4 Serious Ways Your Health Declines When You Can"t Get Your Sleep

 

Sleep is something that everyone needs. It’s as essential to living as breathing, drinking and eating.

The problem is that it’s one of the easiest things to forgo. Busy work schedules, nightmares and troubled thoughts are just three of the things that can prevent you from sleeping in a laundry list that is miles long.

If you currently underestimate the importance of sleep, then you should take a look at the following four ways that a lack of sleep can seriously affect your health.

 

1. Sleeplessness Slows Down Your Mental Faculties

When you don’t get enough sleep, there is a fog that settles on your brain. It gets harder to work, things become less enjoyable, and solutions seem harder to grasp as the hours pass.

A lack of sleep causes drowsiness, which in turn results in a delayed mental reaction. You may have trouble thinking, planning or deciding on anything but when your next rest will be.

 

2. Lack of Sleep Can Put You at Risk for Serious Problems

People who can’t get enough sleep are putting themselves at a higher risk for conditions like heart disease, diabetes and stroke. One estimate even goes as far as to say that individuals with sleeping disorders have at least one other serious health condition.

 

3. Unrestful Sleep Can Make You Gain Weight

People who have issues with sleeping due to conditions like sleep apnea tend to weigh more. There is a causal link between their unrestful sleep and their heavier bodies, as researchers have found that Ghrelin, a chemical that stimulates satiety in the brain, is produced during restful sleep.

A lack of sleep can result in less Ghrelin and more weight, and more weight can also lead to sleep apnea and even less sleep. Companies like CPAPMan have created devices that help pump air into your lungs while you sleep to combat sleep apnea and its associated risks.

 

4. Too Little Sleep Could Kill You

British researchers conducted a study amongst servants who had cut their sleeping hours from seven to five or less. What they found is that those who had decreased their time for sleeping had nearly double the chances of dying.

While there are a myriad of reasons behind why this is so, the best way to summarize it pertains to another statistic this study found: lack of sleep doubled a person’s chances to develop heart disease.

 

Sleep is Invaluable

While there are many causes for a lack of sleep and just as many controversies arguing what purpose sleep serves in an individual’s life, one thing is clear: everyone needs their fair share of restful slumber.

Without sleep, the serious health effects that could seriously hinder your life.

The good news is that finding a restful night’s sleep on a regular basis is becoming more readily available with an increased understanding of what sleep does and what processes might interrupt it.

Categories: cpap, Diabetes, heart disease, insomnia, sleep apnea, stroke, weight gain

Insomnia, Don’t Let It Consume You

Are you having difficulty falling and/or staying asleep? Do you wake up too early in the morning? Or are you feeling tired upon waking up? Well, you may be suffering from insomnia.

 

There are a lot of people around the world struggling against this sleep disorder. This condition comes in two types—primary and secondary—and can be associated with other issues like PTSD, bipolar disorder and other illnesses. It can trigger unwanted behaviors and psychological patterns that can go wrong and may create complications such as being irritable, angry and uncontrollably impulsive.

 

Insomnia doesn’t choose its victim. Although there are factors contributing to its development, everyone can suffer the worst. Take the case of the famous artist Chris Brown, as an example, who has to appear in court for a case associated with problems, which include insomnia. Whether you are suffering from primary or secondary insomnia, you should know what to do, how to manage it and reintegrate one night at a time.

 

 

Know The Risk Factors

Acute or chronic insomnia can come and go and are caused by a lot of factors, both internal and external. Stress is one of the major causes of insomnia. Emotional and physical problems, medications, environmental factors, and depression are also known to cause this sleep disorder. As much as possible, you have to avoid these common circumstances. If you could not avoid them, try to find a way to minimize the absorption of all those factors.

 

 

Observe The Symptoms

There are several recurring symptoms you can easily identify to clarify your suspicion of having a sleep disorder. Try to observe if you had the following:

 

• Difficulty in falling asleep


• Waking up too often during the night


• Difficulty in going back to sleep


• Drowsiness during the day


• Feeling tired


• Feeling irritable

 

 

Get Diagnosed

If you noticed several symptoms, don’t waste your time. Go to your doctor and seek for advice. For sure, your doctor will make evaluations and recommendations on how to confirm your condition. Your diagnosis is the first step to your journey through insomnia recovery. After your medical evaluation, that’s the time to work on the treatment process and heal.

 

 

Consider Treatment

If you were diagnosed with chronic insomnia, you would surely need to see a specialist. This will require a therapy and an effective medical approach to address the problem. Acute insomnia, on the other hand, can be prevented. There are so many ways on how to get away from this sleep disorder. You may consider the following tips on how to prevent or cure your acute insomnia:

 

• Practice a regular physical workout


• Eat a well-balanced food diet


• Avoid the contributing factors


• Sleep early

 

Insomnia can be detrimental to your daily grind and may cause more troubles beyond your expectation. Before anything can happen, do something. Make sure you sleep well. Sometimes, your bed and pillows can be the reasons why you can’t sleep. You should sleep in a comfortable mattress, like the Dormeo Octaspring Mattresses, to ensure that you will get an uninterrupted sleep.

 

Brandon Peters is an entrepreneur, writer and a travel, gadgets, health, and outdoors enthusiast. He loves sharing his insights, knowledge and experience in different fields. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

Categories: consume, insomnia, sleep

Up All Night? Six Ways to Treat Your Insomnia

Sleep is essential to the human body’s ability to function, yet there are millions of people who struggle to fall asleep every night due to insomnia. There are few things more frustrating than lying in bed, exhausted, without being able to fall asleep. While there are many different insomnia treatments out there for sufferers of the condition to try, these are six of the most effective:

 

Melatonin Supplements

Melatonin is a natural hormone your body produces at night to make you fall asleep easier. Inadequate production of melatonin often manifests in difficulty getting to sleep and insomnia. This problem is easily treatable with a melatonin supplement. The normalized levels of melatonin in the body help sufferers of low melatonin-induced insomnia fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer.

 

Sleeping Pills

While sleeping pills are not a long-term solution to insomnia, they can be used to provide sleep during your worst nights. There are prescription sleeping pills specifically made to treat insomnia, but prolonged used of these drugs can result in dependency and worsen the insomniac’s condition.

 

Proper Sleep Hygiene

Designating a specific time and place to go to sleep—and sticking to your designations—is one of the best ways to practice good sleep habits. When you go to bed at different times, or in different locations, your body’s sleep schedule and recognition response get confused. A sleep systems expert from Crowley Furniture Mattress Store often advises people to set aside their bed for sleeping purposes only, as reading, eating, etc. on your bed causes your body to respond to it as it would an active place, rather than a restful place. Only use your bed when you go to sleep at night, and be sure to keep roughly the same sleeping hours every night. This will restore your body’s natural sleep-recognition cycle and help you get to sleep faster.

 

Avoiding Alcohol

Many people think that a drink or two will actually word as a sleep aid, since it relaxes and tires the drinker out. While a drink will make you sleepy, alcohol actually prevents the body from sleeping properly by blocking the REM cycle. Since this cycle is necessary for deep sleep and a sense of restfulness, those who drink before bed will usually wake up feeling as if they did not sleep at all.

 

Getting Out of Bed

A common habit of many insomniacs is rolling around in bed for hours, trying to fall asleep. Doing this, however, raises stress levels, making it even harder to get to sleep. If you are having trouble sleeping, try getting out of bed and participating in a relaxing activity until you feel tired. Read a book, take a bath, or drink a cup of tea—do whatever you find works to lower your stress levels and allow you to get back to sleep.

 

Abdominal Breathing Exercises

 

Relaxation techniques are a great way to prepare the body sleep. Deep breathing with your chest, stomach and back will slowly help you become more relaxed. Breathing exercises like this clear the mind and send calming signals through the body, stopping the release of the stress hormones which are often responsible for insomnia.

 

There are many possible causes of insomnia, so it may require a lot of trial-and-error with treatments to determine what, exactly, works for your insomnia.

Categories: body, breathing exercises, fall asleep, insomnia, nbsp, night, sleep, Sleeping, sleeping pills, Stress Levels, treat

What Can Acupuncture And Chinese Herbs Do To Cure Insomnia?

You’ve probably heard of acupuncture, it is undoubtedly one of the most famous of the Chinese medical practices that have made their way into mainstream Western society. Of course you may never have used it or have any idea what it might be for. But the truth is that what it for depends on who you ask. For many people, acupuncture is a cure-all. It can be used to remedy all sorts of illnesses and conditions, and that’s because it supposedly targets the energies of the body rather than the physical aspect. Of course for many others acupuncture is nothing more than a scam that has no actual medicinal value aside from providing a placebo for the gullible.

 

The first thing to remember about acupuncture is that if you have an aversion to needles, this probably is not a treatment that is going to do wonders for you. Hundreds of needles are pricked into the skin often with little rituals done beforehand including such things as dousing them in certain oils or placing herbs on top of them and setting them alight, before they are pushed in. Smoke and fire are also a big part of the practice in the sense of incense and other procedures such as suction.  The sessions can often be uncomfortable but people who use acupuncture often speak of it feeling like a fairly calming sensation that is actually generally very enjoyable.

 

One of the most important aspects of it is that you must choose a practitioner who you are happy to work with. It can be too easy simply to go for the first acupuncturist that you see, but you wouldn’t do this in any other aspect of your life. Put plenty of research into finding out their specialities and different forms of acupuncture that they might practice. This may ultimate make a big difference to you and your health.

 

One thing that acupuncture is reportedly able to help with is insomnia. Insomnia is a condition that sees you being unable to sleep properly. It’s more than just not being able to fall asleep but rather a situation where you find yourself constantly tired but unable to feel rested by the little sleep that you do eventually get. It can be a real burden on the lives of thousands of people and can be a real trouble to your wellness and wellbeing if it is something that you suffer from.

 

The trouble is that insomnia has many different forms and can just as often be a symptom rather than a condition within itself. Therefore trying to deal with it is not always as simple as going to the chemist and picking up a pill (although sleeping pills can give mild relief). In fact, most of the time the problem is highly complex, but when it can cause things as serious as hallucinations, depression and even eventually a greater risk of death, it’s no surprise that people look for a cure for it.

 

So can acupuncture and other Chinese medical practices be used as a way to fight it? Well, there is no reason why this can’t be tried but it is highly likely that any benefit the patient receives will be due to the placebo effect of believing that something is helping them. There has never been any scientific proof that acupuncture is able to do anything to you that helps you specifically. It’s always best to talk to your doctor about what is best for you rather than relying on such ideas as acupuncture to help you sleep better.

Categories: acupuncture, chinese, chinese medical, herbs, insomnia, medical practices, nbsp, people

What Are The Best And Worst Foods To Help You Get To Sleep?

Sleep is extremely important to your wellness. Any number of health concerns can be linked back to a lack of sleep. No matter what you do during the day, when you finally lay your head on the pillow at night, what you really want is to fall straight asleep with no hassle.

 

It’s not always as simple as that, however, and no matter how much you know it would benefit your wellbeing, it can be hard to force yourself to drift off to sleep. It’s very annoying when you are lying awake and wanting to be asleep, especially when you know full well that there are all kinds of health benefits to sleep.

 

Many studies have shown that what you eat can have a huge effect on how well you sleep at night. If you want to get a better night’s sleep, there are certain foods that you should absolutely avoid and there are others that you should aim to include in your diet.

 

Cherries, for example, are thought to be very good foods as they are one of the few natural sources of melatonin. This chemical is responsible for keeping our internal body clocks regular. This is sometimes prescribed, and one small study has found that drinking tart cherry juice can improve the length and quality of sleep in adults.

 

Conversely, foods that are high in fat (particularly fast foods such as bacon cheeseburgers) can be very damaging to your sleep patterns. The fat in these foods stimulates your stomach to produce acid, which can then spill upwards into the oesophagus, causing painful heartburn, which makes sleep more tricky.

 

Funnily enough, the trick your grandmother always taught you – drinking a glass of milk before bed – is actually true. Milk contains an amino acid called tryptophan which can help you to sleep.

Categories: asleep, foods, insomnia, nbsp, night, sleep