider to be an absolute necessity. Smartphone dependency is increasing not just in the United States, but the whole of the developed world. A team of researchers in Seoul led by Hyung Suk Seo, M.D., professor of neuroradiology at Korea University, studied teenage smartphone addicts using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), an advanced type of MRI that is able to measure the chemical composition of the brain.

Examining 19 South Korean adolescents with medically-diagnosed smartphone addictions, the researchers developed a standardized test surveying the severity of the subjects’ addictions based on how greatly smartphone dependency affected their daily routines, education, social life, productivity, sleep and emotional state. Researchers found that the addicted teens were more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety, and insomnia than their non-addicted peers, detecting higher levels of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in their brains, a neurotransmitter linked to anxiety and depression.

The addicts’ ratios of GABA to glutamate-glutamine (Glx), a neurotransmitter in the brain that causes neurons to become more electrically active, were imbalanced compared to non-addicted teens. The researchers suspect this imbalanced ratio is the root cause of depression, anxiety, and insomnia in their technology-addicted subjects. According to the researchers, the imbalance of GABA caused by smartphone addiction may be the key to finding a treatment. “The increased GABA levels and disrupted balance between GABA and glutamate in the anterior cingulate cortex may contribute to our understanding the pathophysiology of and treatment for addictions,” Dr. Seo explained during the presentation, according to a press release by the Radiological Society of North America.

While many of the subjects benefited from cognitive therapy, their GABA to Glx ratios slowly returning to more normal states, the negative symptoms of smartphone addiction still continued to persist. When the source of your addiction is an integral part of your daily life, a full recovery may not be a viable option. However, there are ways to cut back on technology to promote a healthier, happier brain. Try Moment, an app that measures how much time you’re truly spending on your phone and coaches you step by step to cut back on usage and spend more time unplugged. For those with even less self-control, the app even offers a “daily limit” that locks your phone after a daily goal of allotted use with the exception of emergency calls.

http://observer.com/2017/12/new-study-reveals-chemical-brain-imbalance-in-smartphone-addicts/

Amber-Tinted Glasses Might Get You More Sleep

From health.usnews.com

TUESDAY, Dec. 26, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- For the tech-obsessed who use their smartphones, laptops and tablets right before bedtime, a small new study suggests that inexpensive amber-tinted glasses might guarantee sound slumber.

The glasses block the blue-wavelength light emitted from many hi-tech devices. That light suppresses the brain's production of melatonin, a hormone that regulates sleep and wake cycles.

But in the study, researchers found that adults diagnosed with insomnia got about 30 minutes more sleep when wearing wrap-around amber lenses for two hours before bedtime.

"We expect that blue-light exposure before bedtime might contribute to sleep difficulties or exacerbate sleep problems in individuals who already experience difficulties, so we were not surprised there was an improvement in sleep quality," said study author Ari Shechter. He's an assistant professor of medical sciences at Columbia University Medical Centre in New York City.

"These kinds of glasses are very widely available, probably for $5 to $10, although more expensive options might be available for different styles," added Shechter, who doesn't have a financial stake in the findings.

Insomnia symptoms such as difficulty falling or staying asleep, frequent awakening or disturbed sleep occur in as many as one-third to one-half of adults, according to background information in the study. In addition, an estimated 90 percent of Americans use light-emitting electronic devices -- such as tablets, smartphones and computers -- in the hour before bedtime, despite the sleep-inhibiting effects of this blue-light exposure.

In the new study, 14 adults with chronic insomnia wore wrap-around, amber-tinted glasses or clear placebo glasses for two hours before bedtime for seven consecutive nights. Four weeks later, participants repeated the process with the other set of glasses.

In addition to getting about a half-hour more sleep on nights after wearing the amber lenses, participants also reported better-quality sleep and an overall reduction in their insomnia symptoms.

A slight reduction in the time it took amber lenses-wearing participants to fall asleep was noted, though it wasn't statistically significant. "It is possible the intervention would be more effective in speeding up time to fall asleep in individuals who have difficulty falling asleep as their chief sleep complaint," Shechter said.

Many smartphone screens can be adjusted to emit amber instead of blue light, which would be another step toward reducing insomnia symptoms in those affected. Blue-wavelength light is also emitted from many light bulbs and LED light sources increasingly being used in homes because of their energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness, he noted.

"Now more than ever, we are exposing ourselves to high amounts of blue-wavelength light before bedtime, which may contribute to or exacerbate sleep problems," Shechter said.

"We believe this to be an important and timely study, as it describes a safe, affordable and easily implemented intervention for insomnia," he added.

"Avoiding exposure to light from light-emitting devices before sleep would be the best approach, but using other techniques to block the blue light can help if the devices will continue to be used," Shechter suggested.

Dr. Raman Malhotra is a spokesperson for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and wasn't involved in the research. He agreed with Shechter that the research should be replicated in larger numbers of patients with insomnia, possibly over longer periods of time.
But Malhotra said some doctors are already recommending patients with insomnia wear amber-tinted glasses before bedtime, reasoning there's little to lose.

"I look at cost or risk compared to possible benefit, and in this case I feel cost and harm are minimal compared to benefits in patients' sleep," said Malhotra, an associate professor of neurology at the Washington University Sleep Medicine Centre in St. Louis.

"Very large portions of the population have trouble sleeping because of the light coming from their devices, and this is a very reasonable thing to use," he added.

The study is scheduled for publication in the January issue of the Journal of Psychiatric Research.

https://health.usnews.com/health-care/articles/2017-12-26/amber-tinted-glasses-might-get-you-more-sleep

Suffering from insomnia? Here’s how writing a poem could help you sleep

From pe.com

Before signing off for bed recently, a friend told me, “At the end of a day during which I’ve written something, I feel that the day, the entire day, has been well spent.”
Unfortunately, I haven’t been writing frequently enough to know that feeling, but I remember it. It also reminded me of what I think the most valuable function of poetry might be for a society: It helps us sleep at night.
I’ve often said that the collective health of a culture could be measured in the volume of poets it produces, and there’s actually a large body of scientific literature that suggests this might be true to some extent.
Studies on the positive effects of expressive writing began in the 1980s when psychologist James W Pennebaker and his colleagues asked undergraduates to write about personally traumatic experiences for four consecutive days. Six weeks later, those students reported more positive moods and fewer illnesses than the control group, which wrote about trivial matters. Later studies included blood draws, and showed enhanced immune and cognitive function within the trauma-writing groups.
A 1999 study by Joshua Smyth and Arthur Stone at the State University of New York’s Stony Brook campus gave the same task to patients with asthma and rheumatoid arthritis, who then demonstrated improved lung capacity and a reduction of disease severity. While it wasn’t clear what was causing these salutary effects, it was strong evidence that psychological factors inherent in the act of writing itself can have a real influence on physical health.
Most people are familiar with the concept of catharsis, a Greek word which means “a bodily purging.” In a Freudian sense, it means the expulsion of the emotions that are supposedly clouding and confounding our minds. But writing requires more than just a simple release of raw emotions to be effective. As anyone active on Facebook or Twitter knows, simply ranting about the problems of the world doesn’t make anyone feel better. What matters seems to be an attempt at making sense of the world.
An intensive journaling study by Susan K. Lutgendorf and Philip M. Ullrich in 2002 found that the writing needed to include cognitive processing — and not just emotional expression — to be beneficial. The writer has to find meaning from the experience, to find a way to learn or grow from it, in order to reap the positive effects of the writing process.
And this is where poetry comes into play.
What is a poem, if not a little linguistic meaning machine? Like any work of art, what a poem strives to do is carve some new sliver of understanding out of the emotional and physical caldron of chaos that is human experience. As readers, what we enjoy is that someone dared to explore the unknown, and brought us back the poem as a map we can follow along.
When asked how he felt winning the Nobel Prize, Saul Bellow is said to have replied, “I don’t know, I haven’t written about it.” That statement is exactly how poets and artists live in the world.
A poem almost always starts with an itch, some kind of irritation or lack of understanding that we’re struggling to wrap our minds around. Something bothers us, gnaws at us subconsciously until we finally sit down to write. That quest to figure out what the trouble is becomes the poem, which is an articulation of a journey into the unknown — so that we can name it, so that we can map it, so that we can bring it into the light of understanding.
This process is fundamental to the development of cognitive function in homo sapiens. It’s the reason why the first task we’re given by God in Genesis is to name all of the living creatures: If we can name them, we can tame them, and then maybe they won’t kill us. This is what the human mind was evolved for; learning from experience to plan for the future. Is it any wonder that there are beneficial health effects that come along with it?
Being linguistic creatures, poetry is the most powerful place that this meaning-making process can occur — in the landscape of words, which is the landscape of our ideas and emotions.
As Pennebaker and Smyth explain in their book “Opening Up by Writing It Down,” what seems to be happening is that effort to bury our experiences, rather than exploring and taming them, becomes physical work. If we don’t take the time to organize our thoughts, so that we can capture and store them, they continue to take up space in our working memories; we continue to gnaw at the itches, whether we want to or not. It raises our cortisol levels, which increases our heart rate and hinders our ability to rest.
Poets are able to scratch those itches so we can get to sleep.

http://www.pe.com/2017/12/03/suffering-from-insomnia-heres-how-writing-a-poem-could-help-you-sleep/

Two Common Sleep Issues Associated with a Bad Mattress

From theinscribermag.com

Sleep issues are not only frustrating and excessively tiring; they do have certain health implications as well. Due to sleep issues, there is an increased risk of stroke and heart issues. Sleep issues like insomnia, sleep apnea, poor circulation, early waking, and restlessness are often attributed to a bad mattress.

Insomnia
If you are not able to sleep properly every night then you may be suffering from insomnia. You lie down in bed trying to sleep. For hours you are hoping to feel sleepy but sleep is forever elusive to you. Chronic insomnia is also referred to as habitual sleeplessness and affected almost 10 percent of the adult population. For those who are working, the perpetual lack of sleep could be really detrimental to health. The mental and physical impact of sleep deprivation is intense and quite drastic at times. Your mattress could be the probable culprit for your lack of sleep every night.
You must start following an effective and healthy night-time routine. You need to restrict your caffeine intake at bedtime and must stop using the mobile. Examine your mattress to see if it is an old mattress with features like sagging or bumps & lumps that adversely affect your sleep. See if your mattress offers the right support. You must invest in a mattress that has been specially crafted for optimal sleep and overall comfort. Your mattress must maintain a pretty comfortable temperature. Choose your mattress after a lot of deliberation and make sure that the mattress fulfils your unique requirements.

Poor circulation
Poor circulation implies constricted blood flow throughout the body. If you wake up in the morning and find that your fingers or sometimes your hand feels pretty strange and you are just not able to move them then you may be experiencing poor circulation issues.
The constant sensation of numbness and tingling in your legs and arms is quite disturbing and when you experience this at night, you just feel shattered and obviously, do not welcome it at all. Poor circulation could trigger tossing and turning at night and fatigue and grogginess the next morning.
It is time to replace your old mattress. You must invest in a good mattress that boosts blood circulation. Choose a specially engineered mattress that would eliminate pressure points and enhance lumbar support. This mattress would be instrumental in improving your spinal alignment. An enhanced spine alignment means natural blood flow all through the body.
Your mattress should be your prime concern. You may invest in a good mattress even if it works out quite expensive. A properly crafted mattress could keep sleep disorders such as insomnia, sleep apnea, poor circulation at bay and facilitate sound and peaceful sleep. Your mattress must be breathable and you should be able to sleep comfortably.
Conclusion
Sleep disorders and issues must be treated by replacing the old mattress and sleeping on a cosy mattress. The mattress should possess the perfect features.

http://theinscribermag.com/two-common-sleep-issues-associated-with-a-bad-mattress/

Insomnia is not a natural consequence of aging

From charlotteobserver.com

Trouble sleeping? That’s just a natural outcome of accumulating lots of birthdays, right?
Actually, insomnia is not a normal result of aging. According to the National Poll on Healthy Aging, however, half of senior citizens are convinced that sleep problems “come naturally with age.”
The pollsters discovered that more than one-third of those over 65 “reported using some type of medication to help with sleep, including prescription sleep medications, over-the-counter medications promoted as night-time formulations, herbal/natural sleep aids (like melatonin) or prescription pain medications.”
Not surprisingly, people who reported that they frequently have trouble getting to sleep were even more likely to take such medication. Almost one-third use their medicine regularly, with another third using it occasionally. A majority of those taking prescription sleeping pills had been taking them for years.
Why is this important? Regular use of sleeping medications can have serious consequences for older adults.

People over 45 account for three-fourths of the emergency-department visits due to adverse effects of the sleeping pill zolpidem (The CBHSQ Report, May 2013). Side effects of such medications may include dementia and serious injury due to falls (Clinical Therapeutics, November 2016).
One popular prescription sleeping pill for older people is trazodone. Even though the Food and Drug Administration has never approved this old-fashioned antidepressant for insomnia, many primary-care providers prescribe it off-label for people who have a hard time falling asleep.
Trazodone is not innocuous, however. It may cause morning hangover. Dizziness, constipation, blurred vision and dry mouth also are fairly common. Liver injury, high blood pressure, glaucoma and abnormal heart rhythms are among its serious complications.
One reader reported her spouse’s experience: “My husband had difficulty sleeping and was prescribed trazodone. For most of the next day, he was like a zombie – brain fog, confusion, foot shuffling and disorientation. When he stopped taking the trazodone, we realized that all these nasty after-effects were due to the drug.”
People who are aware of the hazards of relying on prescription sleeping pills may turn to over-the-counter sleep aids. Unfortunately, a number of OTC medicines for sleeping contain diphenhydramine, a sedating antihistamine; it is the “PM” in Advil PM or Tylenol PM.

Diphenhydramine also has serious drawbacks for older individuals. This drug has strong anticholinergic activity and can lead to confusion, grogginess and memory loss.
People with chronic sleep disturbances should discuss this problem with their primary-care provider. Cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia can be very helpful without causing adverse effects.
Some people find melatonin helpful. Others like a glass of tart cherry juice before bedtime. People who have to get up several times for bathroom visits report that eating a handful of raisins in the evening can help.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/living/clt-boomer/article188468879.html

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