Caffeine Why stimulants can play havoc with your sleep cycle? Your morning coffee works for a reason. Caffeine stimulates the central nervous system brain and spinal chord, increasing your metabolic rate, blood pressure, heart rate and breathing levels. It also blocks the effects of adenosine, a natural sedative found in the brain which builds up during the day and triggers the adrenal glands to produce the stimulating hormone adrenaline. It works fast, too caffeine, which is found in coffee, tea, cola, and chocolate, is absorbed in only 15-30 minutes but its effects can last longer than four hours. No wonder caffeine makes it more difficult to get sleep and reduces the quality of sleep. Studies show that having a caffeinated drink at night makes you wake up more often and it’s particularly thought to reduce deep sleep and REM sleep. That said, one the best sleepers I know can take a double espressos ten minutes before sleep and more have no trouble dropping off. It seems some people are better at metabolizing caffeine, maybe because they’re used to consuming more.

Cutting Down

=> Limit yourself to two cups of coffee or three or four of tea, but don’t have them too late in the day.

=> If you’re relaying on coffee to give you energy, go for snacks such as banana, dried fruit or a cereal bar, which will do the trick just as well.

=> Replace one of your daily teas or coffees with an alternative. Choose from herbal tea, milk shake, fruit juice, smoothie or even decaffeinated tea or coffee.

Alcohol

If you’ve a few drink, you’ve not likely to have much more trouble getting to sleep probably on the same stairs on the way up to bed. But you’ll probably wake up again as alcohol has just as disruptive an effect on sleep as caffeine. Although it’s sedative, it causes the release of adrenaline and block tryptophan, which helps the body make the calming brain chemical serotonin which is vital for sleep. One unit of alcohol which is half a pint of beer, one small glass wine takes about one hour to metabolize. So if you drink three glasses of wine at 10pm, expect you sleep to be disrupted from around 1am. Again some people metabolize it faster than others.

Cutting Down

=> Have at least two drink free days a week.

=> Don’t drink more than two units of alcohol per day if you’re women, three units if you’re a man.

=> Alternate an alcoholic drink with a non-alcoholic one such as non-alcoholic beer, water or soft drink.

=> Sip your drink slowly so it lasts longer.

=> Try to eat before you go drinking since it will help reduce the amount of alcohol absorbed by your body.

Nicotine

The increased risk of cancer and heart disease not a good enough reason to make you give up smoking? Well, this one might work. The average smoker takes twice as long as fall asleep as a non smoker and sleeps 30 minutes less. You may feel relaxed after having a cigarette, but it’s probably because you’ve satisfied the craving rather the release of adrenaline. Like alcohol, once metabolized, nicotine can wake you up. Nicotine can cause difficulty falling asleep, problems waking in the morning and may also cause nightmare.

Cutting Down

=> If you’re women, don’t pack it in the second half of your menstrual cycle, through. Researchers have found that you’re much more likely to succeed if you do it the first half because nicotine withdrawal symptoms like depression, anxiety and irritability.

=> If you can use simply willpower, that’s great. Otherwise there’s host of options from nicotine patches and self help manuals to acupuncture and hypnotherapy. Nope of these will work unless you really want to give up, though.

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Snoring is the noise of tissues vibrating as air tires to flow through a blocked breathing passage. The sounds can vary from an almost soothing whisper to an astonishingly loud noise that can be heard throughout the entire house. Don’t waste time trying too many treatments through, it’s much more useful to find the cause of your snoring and tackle that. This checklist should help…

Are You Overweight?

Find out by checking your Body Mass Index (BMI). You can do this dividing your weight (kg) by your height squared (m). If your BMI is greater than 25 your are overweight. If your BMI is greater than 30 your are obese. Another measure is your collar size. Over 16.5 inches and you’re likely to snore because the muscles around your windpipe can’t support the fat around it when you’re asleep. In all these cases you need to lose weight even a small loss can improve symptom. Men tend to put on weight around their necks and waists, whereas women seem to put on weight around the thighs. So when you lay on your back your fatty tissue adds pressure onto the airway, blocking it off and making your snore. Women airway is not collapsing and not just because of where her weight is, but because women’s airway walls tend to be less flexible and therefore less prone to yield to pressure where they’re asleep.

Do You Smoke or Drink?

Cigarette smoke irritates the lining of the nasal cavity and throat causing swelling and catarrh. If the nasal passages become congested it’s difficult to breathe through your nose because there’s less airflow. And because congestion gets worse with each cigarette, the more you smoke, the worse you’re snoring. Even passive smoking can cause chronic inflammation of the nose and throat passages, thus increasing the risk of snoring. Until you give up don’t smoke for at least 4 hours before bed. Drinking triggers snoring as it reduces the tone of the muscles that keep the upper breathing passage open. So keep to the limit and avoid drinking just before bedtime.

Do You breathe Through Your Mouth?

Open your mouth and make a snoring noise. Now close your mouth and try to make the same noise. If you can only snore with your mouth open then you are a “mouth breather”. You’ll probably wake up with a dry mouth and sometimes a sore throat because of the strain of snoring. When we breath in through the nose the air passes over the curved part of the soft palate in a gentle flow into the throat without creating unnecessary turbulence. When we breathe in through the mouth, however, the air hits the back of the throat head on can create enormous vibrations in the soft tissue. Try to breathe through your nose and ask your pharmacist for pharmacist for gadgets such as chin strips that help keep your mouth closed. To help clear your nose, put a few drops of eucalyptus on you r pillow case.

Are Your Nostril Too Narrow?

Looking in a mirror, press the side of one nostril to close it. With your mouth closed, breathe in through your other nostril. If the nostril tends to collapse try propping it open with the clean end of match stick. If breathing is easier with the nostril propped open (try both side), you may need something to open your nasal airways. Small or collapsing nostrils can prevent you from breathing through your nose. This encourages mouth breathing, and it’s the air hitting the back of the throat that causes the snoring noise. Try nasal strips which you place on the outside of the nostrils to stop them collapsing.

Do You Sleep On Your Back?

This can cause snoring as it allows the fresh of your throat to relax and block airways. Also the fatty tissue around your neck can add pressure on the airway. Sleep on your side, if possible. A well know trick is sleeping with a tennis ball sewn into the back of your pyjama top.

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You’re tired during the day, you’re irritable, anxious, have difficulty concentrating and are bout as alert as a fridge freezer. If you don’t deal with your sleep problem, your health will spiral downwards and your once cheery personality will be replaced by a glum, short-tempered one. Your probably don’t need a scientist to tell you how you’re feeling after a few bad nights. But it may be useful to know what’s happening to your body when you’re deprived of sleep. It could be worse than you think….

Poor Memory

During a good night’s sleep, in the REM stage, the brain busily replenishes the neurotransmitters that organize neural networks vital for remembering, learning, performance and problem solving. If you deprive the brain of sleep, you get less REM sleep. The crossword takes twice as long to finish, you’ll forget the names of close friends and you’ll stare at the tax form for days before even attempting to fill it out.

More Car Accidents

According to one study drowsiness or sleep disorders was a factor in about half of all traffic accidents and 36% of fatal accidents. Another study compared the reaction times between people who were sleep deprived and those who’d been drinking alcohol. This suggests that driving when tired is as dangerous as driving drunk.

Constant Colds

With a tissue pressed to your face at all times, no one’s really seen you properly for weeks which is probably a good thing considering your dry, flaky red nose, cracked lips and streaming eyes. Recent research demonstrated that the nightly loss of four hours of sleep over 10 days in healthy young adults significantly reduced their immune function. This is because it reduces the number of white blood cells which are responsible for the production of antibodies that fight disease.

Old Before Your Time

Research suggests that missing sleep can actually speed up ageing. Sleeping for only four hours a night for less than a week reduces the body’s ability to process and store carbohydrates and regulate hormone levels changes which are similar to those of advanced ageing. Another study found that sleeping under five hours per night shortened the life span although sleeping more than nine hours also did the same.

Makes Your Fat

Lack of sleep makes you hungry and more probe to putting on weight and one of the main causes of snoring and sleep apnea. The key to this is the hormone leptin, which signals when the body needs or dose not need more food. Leptin levels rise during the sleep and this tells your brain that you’ve eaten enough and don’t need any more calories. When you’re sleep deprived, leptin levels are low, which send signal to your brain that you need more calories. Your brain thinks that there’s a shortage of food and that you need to eat more, when in fact you’ve eaten.

High Blood Pressure

Blood pressure usually falls during the sleep cycle, however, interrupted sleep can adversely affect this normal decline, leading to hypertension and cardiovascular problems. One study of nurses showed that those sleeping for five hours or fewer had 45% greater risk of developing heart disease than those sleeping for eight hours. Oversleeping also had risks, however. Those sleeping nine to eleven hours increased their by 38%

Diabetes Risk

Research has also show that insufficient sleep impairs the body’s ability to use insulin, which can lead to the onset of diabetes.

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Observably, adolescent and adult women experience cyclical changes in reproductive hormone levels. Interestingly, research suggests that permenopausal women’s endocrine systems may actually buffer them against stress, activate their immune systems, and improve their cardiovascular health. Because of changing women’s hormone levels, both monthly and throughout the life span, women have often been excluded from research sleep, circadian rhythms, and other decade, in the section below, I highlight the recent crucial findings regarding our menstrual cycles and sleep.

According to the National Sleep Foundation’s Women and Sleep Poll (1998), in which over one thousand women ages thirty to sixty were interviewed, the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and menopause can affect sleep. Specifically, 25 to 50 percent of the women surveyed reported that menstruation symptoms (bloating, tender breasts, headaches, and cramp/pain) disturb their sleep for approximately two to three days of their cycle.

Many of the women also reported other sleep difficulties during menstruation, including talking longer to fall asleep, walking at night and being unable to fall back to sleep, feeling less refreshed in the morning, having difficulty getting out of bed in the morning, and walking earlier. Nearly 70 percent of the women surveyed felt sleepiest the week prior to or during the first few days of their period. One woman explained:

Since the age of forty, my sleep has been much disrupted during my menstrual cycle. During menstruation, I feel so exhausted that I need to retire much earlier than usual, during midcycle each month, I need to go to bed at around eight o’clock when my children go to sleep.

Still, women’s sleep experiences vary greatly during the menstrual cycle. Some women may not have any changes in their sleep, whereas others experience premenstrual hypersomnia, a rare sleep disorder that causes excessive daytime somnolence in association with menstruation.

We can now begin to draw conclusion regarding sleep changes over the course of the menstrual cycle, from information gathered in studies conducted during the 1980s and 1990s (driver and Baker 1998). The sleep changed that you and other women may experience over the course of your menstrual cycle can linked to increasing and decreasing hormone levels.

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Women are twice as likely to complain of insufficient and poor sleep as men, according to a number of questionnaire and interview studies of young to middle aged men and women. In addition, women report a greater need for sleep, greater daytime sleepiness, longer total sleep times, more trouble maintaining sleep, and greater consumption of sleeping tablets than men do, whereas men report than it takes them longer to fall asleep including my own husband, who complains an awful lot about his poor sleep and his difficulties falling asleep.

It is noteworthy, however, that women often attribute their poor sleep to psychological factors, and while men blame their sleep difficulties on work related issues. Other studies have examined sex differences in the architecture of sleep. It appears, according to a small number of studies, that a few sex differences in sleep architecture do exist. A relatively recent study demonstrated that slow wave sleep decrease at a later beginning to assess the influence of estrogen, progesterone, and other hormones on women’s sleep.

This article is focused on the sleep wake pattern changes that occur in many women over that course of their menstrual cycles. For example, recent research concludes that during menstruation women tend to get less restful sleep, and that after ovulation (i.e, when progesterone levels begin to increase) some women find it more difficult to fall asleep.

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Depression can cause sleep disturbances ranging from insomnia or disturbing dreams to too much sleep time. Several factors are involved in disturbed sleep, including increased levels of anxiety and arousal, abnormalities in circadian rhythm (some of which may affect by drugs used in treating mood disorders), and the fact that the brain and neuronchemical systems involved in mood regulation. Both sleep disturbance and fatigue of a depressive illness. Sleep studies on patients with depression show problems with sleep continuity, decreased slow wave sleep, and abnormalities in REM sleep, among other findings.

If a major depression is present, you need to see a doctor or psychiatrist. There are many different and effective medications for treating depression. Not all people will respond to the same medication and you might have to trial different medication to find the ideal on. Most drugs for depression work by altering the brain’s neurochemical balances. Many take several weeks to work and treatment should be persisted with for at least 6 months.

Cognitive behavioral and other talking therapies may be useful adjuncts to treatment of depression depending on its severity. Sleep deprivation and light therapy can be used as alternatives or in conjunction with medication, even if the depression is non-seasonal. However, these treatments must only be undertaken with appropriate medical guidance.

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Relaxation is an important part of preparing for sleep, but there is no best way – you must choose what suits you. There are many forms of relaxation therapy and most are easy for you to do yourself. Progressive muscle relaxation is one useful technique, where you tense and then relax different muscle groups in turn. Antigenic training also decreases body arousal. This involves mental exercises that switch off stress response and help relax the body’s muscles. Some people find listening to soothing music or relaxation tapes helpful. No single relaxation technique has been shown to be more efficacious than another.

There are many different relaxation techniques and you should choose one that suits you. Some people find meditation useful, while others enjoy yoga or tai chi. People with very high muscle tension may find it useful to do the progressive relaxation exercise, first described by Edmund Jacobsen in 1983.

This exercise is intended to relax step by step all the different group of muscle in the body. It involves lying on the floor on your back with legs uncrossed and out straight, and arms down by your sides. You eyes should be closed. The exercises should last about 30-60 minutes, depending on the degree of muscle tension present, but can be abbreviated. Each muscle group in turn is tensed, and then suddenly allowed to go limp, followed by relaxation for a couple of minutes. Start at your feet and gradually work up your body, tensing and relaxing each large muscle group in turn until your reach your head.

In addition to the other health benefits that regular exercise brings to the body, it can also help to improve sleep. Physical exercise tires us out and results in the release of chemicals and hormones in the body that produce sleep of a better quality, including the proportion of slow wave sleep that we experience. Exercising in the late afternoon may help you to sleep better, however, vigorous exercise within 3 to 4 hours of bedtime can interfere with your sleep.

Beside environmental temperature, variations in our body temperature also play an important role in determining the quality of sleep we have during the night. Our body temperature falls naturally as part of the circadian rhythm towards the end of the day as we prepare to sleep. Having a long soak in hot tub or a bath in hot water, at least an hour before going to bed, can help raise the core body temperature and then let it drop more quickly, decreasing the transition time to sleep. Water can also have a relaxing effect on us, which also enhance sleepiness.

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Water naturally calms our senses. Whether listening to the soothing sound of the surf, sitting by the water’s edge, swimming, soaking in a hydrotherapy spa treatment, or luxuriating in the comfort of your own bathtub, you’ll find water relaxing.

Physiologically, baths help promote rest, since there is a correlation between body temperature and sleep. Our body temperature has a normal fluctuation of about 1.5 to 2 degrees, with a peak in the late morning or early afternoon and a decline in the evening. We get sleepy when our body temperatures naturally drop in the evening. That drop is assisted when we cool off after a bath.

Close the bath door and shut out the world. Fill the bath with warm water. Dim the light or use candles to gently illuminate the space. Try an eye mask or compress to soothe tired eyes and tense temple muscles. Recline with a waterproof neck. Play some soft instrumental music. Slip into solitude and let the day go. This ritual provides a gentle invitation to sleep.

You can also slow down with a shower. Showers are mistakenly viewed as the stimulating sibling of the more seating bath. But steamy showers can be sensuous and relaxing. Linger and let the water massage your tight muscles.

To double the benefits of bathing, try a relaxing Epsom salts bath and shower combo. After a tiring day, loosen taut muscles in a tub filled with two cups of Epsom salts and hot water (stimulating but not scalding). Sink into bath, and lounge with a towel or bath pillow behind your head. When the bathwater begins to cool, stand up and turn on the shower. Rinse yourself off with a blast of cold water, the end with a warning stream.

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Is your bedroom conductive to sound sleep? Your sleep space should be clam, comfortable, clean and cozy. While mental clutter may keep you from falling asleep, physical clutter in the bedroom, such as piles of dirty clothes, unwieldy stacks of magazines, or too many knickknacks, can also distract. Spend some time cleaning out the mess.

In addition, don’t allow your bedroom to do double duty as mini office. Put the desk and the computer in another room or screen them from view. Relocated the television and answering machine. If you keep a telephone by the bed to increase your sense of safety and security, turn the ringer to low. Reverse your bedroom for only three things – sleeping, reflecting, and romancing.

According to the principles of feng shui, the ancient Oriental art of object placement, positioning your bed correctly can improve your sleep as well as your relationships. For optimum health, never put your bed in a direct line with door or a bathroom. Don’t place your bed under beams and don’t store items under your bed and it will affect your sleeping.

To transform your bedroom into a restful sanctuary, eliminate flashy or distracting artwork, bedding, wall coverings, and window treatments to get rid of your sleepless night. For serene surroundings, add gently flowing fabrics and soft music. Decorate with light blues and greens. View only gently beauty from your bed to enhance your moods and the quality of your sleep.

Make your bedroom a relaxation haven by paging through magazines, cutting out some pictures, and creating a file of serene bedroom scenes to enhance your sleep. What do you like about these rooms? Find similarities in colors, shapes, and textures. Choose three things you could change in your bedroom that would make it more relaxing.

Bed and breakfast inns can provide inspiration. Their proprietors often entice is with theme oriented rooms and special treats. Have you ever stayed in, or wanted to stay in, the Garden Room, the Emily Dickinson Room, or the Blue Room? Copy these style amenities and small indulgences in your own home, such as a decorating scheme, soft colors, flesh flowers, a canopied bed, or a comfy chaise lounge. The most important thing is to learn to associate sleep and calm with your restful bedroom.

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1. They give sleep top priority by assuring themselves ample sleep time.
2. They provide themselves with a comfortable place to sleep.
3. They choose daily activities that enhance their sleep.
4. They approach sleep problems as temporary challenges that can be remedied with creative perseverance.
5. They accommodate the physical changes and emotional transitions that negatively affect their sleep.
6. They replenish themselves with rest and relaxation.
7. They utilize outside resources to help assess and treat sleep problems.

What you eat and drink during the day can enhance or inhabit your sleep potential. Also, think about what you do in the evening. Do you choose stimulating or sedating activities? Review your physical and emotional habits to learn how to transform them into sleep enhancers.

Carbohydrates, such as bread, cereal, and pasta, are good nighttime foods because they trigger the brain chemical serotonin, which makes you sleepy. Such a snack approximately 45 minutes before bed can sedate you. But keep it on the light side –a piece of toast with little jam may go the trick.

Dr. Samantha Hement has 10 years experience in neurology. She is specialty concerned with nervous system function and sleeping disorders. She has created a website to deal with insomnia and provided some information on how to deal your insomnia without medications.

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