ANCSLEEP BLOG

Do you know someone, or are you yourself someone, that claims they can run on five or six hours of sleep and be just fine? While you may feel okay, the reality is is that getting sufficient amount of sleep requires you to sleep for much longer than five or six hours. Although you may be able to function in the long-term, or your body has adapted to that after years of building that habit, that doesn't mean that you aren't suffering to some degree. Continue reading to find out what happens to your body when you get different amounts of sleep. 

Is pain keeping you awake at night? You are part of a group with nearly 40 million adults in the U.S. also struggling with severe pain. 80% of those individuals have sleep disturbances and more than half have insomnia. In fact, most patients with chronic pain as report that as the reason for intermittent sleep disturbances. 

Focusing on the anxiety that comes from pain can turn into this endless cycle of poor sleep, anxiety about pain, which then leads to more sleep disturbances and increased pain. The mind and the body are interconnected, and the more anxious you feel anticipating a bad night of sleep, the more tense you'll feel which can further contribute to feelings of pain as well as sleep disturbances. The more pain you experience while sleeping, the less dopamine your brain will make and opioid receptors that you have, making you more sensitive to pain. 

Getting good sleep is vital for pain management. But knowing that fact can have one of two effects: increase one's motivation to find solutions for great sleep, or increase the amount of anxiety that one feels about the necessity of good sleep that they are not going to get. Continue reading to learn more about how to overcome feelings of pain throughout the night.  

The jaw is a common place to store stress and anxiety. This is why some may find themselves grinding their teeth and clenching their jaw at night. This same response can happen repeatedly throughout the day, and throughout the night. It's known as bruxism when it's involuntary, or not on purpose. 

Bruxism can happen whether or not one is awake, but they are much less likely to know that they grind their teeth when they are sleeping. It's often not until a dentist appointment where one may discover that they actually are grinding their teeth down throughout the night. 

This habit can be pretty damaging to your teeth in the long run, so continue reading to learn more about bruxism, and what you can do about it. 

When you experience sleep challenges and sleep deprivation, it is exhausting. Literally. And it seems like the harder you try, the more trouble you have with sleep. You can read all the articles you want to (including this blog), try all the apps, make all the changes, but it just seems like sleep is still not coming. This is not because you are doing anything wrong. But, it has to do with the fact that sleep is a passive process. 

There is nothing you can do to make sleep come on, no matter how tired you are. You just have to let it come to you, which is easier said than done. The key is to not focus on going to sleep, but to focus on the two aspects that drive sleep: drive and arousal. The other tips on the internet do inherently try to achieve high sleep drive and lower arousal, but with too much emphasis on getting sleep, rather than reducing the causes of not achieving those two factors. 

Continue reading to find out how you can do less to sleep more. 

Much of the advice here on improving sleep encourages you to put your phone in another room, remove all distractions, and make sure your sleep environment is the most optimal for a good night's sleep. However, sometimes those measures are just unrealistic. People need their phones next to them in case of emergency or because of their jobs, etc. Also, many people read books on their tablets, or like to watch TV before going to bed. 

There is a way to improve sleep and smartly utilize technology, so you don't feel like you have to lock all of your devices in a safe during the night. Improving sleep is so nuanced, that there are other aspects of your life on which you can focus to help you get better sleep. Continue reading for some additional sleep tips! 

Improving sleep quality is the main goal of sleep interventions. However, this can be hard if you are unsure of what sleep quality entails. And if you are unsure, don't worry - you're not alone. Nonetheless, it's still very important to understand what sleep quality is so you can get a good night's rest. 

The best definition of sleep quality is that it is the ability to have refreshing and restorative sleep that can improve daytime function and overall health. You can be in bed for 7-9 hours, but if you're only getting quality sleep for 6 hours, then it doesn't matter. Restful sleep allows you to improve your immune function, exercise better, and repair your body from the day so you wake up feeling restored. Continue reading to get a better idea of what sleep quality really is so you can start making some better decisions to improve your sleep. 

A recent study found that sleeping with the window open actually improves our sleep. However, over half of adults in the U.S. sleep with their bedroom windows closed. The reason that sleeping with the window open can be so beneficial, is that it can improve the quality of the air that we breathe. The long-term effect of this is longer-lasting sleep. Continue reading to learn why sleeping with the window open is so important, and what may be some of the reasons that you are not doing it.   

Getting better sleep should be an important goal of yours, although most of the time it barely makes people's radars. This is because we don't think about how much sleep impacts everything that we do in life. It is essential for learning, thinking, concentrating, working out, and functioning at an optimal level.

Therefore, if you understand how important sleep is, it makes sense why getting great sleep is so important. Getting good sleep requires dedication and changing poor sleeping habits that contribute to some of the sleep challenges you may be having. It's also important to recognize what are signs of bad sleep so you know whether or not you need to improve.

Continue reading to learn six habits to give up if you want to improve your sleep! 

Feeling sleep after a workout? You could be curious about whether or not is the best idea to nap after you get done burning some calories. There are pros and cons to napping after a workout. Well-timed naps can improve alertness, memory and athletic performance, but a nap may also make it more challenging to fall asleep at bedtime. 

Continue reading to learn more about the effects of a workout on the desire to sleep and if it's the best thing to take a nap or not. 

Xerostomia is a condition in which the mouth is perpetually dry. About 22% of people experience this uncomfortable sensation that can drastically impact a person's life. Dry mouth at night can be extremely disruptive to sleep and cause individual to wake up and grab a glass of water or find some other way to lubricate their mouths. Continue reading to learn more about the causes, and how to prevent dry mouth at night to get better sleep.