Whenever you go online, there are headlines everywhere. Some attract our attention and we click through to find out more. Others strike no chord and our lack of knowledge continues. Looking back over the last ten years, it’s become impossible to avoid learning about the risks associated with obesity. Everyone makes the link between this condition and an “epidemic” – a word referring to diseases and disorders. The majority accept that eating a healthy diet and exercising on a regular basis is the way to protect our health. Unfortunately, fewer people make the link between lack of sleep and the same list of diseases affecting the overweight. We tend to rate sleep disorders low on the scale of dangers. If we have a bad night’s sleep, it’s difficult the next day. No-one relates loss of sleep to diabetes, cancer and heart disease.
Why worry? Because, thanks to the stresses and pressures of modern life, the majority of us are sleeping less than we did two generations ago. We used to sleep an average of nine hours a night. Now the average has dropped to seven-and-a-half. In part, this is due to longer commutes and more time spent at work. When you finally get home, there’s the family and things to do. You want to catch the latest episodes of your must-watch television series, chat with friends online. There are so many distractions to keep us from going to bed. And then, even if we lie down, we may still be thinking about the last exciting pass through the social networking site, electronic games, the latest music, the argument with your partner for not spending more time with him or her, [insert whatever you find keeps you awake].
No matter what people tell you, the ability to work well on less than five hours sleep a night is very rare. Indeed, the Archives of Internal Medicine reports that people sleeping less than seven hours release stress hormones and this increases the risk of heart disease. The National Cancer Institute proves a link between less sleep and cancer. Ten years ago, a study published in Lancet showed men deprived of sleep with glucose and lipid levels close to those associated with diabetes. People who sleep an average of five hours are 73% more likely to become obese. At present, the research shows no consistent pattern of cause and effect. When someone is diagnosed with heart disease is that caused by the stress, or was the stress only the trigger for lack of sleep which caused the disease? There is a real need for research into the role sleep plays in our lives. more…
There’s new research from the University of California that states the problems surrounding older people and their sleep, while offering few solutions. This is a somewhat sad trend when it comes to research affecting the aging members of our society. When people are younger and more energetic, they will contribute to the growth and development of the American way of life. Equally important is their personal earning capacity. To maintain their quality of life, they will often pay the medical profession well. Those who are older have less to contribute and, while some do have money, there’s less that can be done to improve the quality of life when bodies have aged. Although Sarah Palin was exaggerating the threat of “death panels” to drum up opposition to reform, we have a comparable effect already in the rationing of research into the health problems of the old, and in the poor quality of healthcare services in the geriatric sector. People do have shorter lives in the US than in many other countries around the world.
According to the research, about half the seniors in the US complain of difficulty in sleeping. It’s suggested that lack of sleep increases the risk of illness and early death. The question, therefore, is why seniors do find sleep more difficult. The answers are not directly related to age as such, but to the facts that older people are more prone to diseases and disorders, use more medications which have insomnia as a side effect, and find their circadian rhythms disrupted. Unfortunately, the research also finds the healthcare service is not sympathetic to these problems and fails to properly diagnose sleep disorders or give the appropriate treatment (including simply adjusting the dosages in medications probably contributing to the sleep disorder). At present, there’s no financial incentive for hospitals and clinics to divert resources to treat these problems. Although seniors can use their own savings to go to professional sleep laboratories for overnight assessment with a polysomnogram, the necessary follow-up treatments through counseling and cognitive behavioral therapy is often neglected because it’s not considered cost-effective. Necessary dentistry or, where appropriate, surgery is a one-off cost and preferred where appropriate. But, for the most part, seniors are left to fend for themselves. more…
For some, there are threats everywhere. They fear the world is dangerous and, unless they stay in a constant state of vigilance, their lives will be at risk. In a small number of cases, this gets out of control and tips into paranoia and mental disorder. For the majority, it”s an exaggerated caution because they do not understand how modern technology works. They see how dangerous electricity can be and so are cautious when using powered equipment, particularly when that involves the use of “radiation”. Now there”s a word to get the conspiracy theorists into action. Yet, from a scientific point of view, you cannot escape the fact that television and computer screens give off electromagnetic radiation (EMR), handphones rely on microwave broadcasts, and then there”s light. In coherent form as a laser, it can potentially blind people. As it shines from the sun, we can see our way and, with appropriate protection from ultraviolet, live healthy lives.
The white light we “see” is in fact made up of all the colors blended together. Each color has a property of its own and you may have seen increasing publicity given to light as a treatment for skin problems like acne. When it”s projected from a TV or computer screen, you get both the EMR and light in the visible spectrum, often with a slightly bluish tinge. For the treatment of skin problems, blue and red are used. For the treatment of sleep disorders, blue and green are being used in a series of clinical trials. It”s perhaps slightly ironic, but those who felt an effect from television and computer screens were probably right, except that the effect seems to be beneficial if you want to change your sleeping times.
We know when to sleep because our internal clock is set to match the local daily cycle. If we move to different time zones so that morning is now night, this confuses us and we find it difficult to match local time for sleep. As a trial, a number of people were cut off from the world in rooms without windows or clocks. There was no way for them to tell how much time was passing. The research team kept them awake for fifty hours and then allowed sleep for eight. When awake, half were exposed to blue light, the other to green. All the participants were carefully monitored and it was found that both colors could reset the internal clocks. The only difference between the two groups was that dim blue and bright green lights were less effective. The relevant neurotransmitters and hormones responded more precisely to bright blue and dim green. more…
When a person experiences sleep problems it is quite discomforting to say the least. Not getting enough sleep can over-exhaust you and become the cause of more serious psychological problems such as anxiety or depression.
However, for most people sleep disorders doesn’t seem to be a big problem at all, as the majority of those troubled with them think that popping over-the-counter pills is just enough to make the problem go away. Fact is that sleep problems are not something usual and won’t be treated with occasional medications without a professional doctor’s help.
If you have problems with falling asleep and spend a lot of time tossing and turning before actually drifting off to seep, rest assured that you aren’t the only one. It is estimated that about 60 million of US citizens have different sleep disorders. A third part of them have recurring and occasional sleep problems, while two thirds suffer from chronic and even constant insomnia and irregular sleep patterns.
Determining the type of sleep disorder
When speaking about sleep disorders, specialists divide them into three main groups:
- complete inability to sleep
- irregular sleep
- excessive sleep
Each group is outside the range of normal healthy sleep and affects the individual in different ways. It is known that an average adult needs about 6-9 hours of good consistent sleep to feel refreshed and energized throughout the day. The actual duration of healthy sleep depends on the individual, types of activities he or she performs and the conditions of sleep itself. The main criteria of good healthy sleep are the feeling of energy and renewal the next day, not the actual time spent in bed.
The first group of disorders is also known as insomnia. This problem is quite common in occasional forms, as stress and fatigue from daily activities can result in lack of sleep the night after, and many people go through that on a regular basis. However, if the problem persists and lasts to be permanent, it is a cause of serious concern. Not getting enough sleep affects the overall condition of the body and mind, and will surely affect your everyday activities. So you feel that insomnia is here to stay with you, don’t hesitate and consult with your doctor. There are drugs like Ambien that can help you with the condition, so discuss the matter thoroughly. more…
