Wenatex Blog | Healthy Sleep for a Better Life

Do you wake in the middle of the night? In an article I read recently, new research has highlighted that what you might be experiencing is a throwback to your ancestors prior to the introduction of artificial light.

In olden times, people slept in two four hour blocks, then rested and relaxed for a period in between. This may have “played an important part in the human capacity to regulate stress naturally”, says Sleep psychologist Gregg Jacobs. He also suggested that in today’s modern world, we don’t get much time to rest and relax and he believes that “It’s not a coincidence that the number of people who report anxiety, stress, depression, alcoholism and drug abuse has gone up.”

So next time you are wake up in the middle of the night, don’t stress, take the time to just rest and relax. Lie back and think of your ancestors… you will get back to sleep in no time.

If you would like to read the full article that was the inspiration for this blog entry, it appeared on BBC News Online, go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16964783

Please let me know your thoughts and experiences.

If you would like to learn more about how to get a healthy night’s sleep, Wenatex conducts free seminars all over Australia on the subjects. You can register your interest in attending a free seminar near you at http://www.wenatex.com.au/seminars_registration.asp

An article I read recently appeared in Brisbane’s Courier Mail. It discussed new research conducted by the Jackson Hole Centre for Preventive Medicine in the USA which found that adults taking between 18 and 132 sleeping tablet doses per year were 4.6 times more likely to die early. What a scary statistic! They even ruled out the presumption that the factor that people taking the pills may have other health problems by matching with a control group of patients of similar ages, gender, lifestyle and health. The test group still had a higher mortality rate. The results of this research provide a clear picture for those who experience poor sleep. Our advice - minimise your use of sleeping tablets and address the underlying problem affecting your sleep.

You can read the article at http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/breaking-news/sleeping-tablets-linked-to-early-death-us-study-finds/story-e6freonf-1226284428246

If you have problems sleeping and you want to learn more about getting a healthy night’s sleep, you should consider attending a Wenatex “Healthy Sleep for a Better Life” seminar. They are free to attend and are conducted in venues all around Australia. To register your interest, fill in the form at http://www.wenatex.com.au/seminars_registration.asp

Do you feel on some days that everyone and everything is irritating? Next time it happens to you, you should step back and consider how you have been sleeping. An article that I read recently from the Body Odd on msnbc.com in the USA talked about some research conducted in 2011 by David Mastin, Associate Professor at the University of Arkansas. It is believed that his research is the first to explore how people actually think when they are sleepy. It showed that sleepy people consider events and that when they go badly, they blame others and sometimes even take revenge. He describes this thinking as “counterfactual”.

Can you reflect on a time when you were feeling agitated with the whole world? Can you attribute it to a lack of sleep? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Read the article that inspired this blog entry at http://bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/07/19/7106894-sleepy-people-blame-others-for-everything

Wenatex conducts free seminars on how to get a better night’s sleep all over Australia. If you are interested in finding out more, you can register your interest at http://www.wenatex.com.au/seminars_registration.asp

An article in the Wall Street Journal caught my eye this morning. It discussed how scientists from the University of Pennsylvania are researching biomarkers, which are characteristics or substances in the body, to measure sleepiness.

Initially, when reading the article, I was excited about the possibilities of this research, for example, looking at sleepiness as a measure for the potential risk of diseases such as diabetes. Measuring people’s levels of sleepiness has the potential to improve overall health.

However, I can see a more negative potential for this research. It is one thing to measure how “sleepy” a person is but it is another to measure the ability of someone to cope with it. Dr Dinges raises the debate when he states “The ability to pinpoint who handles sleep loss poorly brings up ethical issues. For example, for positions that involve a lot of travel or long hours, what companies want to screen candidates for their natural ability to weather sleep loss?” Take an example, say you are applying for a job. Sleeping six hours per night is normal for you. As part of the interview process, you are required to go through a test which measures how “sleepy” you are, and based on the results of the test, you fail to get the job. In the example, the test failed to measure how well you cope with your level of sleepiness.

On the flipside, some companies appear to be using this technology in a positive way. The company in Melbourne that was raised in the article has developed special eyeglasses that can give truckdrivers a “sleepiness” score in real time.

I think in the end that Dr Shaw, also from the University of Pennsylvania, has the final say. He believes that there is no one single biomarker that can measure sleepiness. He states in the article that “we are going to need a panel of markers, each of which is going to be imprecise on its own.”

We can only wait and see further outcomes from this research.

You can read the article at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204369404577206952841644944.html?mod=googlenews_wsj. Please let me know what you think.

If you are one of those people who doesn’t need to measure, you know you are not getting enough sleep, Wenatex holds free seminars all over Australia educating people on how to get a better night’s sleep. If you are interested, you can register your interest at http://www.wenatex.com.au/seminars_registration.asp.

There are some foods that will help you sleep, for example, dairy contains tryptophan which aids sleep. However, there are some foods (and drinks) that you should avoid close to bedtime in order to get a good night’s sleep. WebMD has produced a great slideshow that gives you some really good hints of what to have and what to avoid before bed. View the sideshow at http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/slideshow-sleep-foods?ecd=wnl_slw_052611

What tips do you have to make you sleep well? Please share them, I would love to hear from you.

If you would like to find out more about how to get a healthy night’s sleep, Wenatex runs free seminars on the subject all around Australia. To register your interest in attending an event local to you, please fill in the form at http://www.wenatex.com.au/seminars_registration.asp

Check out this article I read recently http://www.kansascity.com/2011/03/14/2725490/texting-tweets-rob-us-of-sleep.html. It comes from the USA, but it is very relevant to Australia as well. The article talks about social networking, computer gaming, web surfing, texting, etc, and how when we are on these late at night, they are robbing us of sleep. It also talks about the problem getting worse and how adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18 are the worst affected. These are all stimulants and The Hackensack University Medical Center representative stated “The stimulation makes it much harder to fall asleep.”

So the bottom line is that we should create a sleep routine which doesn’t have to completely eliminate but rather limits our computer and phone time, particularly late at night. Let me know what you think.

Wenatex conducts free healthy sleep seminars all over Australia. They can give you good tips on how to create a good sleep routine. If you want to find out more, you should register your interest in attending at http://www.wenatex.com.au/seminars_registration.asp.

Do you answer yes to any of the following?

• Do you have difficulty falling asleep?
• Do you wake up often during the night and have trouble going back to sleep?
• Do you wake up too early in the morning?
• Do you feel tired upon waking?

If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, the chances are you have insomnia and you might want to read this inciteful article that I read today. http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/insomnia-symptoms-and-causes?page=2 The article discusses the types, causes symptoms and treatments for this sometimes debilitating disorder. It also gives some great tips as to how to overcome insomnia.

If you wish to learn more tips about how to get a good night’s sleep, Wenatex conducts free healthy sleep seminars all over Australia. If you are interested, please check it out and register at http://www.wenatex.com.au/seminars_registration.asp.

When you had a tough decision to make, did your parents ever tell you just to sleep on it and the answer will come to you? Well, it appears that they instinctively knew what some recent research has uncovered, that letting a problem rest will help you to differentiate between the vital and the irrelevant aspects of the problem and help you make a better decision.

Read the article at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1325435/Got-tough-decision-make-Just-sleep-it.html and let me know your thoughts.

It is called the “silly season” for a reason. People are flat out celebrating Christmas parties, so they are staying up later, drinking and eating more, spending more time socialising. Christmas shopping needs to be done.  People are running around busy shops, looking for parks, thinking about what to buy. People stress about money, racking up big credit card bills.

How do these factors and changes in habit change people’s ability to sleep?

Stress, diet, and alcohol are some of the major factors that decrease the quality and quantity of sleep.  It doesn’t take long before Christmas catch-ups and hectic shopping in the summer heat take their toll. 

Tips:

Stress and Shopping – Avoid unnecessary stress by shopping early so you have time to budget properly, avoid the crowds and have time to find what you’re looking for. You also might consider doing some of your gift shopping online.

Diet - Ladies might be tempted to cut carbs to curb the effect of indulging in too much party eating and drinking. To get a good night’s sleep, don’t cut carbs altogether but rather, eat a combination of carbs and small amounts of proteins that contain the amino acid tryptophan. 

Alcohol - Drinking alcohol makes you sleepy but it will affect the type of sleep you get.  You will wake up more, dream less in the initial hours of sleep then dream more later on.  So you will wake up feeling vague and irritable.  One glass of wine is okay but rethink that second or third!

Temperature - Body temperature is one of the mechanisms for the body to produce the feelings of being awake or tired.  We feel sleepy when our body temperature falls. Make sure your bedroom is cool and comfortable to allow your body temperature to fall rapidly which will help you fall asleep quickly.

If you wish to find out more about how to get a good night’s sleep, come along to a free healthy sleep seminar. Wenatex conducts these seminars all over Australia and New Zealand. To register your interest, fill in the form at http://www.wenatex.com.au/seminars_registration.asp.

How do you stay sane and get a good night’s sleep at this time of the year? Please share your thoughts.

Do you sleep with a snorer… or more the point do you get any sleep with a snorer?

Do you battle with your partner each and every night over his (or her) snoring?

If you do, I am certain that you will relate to a story. It is partiularly interesting as it not only talks about her ongoing battle with her snoring husband but it also talks about the different kinds of snorers and what you can potentially do to prevent certain types of snoring.

If you are interested, read the article at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1282711/HE-sleeps-like-log–snores-like-foghorn-SHE-spends-night-lying-awake-seething-rage–Its-snore-wars.html?ito=feeds-newsxml and share your experience.