Tag: best sleep aid

Categories
sleep

16 Important Facts That You Should Know About Sleep

16 Important Facts That You Should Know About Sleep

16 Important Facts That You Should Know About Sleep

Sleep has always been a subject of great mystery and fascination. Everyone in the world does it, but everyone does it differently. For some, it’s the easiest thing in the world while for others, it causes nothing but problems. Either way, it’s a universal thing but there are many facts that not everybody knows! Here’s a list of a few of the mind blowing facts.

Facts About Sleep

1. The record for the longest period without sleep is 18 days, 21 hours, and 40 minutes.

Considering that you can die from sleep deprivation after 10 days, you can only imagine what this person was going through! They may have been suffering from symptoms such as decreased impairment, loss of memory, and huge increased chance for accidents. If you’re not sleeping for this long, you most definitely have a poor quality of life!

2. There are two period for maximum sleepiness.

These include the late afternoon (3-5 pm) and the end of the night (3-5 am). There are also two periods of maximum alertness; at 1 am and 1 pm.

3. You’ll die from sleep deprivation before starvation.

A person will die without food after 2 weeks, but it only takes 10 days to die without sleep. So if you have a choice between sleeping or getting something to eat, get some sleep!

4. Dreaming used to happen predominantly in black and white.

Before the invention of the TV, most people dreamed in black and white. That’s definitely not the case nowadays, though; the majority of people dream in color. Two recent studies show that younger people rarely dream in black and white, while older people report it more often (although it’s still a low percentage).

Sleep will always be somewhat of a mystery to many of us. Although we’re learning more and more through research, it’s hard to study something that only happens when people are unconscious. But love it or hate it, you’ll be doing it for the rest of your life!

16 Important Facts That You Should Know About Sleep

Categories
sleep

Why Sleep is Important for You

Why Sleep is Important for You

Why Sleep is Important for You

Getting a good night’s sleep is more important than you may think.

The importance of sleep is definitely underestimated by the general public. Some people may say all they need is five hours of sleep and if they’re getting that they’re good to go, but what they’re not realizing is that they’re probably not functioning at their full potential.

Sleep is much more than simple rest. The brain and body don’t shut down during sleep; rather, they perform important tasks that promote both mental and physical health, such as producing hormones that help repair cells and fight off illness. Proper sleep contributes significantly to feeling better and functioning better when awake.

A 2011 Swedish study found that “sleep-deprived people appear less healthy, less attractive and more tired compared with when they are well rested.” Conversely, according to volumes of research, inadequate sleep can cause people to be irritable, have slower response times, make unwise decisions, have trouble with relationships, perform poorly at work or school and become depressed more easily, not to mention increasing the risk for high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, cognitive difficulties and other medical problems.

In fact, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, citing societal factors such as round-the-clock access to technology and the incidence of disorders such as insomnia and sleep apnea, has called insufficient sleep a public health epidemic.

Why Sleep is Important for You

The amount of sleep a person needs depends upon their age. Generally, newborns require 16 to 18 hours daily, preschoolers 11 to 12 hours, school-age children and teenagers at least 10 hours and adults (including seniors) between seven and eight hours.

There are some individuals, whom we call ‘short sleepers,’ who probably will do OK with maybe only six hours, and at the other extreme there are ‘long sleepers,’ who require nine or 10 hours, but the percentage of these extremes are very small. Most of us, after adolescence, really need seven or eight hours of sleep, and on a regular basis.

It’s not just the amount of time spent sleeping that counts. There’s a quality factor, too.

There are people who, for example, say that they can drink coffee and don’t have trouble sleeping, but that’s simply not true. They may not have trouble falling asleep but the quality of their sleep is not what they need. They don’t have the deep sleep that is the most restful, or they have trouble waking up.

The same is true with alcohol, having a drink before going to bed may help you fall asleep but the quality of sleep isn’t good, so you’re probably not going to feel rested at all the next day.

The first thing anyone who has, or thinks they may have, a sleeping problem should do is practice appropriate sleep hygiene, but what if following the tips: allowing sufficient time for sleep, going to bed and waking up the same time every day, removing distractions from the bedroom, doesn’t help?

The next step should be to see a doctor, either a primary care physician or a sleep specialist, because many sleeping problems are caused by other health or medical issues. Insomnia, for example, can be a reaction to a prescription drug, while restless leg syndrome is linked to iron deficiency.

sleep_deprivation

Why Sleep is Important for You
By PositiveMed Team
Edited By Stephanie Dawson

Categories
brain

Top 10 Most Damaging Brain Habits

Top 10 Most Damaging Brain Habits

Top 10 Most Damaging Brain Habits

1. Lack of Stimulating Thoughts
Lack of brain stimulation may cause brain shrinkage. Thinking is the best way to train your brain, so think more, write more, explore more, all this will help you to keep your brain fresh.

2. Skipping Breakfast or No Breakfast at all
People who do not eat breakfast have lower blood sugar levels, which leads to an insufficient supply of nutrients to the brain causing brain degeneration.

3. Over Eating
Often we find tasty food and start eating more than what our body requires, which can cause hardening of the brain arteries, leading to a decrease in mental power.

4. Smoking
Smoking not only harms the lungs, but the brain as well, the nicotine in cigarettes contains substances that can cause multiple brain cell shrinkage, leading to Alzheimer’s disease.

Top 10 Most Damaging Brain Habits

5. High sugar consumption
Too much sugar will interrupt the absorption of proteins and nutrients causing malnutrition and may interfere with brain development.

6. Sleep Deprivation
Long term deprivation from sleep will accelerate the death of brain cells. More cells dead equals more memory loss.

7. Head covered while sleeping
Sleeping with the head covered increases the concentration of carbon dioxide and decreases concentration of oxygen that may lead to brain damaging effects, it would result in a 92.8% chance of suffering from either an early stage, middle stage, or late stage of dementia, by the age of 70.

8. Talking Rarely
Intellectual conversations will promote the efficiency of the brain.

9. Working your brain during illness
Take a rest, working hard or studying with sickness may lead to a decrease in effectiveness of the brain as well as damaging the brain.

10. Air pollution
You probably know that your brain is the largest oxygen consumer in your body, so its the organ that consumes the largest amount of pollution from the air. Inhaling polluted air decreases the supply of oxygen to the brain, bringing about a decrease in brain efficiency.

Categories
health Skin Care

What You Should Know About Melatonin

What You Should Know About Melatonin

The pineal gland, a small endocrine gland about the size of a pea, has been known as the third eye. It is known as the seat of the human soul, which could be because it is located near the center of the brain, between the two hemispheres. It produces the hormone melatonin, which regulates our internal body clock and sleeps cycle. and some people attribute a special power to the pineal gland and associate it with the sixth chakra, which can be awakened to enable telepathic communication.

Melatonin may have a role in protecting you against cancer. It also supports the immune system. Its production has many benefits for the body since it is a powerful and versatile antioxidant that fights some of the most dangerous free radicals in the body, but unlike other antioxidants, melatonin easily diffuses into all cells and even crosses the blood-brain barrier to protect the delicate brain.
During sleep, a great deal of cellular damage that occurs during the day is repaired and that repair process is initiated by secretions of melatonin. Because disturbed sleep so often accompanies aging, anything that can help us sleep better might be something to take note of. It is also helpful to have quality sleep time, otherwise, it can reduce the secretion of growth hormone, an important hormone that helps us keep muscle and lose fat.

Some people use melatonin for Alzheimer’s disease, ringing in the ears, depression, chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia, migraine and other headaches, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), bone loss (osteoporosis), a movement disorder called tardive dyskinesia (TD), epilepsy, as an anti-aging agent, for menopause, and for birth control.

Other uses include breast cancer, brain cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer, head cancer, neck cancer, and gastrointestinal cancer. Melatonin is also used for some of the side effects of cancer treatment (chemotherapy) including weight loss, nerve pain, weakness, and a lowered number of clot-forming cells (thrombocytopenia).

Melatonin levels peak is about 2 a.m. in normal, healthy young people and about 3 a.m. in elderly people. At sunset, the cessation of light triggers neural signals, which stimulate the pineal gland to begin releasing melatonin.