I Heart Sleep: Why Fewer than 6 Hours Damages Heart Health

In your hectic, daily schedule, sleep can seem like such a hindrance – that’s eight hours of your day in which you’re not doing anything productive! However, sleep is actually extremely productive for your overall wellbeing. Sleep helps you to stave off major health concerns by aiding your mental and emotional wellness, keeping you trim, strengthening your immune system, fighting inflammation, and maintaining your heart and blood vessels.

 

In fact, sleep enables your body to repair your damaged tissues, produce crucial hormones and strengthen your memories. This latter process is known as consolidation, and it helps you to perform a new skill better after sleeping than you would if you spent an equivalent amount of time awake, which is why all-nighters are never as effective as you think they’ll be. Virend K. Somers, MD, a professor of medicine and cardiovascular diseases at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, who studies sleep and heart health, explains, ‘It’s a way for the body to integrate everything that happened over the past waking day and to kind of prepare for the next day.’

 

According to Shelby Freedman Harris, PsyD, director of behavioural sleep medicine at Montefiore Medical Centres Sleep-Wake Disorders Centre in New York City, ‘When you’re sleeping you’re regulating hormone levels, you’re regulating insulin levels, your blood pressure is being kept under control, there are a lot of things going on, and if you’re not getting enough sleep you’re throwing these things out of whack.’ One way in which your body becomes skewed by a lack of sleep is in your heart. If you get less than six hours of sleep a night, or you don’t spend enough time in the deepest stages of sleep, you have a higher risk of heart attacks and strokes than those who get at least seven hours.

 

In 2011, two studies revealed the devastating impact of sleep deprivation on heart health. The first study, performed in male Japanese factory workers, showed that sleeping for less than six hours a night made the factory workers five times more likely to have a heart attack over a 14-year span compared with those who logged between 7 and 8 hours a night. The second study, this time involving men over the age of 65, showed that even healthy participants with normal blood pressure were almost twice as likely to develop hypertension if they spent less time in the deepest sleep stage (known as slow-wave sleep).

 

As well as long-term sleep deprivation having an impact on your heart health, there’s also some evidence – albeit somewhat limited – that even short-term sleep deprivation may be harmful if you already have a heart problem. Swedish researchers, who published the results of their work in 2012, reported that in the week after the spring transition to daylight saving time, hospital admissions for heart attacks increased by about 4% compared to other weeks. This is the time in which you set your clocks an hour ahead and lose an hour of sleep.

 

As to why not sleeping enough affects your heart, wellness experts aren’t quire sure. However, researchers are clear on why sleep apnoea is a known heart hazard. If you have sleep apnoea, you tend to snore and have upper airway collapse during sleep, meaning that you snort and gasp for breath without really waking up enough to be aware of it. Charles Czeisler, MD, the Baldino Professor of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, explains, ‘It’s as if somebody’s choking you, so your heart rate goes up, your blood pressure goes up, and instead of having a daily cycle in which everything slows down at night, instead everything is higher during the night. Over time, even your daytime blood pressure is higher.’

Categories: blood pressure, factory workers, heart attacks, heart health, Sleep apnoea, sleep deprivation, sleep medicine, sleep nbsp, term sleep

What Are the Best Herbs to Help You Get Some Sleep?

A lot of people have trouble sleeping, and ongoing sleep shortage can be really damaging to your wellness and wellbeing. What many people don’t know, however, is that lack of sleep can be directly improved by correct diet and nutrition.

 

There are a lot of reasons for lack of sleep, including changes in routine, having anxiety or depression and travel, but whatever the reason, getting enough sleep is really important for your health – both physically and emotionally. When you sleep, your body relaxes and heals. Your immune system is also boosted when you get a good night’s sleep, and so you can find that you fall ill more often if you are not getting enough sleep.

 

If your lack of sleep is a once off, you can try an over-the-counter medicine, but it is important not to use conventional medicines for sleep on a long-term basis. Instead, you can opt for herbal remedies that you add to your diet to help improve your sleep.

 

Kava is one such herbal remedy, and it’s great for those whose sleepless nights are being caused by anxiety. Kava should be used with caution, however, as there are some links to adverse effects on the liver. If you have any kind of liver problems, steer well clear of this remedy. Take only the amount that is recommended, and never use it alongside alcohol. It helps you to sleep deeply and release anxiety, and it is also rumoured to enhance and help you to remember your dreams.

 

Valerian is another popular herbal remedy for sleep. It promotes deep relaxation and has been widely researched. It has been proved to be safe and effective so you can take it safe in the knowledge that it will help you sleep and that it does not cause any negative side effects.

Categories: anxiety, herbal, herbal remedy, herbs, nbsp, remedies, remedy, sleep, sleep nbsp

Up All Night: How to Get a Better Night’s Sleep

Nothing ruins your day quite like a bad night’s sleep; your brain gets fuzzier, your mood becomes a little more irritable and even dragging yourself off the sofa can be a hassle. However, sleep problems are not just a regular little annoyance; they’re a real wellness problem, often with a physical health concern lying underneath. Luckily, a physical problem means that there’s a physical solution, so how can you protect your wellbeing against the dreaded bad night’s sleep?

 

1. When you keep waking up in the middle of the night…

Waking up in the middle of the night is more and more of an issue as you age, and it prevents you from getting that deep, restful REM sleep you need to look young and fresh, and just function on a basic level! The most important thing to do is relax and not freak yourself out about not getting enough sleep, as worrying about it will make it harder to get back to sleep. There are simple steps you can take to ensure you get back to sleep:

 

• Keep the room dark, even when you wake up. Use a small torch or book light to navigate your way around if you need to, but never turn a light on – even in the bathroom.


• Don’t turn on your TV or computer when you wake, as even a minute of light from the screen will “reset” your internal clock, stimulate your central nervous system and make it harder for you to fall back asleep.


• Avoid eating as this can rev up your digestive system and keep you awake. However, if hunger woke you up in the first place, you might need a snack to nod off again.


• Keep a pen and paper next to your bed, and write down all the worries and to-do lists that are racing through your mind.

 

2. When you wake up with a headache or sore jaw…

You might be grinding your teeth or clenching your jaw while you sleep, which is a common sleep disorder called bruxism. You should consult your dentist, who can check for damage to your teeth and suggest ways to prevent this damage in future. This will often include lifestyle changes, such as cutting out chewing gum and alcohol before bed, or wearing a dental guard or splint at night. If the problem persists, you may want to consider Botox injections to your jaw muscle, or a biofeedback device called Grindcare.

 

3. When you constantly need to use the bathroom…

Getting up to go to the loo throughout the night is known as nocturia, which, according to the National Sleep Foundation, causes 65% of older adults to experience sleep deprivation. The first thing to do is look at how often you wake up, and why. If you’re a man, your prostate may be to blame so it’s a good idea to get checked out. If you’re a woman, go to your GP to see if you have an underlying urinary issue, such as incontinence, an overactive bladder, urinary tract infections, or cystitis. Whether you have an underlying problem or it’s just a natural part of growing older, there are things you can do to stop your bladder waking you in the night:

 

• Try kegel exercises to strengthen the muscles at the neck of your bladder.


• Don’t drink liquids for three hours before bedtime.


• Reduce your intake of caffeine, as this can irritate your bladder.


• At dinner or after dinner, avoid foods with high liquid content, such as soup or fruit.

Categories: nbsp, night, problem, sleep, sleep nbsp, sleep problems, Sore Head, wake, waking