Deep sleep is the third stage of sleep that is responsible for repairing and restoring the muscles and your brain. In order for you to wake up feeling refreshed, you must spend part of your night in deep sleep. Getting enough deep sleep will benefit your memory, muscle growth, and immune system. Without enough deep sleep, you may have learning difficulties, increased risk of infection, and long-term health conditions. Continue reading to learn more about derp sleep and about how much you need.
Pain can negatively impact your quality of sleep. If you have ever had a leg cramp, or tried falling asleep when you had a backache, you know how impossible it can seem. Waking up with numbness in your fingers and hands may feel the same as waking up with pain.
This is known as neuropathy, and can be the result of vitamin deficiencies, uncontrolled diabetes, and other unnerving disorders. Many people can also experience occasional numbness/tingling of the hands upon waking due to laying on a part of their body and cutting off circulation to the arm. If you wake up with numbness and tingling periodically, it's normally not that big of a deal. However, if your symptoms greatly interfere with your ability to get a good night's sleep, then it may be time to see a doctor. Continue reading to learn more about numbness in your hands while sleeping.
Obstructive sleep apnea is a sleep-related breathing disorder in which the back of the throat collapses, blocking the airway. This leads to multiple cessations of breathing throughout the day, that requires the body to wake up momentarily to begin breathing again. These pauses are known as apneic events, and one can experience several hundred of these a night.
The impact of this disease is poor sleep, chronic sleep deprivation, weight gain, metabolic syndrome, heart disease, and just an overall poor quality of life. The gold standard for treating sleep apnea is continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP. This therapy is a machine that blows air into your lungs when you exhale to keep the tissues from relaxing.
The CPAP machine can be uncomfortable, requires a lot of maintenance to keep it clean and sanitized, and often can be a bit cumbersome. Therefore, there are alternatives to using a CPAP machine, like surgery. There are various surgeries to improve your sleep apnea, but the decision to have surgery comes with more risks that moderate treatment. Continue reading to learn more about surgery for sleep apnea, and what exactly that may entail. After reading this article, you may have more information for a clear conversation with your doctor about what the best move is for you.
Both insomnia and depression are interrelated conditions that can worsen the other. The good news about this is that treating one, often improves the other, and treating both can drastically improve the quality of your life.
The link between them is bidirectional. Worsening depression, often leads to insomnia. And an inability to sleep, often leads to worsening depressive feelings, as sleep is required for mental wellbeing. Continue reading to learn more about how treating both conditions works to improve the other.
Do you lie in bed, reading to go to sleep, and then are suddenly overcome with anxiety? If so, you wouldn't be alone. Anxiety often seems to get worse at night. It may be due to the fact that you're lying there in the dark and quiet, with nothing but space to think about stressful things, and ruminate over your day. Or, perhaps you've experienced something at night that makes you nervous, and therefore, you have a hard time at night.
Whatever the reason is, anxiety at nighttime can be a killer to your sleep. Therefore, it's important to find some ways to relax enough to go to sleep. Continue reading for some tips and tricks to fight rumination!
Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a sleeping disorder where one feels a compulsive need to move their legs at night in order to relieve a stinging or pinpricking sensation. This constant movement interrupts the sleeper and any bed partners. Often, those uncomfortable sensations are relieved by the individual getting out of bed and walking around.
These uncomfortable sensations seem to worsen during inactivity, so one may become more aware of them while sitting down or lying down. While there is no active cure for them, there are some medications that can relieve these feelings. One popular medication is called Ropinirole, and can help calm down those sensations for improved sleep. However, if you would like to try something a bit more natural, then magnesium may due the trick.
Magnesium is a natural mineral that our bodies need to function. It plays a role in regulating different biochemical reactions in the body. A magnesium deficiency can cause issues with nerve impulse conduction, muscle contractions, and cramps. Continue reading to learn more about the impact that magnesium may have on RLS.
Bedwetting is an occasional accident where one pees in the bed. This can be a common occurrence in children, but when it starts to happen in adulthood, it can be concerning. Most adults who are developmentally competent should not experience nocturnal enuresis, or peeing at night time.
It can be confusing, distressing, and embarrassing to experience this as an adult. It's also potentially the signal that something else more severe is going on underneath the surface. If you experience multiple episodes of waking up with the sheets wet, then it's important to speak with your urologist or primary care physician as soon as possible to determine the cause. Continue reading to learn more about what may be causing bedwetting in adults.
Bedwetting is a developmental problem that many children have to deal with. It involves children wetting the bed at night because they were unable to use the bathroom. This is a potty trained child who had an accident in the bed. It can be uncomfortable and upsetting for the child, as well as frustrating for the parent. The older children get, the more uncomfortable it can become for the child. Continue reading to learn more about bedwetting and what you can do to mitigate it.
Sleep is vital for childhood development and learning. It affects the child's health, mood, and ability to stay on track for their milestones. A lack of sleep can have long-term effects on the child's academic performance and emotional health.
However, as children grow, their need for sleep can decrease. There are recommendations based on the child's age, and many times they achieve these hours with naps implemented into their daily schedule. So, this may raise the question, when should kids stop napping?
The exact age varies, and depends on individual factors: maturity, preschool/daycare, and nighttime sleeping habits. At about age three, the majority of children will still take at least one nap per day. About sixty percent of four-year-olds take naps, but by age five, most children no longer need a nap. The older children get, the more that number continues to shrink, with almost no children napping by the age of seven. Continued napping may be a sign of an underlying issue, and will need to be discussed with your pediatrician. Continue reading to learn more about the recommendations for children and naps.
Sleepless nights are no bueno, but some times they are just unavoidable. However, just because you got a bad night of sleep doesn't mean that the day gets to stop. You still have to keep going the next day, which can seem nearly impossible.
In fact, functioning on no sleep is similar to driving with a blood alcohol of 0.05%. This can put you at risk for accidents, impair your memory, and increase the likelihood of creating false memories.
If you have a poor night of sleep for some reason, then it's important that you find ways to function safely and at the most optimal level you can manage. Nothing can fully make up for a lack of sleep, however, there are some things that you can do to help you stay up after a sleepless night, enough to function at a baseline level to get through all the tasks that you need to achieve. Continue reading to learn more about how to function on zero sleep.