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Could Snoring Help Burn Calories?
As counter-intuitive as it may seem, snoring may actually have a positive effect on a person’s well being. Studies show that people who snore burn more calories than their less noisy counterparts. Obesity is a major factor in the development of respiratory disturbances in sleep patterns. It is not clear whether weight gains interferes with breathing , or rather changes in breathing adversely affect the metabolism, resulting in increments of weight and complicating the treatment of these frequently co-occurring conditions.
At the University of California in San Francisco, Dr. Eric J. Kezirian and his team studied 212 adults with symptoms of respiratory disorders associated with sleep. Participants underwent physical examinations, their medical history was taken into account and their sleep was monitored using a polysomnograph. The participants resting energy expenditure (REE) was also tracked using a device called an indirect calorimeter; the calorimeter measures oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production, which can be used to determine resting energy expenditure in calories per day.
It was calculated that among the participants, the average REE is 1766 calories per day. In people with more severe breathing disorders who ranked higher on the scale of sleep apnea or shallow breathing burned 1999 calories, while people without such problems averaged 1626 calories.
Although this may be some what good news, snoring is still an unhealthy habit. Habitual snorers can be at risk for serious health problems associated with heart dieses and diabetes.
An estimated 30 million Americans snore. Figures show that smokers are almost twice as much likely as non-smokers to snore because their airways get inflamed and blocked. Other factors which can make snoring worse include being overweight, drinking alcohol, consuming sleeping pills and sleeping on your back. Research also shows that people who sleep with pets such as dogs tend to have a higher risk of snoring.
Try following behavior changes to help treat the problem:
- Lose weight
- Avoid drinking alcohol before bed,
- Establish regular sleeping patterns,
- Sleep on your side rather than on your back – if it’s hard for you to adjust, try the “tennis ball trick” (attach a tennis or similar sized ball to the back of your pajama top)
- Keep your bedroom air moist
- Quit smoking
- Elevate the head of your bed up four inches to ease breathing
If you know any remedies or have suggestions on how to help ease snoring , please share in the comments below
Flying Across Time Zones? Learn how to Conquer Jet Lag
Do you travel often? Have you ever wondered why a long flight can make you feel terrible? This condition generally occurs when traveling in the west-east direction and is known as “jet lag.”
West-East
The severity of jet lag is affected by the direction of travel. There seems to be evidence that for most people traveling west to east is more disruptive because they are flying against time zones and therefore are losing time. The greater the number of time zones crossed, the more difficult it is for your body to cope with changes.
Causes of Symptoms
Jet Lag is believed to be caused by disorders of homeostasis – the body’s ability to maintain constant internal parameters (including body temperature, blood pH, osmotic pressure, blood pressure, volume of body fluids, etc.). In short, our body can not keep up with adapting to the rapidly changing times of day, on which our physiology depends (metabolism, sleep-wake cycles, etc.). When we travel westward, we have trouble getting to sleep because the body is not ready to release sleep hormones – cortisol and melatonin.
Symptoms of jet lag
- Sleep disturbance
- Impaired concentration
- Extreme fatigue
- Lack of appetite and digestive problems
- Disorientation
- Drowsiness
- Headaches
Tips for surviving the journey
After a few days in a new time zone, our bodies adjust, resolving the symptoms. You can use the following techniques to help reset you body’s clock:
- Start varying your schedule before you travel
- Get plenty of rest before leaving and while you are traveling
- Eliminate consumption of alcohol and caffeine before and during your travel
- Eat light meals
- Exercise
- A helpful way to minimize jet lag is to adapt to the local time and eat accordingly.
- Also, exposure to sunlight during the day can be helpful.
Is Earth Influencing Your Dreams?
Have you ever tried looking for an explanation for that bizarre dream you had about loosing your teeth or falling off the top of the building? New research suggests that Earth’s magnetic field may be to blame.
Darren Lipnicki, a psychologist whose work has been published in “Medical Hypotheses”, studied the relation between Earth’s magnetic fields and dreams over a period of 8 years. During that time he wrote every dream he could remember – a total of 2,387 dreams. Then he sorted the dreams into 3 groups.
Group number one contained dreams that were most related to reality (“I’m drinking coffee and reading a newspaper.”) In the second group he put dreams that were possible, but unlikely to happen in real life (“My friend is building a house in my back yard”). In the last group he placed the most bizarre dreams (“I’m walking down the beach with a monkey who speaks a foreign language and a woman who suddenly starts to disappear”).
Dr Lipnicki then gathered data on the Earth’s geomagnetic activity. It turns out that there was a correlation between his dreams and magnetic fields – The strangest dreams occurred when Earth’s magnetic activity was lowest.
Of course it doesn’t mean that the relationship between Earth’s magnetism and dreams has been proven conclusively; “For that you need more extensive testing,” says Lipnicki.
The Role of Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorders (CRSD)
A person’s circadian rhythm is an internal biological clock that regulates many physiological systems according to an approximate 24 hour cycle. The key feature of a circadian rhythm disorder is an occasional or continuous disruption in sleep patterns. It is often mistaken for Insomnia, especially if the symptoms persist over a longer period of time; however unlike Insomnia patients, people with CRSD usually get required amount of sleep.
Some of the most common circadian rhythm disorders include:
Advanced Sleep Pattern Syndrome (ASPS) – Is characterized by early sleeping and waking. People with this disorder feel very sleeping in the early evening hours (6pm-9pm) and wake up early in the morning (3am-6am). Middle-aged adults and the elderly are more likely to suffer from ASPS.
Treatment: Simply delaying sleep time, at a rate of 1 to 3 hours until desired sleep period is achieved should take care of the problem. In more complicated cases Phototherapy (controlled exposure to intense light) may be required.
Delayed Sleep Pattern Syndrome (DSPS) – Contrary to ASPS, people with DSPS have difficulty in initiating sleep and tend to wake up later. It’s most common among adolescents and young adults. People who suffer from this disorder are often perceived as lazy and unmotivated as they do not perform well in the early morning hours. These individuals are most alert and productive late at night.
Treatment: Maintaining regular hours for sleeping and getting up, using an alarm clock or wake up call service. Similar to ADSP treatment adjusting sleep time until desired sleep period is achieved (ideally 11:00pm- 7am) and bright light therapy may be useful.
Jet Lag- Crossing between two or more time zones can create a conflict between person’s circadian rhythm timing and that of a new time zone. Symptoms, including fatigue and insomnia, are only temporary and usually disappear completely within a week.
Shift Work Disorder- People who work irregular hours (e.g. Truck drivers) or work at night are at bigger risk to suffer from shift work disorder which is often characterized by complaints of insomnia or excessive sleepiness.
Treatment: Some patients find medication to be helpful, antidepressants, which are used in treatment of various sleep disorders are known to positively affect and sometimes readjust circadian rhythm.
By
Agnieszka
Be Healthy and More Productive at Work – Take a Nap
If your boss caught you sleeping at your desk a few years ago, you surely would have been fired. But getting in trouble for catching zzz’s at work may soon be the thing of the past. While most of us rely on artificial stimulants like caffeine to power us through the day, experts say that what we really need to recharge our minds is a good nap. Some industries and big companies such as Nike, Google, Ben and Jerry’s and Zappos.com encourage their workers to simply ….nap.
Mark Rosekind, a former scientist at NASA, and now Founder and President of Alertness Solutions, a company creating “fatigue management” solutions, claims that a 15-minute afternoon nap increases our productivity by 35 percent, creativity by 40 percent and the ability to make decisions by as much as 50 percent. On top of that, afternoon naps also significantly decrease the risk of stroke and heart disease, especially in men.
The authors of the largest ever study of this phenomenon discussed this two years ago in the Journal of Archives of Internal Medicine. The study was conducted over about six years on a group of 23,681 adult Greeks-mostly over the age of 50. People who took at least three 30 minute naps a week had 37 percent lower risk of death due to heart or other cardiovascular problems than in those who slept only at night.
It is worth noting that a siesta during the day belongs to the normal practice in many countries in southern Europe. So far, experts believed that the low incidence of heart disease in those countries is a consequence of the Mediterranean diet. Although the study also takes into account factors such as diet, physical activity, smoking habits and other factors related to the circulatory system, it still seems that napping at work has a beneficial effect.
In conclusion, companies benefit from having workers who are healthy, rested and focused. Those who may still oppose the idea of letting their employees nap on company’s time well, perhaps they will change their mind if they just sleep on it?
Share your feedback in the comments below.
By Agnieszka
History and Meaning of Dreams in Ancient Cultures
“(…) Science of understanding our dreams is like learning a language of our hearts.” –
- Ann Faraday
The meaning of dreams has been one the most fascinating topics of discussion around the world. The answer to the question “Where do dreams come from?” depends on who you ask. Some people believe dreams are just a byproduct of brain wave activity, and that they don’t have any psychologically significant meaning at all, some argue that our dreams are a reflection of our deepest desires, and others believe that dreams connect us to God. People have been fascinated by dreams for thousands of years and cultures around the world have developed their own traditions for interpreting dreams.
Mesopotamia
Early information about the analysis of dreams comes from Mesopotamia (the land between the Tigris and Euphrates – part of what is now Iraq). The civilization that existed there around 5,000 BC left behind what is believed to be the world’s first book of dreams — a compilation of dream symbols and their meanings. Sumerians viewed their dreams as signs sent from gods. People had their dreams translated by “dream priests” who foretold the dreamer’s future. It is speculated that the process of incubating dreams and summoning them by means of special rituals was invented during this period. These practices then spread throughout the ancient world and survived in various forms until the twentieth century. Some believe that the Mesopotamian model of dream interpretation had an impact on the cultural beliefs of the Egyptians and gave rise to the Hebrew, Arabic and Greek traditions of dream interpretation.
Ancient Egypt
The Egyptians took many ideas from the Sumerians; they also viewed dreams as messages from gods and created their own Dream Book (currently part of the archives at the British Museum in London). In temples dedicated to Serapis (a Hellenistic-Egyptian god), where special dream interpreters lived, Egyptians celebrated rituals, gave sacrifices and recited prayers in hopes that their dreams would reveal fragments of the future. The dreams of the Pharaohs attracted the most attention, because they were seen as gods themselves. Given their status, it seemed perfectly natural that the gods wanted to deliver important messages in the Pharaohs’ dreams.
Ancient Greece
Around 335 BC Greek philosopher Aristotle said that human beings are capable of achieving the pure form of wisdom only during sleep, when our minds are liberated. At that time Greece was the most powerful civilization on earth. The source of the wisdom of Greeks was the oracle at Delphi, who had an impact on even the most important decisions in the country. Not everyone realized that the oracle’s prophecies were created based on dreams. Dreams played a significant role in military decisions as well as family life and impacted the development of the ancient world. The Greek system of dream interpretation wasn’t concerned only with predicting the future; it was also used to ensure prosperity in one’s life.
Hippocrates (regarded by many as the father of modern medicine) saw dreams as important indicators of physical and mental health. Perhaps this was the first time a man came to realize that dreams do not have a divine source, and may come from human thoughts. The ancient Greeks created one of the most significant books about dreams that have ever been written. Oneirocritica (Interpretation of Dreams), was written by Artemidorus in ancient Greece; today, this book is the basis for many contemporary books about dreams.
Ancient Rome
The Roman tradition of dream interpretation was largely drawn from the Greeks. It has been said that Augustus, the successor of Julius Cesar, believed so strongly in the prophetic nature of dreams that he created a law requiring every citizen who had a dream about the empire, to talk about it on the market in their town.
Moreover, the existence of unfair or unpopular laws was justified by the fact that they were suggested in dreams. In Rome, the importance of dreams was a topic widely discussed among scholars who openly proclaimed that dreams are inspired by our own passions, emotions and experiences of everyday life and do not come from gods.
Closing Thoughts
For millennia, people have sought help with understanding and interpreting dreams; it is believed that by doing so we could gain wisdom and find solutions to our problems.
Where do you think dreams come from? Do they have any significant meaning to you?
Share your comments below.
Better Sleep for Expecting Moms
When you are pregnant, sleep can be a real problem. A bigger belly makes sleep less comfortable and, if that’s not enough, you may find that you begin to have strange dreams. Finding a comfortable position is next to impossible, and when you finally do, it’s time to get up and go to the bathroom for the 100th time in one night. So here are seven valuable tips to make sleep easier for all mommies to be.
1. Eat a light dinner. If you eat too much or eat fatty foods, you may experience heartburn that will make it more difficult for you to fall asleep.
2. Drink something warm. For obvious reasons steer clear from strong teas or coffee, on the other hand a glass of warm milk is great to sip on before bedtime; it contains tryptophan, an amino acid that promotes sleep.
3. Make sure you air out your bedroom. This one benefits not only moms but also dads to be. Your bedroom shouldn’t be hot but rather slightly cool during the night. Hot rooms will make it harder to fall asleep and stay asleep.
4. Try sleeping on your left side. This position increases the amount of nutrients and blood that reach the placenta and your baby.
5. Prop yourself with pillows. Slightly bend your knees and place a pillow between your legs and under your abdomen. You can also put one under your back. Make as many adjustments as necessary until you feel comfortable.
6. Relax. Pregnancy is beautiful, but it can also be very stressful. Before bedtime try not to focus on the fact that the baby’s nursery isn’t painted the right color or how afraid you are of the delivery. If you do catch yourself thinking about those things, take a few deep breaths and try to clear your mind. Remind yourself that you and your baby need a restful night and everything else can be dealt with in the morning.
7. Strange dreams are normal. Some believe that dreams are a reflection of your emotional state, and pregnancy can sometimes feel like an emotional roller coaster. Although it is not known what exactly causes moms-to-be to have exceptionally strange, vivid and memorable dreams, you should know that millions of pregnant women experience strange dreams and that it is perfectly normal.
By
Agnieszka
Sleep Your Way to a Beautiful Body
You have probably heard it before, but you might not have believed it – you can lose weight while you sleep. New research suggests that there is in fact a relationship between body mass index (BMI) and the quality and quantity of sleep. That is great news for those of us who love to hit the snooze button at least few times in the morning (and for those of us that wouldn’t mind losing a few extra pounds).
It turns out that a good night’s sleep is a factor in controlling the body’s production of two specific hormones responsible for our eating behavior: Ghrelin – the hunger hormone and Leptin – a regulating hormone that tells our brain when it is time to stop eating.
In a study of 1,024 people aged 30 to 60 years old, those who slept only three hours a night had a 5% increase in body weight over 15 years, according to thedietchannel.com.That’s because sleep depravation results in increased levels of ghrelin which in turn makes our body feel hungry and decreases the levels of leptin, depriving us from a feeling of fullness. The result is simple: Overeating.
To keep both hormones at their proper levels, one must make sure not only to get a good quality of sleep but also the hours that our body needs to rejuvenate That’s usually 7 to 9hours depending on an individual.
So is losing weight as simple as getting enough sleep? No, but when combined with a healthy diet and exercise, sleep is a very important and often overlooked component of losing weight.
To find out more about sleep and weight loss click on the link below.
http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/excessive-sleepiness-10/lack-of-sleep-weight-gain
Share your experience, leave us a comment.
By Agnieszka
All You Need to Know About Narcolepsy
Narcolepsy is a chronic sleep disorder that causes those affected to experience uncontrollable sleep during the day. It affects men and women equally; experts estimate that people with family history of Narcolepsy are 10 times more likely to suffer from it as well. In most cases, the first symptoms occur in early adolescence, but some people may not experience symptoms until they are in their early 20’s.
Classic symptoms of Narcolepsy include:
- Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS)
- Cataplexy, sudden loss of muscle tone is one of the main symptoms of Narcolepsy.
- Sleep Paralysis. A person isn’t able to move or speak during the attack.
- Hallucinations (hypnologic hallucinations) transitional state between wakefulness and sleep.
Additionally, a person suffering from Narcolepsy may also experience:
- Problems with staying asleep during the night.
- Automatic Behavior, in which a person may function during sleep (talk, walk, put things away.) but awakens with no recollection of such episodes.
- Loss of sharp vision
The core causes of Narcolepsy aren’t fully known yet. Scientists are researching a theory that would link genetic factors, autoimmunity and REM sleep. We do know, however, that Narcolepsy isn’t caused by mental illness or psychological problems and it is most likely caused by genetic abnormalities that affect the brain.
Narcolepsy itself is not fatal, but its symptoms can lead to death indirectly (e.g. falling asleep while driving).
Famous people who suffer from Narcolepsy include: Jimmy Kimmel (television host, comedian), Nastassja Kinski (actress), and Franck Bouyer (professional cyclist),
If you’d like to explore this topic further, please visit: http://adam.about.com/reports/Narcolepsy.htm
Do you or anyone you know suffer from Narcolepsy? What is the most dangerous episode you had? Leave us a comment below.
By Agnieszka
Sleep Talking
The medical term for this phenomenon is “somniloquy”. It occurs when you talk aloud during sleep. Many people report having experienced sleep talking in their lives. It appears that sleep talking runs in the family and it is reported that it affects as many as 50% of children and 5% of adults. Although Sleep talking is a harmless condition, it is sometimes associated with other sleep disorders such as:
• Sleep terrors,
• Sleepwalking
• Sleep related eating disorder (SRED)
• REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD)
There are many different cases of sleep talking some range just from a simple word to mumbling sentences that may be difficult to understand and finally to emotional and sometimes even funny speeches. One case in particular drew my attention: The Sleep Talking Man. Adam Lennard had become an internet sensation after his wife Karen began to record and blog about her “mid-manner husband’s” nightly musings.
Karen’s account of her husband’s sleep talking is described in this article in the Telegraph:
Are you a noisy napper? Or maybe you heard someone else say something interesting or funny while asleep? Leave us a comment.
By Agnieszka.
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