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10 Facts You Don't Know About Sleep
Continuing with this week's theme: National Sleep Awareness Week, let's explore 10 facts you (probably) don't know about sleep. There are many things we know don't know about sleep, and many that we know … but what we “know” is incorrect. Here are my top 10 facts that you probably didn't know before reading this:
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Within 10 minutes of waking, you will have forgotten 90% of your dreams.1
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12% of non-color-blind sighted people dream in black and white.2
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In a study, students were allowed to sleep, but they were awakened as they3 started to dream. They suffered sleep deprivation symptoms after 3 days.
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During sleep, you are virtually paralyzed.4
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The record for someone going the longest without sleep is 18 days, 21 hours, and 40 minutes.5
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A newborn typically costs the parents 400 to 750 hours of lost sleep over the first year.6
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A 1998 study showed that shining a bright light on the backs of knees can reset the brain's sleep-wake clock.7
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Oxford University proved that counting sleep is not an effective treatment for insomniacs. The problem is that this is so boring, your mind wonders on to other issues.8
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If your mattress is more than 10 years old, it is probably time to buy a new one.9
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The brains of whales and dolphins can be half asleep and half awake.10
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The Big Sleep Show
We hope that our articles on http://www.ecotones.com/Articles have helped make you more aware of sleep issues, especially since we are in the beginning of National Sleep Awareness Week.
To get an intense dose of sleep information, be sure to check out The Big Sleep Show. The National Sleep Foundation will be hosting a consumer health expo dedicated to better sleep. The next one will be held on Saturday and Sunday (April 17th and 18th, 2010) at the Telemundo Health & Fitness Expo in the Miami Beach Convention Center. Exhibitors will cover mattress and bedding products, sleep centers, sleep medicine, nutritional supplements, CPAP equipment, etc.
More information about The Big Sleep Show can be found at: http://www.sleepfoundation.org/event/the-national-sleep-foundation%E2%80%99s-big-sleep-show (or http://bit.ly/ddmmzX) |
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Celebrate National Sleep Awareness Week
Today kicks off 2010's National Sleep Awareness Week and I am sure that you are all wondering how best to celebrate this event. Last year eHow.com had a short list of How to Celebrate National Sleep Day that you may wish to try.1 To the 5 suggestions listed in the eHow.com article, I would like to add for this year's National Sleep Awareness Week:
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Google images of “sleep” (http://images.google.com/images?q=sleep).
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Google for images of “insomnia” (http://images.google.com/images?q=insomnia) and compare with the results from the above search for “sleep”.
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Plan to go to bed at the same reasonable hour every day this week.
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If your mattress is worn, treat yourself to a comfortable, new mattress.
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If you have consistent problems going to sleep, staying asleep, or waking refreshed, make an appointment to see your doctor or a sleep specialist.
1 How to Celebrate National Sleep Day
http://www.ehow.com/how_2020109_celebrate-sleep-day.html |
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Sleep Better by Moving Furniture
No, this isn't an article on how exercise can help sleep. (That was the topic of yesterday's article.) This is about Feng Shui and insomnia. Feng Shui channels the flow of energy by optimally arranging buildings and furniture. You probably can't change the layout of your home, but rearranging furniture is fair game.
The most obvious place to start is the location and position of your bed. Is it near a window that might drain energy? Is it in a corner that might collect stagnant energy? The best place (according to Feng Shui) is along a windowless wall. For more Feng Shui tips for sleep, see Can’t Sleep? Try Feng Shui to Cure Your Insomnia.1
1 Can’t Sleep? Try Feng Shui to Cure Your Insomnia
http://healthandfitnessreport.info/cant-sleep-try-feng-shui-to-cure-your-insomnia/
Sleep Better by Moving Furniture
No, this isn't an article on how exercise can help sleep. (That one was yesterday.) This is about Feng Shui and insomnia. Feng Shui channels the flow of energy by optimally arranging buildings and furniture. You probably can't change the layout of your home, but rearranging furniture is fair game.
The most obvious place to start is the location and position of your bed. Is it near a window that might drain energy? Is it in a corner that might collect stagnant energy? The best place (according to Feng Shui) is along a windowless wall. For more Feng Shui tips for sleep, see Can’t Sleep? Try Feng Shui to Cure Your Insomnia.
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Sleep Better with Exercise
Maybe America's growing sleep problems are linked to our growing waistlines and diminishing exercise? Athletes sleep better and are less easily disturbed while sleeping than non-athletes.1 They can wake up feeling more refreshed. Exercise supports delta sleep, which is vital to our feeling refreshed after sleeping. So, try adding at least some gentle exercise (maybe lunch-time or after-dinner walks) to your daily schedule and see if that doesn't improve your quality of sleep.
1 How Exercise Enables Sleep
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/qanta-ahmed/how-exercise-enables-slee_b_462156.html |
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Sleep Better with Acupuncture
The ancient Oriental medical practice of inserting very thin needles into specific parts of the body to address various illnesses is very controversial in the Western world. As with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), acupuncture does not introduce drugs into your body and is free of side-effects.
Insomnia can have many causes, and possibly multiple causes for a given individual. Acupuncture is claimed to be able to treat each of the causes by directing the Yin and Yang energies within your body.1
Insomnia is one of the major reasons that people undergo acupuncture. If this approach works with your lifestyle, be sure to use a reputable acupuncturist.
1 Acupuncture for Insomnia
http://www.altmd.com/Articles/Acupuncture-for-Insomnia |
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Sleep Better with the DVR Watching TV
Late night TV shows are a siren’s song luring onto the rocks of sleep deprivation. According to Qanta Ahmed, M.D., the likes of Jon Stewart (of “The Daily Show”) are a threat to good sleep patterns.1 On average, Americans spend at about one hour watching TV in the two hours before going to sleep and many TV shows are stimulating. The solution to this problem is to use a digital video recorder (DVR, sometimes called a PVR) available from most cable and satellite TV companies. By recording the late-night shows, you can watch them at a later time, when doing so will not impair your sleet. Alternatively, popular TV shows are available to be watched anytime you want to, on the networks’ websites and sites such as http://www.hulu.com.
1 Stop Trading Good Sleep for Great TV: DVR Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/qanta-ahmed/stop-trading-good-sleep-f_b_411173.html |
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Sleep Better with Yoga
Yoga can help you sleep better by helping you to relax1 and by training you to defocus off of troubling or stressful thoughts.2 Practicing Yoga as little as three times a week can be very effective. As we have reported in a previous article, you want to avoid exercise too close to bedtime.
Four of the Yoga postures that are credited with helping sleep are: Salabasana, Tadasana, Bhujangasana, and Utanasana. See How to use Yoga to cure insomnia for brief instructions on each of these positions.3
1 Can Yoga Help Cure Insomnia?
http://www.treatmentforinsomnia.info/can-yoga-help-cure-insomnia/
2 Sleep yoga may help beat insomnia
http://buzz7.com/health-science/sleep-yoga-may-help-beat-insomnia.html
3 How to use Yoga to cure insomnia
http://bit.ly/dtTbc2 or http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=How+to+use+Yoga+to+cure+insomnia&artid=GLPX5q6K2y4=&SectionID=xAV59odivTs=&MainSectionID=wIcBMLGbUJI=&SectionName=BUzPVSKuYv7MFxnS0yZ7ng==&SEO= |
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National Sleep Awareness Week® is Coming
Next Sunday, March 7th, kicks off National Sleep Awareness Week®. Continuing until March 13th, this is a yearly event to educate people to the importance of sleep and the risks of sleep disorders. This week is aligned to come just before the time switch of Daylight Saving Time, when most Americans will “spring ahead” an hour, losing an hour of sleep. This forces us to readjust our internal clocks, which entails much more discomfort than even adjusting our digital wrist watches.
Get ready for National Sleep Awareness Week by going to http://www.sleepfoundation.org/catalog and pick up some reading material. (Remember, you can sleep better by reading a book.1)
1 Sleep Better by Reading a Book
http://ecotones.com/sleep-better-by-reading-a-book.html |
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Sleep Better by Golfing
That's right, golfing can help you sleep better. Regular exercise, especially NOT before bedtime, can reduce stress, as well as improve your general health. The gain goes both ways: golfing (or any exercise) can help you sleep better, and sleeping better can improve your golf game.
Dr. Marc L. Benton did a small study of patients suffering from sleep apnea that loved golf, but disliked their CPAP machines and didn’t use them consistently.1 Lured by a lower golf score, the patients used their CPAP machines nightly. The result was improving their average handicap from 12.4 down to 11.
The result was the patients were more likely to use their CPAP machines regularly, as their lower golf scores rewarded them for this behavior.
1 Exercise: Treating Sleep Apnea With a Golf Club
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/health/research/10exer.html |
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