ANCSLEEP BLOG

How Much Are We In Pain?

Pain-related sleep loss is a common problem in society. The 2015 Sleep in AmericaTM Poll found that 21% of Americans experience chronic pain. It also found that 36% of people have experienced acute pain in the last week.

The question is why are people in so much pain? Some contributing factors include:

• Sitting all day at a desk is not good for our health
• Increased screen time leads to less physical activity
• Obesity epidemic 
• Stress
• Sports and high activity that lead to injuries
• Genetics 

With so many people experiencing pain, there is a high likelihood that they are also experiencing sleeplessness as pain and sleep are closely related. Continue reading to learn more about the impact of pain on sleep.

Frequently Waking Up to Urinate is a Condition

The term for frequently waking up at night to urinate is nocturia. Nocturia is more than an irritating nuisance, it causes sleep deprivation and should be taken seriously.

Whereas someone without nocturia can sleep 6-8 hours at night without having to urinate, people with nocturia may get up 3-6 times per night or more. Getting up once, or perhaps even twice, per night is likely not going to cause problems, but 3 times per night is likely to cause daytime sleepiness and 5 or more times per night is likely to cause severe sleep deprivation.

Nocturia should not be confused with bed-wetting, which does not involve rousing from sleep. Nocturia can be caused by a multitude of factors, or a combination of factors, such as:

• Lifestyle habits
• Medical conditions
• Naturally occurring life circumstances
• Sleeping disorders

Sleep and Well-being

Well-being is a term with many definitions, but overall, involves having a sense of satisfaction and healthfulness with our day-to-day lives. The opposite of well-being could include feeling poorly, discouraged, and melancholic every day.

Be Comfortable With CPAP

CPAP is often scary for people who are concerned they have obstructive sleep apnea (or have already been diagnosed with it). After all, it doesn’t exactly look comfortable. People who already use it sometimes struggle with ensuring that their CPAP is effective.

If you are concerned about how to use your CPAP and maintain it, then continue reading the article where we will discuss: What a CPAP is

• What CPAP therapy is used for
• How to keep your CPAP effective
• How to maintain your CPAP
• Additional CPAP Tips

Teaching children how to sleep is well-documented. But can these same tricks work for adults? Websites that discuss sleep training for children are excellent resources for adults too. Not every trick will work, but many of the strategies are applicable to adults who struggle with sleep deprivation or falling asleep.

It might feel silly to use childish methods to establish good sleeping habits, but improved sleep can improve functioning:

• Physically
• Mentally
• Academically
• Socially

Here are 4 tricks we use on many children that also work on adults.

What is Your Sleep Wake Cycle?

Your circadian rhythm acts as your internal timekeeper, orchestrating the delicate balance between sleep and wakefulness. Operating behind the scenes in your brain, it controls your natural cycle of rest and alertness, commonly referred to as your sleep-wake cycle.

Understanding your circadian rhythm is crucial in grasping the intricate workings of your body and brain, ultimately impacting the quality of your sleep. Your sleep-wake cycle, from the moment you rise to when you hit the pillow and wake again, is ideally a 24-hour cycle aligned with modern society's rhythm. However, variations exist, with your natural sleep cycle possibly spanning 26 or 22 hours.

Furthermore, your biological clock can be "shifted" earlier or later in the day, giving rise to the terms night owl and lark. It's worth noting that a significant portion, 40-70 percent, of your biological clock is predetermined by genetics. While you can attempt to adjust your clock, completely altering your sleep-wake cycle may prove unrealistic.

If you can’t sleep and think you have tried everything, there are many tips that not have thought of. There are other non-standard, and sometimes odd ways of helping yourself get to sleep that you likely have not heard of. These sleep strategies are effective and backed by studies and experience.

Here are tips for sleeping when you’ve tried everything.

What is the Circadian Rhythm?

Your circadian rhythm is your biological clock. It runs in the background of your brain, managing and regulating your cycle of sleep and wakefulness. It’s also known as your sleep-wake cycle. It’s an important term to understand when trying to understand how and why your body/brain operates the way it does – understanding which can be critical to getting a good night’s rest.

Your sleep-wake cycle dictates when you rise, rest, and rise again. While the ideal circadian rhythm aligns with a 24-hour cycle, not everyone operates on this schedule. Your natural sleep pattern may lean towards 26 hours or even 22 hours, showcasing the unique diversity in how individuals function within the constraints of modern society.

Also, you biological clock may be “shifted” to earlier or later in the day, hence the terms night owl and lark. It’s important to note that research has shown that 40-70% of your biological clock is genetic, meaning that while you may be able to shift your clock, it may be unrealistic to simply adopt a new sleep-wake cycle.

Not being able to sleep is frustrating. But going to sleep takes more than just laying down in bed, sometimes. There are daily behaviors that can improve your sleep, along with tips and tricks to help you drift into a slumber if you are struggling. Continue reading to learn more about healthy behaviors that are great for helping adults sleep. 

What is Sleep Debt?

A “sleep debt” is a common term that refers to the amount of sleep you get that is less than the amount of sleep you need. The way we generally understand it is that over time, a “debt” forms where you need to “catch up” on sleep to be healthy again.

To put it a different way:

• Your body requires a certain about of sleep, which is different depending on your age
• As you get less sleep than required, you become sleep deprived
• This sleep deprivation causes a “debt” which you have to “pay” by sleeping more than the required amount

Sleep debts are extremely important to correctly understand, because there are common misconception about what a sleep debt is and how you “repay” it. Most people are under the false assumption that they can “repay” their sleep debt much like you repay any monetary debt: in large sums. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work this way.