Beep. Beep. Beep.

It’s 5:30 am., and that pesky alarm is going off. If you wake up feeling like you didn’t get a wink of sleep, you are not alone. Nearly half of Americans struggle with getting a good night’s sleep. Although the cause of sleep deprivation may be medically complicated, some behavioral patterns also may be contributing. What if you could follow a simple formula that could help you wake up feeling refreshed and ready for the day ahead? Following this 5-step formula, you will set yourself up for a successful night’s sleep. Continue reading to learn more. 

What is Narcolepsy?

Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder characterized by a frequent and sometimes uncontrollable desire for sleep. This can result into sudden lapses into sleep at any time, any place. The result is that normal patterns and rhythms of sleeping become abnormal. For example, someone suffering from narcolepsy may end up sleeping several times during the day and then having trouble sleeping at night. Continue reading to learn more about the 5 most common signs of narcolepsy.

What is Narcolepsy?

Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder characterized by a frequent and sometimes uncontrollable desire for sleep. This can result into sudden lapses into sleep at any time, any place. The result is that normal patterns and rhythms of sleeping become abnormal. For example, someone suffering from narcolepsy may end up sleeping several times during the day and then having trouble sleeping at night.

Irregular sleeping patterns are not only inconvenient, they can have medical, emotional, and psychological consequences.

More Stress than Ever

Are you lying awake at night, stressed out, mind racing in circles? For many American’s this is a nightly routine that prevents sleep and leads to habits that may help you fall asleep, but not sleep well. Either way, stress is a sleep killer.

Beyond the stress that actively keeps you up at night, the demands of modern life – parenting, work, school, health, finances, chores – can also make sleep feel like a secondary necessity, especially because we all like having “free time” and “self-time.” The only time that this can happen for most individuals is late at night, and leads to staying up late to watch television, cruising the web, or watching a movie which further inhibit sleep.

Also, all of us are different and can deal with different amounts of stress, be they short-term or long-term stressors. Understanding stress is about understanding stress for you – how you react, how it impacts your life, how it impacts your sleep. Continue reading to learn about how to overcome stress-related sleep problems.

What is a Sleep Diary?

A sleep diary is a record of your sleep. It includes many aspects of your sleep experience, as well as the factors that may influence sleep. Sleep diaries can be an extremely important exhibit for your doctor or a sleep specialist to aid in identify and diagnosing sleep conditions. In fact, they might be requested of you by your doctor or a sleep center in order to get more accurate data about your sleeping.

Sleep diaries are generally kept over a period of at least two weeks, but the longer the better. Let's look at the top reasons to keep a sleep diary, as well as other important information.

Why Chronic Fatigue is a Big Deal

Do you feel moody or irritable around your family, children, and loved ones? Do you have trouble performing at school at work? Have you lost your drive to spend time with friends? Have you been struggling with erectile dysfunction (for men) and/or reduced sex drive? Do small tasks feel like a big deal? If these sound familiar, you might be struggling with chronic fatigue.

Each of the above issues can be caused by chronic fatigue - and though it looks rather bleak and obvious put in those terms, it's a lot hard to identify these issues in real life. Especially if you are getting 8 hours of sleep, you might not identify that sleep is the underlying cause. There are a number of sleep conditions where your clock might tell you that you received 8 hours of sleep, but your body is telling a different story.

In this article we will focus on common sleep conditions that give the illusion that you are receiving a full night's rest when in actuality you aren't, which may help you start to evaluate causes of your fatigue.

What is Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA)?

Obstructive sleep apnea is a sleep disorder and potentially serious medical condition. OSA causes you to stop breathing for 20+ seconds many times throughout the night, anywhere from 40 to hundreds of times. Each time you stop breathing you rouse yourself out of sleep to begin breathing again. However, this process is subconscious, and prevents you from entering the deep, restorative stages of sleep. In the morning you will not remember rousing, though you will certainly feel the effects of not having any restful sleep!

The reason OSA causes you to stop breathing is because your throat becomes obstructed:

• The breathing muscles in the back of your throat relax
• This causes the back of your throat to collapse fully or partially
• Your collapsed throat, sometimes with the assistance of tonsils or tongue, blocks your airway
• Your body wakes from sleep to resume breathing
• You do not remember waking up in the morning

Each blockage/arousal cycle is called an apnea or apnea event. OSA can lead to moderate or catastrophic sleep deprivation, with well-known medical side effects.

OSA can be mild, moderate or severe depending on how many apneas you experience.

How Does Insomnia Interfere With Life?

Insomnia is a sleep disorder that leaves you sleep deprived and frustrated. Insomnia is a condition when you either can’t fall asleep, can’t stay asleep, or always wake up far earlier than you need. The result of insomnia is mild to severe sleep deprivation, which can have mild to catastrophic consequences.

Insomnia side effects interfere with all aspects of life, including our health in terms of:

• Emotionally
• Cognitively
• Physically
• Socially

Understanding what insomnia is and what you can do to help treat it may dramatically improve your well being.

Why Good Sleep is Important for Losing/Maintaining Weight

If you want to lose weight, or at least make managing your weight easier, find a comfortable bed and get busy sleeping. You should be getting at least 7 hours of sleep per day, but 8 or 9 is significantly better. Getting a healthy night’s rest can make a tremendous difference in all areas of trying to lose weight, including:

• Moderating appetite
• Working out more often and more intensely
• Make choices that are good for weight
• Help you maintain healthy stress and insulin levels, which are critical for managing weight

A lack of sleep affects your ability to manage or lose weight in many frustrating ways. Continue reading to learn the role that sleep plays in weight management and control. 

What is Chronic Sleep Deprivation?

Sleep deprivation is a chronic condition of not receiving adequate sleep. Adequate sleep will differ from person to person, and change as we age. Most of us suffer from sleep deprivation because we either have trouble staying asleep, or getting to sleep. Sound familiar?

It's also important to distinguish between short-term sleep deprivation, such as sleep deprivation caused by anxieties or stress that will soon pass, and long-term sleep deprivation, such as a chronic lack of sleep that may spread over months or years.

Sleep deprivation is usually followed by sleep binging (i.e. on the weekends) before the cycle of sleep deprivation starts over. Chronic sleep deprivation has a strong link to depression. One of the common signs of insomnia and sleep apnea, for example, is depression.