ANCSLEEP BLOG

There are two kinds of sleep: restful and unrestful. During restful sleep, you wake up feeling refreshed after a full night of several, uninterrupted, sleep cycles. During unrestful sleep, you may toss and turn all night, wake up several times, and wake up feeling as if you could sleep for another three hours. Regardless of how many hours you spend in bed if your sleep is not restorative, then you are still not achieving the amount of sleep that you need for optimal functioning. 

If you wake up feeling like you hardly slept, even if you were in bed with your eyes closed all night, it’s going to inhibit your ability to enjoy life – you’re going to be tired all the time. When you are tired all the time, you are crabbier, perform worse in nearly every task, lose motivation to do things for yourself or with others, have a reduced sex drive, etc. Life is simply less full when you have chronic fatigue.

It’s frustrating. You feel like you should be rested and happy because you've had a full night's sleep. This phenomenon is generally a strong symptom of either of the following:

• Bad habits and/or cognitive conditions
• Sleep disorders
• Bad sleeping environment
• Medical problem

What is a Sleep Diary?

A sleep diary is a record of your sleep, including all aspects of your sleep. This includes data about your sleep, patterns of sleep, and sleep habits in order to identify potential problems that could signal an underlying sleep disorder. Sleep diaries are generally kept over a period of at least two weeks, but the longer the better. 

Sleep diaries might be requested of you by your doctor or a sleep center in order to get more accurate data about your sleep.

Not being able to sleep is frustrating. You may have already tried the common suggestions like having a sleep routine, avoiding too much caffeine and alcohol before bed, etc. Fortunately, there are creative ways to help you get to sleep. Here are six strange but well-researched, proven ways to sleep better that may help you.

What is a Risk Factor for Insomnia?

A risk factor is something that increases your likelihood of developing a disease or condition. Insomnia, like other sleep disorders, has several potential causes and factors that can increase your risk of developing insomnia. Continue reading to learn more about insomnia and some of the risk factors that are associated with the condition. 

What are sleep medications? 

Sleeping medications are known as sedative hypnotics. They relax the mind and body in order to help promote sleep. They are prescribed to people who have trouble falling asleep, and/or staying asleep, such as in the case of insomniacs.

Sleeping medications can be:

• Pills like ambien, Klonopin, etc.
• Over the counter aids like Benadryl, Tylenol-PM, and Advil-PM
• Side effects of antihistamine, and antidepressants

For insomniacs they can feel like a lifeline, but they also come with hidden dangers. Most notable, they are not a reasonable solution for people with untreated obstructive sleep apnea. In the words of sleep specialist Dr. Thomas Winkler, “For my patients with untreated sleep apnea, I tell them [taking sleeping pills] is a bad idea.”

What is Sleep Apnea?

Sleep apnea is a medical disorder where you repeatedly stop breathing throughout the night, anywhere from 40-100+ times per night. When you stop breathing you temporarily wake up to start breathing again. You are unaware of these arousals in the morning, so you will feel unrested, but be unsure why.

What is Sleep Apnea?

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. This can happen because of:

• (Obstructive Sleep Apnea) An obstruction, such as because of your throat muscles relaxing and collapsing your airway (you try to breathe but can’t)
• (Central Sleep Apnea) A neurological condition where your breathing mechanism “short circuits” (you don’t try to breath)
• (Complex Sleep Apnea) Both obstruction and “short circuits”

Obstructive sleep apnea is the most common form. Each time you stop breathing is considered an “apnea” or “apnea event”. Sleep apnea can be considered mild, moderate, or severe.

What is Insomnia?

Insomnia is a sleeping disorder that prevents you from getting enough sleep because you have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep throughout the night, or waking up much earlier than intended, and can't go back to sleep. 

If you have insomnia, you never feel like you are getting enough rest – probably because you aren’t. It’s frustrating to not be able to sleep when you want to, and accompanying this frustration are the physical and mental consequences of being sleep-deprived. Continue reading to learn more about the different types of insomnia. 

The Socially Unacceptable Snoring Threshold

What’s the difference between “normal snoring” and SUS (socially unacceptable snoring)? Nearly everyone snores from time to time. Many of us snore with regularity, also called chronic snoring. Snoring and chronic snoring are generally not harmful.

But, they can be a sign of a deeper problem. This is when they are termed "problematic snoring". Problematic snoring can include the following characteristics:

• Your snoring keeps your bed partner or roommate up
• Your bed partner has to wear ear plugs to sleep
• Your snoring is the basis for many family jokes
• You snore most (or all) nights

Socially unacceptable snoring really comes down to this: it’s very disruptive for anyone near you to sleep. Beyond being disruptive, it can be a sign that there are underlying and concerning medical conditions causing the snoring – mainly, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), of which SUS is a primary symptom.

If your snoring is a problem, it’s definitely worth trying to identify if there are underlying problems.

What is a Sleep Study?

A sleep study, also called a polysomnogram (PSG), is a non-invasive study conducted at a sleep center. Sleep specialists monitor your sleeping, via PSG equipment ,in order to assess what kind of sleep quality you are getting and, where applicable, any sleep disorders you may be dealing with.

During a sleep study, many aspects of your sleep will be evaluated and monitored, such as:

• Brain wave activity
• Eye movements
• Breathing
• Muscle contractions
• Heart Activity
• Blood oxygenation

Results from your sleep study are analyzed by sleep physicians and sent to your healthcare practitioner to review with you.