Your immune system and sleep are connected. Sleep loss impacts your immune response and, in turn, your immune system alters your sleep. If you are trying to avoid getting sick, getting consistently long and quality sleep will be one of your primary methods of preventing illness and ensuring optimal recovery.
Obstructive sleep apnea is a medical condition and sleeping disorder where you repeatedly stop breathing throughout the night, anywhere from 5 to 30+ times per hour. Each time you stop breathing you rouse yourself out of sleep to begin breathing again, though in the morning you will not remember waking up.
Your airway becomes obstructed because the breathing muscles in the back of your throat relax, causing the back of your throat to collapse fully or partially, blocking your airways. Each blockage/arousal cycle is called an apnea or apnea event.
As an adult, you should be averaging 7-9 hours of sleep every day. These figures are extensively researched and you should be dubious when someone says that they can do fine with 5 hours of sleep.
The key word here is 7-9 hours every day, not necessarily at night. People who sleep 4-5 hours at night will need to supplement their sleep with naps in order to get their necessary sleep. When you are younger, you likely had little trouble getting at least 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep every night. But your sleep pattern changes as you age, and after 65 years of age the idea of getting 7 straight hours of sleep may sound impossible.
It may seem like identifying sleep deprivation would be easy, or that the only symptom a lack of sleep would be tiredness. However, sleep deprivation can manifest into a variety of presentations, including depression. In some cases, both look the same.
Continue reading to learn what some of the most common symptoms of sleep deprivation are to help you identify if you may be struggling with getting enough sleep.
With a year that has been so challenging, it's very easy for stress to add up. When stress compounds it can disrupt many areas of life, especially sleep. Managing sleep patterns well can relieve some of the burden of stress and help keep you going during questionable times.
It may seem like identifying sleep deprivation would be obvious, or that the only symptom of is being tired. This list is intended to help you take measured stock of some of the most common symptoms of sleep deprivation and to help you identify whether or not you may be operating at a suboptimal level due to chronic sleep deprivation.
Many people have felt that scary feeling of drifting off slightly to sleep while driving, only to perk up with a start. Or that scary feeling of hearing rumbling strips under your tires after you accidentally swerved off the road. Especially for shift workers, sleeping at the wheel is one of the main causes of death.
Have you ever found yourself 25 minutes into lecture, with your eyelids steadily getting heavier and heavier? It’s warm, the class may not be interesting, and the teacher's voice sounds like the perfect background noise? Falling asleep in class can be very tempting, but probably isn't the best for your grade. Continue reading to find out how to avoid getting your Zs during lecture.
When things begin to heat up is very important to recognize the impact that hot weather can have on sleep, both quantity and quality. In the summer months especially if you do not have AC, you may find yourself tossing and turning, throwing off the sheets, waking multiple times at night, etc. This can be a source of frustration and fatigue.
Yes, new puppies are very, very cute. But If you have ever trained a new puppy on their house-manners, you know just how much it can interrupt your normal sleeping patterns. The pup may be barking, whining, scratching on the door, or just rough-housing loudly with their toys.