ANCSLEEP BLOG

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a psychiatric disorder of an intense feeling of anxiety about most aspects of life. It consists of the inability to manage your stress and form appropriate reactions to stressors and non-stressors. Aside from being fairly debilitating towards most aspects of your life, GAD can also negatively affect sleep.

Not only can GAD affect sleep, but a lack of sleep can further contribute to feelings of stress and anxiety. This bidirectional relationship makes sleep an important factor to care for in the treatment of GAD, but sometimes GAD has to be treated in order to improve one's sleep health. Continue reading to find out more about this relationship and what the most appropriate management tips are. 

The new trend on TikTok is for one to tape their lips while sleeping. Users have claimed that they have noticed many benefits of this practice, including:

• More energy 
• Sharper jawline 
• Better skin, mood, and digestion 
• Reduced brain fog 
• Less cavities, gum disease and bad breath
• Strengthened immune system

The benefits of mouth taping involve taking a piece of skin-friendly tape and placing them over both lips to keep your mouth closed throughout the night have recently become a major media sensation. 

But is it safe? Does it work? Does science support this practice? Continue reading to learn more about mouth taping and what experts are saying. 

Do you ever find yourself have the same dream over and over? One that is quite distressing and freaks you out, leaving you wondering what it means for days after? You are not alone, as 60-75% of Americans experience these "recurring" dreams. They are a part of normal sleep for most people, but their content can be the most distressing part of them, causing sleep loss and anxiety revolving around sleep. 

Certain disorders like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) can often have these dreams at a level that is extremely distressing because it relates to something over which they feel stressed. Continue reading to find out more about what these dreams mean, and what you can do if they are negatively impacting your sleep.

Insomnia is the inability to go to sleep. Primary insomnia means there is no underlying reason why you cannot go to sleep, but you are simply having trouble getting a good night's rest. Secondary insomnia is an identifiable cause that is preventing you from going to sleep. 

One common secondary cause is painsomnia. Painsomnia is a term that combines the words pain and insomnia, and refers to insomnia caused by pain. Paincan making sleeping almost impossible, as you are unable to relax enough to go to sleep. Not only does painsomnia make it impossible to sleep, but having a lack of sleep can make pain symptoms worse. So it very much is a double edged sword, the relationship between sleep and pain.

Continue reading to find out more about painsomnia and what are some steps you can take to reduce the disruptions you currently face. 

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a depressive mood disorder that affects people only at certain parts of the year. It mostly affects people in the winter months, after daylights savings, when it gets dark very early in the day. The lack of light that most people are exposed to during this part of the year can create feelings of sadness, a lack of motivation, the desire to sleep a lot, and other symptoms synonymous with depression. 

The thing that makes SAD unique from depression is that it is not year round. It affects as much as 3% of people inthe US, with lower energy, a lack of concentration and irritability, and sleeping issues. Continue reading to learn more about SAD's effect on sleep.  

Sleep apnea is a common sleeping disorder that involves brief cessation in breathing called apneas. These apneic events can be due to an obstruction (the most common) or a brain stem disorder (central sleep apnea). Although these brief pauses only last for a few seconds, they are still quite concerning to bed partners and are detrimental to your health. 

In this article, we are going to talk about arrhythmias and their connection with sleep apnea. Arrhythmias are just one of the ways that sleep apnea can negatively affect one's health. Although one of the lesser known causes of arrhythmias, they are serious enough that any risk factors must be addressed as soon as possible. Continue reading for more information. 

COVID-19 unfortunately is far from being over. New strains seem to be arising quite often, and as life tries to get to a new normal, there always seems to be this imminent threat. Aside from the stress that causes, COVID itself causes many problems, particularly at night. 

It's not new information that a connection exists between your immune system and sleep. So if your illness causes you to have trouble sleeping, then that could inherently make your immune system weaker, giving you more trouble fighting the virus and getting better. Here are a few COVID-19 symptoms that ruin sleep, and ways you can help yourself get the rest you need for a good recovery. 

Sleep is required for our health. However, some have more trouble falling asleep than others. Many have turned to melatonin as a supplement for sleep. Melatonin is the main hormone that regulates sleep in the body. When someone doesn't make enough of it, they may turn to an over-the-counter synthetic hormone for a boost.

However, there may be a new supplement on the horizon. Gamma-aminobutyric acid, or GABA, is a natural hormone found in the body as well that has been shown to be promising for sleep promotion. It promotes a calming effect and only affects the early stages of sleep. Studies are still early, but promising. Continue reading to learn more about GABA and if it may be a suitable alternative to melatonin for you. 

In the age of the great resignation and the pandemic, more and more people are pursuing their own business. They want to be more in control of their work life balance, and have learned how to monetize their hobbies. Although being your own boss sounds great, entrepreneurship comes with its own set of struggles. 

One of those struggles is not getting enough sleep. There is a joke on social media that says I hated my 9-5 so I started my own business and now I work 24/7. Although more business owners may laugh at the irony of this, many of them live that reality. Owning a business comes with the responsibility of being in charge of all of its operations. This can be stressful and create many barriers for creating separation between work and life.

Here are some of the reasons why entrepreneurs aren't getting enough sleep and what you can do to combat that. 

Going through a divorce is one of the most distressing things a person can go through. It's an unbearable amount of pain, sadness, guilt, and other feelings that can cause chaos to one's life. One area of your life that may be dramatically affected by a divorce is sleep. 

Sleep may seem like a common thing that disappears during intense moments of one's life. However, getting sleep can actually be a pretty effective buffer against extremely overwhelming stress. So, when you're going through a divorce, and feel as if you can't control anything, you may want to at least try being in control of your sleep patterns. Here are some things you can try to help you get a good night's rest during a very tumultuous time.