Yahoo! Green: Sleep better in your own bed

Lori Bongiorno over at Yahoo! Green’s Conscious Consumer blog has some great tips for getting a better sleep in your own bed:

You don’t have to spend a fortune on bedding to get a good night’s sleep. Taking good care of the pillows, comforters, and sheets you already own will help you sleep like a baby and also save you money because you won’t have to replace them as often.

Prolonging the life of bedding is also a plus for the planet. Fewer resources are needed to make and ship replacements and it will also put less strain on landfills.

Below are some tips for making the most of what you have:

Pillows:

• Cover your pillow in two layers to protect it from dust, dirt, and body oils. The first layer should be a case with a zipper and then put a traditional pillowcase over the zippered cover.
• You can throw polyester, feather, and down pillows into your washing machine. Use the delicate cycle. Be sure to check the seams on down pillows first so that feathers don’t leak out. Good Housekeeping columnist Heloise suggests washing two at a time for balance.

Pillows can go in the dryer on a low setting. Fluff often. You should add tennis balls in with down or feather pillows to help plump them up. They’ll take a long time to dry.

7 Reasons You Ought to Take a Nap Every Day

Guest Post – by Mary Ward

Though most Americans find themselves far too busy to nap during the day, there is actually quite a bit of evidence that suggests that our siesta loving neighbors are more in tune to the needs of our bodies than we are. There has been quite a bit of research that suggests that we are actually meant to nap during the day. Here are seven reasons why you ought to give the old siesta a try.

1. Our bodies seem to be programmed to sleep after lunch. It is believed that our bodies have evolved to trying to drive us out of the midday sun, particularly in countries near the equator. We all tend to get a bit sleepy sometime mid afternoon, because of a slight drop in body temperature. Statistics show that more on the job accidents happen in the mid afternoon, and are often related to sleepiness. In addition, overall performance among employees in all industries has been shown to be at the lowest point of the day about an hour or so after lunch. This afternoon dip in energy happens even if you don’t eat lunch.

2. You’ll feel more alert and able to focus. Research has shown that even a 10 minute nap can increase your performance, alertness and concentration. A short nap is especially beneficial if you’ve had poor sleep the night before.

3. You may sleep better at night. Some people report better sleep at night if they take a short nap during the day simply because they are not as exhausted when bedtime comes. Being “over tired” is a common reason for insomnia, which a short nap may alleviate. Beware, however, of long naps, which can make it more difficult to sleep at night. Ten to thirty minutes or so is best. Sleeping more than 30 minutes may put your body into a heavier mode of sleep, causing you to feel groggy when you wake up.

4. You may be able to reduce the number of hours you sleep at night. By taking a daytime nap, you may be able to reduce the number of hours you need at night – sometimes by as much as 2 hours.

5. Napping may improve your ability to learn. The National Sleep Foundation has reported research from Harvard that shows that sleep is key to learning, and that napping in addition to nighttime sleep can improve your ability to retain what you’re taught.

6. It improves driving safety – Sleep experts report that taking a short nap before you begin a long drive can reduce your chances of a “drowsy driving” accident. They also recommend that you pull over and take a 20 minute nap if you feel drowsy. Following that nap with a caffeinated drink before you hit the road again is best.

7. It can reduce stress – Since stress is often tied to being tired and overwhelmed, a short nap during the day can be a great stress reliever. You’ll wake feeling more refreshed and better able to cope with the stresses of the day.

At the end of the day, the goal is to get the optimal amount of sleep for your body. Sufficient sleep improves performance, health, learning and simply makes us feel better. And, the good news is, that using naps to get that is just as good as sleeping through the night.

Mary Ward blogs about various health care job issues, including how to study to obtain a degree from ultrasound technician schools.

BBC NEWS | Health | Lack of sleep ‘hits women harder’

Check out this interesting article on the increased effects that a lack of sleep has on women:

Researchers found levels of inflammatory markers – indicators of heart disease – vary significantly with sleep duration in women, but not men.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8128329.stm

Problems are solved by sleeping

Getting a good night’s sleep can actually help you solve problems (and you thought “sleep on it” was just an expression):

The study at the University of California San Diego showed that the volunteers who entered REM during sleep improved their creative problem solving ability by almost 40%.

The findings suggest it is not merely sleep itself, or the passage of time, that is important for the problem solving, but the quality of sleep.

Read more at: BBC NEWS | Health | Problems are solved by sleeping.

60 Minutes Segment About Sleep

Last night, CBS ran a segment on 60 Minutes called The Science of Sleep.
They covered some of topics that we have previously blogged about such as: Lack of sleep and risk of cardiovascular disease, Sleep contributing to better memory , and more. Pretty interesting segment – worth a watch!

And you thought your toddler was irritable..

ABC News has an interesting story online about a 3 year old boy that cannot sleep.

As a result, the boy, Rhett, has become quite irritable. Rhett appears to have a very rare condition that has caused his brain to become compressed in/around his spinal column. It took doctors some time to arrive at this diagnosis, but they have since operated in hopes of relieving the pressure and allowing Rhett’s brain to expand and function normally.

Little Childhood Sleep Linked to Later Problems

According to this article in Scientific American, by not getting enough sleep, a child’s risk of being overweight doubles and chances of later depression and anxiety increase. In two separate studies, young children who slept too little, were twice as likely to be overweight by age 3 and reported more anxiety, depressions and aggressive behavior as adults.

Got Bad Memory? Take a Nap!

According to this article in Bangkok Post, just a few minutes of sleep can improve your memory and mental performance. Dr. Olaf Lahl at the University of Dusseldorf (Germany) conducted an experiment in which volunteers were asked to remember a list of 30 words. Then, the volunteers played solitaire for one hour. During the one hour period, some of the volunteers were allowed to take a 6 minute nap, while others were asked to stay awake. The experiment found that subjects who took a brief nap displayed “superior recall” when compared to subjects that stayed awake.

Side Effects and Potential Dangers of Sleeping Pills

By Vishal P. Rao

The popular trend is to take sleeping pills whenever people feel that their sleep had been inadequate. That is why sleeping pills have become so common. People don’t pay attention to the dangers of sleeping pills especially the ones associated with chronic insomnia.

The dangers of sleeping pills range from mild and immediate side effects to some potential life threatening and activity limiting effects. Of course, the undesirable effects of drugs for sleeping disorders depend on the type of chemical used in a particular brand.

Side Effects

Every medical drug is having its own share of benefits and risks with it. The physician has to choose a particular drug whose benefits outweigh the side effects for a particular patient.

Anti-histamine Drugs: These antiallergic drugs like Diphenhydramine and Doxylamine are sold as over the counter drugs. Drowsiness is the side effect of these drugs and so people use them as sleeping pills.

The common side effects are dry mouth, dizziness and prolonged sleepiness. Breastfeeding and pregnant ladies, glaucoma and heart patients should avoid even these OTC drugs.

Nonbenzodiazepine Hypnotic Drugs: The drugs like Zolpidem Tartrate (Ambien), Zaleplon, and Eszopiclone are always sold as prescription only. These drugs are quickly metabolized in body so that their side effects could be kept minimal.

In addition to common side effects like dry mouth, dizziness, sleepiness the next morning, diarrhea, rashes, nausea and vomiting these drugs have some potentially serious dangers – decreased sex drive, chest pain, abdominal pain and light-headedness.

Facial swelling and abnormal sleep behaviors such as sleep driving, sleep walking, and eating are also reported by many patients.

Benzodiazepine Hypnotic Drugs: Sleeping pills with older drugs like Triazolam, Estazolam, and Temazepam are anti-anxiety drugs as well.

Nausea, headache, dizziness and prolonged drowsiness are common side effects of these drugs. Light-headedness, abnormal sense of well being, episodes of amnesia, allergic reactions, facial swelling, abnormal sleep behaviors, weakness of muscles, coordination problems, low blood pressure, blurred vision, and liver failure are other serious adverse effects.

Patients suffering with depression and addicted individuals are at particular risk with these drugs.

Sedative Anti-depressant Drugs: Trazodone, Amitriptyline, and Nortriptyline like anti-depressant drugs are used in insomnia related with depression.

Constipation, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, sweating, headache, dizziness, prolonged drowsiness, blurred vision are some common side effects of these drugs. Blurred vision, cardiac complications and seizers are more serious risks associated with these drugs.

 

Potential Dangers

Abdominal Upsets: Change or alteration in bowel habits like constipation and diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and dry mouth are common problems associated with sleeping pills. These dangers are not very serious but could cause a lot anxiety and discomfort in your day to day routine.

Complaints of abdominal pain could be so serious sometimes that people are led to various diagnostic or therapeutic invasive surgical procedures. Liver failure is very rare type of danger.

Prolonged Drowsiness: The universal trouble with sleeping pills is the continuation of drowsiness or sleepiness or grogginess in the morning after you take them.

The morning grogginess is very unproductive in work area when the impaired mental faculties and poor ability of concentration result in loss of your working capacity partially.

Some professions like driving, machinery work, equipment handling can seriously be at potentially life threatening risk due to this simple trouble.

Abnormal Feelings Upsetting Mind: Dizziness is feeling of movement or rotation in your head even when you could be sitting in chair and it is quite annoying.

Lightheadedness is quite common and can be felt soon after taking pills. Headache could be there and you will feel the need to unnecessarily take other pain killers to get rid of.

Blurred vision could be just a simple feeling or it could be related to serious eye disorders like glaucoma.

Euphoria or abnormal sense of well being is common with sleeping pills. You could feel exuberant for nothing. Mood swings is another serious trouble in anxiety and depression patients. Outrageous feelings of anger and remorse could really aggravate the troubles.

Episodes of amnesia are the bouts of ‘mindlessness’ – the person becomes disoriented and can’t think or feel other things during that short episode.

Abnormal Sleep Behaviors: Bizarre behaviors are seen in the form of abnormal sleep behaviors like driving, walking, eating and doing other activities in sleep. Many of such behaviors are highly embarrassing to the person taking sleeping pills and his family members and even others as well. Some of such activities had been sensational news stories and the victim of sleeping pills had been legally punished.

FDA has warned manufacturers of some drugs to notify general public about these serious side effects on the labels of the drugs.

Muscle Weakness and Loss Of Muscular Coordination: The weakness of muscles and resulting loss of muscular coordination is hazardous to several professions like drivers, mechanics, surgeons and other skilled people who need to have neuromuscular coordination.

Drug Abuse And Addiction: Many sleeping pills prone to be abused as drugs and might lead the person to become addicted.

Low Sexual Drive: Diminished libido is counterproductive for most insomnia patients as most of them do suffer from anxiety or depression as well. And satisfactory sexual activity is always linked to relaxed body, peaceful mind and a good sleep.

Persons with low blood pressure and cardiac complications, glaucoma and liver disorders need extra caution with sleeping drugs.

Vishal P. Rao writes on holistic living at relishinglife.com where you can find more information on natural remedies for insomnia.

Need a Better Aleep? Try Some of These Bedtime Snacks

According to an article by Joy Bauer Nutrition, the following bedtime snacks can create feelings of calm and sleepiness. See full article.

The article suggests the snacks to be “no more than 200 calories and should be eaten at least 30 minutes prior to bed”

For Adults
- 6-8 oz container of non-fat, flavored yogurt topped with 2 tablespoons low-fat granola cereal
- Sliced apple with 1-2 teaspoons natural peanut butter
- 3 cups low-fat popcorn – sprinkled with optional 2 tablespoons parmesan cheese

For Teens
- One cup healthy cereal with skim milk
- Low-fat granola bar
- Scoop of vanilla or strawberry low-fat ice cream

For Children
–1/2 cup low-fat vanilla pudding
–1/2 banana with 1-2 teaspoons peanut butter
–One cup skim milk with a bunch of grapes (or other fruit)