14 Reasons You're Not Sleeping Huffington Post Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Many Seniors’ Insomnia in their Heads MSNBC Take a look at an interesting article we found.
GSK to Pay £1.6bn for Insomnia Drug Telegraph Take a look at an interesting article we found.
She wasn't Hollywood's biggest starlet of the Golden Age, but she was the only women who could make Frank Sinatra cry.
August 01, 2008
A recent article in Consumer Reports just this month reports that 50% of those asked reported difficulties falling asleep and staying asleep. And it's estimated that as many as 70 million Americans may be affected, with annual health care expenses of $16 billion.
(Pre-light bulb America slept about 10 hours each night as opposed to the six or so hours we sleep now.)
Stress, noisy neighbors, money worries, family problems, health, small children, the 24/7 nature of today's world according to a Sleep America Poll are the main culprits. And if we get to sleep, a frightening 52 per cent admit they regularly dream about their job.
It that weren't an eye opener, now we have “Junk sleep,” so named because it doesn't feed the brain with the rest it needs to function. First diagnosed in Great Britain, it's now spreading to our teenagers. A somewhat grizzly thought.
It all has to do with sleeping with so many distracting devices, like cell phones tucked under pillows, handheld computer games on the bedside table, TVs or music playing in the background. Instead of getting the required eight hours, they’re loading up on four to seven hours per night.
Already at an impossible age, teenagers are becoming, according to sleep experts, a generation of moody, impossible to wake up slackers and according to one teacher, “horrific 'slack-jawed droolers."
According to the National Sleep Foundation, if you have a potential drooler in house or are one, you might want to learn more and link up with a few possible remedies immediately.
Through the ages, everything has been tried to get a decent night’s sleep. Winston Churchill had twin beds and when he couldn't fall asleep in one he changed to the other. Marcel Proust liked Veronal and Evelyn Waugh used bromides. Vincent van Gogh smothered his mattress and pillow with camphor, to clear his head of all his strange thoughts(and he had them). Groucho Marx would call strangers up in the dead of night and insult them. Marlene Dietrich ate a sardine and onion sandwich on rye. And on his worst nights, W.C. Fields could only fall asleep under a beach umbrella sprinkled by a garden hose.
Others used lack of sleep to its “advantages.” Napoleon Bonaparte, sleeping only three or four hours, would have more time for his grand schemes. Alexandre Dumas had time to fill 1,200 volumes and father (so he claims) 500 children.
You can get a lot done with lack of sleep.
But most of us, probably would rather find those six, seven, eight hours somewhere, somehow.
In 1913, French Scientist Henri Pieron wrote a book entitled “Le probleme physiologique du sommeil,” that was the first text to examine sleep from a physiological perspective. It's usually regarded as the beginning of the modern approach to sleep exploration. Later, Dr. Nathaniel Kleitman, now known as the “Father of American sleep research,” began work in Chicago in the 1920s questioning the regulation of sleep and wakefulness and of circadian rhythms.
The fact that none of this has helped us sleep, is another story.
If you’re not too bleary eyed to comment, perhaps you’d care to pass on what you count on.
Share the Eye:
Sleep of the Ferret sciencedirect.com Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Top 7 Pillows to Improve Your Sleep sleepdisorders.about Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Why Can't Women Sleep? AlterNet.org Take a look at an interesting article we found.
The human body is, among other things, a rhythm machine. Our brains contain a variety of metronom...
Aug. 01, 2008 4:17 PM
What gets you to sleep?
13% 20% 20% 13% 0% 33%
I will admit to having had a history of insomnia. I spent years getting by on 5 hours sleep and then more years on 4 hours sleep. On nights when I could get 6 or 7 hours sleep i'd wake up every hour at the same few minutes past the hour.
I went to a sleep disorder clinic and discovered I had a sleep disorder. (Hey, what did I know?)
I have since learned how to sleep and actually get rest. The rest is more important than the actually length of sleep for me. I know I joke at times about only napping because money never sleeps but it was during those sleepless nights that I discovered that money doesn't sleep. I also spent those sleepness nights reading and studying and getting an advantage over my business rivals.
I also watched a lot of classic movies thast came on after midnight. Also I was awake to take advantage of global time differences. There's nothing like talking to associates in a different time zone and not falling asleep......
Interestingly, I never experienced much fatigue as a consequence of those less than 8 hour nights.
Dutchman said...
"To sleep perchance...to sleep? I think if most of us went to a sleep disorder clinic they'd find something disorderly about us. And I sympathize with Ex. Pat. I've found a sound machine to have a soothing effect, although when I try the "waves" I find myself waiting for the crashing sounds...which keeps me up. And, of course, if you have to set the alarm clock to get up at a certain hour, that pressure is a sure sign you're not going to sleep well. Maybe those sardine sandwiches can help.
cherann said...
Until recently, the only times I've struggled with getting to sleep and staying that way was when my boys were babies and then again when they became teens! But recently, my body, mind and heart seem to be on different schedules. I avoid exercise in the evening hours, try to sip a cup of herbal tea, and find something to giggle over....most of the time it works, but there is the inevitable midnight text message from one of my sons or a noisy neighbor, or sometimes even a flock of unruly birds rising just a bit too early. I've consoled myself with the truth that even if I'm not sleeping, resting in bed is helpful. Sex helps sometimes too.
My prayers are said while I brush my teeth knowing that in about two minutes after hitting the pillow, sleep will come.
It is a gift from God I know and do not fail to express thanks for it.
But once every year or two, in midsummer, it is clear that there is no point in even trying so I will take a walk down to the lake where cruising policemen sometimes stop to inquire: "What's up, sir?"
"Apparently I am," I have said and they move on.
On a particularly hot July night, a few years ago, I wheeled my Skimmer over to the bay for a quiet row. Imagine my surprise at finding a bicycle cop and his million candlepower flashlight riding on the parallel path. It was about three a.m.
He was clearly a little bugged that I didn't stop when he did and crankily advised that it was time for me to go home to bed.
I said that when he could show me where his authority, such as it was, extended to matters of the sea, then, we would talk and rowed out into the hot and heavy dark.
I have since found myself wondering if perhaps he were not just another hapless cluck unable to sleep, wearing a camp shirt with a sleeve patch, an official looking helmet and carrying way too much flashlight power.
Gia said...
Stoney is clearly blessed. I too consider sleep my friend, but I confess I occasionally reach for some allergy medication which has a little ingredient called Diphenhydramine which will 50 mg's make you drowsy. I don't feel guilty because I do have allergies, or at least I've convinced myself.
Lack of sleep has strange (bad) affects on me. I find that little problems become big problems, my sense of humor wanes, and I become a little paranoid. In short, life ain't good.
Mental stress is the culprit. I've been lucky enough to have been through a few periods of stress in my life. (lucky, because it gives one great perspective.) I learned to hypnotise myself, which cured the condition.
I bought a book and some tapes, and in a week or so, learned to empty my mind, and sleep soundly.(it's actually hard not to think of anything, try it.) Today I can do it in a few minutes. As stated in a previous post, I'm a nine hour guy.
My sleep/awake toggle switch has had faulty wiring since my early twenties. It's not just a matter of me not being able to sleep; my on-off mechanism is also way to sensitive. When I eventually do get to sleep, it's more like a series of short naps. If a loon cries up in Cable WI., it wakes me up down here in IL.
But that's ok for the most part. The middle of the night is often when I'm most creative and productive. I often do my graphic design work for our shop in town as well as for some of the local downtown non-profit organizations in the middle of the night. The ideas seem to flow better when the stars are out. In the middle of the night I have built a huge train layout in the basement for my grandson and then later torn it down (a few years in between), refinished furniture, painted rooms, and knocked down walls.
If I think there is a chance to sleep, I'll either just go down stairs and pop in a DVD that I‘ve watched so many times that I've memorized the dialogue (like" Shawshank Redemption"), or I'll just read and read and read (I've got books upstairs, downstairs and lining the stairs).
As a result, I have a great love affair with afternoon naps. Siestas are indeed a blessing from the gods. The most conducive time for an afternoon nap is while watching a baseball game with the volume on low. Preferably a pitchers duel involving two teams that can't hit anyway. Two innings of that and the sleep umpire calls me "out" like a light.
I just love all the bad rap the one at the desk and I have been getting lately.
A little bit of irony that this topic comes today, seeing as I usually can't fall asleep for a few hours after hitting the hay, so I take melatonin to help calm my senses, but I ran out the night before last so last night I went drugless.
Even when I do take the pills, I still stay awake for at least an hour, writing or listening to music, even after a tiring day and no matter what hour it is.
Of course I don't have a specific bedtime [set by parents or my body] and my friends tend to keep me up whether I'm with them or not. [making fun of late-night infomercials, texting me at three am asking what to name their new kitten, engaging me in a three hour conversation starting at one am on the inaccuracies of the new Batman movie, pondering life's complexities, waking me up to ask where we keep the fruit loops...]
Of course, if teenagers ran the world, nothing would start before noon.
I called my friend yesterday to see if he wanted to go to a play, and knowing he sleeps late, I waited until one. Even then his mom answered the phone, had to go through five minutes of shouting his name, and when he answered he yawned every other word and asked "What time is the play?" four times.
JillyBean said...
I have a love-hate relationship with sleep.
Sleeping is the most restorative thing you can do for yourself. It helps you work out all of life's problems, so you wake with a much clearer perspective. It seems the better the sleep, the better the waking life.
But ever since I was little, I've fought sleep tooth and nail. I've often struggled to stay awake way longer than my body would prefer. And I still do so now for the same reason I did back then - I don't want to miss anything.
....aaaaaand here's where sleep and death start to tango.
But I think I'll spare everyone.
It's Friday!
I always found the following saying quite interesting : When we are little kids we fight against taking a nap. When we are adults we wish we had the time to take a nap.
I'm so the prototype of the above quote. I would fight against taking a nap like a lioness protecting her cubs when I was little. Now I wish I had that time in my day to take those naps & be oblivious to the world for a few minutes at least.
I also think part of the problem is that I seem to be naturally a night person rather than a morning person.
I also like what Mr. Peterman has referred to as "Junk Sleep" in my business we list it as "White Noise" & we like it when the "White Noise" happens to be tuned into the TV network I to work for.
Personally I throw in a DVD, turn on the radio, plus spray some lavendar in the room & on the bedding & I recently just purchased the "Breakfast at Tiffany's" Sleepmask.
(buy yours here.. It's just SO FUN)
http://www.fredflare.com/customer/product.php?productid=2683&cat=277
I seem to believe that it all kind of helps me get a bit of a quality sleep while at home.
Now if I'm up in the Great Northwoods area of WI, falling asleep isn't an issue at all ~ The sounds of Loons & owls calling into the night, the popping of a campfire, being able to see all the stars in the endless sky, it really does seem to put me into more of a Naturally Sedated State & I can fall alsleep under the stars with all those sounds around me in no time.
rings09,
You are so right about the Northwoods. It seems to be the one place I've been where I actually get caught up on sleep. It is hynotic up there.
We try to get to Cable/Hayward area at least once a year and I swear I start yawning when we are withing 50 miles. Maybe I can just go and hibernate there this winter.
belleball said...
Sleep became a welcome partner in the days & nights I was creating vast tomes designed to bring kazillions of dollars into my community through grants to do good with - and over the years we managed to use those dollars very well. Then, and now, we provided a covey of good deed-doers to do good deeds with and for others; we taught people to fish and now they can feed themselves, took rollerskates off the steps so they did not break their legs or other appendages, we did good and stamped out evil, and in general were appropriate stewards of our town's resources (and ours as well).
The role of sleep in all of this came as I had written everything I knew from my left brain, and then I'd "sleep on it" and lo! from the right side of my brain came descriptions of wondrous things. When added to the logic already enscribed, the visual language became so compelling and seductive that voila! our funds were granted!
There is no scientific proof to validate my right/left brain antics, but it made a good story and as long as one believes in such powers, they work.
To reach the depth of sleep desirable in those situations, I'd read The New Yorker or a Peterman's catalog, and the descriptive writing in either was much like a lullaby - melodic, metered, soothing - I could imagine myself sweeping down the steps of Tara in one of those lovely dresses...ah dreamland!
drdgscott said...
The human body is, among other things, a rhythm machine. Our brains contain a variety of metronomes (of sorts) that establish rhythmic electrical waves inviting us to everything from sleep (delta) to reverie (theta) to relaxation (alpha) to "busy brain" (high beta). But the slowest of all our rhythmic patterns is the circadian rhythm -- the one that has most of us on anything from a 20 to a 30 hour cyclical pattern of sleep and wakefulness. Interestingly, the circadian rhythm is closely linked to the production of proteins, some of which are triggered into production by the presence of light while others (like tomatoes ripening) happen only during darkened hours.
Like an all-night repair shop, the body reinvents and replaces and restores during our sleeping. But the frenetic pace of contemporary living often leans us toward those beta-metronomes in our brain preventing us from engaging in the natural progression of relaxation/reverie/sleep. Some Buddhists, interestingly, calls humans the "monkey mind," as our brains tend to flit from thing to thing as rapidly as monkeys jump from branch to branch, preventing us from entering that still and quiet space where sleep comes like a tonic.
My own sleeping was improved immeasurably about a decade ago with the addition of a CPAP machine following a sleep study. I may look like an elephant while a-bed, hose protruding from the mask on my nose, but it has given me back something I missed desperately for many years -- restorative rest. Now, if I had to choose between sleeping with my wife or with my CPAP machine, I'd be hard pressed....
more on the honor rollTo JillyBean,
I remember the days when I could literally go all weekend without sleep (oh no. I think I'm sharing secrets....)
belleball said...
CPAPs are among those essential lifesaving items that, as drdgscott comments, make choices very difficult. A friend recovering from recent surgery even refreshes himself in the daytime by donning his mask. The resulting boost of energy keeps his mind clearer and minimizes some of the misunderstood words that tend to spew forth from medicated patients -
For many users and partners the hum of the CPAP is much preferable to the roar of a snore -
Spinner said...
Tell me about it! I sleep so much better since my husband got his C-PAP. No rude awakenings with the bed slamming from his body saying"hey, wake up and start breathing!" or my waking up because the rhythm of his breathing had stopped.
If I have a problem myself, it can usually be handled by using Yoga relaxation techniques. As Mr. P. said, trying not to think of anything is hard but if you concentrate hard on relaxing every muscle and actually paying attention to your breathing and heart rate, the other thoughts seem to melt away and the next thing you know it is morning..except for the potty break in the middle of the night for us old folks.
Yaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwnnnnnn.............. sleep well everyone. Don't let the bed bugs bite.
Greetings: I am participating in a S.A.Y.R.A. (south atlantic yacht racing association) regatta all weekend. I have been racing all day and now I am pooped. When I get ready to fall asleep tonight I will lay down and it will feel like my bed is moving (from being on the water). It is a truly amazing feeling and one that I look forward to. I should sleep like a baby. Other nights...not so much.
Gia said...
It's been fascinating reading the comments about CPAP. I've learned so much. Thank you for the eloquent words...which, in itself, may help with sleep tonight. Goodnight.
I was planning to comment but it's time to go to sleep. Good night.