Posts Tagged ‘insomnia’
Having Trouble Sleeping? Try These Ways to Fall Asleep
There’s nothing more frustrating than a sleepless night. I’ve been through plenty of them in my life and I can tell you that it’s no fun.
Not only is it stressful seeing the night pass you by, but the thought of the following day being ruined by the fact that you’re exhausted makes it even worse. How will you possibly function on no sleep once the new day starts? If you’ll be able to, it certainly won’t be easy.
Thankfully, there are a few things you can try out that may solve your problem. Try these things out, as none of them will cost you much money, if any at all.
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Discovery Health “26 Home Remedies for Insomnia”
You know the story: It’s 5:00 A.M. , and the first traces of dawn have begun to appear in the nighttime sky. You’ve been awake since 2:00 A.M. and are beginning to feel hopeless. How will you function at work tomorrow (make that today)? How will you cope with your presentation at the board meeting? How will you make it through another day after yet another night without sleep?
2007 Publications International, Ltd.
Insomnia is the most common sleep
disorder in North America and Europe.
Adults need an average of seven to nine hours of sleep a night, but insomnia can keep them from getting the sleep they need. Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder in North America and Europe. A whopping one-third of the U.S. population cannot sleep well enough to function well during the day. Half of those people have only one or two bad nights a week. The other half spend countless sleepless nights tossing and turning, feeling miserable. They also spend countless days exhausted.
One example is when people wake up out of what seems like a deep sleep and feel wide awake. They think that because they feel so alert that they will never be able to get back to sleep. However, this is not the case. The key is to understand that your awakening is natural and that you just have to wait it out. Another instance of mistaken perception is that when people wake, they often have the feeling that they were never asleep at all. But most people sleep much longer than they think.
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Sleep, Dreams and REM Sleep Behavior Disorder
Biology 202
1999 First Web Reports
On Serendip
Sleep, Dreams and REM Sleep Behavior Disorder Mahalia Cohen The discovery of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep suggested that sleep was not, as it was thought to be, a dormant state but rather a mentally dynamic one. Your brain is, in fact, very active in this state, almost to the level at which it is when a person is awake. Yet during this active stage in which most dreams occur, the movements of the rest of the body are completely stilled. To imagine this paralysis during dreams not occurring is a frightful image, since in many cases dreams are violent and active. When the neurotransmitters that control the movement of the body do not work properly the person develops REM sleep behavioral disorder (RBD).
While we are sleeping the sensory world is essentially revolving around us without our knowledge. Our senses of hearing, touch, taste, sight, and smell no longer function as they do when we are awake. Except for the threshold for each of these senses that each of us has while we sleep, our inner systems are working essentially free of input from the outside world. And yet people are able to have vivid dreams. The cortex can only pass into sleep mode with the help of the are of the brain called the thalamus. The thalamus is one of the two structures that make up the diencephalon, the lower part of the fore brain. Its main function in mammals is as the relay station of sensory information its way to the cortical center. Specific regions of the thalamus, as well as different nuclei process different sensory information on its way to the cortex.
In normal sleeping patterns a person usually passes through five phases of sleep, the fifth being REM. The sleeping human passes cyclically through these five phases throughout a night’s rest. These phases can be defined in electrical activity of the brain; much like the activity of the heart is often defined. The technique of measuring the electrical activity of the brain is call Electro-encephalogram, or EEG. When the electrical events of a person’s brain are graphed on a electrical magnitude versus time axis the graph of a person who is in different stages of being asleep or awake appear to have different levels of electrical activity occurring in the brain. (See (14))
How Menopause Affects Sleep
This article is from the WebMD Feature Archive
How Menopause Affects Sleep
A new area of research in sleep medicine focuses on women’s health and how menopause affects sleep. Menopause, regardless of age, is associated with poor sleep quality. These sleep problems are thought to be associated with hormonal function and also with psychological factors.
One study shows shows an association of hot flashes with a shorter amount of time sleeping and a higher incidence of arousals from sleep. Hot flashes that occur during sleep have the ability to affect the quality of sleep adversely by bringing women from a deeper, more restful stage of sleep to a lighter, less restful and restorative stage.
Worst Menopause Symptom? Lack of Sleep
This article is from the WebMD News Archive
Worst Menopause Symptom? Lack of Sleep
April 22, 2008 — New research shows that women in early menopause report that lack of sleep is their biggest problem.
Researchers interviewed 110 women. All were healthy white women between the ages of 43 and 55 with an average age of 49. They all had experienced their last menstrual period within the last three years.
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Trouble sleeping? Maybe it’s your iPad
(CNN) — J.D. Moyer decided recently to conduct a little experiment with artificial light and his sleep cycle.
The sleep-deprived Oakland, California, resident had read that strong light — whether it’s beaming down from the sun or up from the screens of personal electronics — can reset a person’s internal sleep clock.
So, for one month, whenever the sun set, he turned off all the gadgets and lights in his house — from the bulb hidden in his refrigerator to his laptop computer.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy of Insomnia
While sleeping medication is big business, research has shown that the most effective treatment for insomnia is actually cognitive behavioral therapy. This approach to psychotherapy was originally pioneered by such leading researchers as Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck. Beck’s outstanding research, theoretical formulation and clinical techniques were first published in a series of significant books and articles in the 1960′s and 1970′s. Further research since the publication of the breakthrough “Cognitive Therapy of Depression” in 1979 has shown the utility and effectiveness of this treatment approach with numerous psychological and physical disorders including anxiety, chronic pain and insomnia.
The most important aspect of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) for insomnia is that it actually treats the cause of the insomnia itself – and not just the symptoms as medication does. Furthermore, CBT can be combined with medication management for patients who need rapid relief or to help initially break a pattern of insomnia.
Maintaining Proper Sleep Hygiene
by Richard O’Boyle, PublisherMore about Richard…
Getting a good night’s sleep is not only satisfying and invigorating, but also the foundation for a healthy and productive day. Yet up to a third of older individuals report difficulty maintaining sleep on a recurring basis and more than half report occasional problems with their sleep. Identifying and correcting poor sleeping habits can help older adults to improve their well-being and quality of life.
It is generally believed that older people require the same amount of sleep as younger adults – seven to nine hours each night. But they then to become lighter sleepers and may wake three or four times throughout the course of the night. They may have to go the bathroom frequently or find their sleep disturbed by the discomfort of a chronic illness. Some of these disturbances may be correctable with lifestyle and nutrition changes, but others may be symptoms of more serious medical conditions.
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Strong Sleeping Pills Tablets
Sleeping Pills
What is the most important information I should know when buying Sleeping Pills
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Sleep Study Types for Sleep Apnea, Insomnia, and More
Sleep studies are tests that watch what happens to your body during sleep. The studies are done to find out what is causing your sleep problems. Sleep problems include:
- Sleep apnea, when an adult regularly stops breathing during sleep for 10 seconds or longer. This may be caused by blocked airflow during sleep, such as from narrowed airways. Or it may be caused by a problem with how the brain signals the breathing muscles to work.
- Problems staying awake, such as narcolepsy.
- Problems with nighttime behaviors, such as sleepwalking, night terrors, or bed-wetting.
- Problems sleeping at night (insomnia). This may be caused by stress, depression, hunger, physical discomfort, or other problem.
- Problems sleeping during the day because you work at night or do rotating shift work. This sleep problem is called shift work sleep disorder.
- Conditions such as periodic limb movement disorder, which is repeated muscle twitching of the feet, arms, or legs during sleep.
Sleep studies can also determine whether you have a problem with your stages of sleep. The two stages of sleep are non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and rapid eye movement (REM). Normally, NREM and REM alternate 4 to 5 times during a night’s sleep. A change in this cycle may make it hard for you to sleep soundly.