sleep

The Basics of Sleep From A-to-Zzz

We spend around one-third of our lives sleeping. This is not wasted time. On the contrary, our bodies have a long list of tasks that can only be completed while our mind is resting and our body is still. Getting the right amount of sleep can give you a clearer mind, more energy, and even lower your risk of developing common life-threatening illnesses.

What is the Purpose of Sleep?

Sleep is not just a time when we are unconscious to the world. When we sleep, our bodies go through five distinct phases, from the early light sleep to REM. REM is the best-known phase of sleep because it is when we dream, but it is not the only time at night when our brains are active. Different hormonal and cellular events happen during each phase of sleep in a manner tightly controlled by the brain.

Our body repeats the five-phase cycle of sleep roughly every 90 minutes. This is why people often wake up easier and with less fatigue if they sleep in increments of 90 minutes. This correlates with the time when they are transitioning to lighter sleep. During these cycles, our brains clean toxins and regenerate neurons. The brain also releases hormones that tell cells throughout the body to undergo DNA repair and replication, repairing the damage of the waking day. When people miss sleep on a regular basis, their bodies cannot complete these important housekeeping tasks. Over time, the wear-and-tear can lead to increased disease risk.

How Much Sleep Do We Need?

While not getting enough sleep can put you at higher risk of disease, getting too much sleep is not healthy. People who sleep too much have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and other deadly diseases. Most adults need around eight hours of sleep for optimal function. There is some variation, but getting between seven and nine hours is optimal for almost all people. As with food, exercise and other healthy habits, moderation in sleep is an important part of a healthy lifestyle.

The Health Benefits of Sleep

What does getting adequate sleep do for your health? To name a few short-term benefits, sleeping the right amount leaves you with a better memory, higher cognitive skills and a lower risk of having accidents at work or in your car. There are long term health benefits to sleep as well. People who do not get enough sleep are at higher risk of hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and even cancer. When you get enough sleep, you are increasing your chance of a better quality of life and a longer lifespan at the same time.

A lack of quality sleep is a serious health risk. Unfortunately, it is a very common one. Around one-third of modern people are not getting the right amount. Modern life, with 24/7 light sources and high levels of stress, makes it difficult to settle down. You can have a very real impact on your health simply by deciding to turn off the phone, turn off the light and get the rest you need.

What is sleep? It is a time when your body repairs and rebuilds to prepare you for a healthier, more energetic, and more functional day. Getting the right amount of sleep will leave you more alert, functioning higher and even in better health. There are many healthy, natural ways to increase not just the time that you spend asleep, but the quality of your sleep. Sleep is an important part of a healthy lifestyle and should be a priority for everyone.

Circadian Rhythm Disorders: Health Consequences and Treatments

Feb 25 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

What is life like when you cannot sleep well? People with circadian rhythm disorders know all too well. These types of sleep disorders can affect every aspect of a person’s life and even have a crucial effect on the risk for serious diseases such as heart disease and cancer.

Circadian Rhythm Disorders: More Than Insomnia

While nearly everyone will suffer from insomnia at some point in their life, circadian rhythm disorders are more serious and more difficult to treat. In these disorders, the patient’s body is not releasing hormones for sleep, wakefulness and other daily activities at the right time. The result is that people can feel tired when they are supposed to be working, or they are wide awake when it is time to sleep. This can lead to fatigue, depression and a variety of health effects.

The mechanism of these disorders is generally not well known, but researchers have identified several genes behind circadian rhythm disorders. In a healthy person, the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus processes information such as light levels and temperature. Hormones are released to make the person sleepy, more awake, hungry, or whatever is needed at that time in the day. In a person with these disorders, these hormones are released at the wrong time, in the wrong amounts, or not at all.

Types of Circadian Rhythm Disorders

There are multiple types of circadian rhythm disorders, each requiring different treatments and a unique approach. The two most common, shift work disorder and jet lag, are a result of a person’s lifestyle conflicting with their circadian rhythm. In shift work disorder, people who work nights or other odd hours begin to have trouble falling asleep or staying awake when needed because they do not sleep and wake at “normal” times. In jet lag disorder, a person who travels to a new time zone may have physical effects such as fatigue and memory loss due to the shift in environmental cues such as light.

There are circadian sleep disorders that are not caused by the environment as well. Delayed phase sleep disorder is common in teens and young adults. In this disorder, the timing of the circadian rhythm is shifted so that people cannot go to sleep until very late at night. If they cannot also sleep late, they will suffer the effects of insomnia and fatigue. Advanced phase sleep disorder is just the opposite. In this sleep disorder usually seen in the elderly, people feel sleepy very early in the evening and wake up early in the morning. There are even non-24-hour sleep-wake disorders in which the internal clock is not set to the normal 24 hours.

Treating Circadian Rhythm Disorders

Circadian sleep disorders can make you tired, overemotional and even disrupt your thinking. In addition, they can increase your risk of developing serious diseases as you age. However, there are many approaches to treating these disorders. Many people can get a better night’s sleep by taking a melatonin supplement. Because melatonin is the hormone released to make people sleepy, taking this supplement can help people who have trouble falling asleep when it is time. Bright light therapy during the day also has been found to be helpful. Certain wavelengths of light tell your brain that it is daytime, which encourages making wakefulness hormones.

People who have circadian rhythm disorders were once considered lazy or even mentally ill. However, modern medicine recognizes these disorders as a physical disease with a variety of successful treatments. Getting treatment for a circadian rhythm disorder allows many people to reclaim high energy and good overall health.

Ten Foods That Help You Sleep

Feb 12 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

Having trouble falling or staying asleep? The answer could lie in your kitchen. Foods that help you sleep contain sleep-promoting nutrients that can induce a natural, restful nights’ sleep.

If a survey were to be done asking individuals what they would like to do more of in a typical day, sleep would likely be one of the top answers. For various reasons, many of us lie awake in bed and have the most difficult time falling and staying asleep.

Experts have suggested that when this occurs, we should turn to food as a solution. The nutrients and phytochemicals in certain foods can play the same role in our body as sleeping medications and supplements when the right foods are chosen.

Exploring Foods That Help You Sleep

Foods that help you sleep at night have the ability to stimulate the production and release of certain sleep-promoting brain chemicals. Also, if an underlying condition such as muscle cramps interrupts your sleep, these foods may provide relief of those symptoms as well. To get a better night’s sleep, consider experimenting with these great nighttime snacks.

Pumpkin Seeds

Pumpkin seeds are a great source of tryptophan, an essential amino acid. Our bodies convert tryptophan to melatonin during a four-step reaction involving serotonin, a mood-enhancing neurotransmitter. Melatonin is a natural hormone released by the pineal gland that directly promotes sleep. It is commonly used as a dietary supplement and sleep aid.

Almonds

Almonds or almond butter can make a great snack before bedtime. They are a rich source of iron, calcium, zinc, potassium, magnesium and B vitamins. These nutrients offer many benefits to the body as they relax muscles, help regulate brain activity, and increase levels of melatonin. Almonds are also a source of 14 amino acids, one of which is tryptophan.

Cherries

Tart cherries are one of the only natural food sources that can supply our bodies with melatonin, the natural sleep-promoting hormone. When cherries are out of season, you can supplement with a glass of cherry juice or some dried cherries. Researchers who have linked cherries with melatonin suggest eating them one hour before bedtime. Other natural sources of melatonin include grapes and walnuts.

Bananas

Bananas are among the foods that help you sleep. They are a good source of potassium and magnesium, both of which are natural muscle relaxants. They also contain tryptophan, which is converted in the brain to the sleep hormone melatonin.

Oatmeal

Oatmeal is a complex carbohydrate that doesn’t cause the sugar spikes seen with other carbohydrates. It is a filling food that is easily digestible, allowing your body to rest easy at night. It is also a great source of calcium, potassium and magnesium, nutrients that promote relaxation of the body.

Cheese & Crackers

The carbohydrates in crackers help you fall asleep faster. After consuming carbohydrates, the body is triggered to produce insulin. Along with insulin, the sleep-promoting brain chemicals serotonin and tryptophan are released. The protein in the cheese is also an excellent source of tryptophan.

Toast with Peanut Butter

Toast provides the same carbohydrate benefit of crackers to help you sleep, plus peanut butter is rich in tryptophan. With this combination, you will get the benefit of tryptophan and the benefit of the carbohydrates, which helps tryptophan reach the brain easier.

Cereal & Milk

This is a great bedtime snack combination. Milk is a source of sleep-promoting tryptophan. According to the National Sleep Foundation, the carbohydrates in the cereal make tryptophan more available to the brain. Also, as previously mentioned, after eating carbohydrates the sleep-promoting brain chemicals serotonin and tryptophan are triggered along with insulin.

Pineapple

Researchers have found that certain foods can boost our natural levels of the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin. After eating pineapples, the levels of a melatonin marker were increased by 266 percent. Bananas also contributed to a rise of 180 percent and those who ate oranges had a rise of 47 percent.

Popcorn

The popcorn works in a manner similar to cheese and crackers. If sprinkled with grated parmesan cheese, this snack can give your body a boost of tryptophan and the carbohydrates it needs to help the brain absorb it more readily.

Melatonin: The Master Circadian Rhythm Regulator

Feb 03 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

Melatonin plays an important role in regulating the circadian rhythm. In addition, this hormone is showing promise as a treatment for a variety of health problems.

Many people have heard of melatonin. It has become a popular supplement in recent years because of its important role in regulating the circadian rhythm. When people suffer from a melatonin deficiency, they may also suffer from insomnia and even more serious disorders such as cancer.

What Is Melatonin?

Melatonin is a hormone made by the pineal gland of the brain. All mammals make melatonin and use it in similar ways. When our retinas sense low levels of light, they send messages to the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus, another brain structure. The hypothalamus then tells the pineal gland to make melatonin, which then acts on almost every cell in your body.

Melatonin is best known for governing our sleep-wake cycles, but it has a variety of other roles. Melatonin is a powerful antioxidant, prevent aging in our cells. It may also play other roles in aging. In addition, melatonin may be important in the regulation of female hormones and a variety of other biochemicals.

The Master Clock of Your Sleep-Wake Cycle

While melatonin plays a variety of roles, it is most important in regulating the circadian rhythm, including sleep-wake cycles. Melatonin is secreted when our brains sense that it is night, and then released continuously as we sleep. Peak levels occur at around 3 or 4 a.m. After this, levels falls sharply and the brain begins to make other hormones that are associated with waking.

Melatonin helps us to fall asleep and stay asleep long enough to get adequate rest. In addition, the presence of melatonin lets your body know that you are asleep so it can perform important repair processes. Because melatonin is an antioxidant, it even participates in important cell repair. These repair processes not only make us feel more rested, but also play an important role in slowing aging and even protecting against cancer.

Melatonin and Illness

Besides regulating the circadian rhythm, melatonin has been found to be helpful in a variety of illnesses. First, it has been used successfully to treat disorders of the circadian rhythm such as jet lag, insomnia and disorders associated with shift work. It has also been found to assist healthy sleeping behavior in mental health and developmental disorders where insomnia is a major feature, such as autism and schizophrenia. It has even shown promise in the treatment of some cancers.

Resetting Your Circadian Rhythm

Because melatonin is the master clock of the circadian rhythm, it is extremely effective in treating problems related to the sleep-wake cycle. People who suffer jet lag after traveling across time zones can use melatonin to naturally fall asleep at an earlier time without the side effects of other sleep medication. Shift workers and people who work odd hours can use melatonin to tell their body that it is time to sleep in the absence of the presence of bright light or other wakefulness cues.

Understanding the human circadian rhythm and the role of melatonin in regulating the circadian rhythm is allowing doctors and scientists to devise new and innovative treatments. New effects of melatonin are being studied, so it is likely that this hormone will become a more important medical treatment in the future.