ANCSLEEP BLOG

Sleep deprivation and excessive daytime sleepiness is a common issue in the United States. It can be very distressing for some people to get through their day because they are so tired. People who have sleep disorders, work night shifts, spend all night awake, may find themselves struggling to stay awake.

There is no cure for sleeplessness outside of simply getting a good night's rest. However there are some tricks to help you stay awake so that you can get through the day. Regardless of why you must stay awake, the next day must continue. Therefore, it is very helpful to know some tricks for how to stay awake. Continue reading to see if any of the following hacks can help you the next time you're in a sleep binder.   

Your sleep environment can strongly impact your sleep quality and quantity. Sleep environment is not just the triad of cool, dark and quiet. Although that is extremely important, it is the entirety of which sleep environment consists. 

Sleep environment also includes the accessories in your room, the colors, and the furniture and accessories you have. If they are too stimulating and overwhelming, then that can be antagonistic towards your sleep efforts. One of the aspects of your environment that you may never have thought of, but that is important, is the pillow color. 

Certain colors are very stimulating for the brain, which can be antagonistic towards sleep efforts. Therefore, they should be avoided. Your pillow is what you lie on, so you brain may actually be being stimulated if you have one of the five colors listed below. 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work has flourished. Prior to the outbreak, about 23% of workers worked from home. Throughout the pandemic, this number has risen to 71% and settled at about 59%. More jobs are offering remote positions as remote working seems to be more convenient and flexible. 

This means that more and more workers are working from home than ever before. Although this is fantastic for many workers, it's creates an issue in terms of the normal daily schedule that used to structure our lives. This can include changes in sleep. Continue reading to learn how to get good sleep as a remote worker. 

Family sleep habits tend to run in the family. Any sleep disorders that parents or grandparents have may be witnessed in children. These could be witnessed events, or events separated by 30 years (such as parents who sleepwalked as children and see their children sleepwalking). 

Good sleep habits can be built as a family, but so do bad sleep habits and sleep disorders. A study found that 47% of families share good sleep and that 29% of families had shared poor sleep between mothers and teens. 

This is not the first time this has been found. In 2022, the sleep foundation found that those who lived in multi-person households saw that those who lived with someone who had sleep issues also had sleep issues. The opposite was true, those that did not have sleep issues, 73.2% lived in households who also did not. Continue reading to learn more about why this connection occurs, and what can be done to develop good sleep habits for everyone. 

Being a professional student comes with its own special set of challenges. You're most likely not a college student, anymore, with only the responsibility of going to class and then doing whatever for the rest of the day. Professional students often have to balance class, jobs, families, and many other responsibilities that come from being a "real" adult. 

Sleep can be one of those things that professional students forgo. Medical students, law students, and many other graduate studies require so many hours of studying, class contact time, and extracurricular activities. This leaves little time for sleep, exercise, smart eating choices, and anything else that can help students be health all around. 

However, sleep is essential for optimal functioning. Therefore, it's important to create positive sleep habits so you can work at your highest efficiency. Continue reading for more tips on how to sleep as a professional student. 

Insomnia is a common symptom of multiple sclerosis, or MS. MS is an inflammatory disease that can become quite debilitating, including messing up sleep. Sleep deprivation can lead to daytime fatigue and low energy. Many experts believe that sleep-related disorders are direct consequences of the physical and emotional burden of MS. Continue reading to find out more about about MS and its impact on sleep, and how you can overcome these sleep issues. 

Nothing is worse than waking up in the middle of the night with a headache. This is known as a hypnic headache. They are actually extremely rare, affecting fewer than 1% of people. If you are on of those who experience them, then they can be extremely frustrating. 

Continue reading to learn more about hypnic headaches and determine if you need to seek additional help. 

If you have ever woken up in the middle of the night, you have experienced what is called wakefulness after sleep onset, or WASO. WASO is more than just a minor inconvenience throughout the night. It can severely impact sleep quality. Continue reading to find out more about WASO, how it's used, and what its implications are for your life. 

Endometriosis is a common uterine disorder that can cause painful, abnormal growth of the uterus. This can lead to severe cramps and heavy bleeding during menstrual cycles, so severe that women can miss days of work, become bedridden, and have their entire lives interrupted. 

Endometriosis also interrupts sleep, which can exaggerate the pain, and emotional distress already experienced with endometriosis. Continue reading to find out more about how endometriosis can affect sleep, and what can be done to mitigate the disruptions. 

Anxiety and sleep apnea are two distinct disorders that can have a connection, making both of them worse. Sleep apnea is a common medical condition that causes you to stop breathing momentarily throughout the night. Your body has to wake up in order to begin breathing again. The cessation is normally caused by a blockage in airway caused by relaxed muscles or a large tongue. 

Anxiety is a mental health disorder that involves excessive worry and fear over rational and irrational causes. Anxiety can be debilitating and interfere with individuals' ability to live life. 

Both anxiety and sleep apnea are able to disrupt sleep and cause major sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation, can inturn, make both of those conditions worse. The entire situation is a terrible spiral, that if well-controlled, can truly lead to a much better quality of sleep. 

Continue reading to find out more about this connection, and how you can overcome this.