We're all guilty of making fun of snorers, but sometimes this snoring can be a symptom of sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a condition where breathing is not continuous and may start and stop many times while asleep. This affects the quality of your sleep and in turn can affect many aspects of your health including your cardiovascular health. Here's how:

High blood pressure
When a sleep apnea patient's breathing stops, the oxygen levels in the blood also suddenly fall. This can increase your blood pressure. High blood pressure means that the heart muscles need to work harder to pump blood through the body.

Cardiomyopathy
As a result of high blood pressure, the heart walls may become thicker and the heart muscles become stiffer. This is known as cardiomyopathy. As this condition worsens, the heart becomes weaker and is unable to maintain a regular rhythm. This can eventually lead to heart failure.

Arrhythmia
An irregular heartbeat is also known as arrhythmia. This may also be related to the changes in the heart's structure that follow the drop in blood oxygen levels. In many cases, arrhythmia has no visible symptoms and can often go undiagnosed. This can result in the formation of blood clots in the atria which can lead to a stroke.

Sleep apnea is easy to diagnose. If the doctor feels that you show symptoms of sleep apnea, you may be asked to stay on the hospital overnight and undergo a sleep evaluation. This tests a variety of body functions including brain activity, eye movements, heart rate, breathing patterns and blood oxygen levels.

Treatment for sleep apnea depends on the causes for this condition. If you are overweight, regular exercise and a change in diet can help you lose the excess weight and cure sleep apnea. Similarly, if your sleep apnea is triggered by an allergy, treating the allergy can help cure the sleep apnea. Other forms of treatment for sleep apnea may include:

Continuous positive airway pressure (cpap)
This is a machine which pumps air into the body through a nasal mask. By keeping the pressure in the machine higher than normal air pressure the upper airway passages are kept open and hence the quality of your sleep is improved. An auto cpap machine can modulate the air pressure such that it is higher when you inhale and lower when you exhale.;

Oral devices
Your doctor may suggest oral devices that allow you to keep your mouth open while you sleep. This is easier to use than cpap machine but less effective. Surgery is the last resort when it comes to treatment for sleep apnea.

Sleep Apnea and Its Link to Heart Failure

Sleep-Wake Disorder is a very uncommon syndrome which causes irregular sleeping patterns without any real schedule.

Causes
Persons with brain malfunctioning and those who do not have a regular routine during the day experience such disorders. People with changing work shifts often experience such disorder. Also, travellers who often move from one country to another with different time zones may also have these symptoms.
There's no cure for this disorder, but treatments, including hormones, medicine, and light therapy, can help get you closer to a normal sleeping pattern.

Symptoms

Symptoms may include any of the following:

Sleeping or napping more than usual during the day
Trouble falling asleep and staying asleep at night
Waking up often during the night
Exams and Tests
A person must have at least three abnormal sleep-wake episodes during a 24-hour period to be diagnosed with this problem. The time between each such episode varies from 1 to 4 hours. The doctor may advise you to go ahead with a device called actigraph in case the diagnosis is unclear. The device looks like a wristwatch, and it can tell when a person is sleeping or awake.

Treatment
Though there is no simple cure for irregular sleep-wake syndrome, however, several therapies and lifestyle changes may help a person return to a normal sleep-wake cycle. These include:

A regular daytime schedule of activities and mealtimes need to be fixed.
You should not stay in bed during the day for long.
Use bright light therapy in the morning like those from computer screens and television. The period of exposure should also be increased. Exposure to blue light should be minimized at night.
You should take melatonin at bedtime. This is a hormone that controls the sleep-wake cycle. By taking doses at the right times, you might be able to shift your body clock earlier or later.
Make sure to make the room dark, quiet, and as comfortable as possible at night.
Also one should try to minimize the amount of noise in the sleep environment.
Add more structure to the patient s day by scheduling social interaction, exercise, and other activities.
Your doctor may prescribe drug to control the timing of the sleep-wake cycle.
Finally, you should take proper care of yourself. Make positive changes in your lifestyle. You can even ask your boss to make your work schedule a bit flexible.

The ultimate goal of these lifestyle changes is to help the person sleep longer at night and make him feel active and awake during the day. Most people have sleep disturbances on occasion. But you need to see your doctor if such sleep disorders occur regularly.


Sleep Wake Disorder - Irregular Sleeping Patterns

6 Tips for helping you sleep better

Resting at night plays an important role in regulating your daily health and your level of energy throughout a day. Also, not only the quantity but the quality of sleep is also important for a healthy lifestyle. Bedtime habits do play a vital role in shaping up your lifestyle and personality as a whole. Here are 6 lifestyle habits that can help you to get sound sleep on a daily basis.

1. Having a fixed sleep pattern: Going to sleep and waking up approximately during the same time every day helps to maintain an equilibrium in the sleep-wake cycle. If this balance is maintained then your body will be accustomed to this pattern and as a result, you will feel less tired and sleepy during the daytime.

2. Maintaining certain dietary regulations: You should also maintain a proper diet plan and examine the consequences of the foods that you are eating and the fluids that you are drinking. Taking a proper and nutritious diet on a daily basis will help you to stay healthy by not disrupting your natural sleep-wake cycle.

3. Ensuring that your room has appropriate lighting: The level of light also matters at the time of your sleep. You should definitely make sure that there is a very minimal level of light around you during bed time. This should be done because the lesser is the light, the more comfortable you are while sleeping. Additionally, the sleep that you will get into a dark room will also be sound and undistorted as it helps keep all the sensory organs calm.

4. Regular exercise: Exercising regularly helps to improve the overall quality of sleep by making you tired at night and sending you to bed more efficiently. Light to mild exercises also helps cure sleep disorders like insomnia.

5. Opting for some relaxing activities before bed: Depending on your personality, you should follow simple techniques of relaxation in order to calm down the brain before sleep. Some of the most common relaxation techniques include- deep breathing exercise, muscle relaxing activity, visualizing a peaceful setting/ scenario and a light before-bed snack. The above-mentioned activities are just suggestive and you should do anything that helps you to get a sound sleep.

6. Having daytime naps: Having short naps of less than one hour is absolutely okay if you are excessively tired during the day or you did not have a sound sleep the previous night. But, if you are consistently having long naps during the day then you are bound to have sleep issues during the night. So it is advisable to sleep early and wake up early for a healthy schedule.



6 Tips for helping you sleep better

Sleep problems, which can be defined as a sleeping pattern where the parents are unsatisfied, are one of the leading concerns of parents. Children should get a minimum nine hours of sleep so that their health and brain development can occur. Sleep problems can affect not only their health, but also their social and school life. Any interruption or abnormality in a child's sleeping patterns should be examined by a doctor and parents should make necessary efforts for knowing the actual causes of sleep interruption of their kids.

What are the causes of sleep disorders in children?

    Injuries and accidents
    Behavioural troubles
    Overeating
    Slow-reaction times
    Performance problems
    Mood problems
    Learning, concentration and memory troubles

Commonest signs of sleep troubles in kids:

    Difficulty in falling asleep
    Occurrence of unusual events at the time of sleeping like nightmares or sleep-walking
    Snoring and breathing pauses
    Difficulty in staying awake in daylight
    Daytime performances can be adversely affected

Best methods for dealing with sleep disorders in children:

    Regular bed-timing should be sincerely maintained at night.
    Relaxing routine for bedtime needs to be followed,including story-book reading, getting warm bath and others.
    Noise in the house, especially at night, should be minimized so that unwanted disturbances can be eliminated.
    If the room temperature is pretty comfortable, then your kids can sleep peacefully.
    Giving caffeine in excess quantity, especially before sleeping, should be reduced otherwise the kids will not sleep well.
    Meals should not be provided just before bedtime; rather they should be taken a few hours before sleeping.
    If your kids are so very addicted to different electronic gadgets or devices like telephones, televisions, computers and others, then they might face sleeping troubles. Thus, it is your duty to keep your kids away from this kind of addiction.
    If your kids are too very tired, then do not keep them awake forcibly; rather you should make them sleep immediately so that they can get a relaxed sleep at night.

If you think that sleep disorder has become a serious issue with your kids as well, then nothing can be a better option than consulting any health physician. They can best analyse the underlying cause of this issue with your kids.

How to Deal With Abnormal Sleep Behaviour in Children?

For most people, the screen of a cell phone is the first thing they see in the morning and the last thing they see before going to bed. Nobody can deny the fact that living without a cell phone today is extremely difficult but must we be so glued to them? Staring into a phone or tablet screen, before going to sleep affects your sleep as well as impacts your health. Here's how:

It is harder to fall asleep

We feel sleepy when the brain releases a hormone called melatonin. This release is determined by the body's circadian rhythm which is controlled by light exposure. The blue light of a cell phone screen interferes with this rhythm and tells the brain not to secrete melatonin. This makes it harder to fall asleep even after you have switched off your phone.

It hampers the quality of your sleep

A direct effect of sleeping late is a reduced amount of sleep. On top, that, using a cell phone before going to bed also hampers the quality of your sleep. When an office email or a text message is the last thing you see before going to sleep, your brain cannot completely shut off. This makes you tense even in your sleep.

It lowers your attention span

When you wake up from a restless night's sleep, your productivity suffers. Not getting enough sleep is known to hamper your decision-making skills, impairs both long term and short term memory and make you distracted. This leads to unnecessary stress and anxiety.

It increases the risk of weight gain

The body is more likely to feel hungry when you don't have enough sleep. This is because sleep-deprived people have a lower metabolism. Thus using a cell phone before sleeping also increases your chances of snacking on something unhealthy to get through the day and in turn you put on weight.

It weakens your immune system

The body's immune system produces antibodies that fight infections while we are asleep. Depriving the body of the sleep it needs weakens the immune system by not giving it enough time to build its forces. Not only does this increase the risk of falling ill it also slows down recovery from illnesses.

It damages your skin

Sleeping late at night and not getting enough sleep can cause dark circles, puffy eyes and fine lines across the face. The blue light of a cell phone screen also tells the body to secrete cortisol which makes the skin less elastic and smooth.

Thus, even if you look at a phone screen for just five minutes every night before going to bed, the side effects last much longer and affect your mental and physical health as well as your looks.

Browsing on the Phone Before Sleep: Effects on Health

We always think of wearing something cosy to bed to get a good night's sleep. We even dress up kids to be comfortable and bundled up so they can get a sound sleep. Studies have shown that contrary to popular belief, sleeping nude is the best way to a sound sleep. In addition to good sleep, there are other benefits that have been identified too, as listed below:

1) Improves sleep quality: While most of us think of keeping ourselves cosy in our nightwear leads to good sleep, science believes otherwise. A reduced core body temperature is what leads to better sleep. This happens when you sleep with no extra layers of clothes to keep you warm. Research conducted showed better depth of sleep and reduced number of awakenings when there are no extra clothing layers.

2) Better skin and hair health: Melatonin and growth hormone are essential for anti-aging and they are released when the body temperature is cooler, which happens when sleeping in the nude. Growth hormone is essential for bone mineralization, improved immunity, and muscle mass building. Melatonin is a good hormone regulator, and manages the functioning of other hormones essential for our body. The armpits and groin area are always covered, and sleeping without clothes can help these areas breathe and feel fresher. The chances of yeast infection are also reduced.

3) Reduced stress levels: The stress hormone cortisol is also optimal, both in release and function, when the body gets a good sleep. This is essential for better immunity and cognitive function, better sugar regulation. Reduced stress leads to reduced chances of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, etc. Therefore, sleeping without clothes helps to better equip you with fighting stress.

4) Weight loss: Our body has two types of fat, both brown and white. While fat helps to keep the body warm, sleeping without clothes burns more of this fat and thereby, increases weight loss. Another mechanism is the  good sleep that you get when sleeping without clothes helps improve metabolism, reduce fat and sugar cravings, thereby further adding to weight loss.

5) Improved relationships: Needless to say, getting into the habit of sleeping without clothes will help your sex life. The science behind it is the improved release of oxytocin, which is the cuddle hormone.

6) Better sperm quality: The testes produce better sperm quality when body temperature is cooler, thereby improving male fertility. Warm clothes at night also has a bad effect on testosterone, which is essential for boosting libido and other male sexual features.

There you go, a lot of valid scientifically proven reasons to drop those night suits and pajamas off  what is more, there is also a cost saving here!

Sleep NAKED to Be Healthier and Happier

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