Your Pet May Be Causing You Sleepless Nights

Our pets are always happy to see us. Whether you are coming home from work, school or you just ran to the mailbox, they always meet you with a smile and an upbeat mood. They can become your best friend and help you get through tough times when you may feel all alone. But what about those long sleepless nights you seem to have? Fact is, even though your pet loves you, they may unknowingly be contributing to your restless nights.

Do you let your pet sleep in the bed with you? According to a study, 56% of dog owners said their dog sleeps in the bed with them, and 62% of cat owners said their cat slept in their bed. Whether your pet is sleeping on the floor or in your bed, you may face some sort of sleep disturbance. Let’s discuss some possible issues of sleeping with pets.

The Best and Worst Nights for Sleep

Ask yourself this question: which night of the week do you find yourself getting the best and worst sleep? Depending on lifestyle, schedule, profession and age, the answer to which is the best and worst night to sleep may vary from person to person.

A study of 3500 adults commissioned by Travelodge, a hotel chain, found that nearly 60% of workers reported that Sunday night was when they slept the worst. Of that 60%, more than a quarter claim to have called out sick Monday morning due to their lack of quality sleep.

Restless Leg Syndrome

Unlike some other common sleep disorders, RLS or Restless Leg Syndrome is a neurological disorder that affects a person during an unlikely time, while resting. RLS is characterized by an unpleasant feeling, sometimes throbbing pain, a pulling or tugging sensation, all which seem to be uncontrollable. To further look into how RLS affects people, it is a disorder where a person has an uncontrollable urge to move their legs. Instances when RLS can occur are most commonly found to be at night, while lying still in bed and getting ready to sleep. This disorder can pose health concerns not only for the person who is suffering with RLS, but also for anyone who shares a bed with them.

We all know sleep is essential to a productive day and better health, but what happens when quality sleep is out of your control? It can be hard to cope with fatigue and exhaustion, especially if you are not the person suffering from RLS. This disorder may sound humorous, but it is not at all funny.

Understanding the Causes and Symptoms of Insomnia

Insomnia can be quite tricky to get a handle on, as it can affect anyone at any time. Insomnia is classified as the inability to fall asleep or stay asleep throughout the night.  Many people may experience this trouble sleeping and attribute it to a rough day at work, or to the anxiety of an upcoming vacation. Most of the time, people ignore the tell-tale signs of insomnia, and it will progressively get worse and even wreak havoc at home and work. Having trouble sleeping can greatly affect your concentration, memory and focus.

Insomnia is also known to accompany health concerns and other sleep disorders that may interrupt your sleep. Insomnia is not the reason you cannot sleep, insomnia is what we call your inability to sleep.

A great way to start minimizing the effect insomnia has on your life is first understanding what can cause insomnia. Once you understand what causes insomnia, you can take preventative measure to help safe guard your sleep by reducing these causes. If you are overly stressed, you can try stress relieving activities such as meditation, aromatherapy or exercising. If a medication you are taking is known to disrupt sleep,  it may be time to consult your doctor about an alternative that will not disrupt sleep.

What Your Sleep Position Says About You

Have you ever wondered why some people sleep in a certain position? It may be due to that position being the most comfortable, but is it possible there are underlying causes? Say for instance, your sleep style is reflective of the type of person you are. It seems that there are many precursors to why and how a person sleeps. It could be due in part to a surgery or body ache or pain. Maybe you don’t feel well. There are a number of reasons that can force a person to sleep the way they do, but when comparing it to a person’s personality, you begin to see a connection. Let’s take a look at what the different sleep positions are, and what type of “personality” or character traits are associated with them.

Is Your Child Sleep Deprived?

It doesn’t matter what how old you are, getting enough sleep is vital to memory development and living a healthy life. As you age, the amount of sleep required to function at optimal performance decreases, yet you may overlook sleep deprivation as a reason your days are sluggish and you feel unmotivated. But let’s focus on how sleep deprivation can affect our kids; it may be worse than you previously thought.

The average child, aged between 3 and 12, needs roughly 10-13 hours of sleep per night. The younger the child is, the more sleep they will need. Sleep plays an important role in brain development, coordination and can often cause developing attention disorders like ADD (attention deficit disorder). One issue parents may face is not recognizing if their child is sleep deprived. It can sometimes be hard as we mistake these telltale signs for normal child-like behavior. Some of the signs to watch for are:

Innerspring Mattress Vs. Memory Foam Mattress

Image via Wikipedia

The battle for mattress supremacy has been ongoing for decades, and there seems to be no end in sight. The conflict between memory foam mattresses and traditional innerspring mattresses can often make you lose sleep, pun intended. No matter what your need preference is in a mattress or what your reasoning is behind buying one or the other, they both have their ups and downs. To see which mattress may suit you the best, let’s take a moment and look at how these mattresses stack up to each other.

Comfort

When comparing a memory foam mattress and traditional spring mattress, one can obviously point out the differences. But when lying on the two mattresses of equal quality and value, it depends on the person to decide which is best for them.

Understanding the Different Stages of Sleep

We all know that sleep is an important part of living a healthy life. What we may not fully understand is what goes on while we sleep. To help understand what goes on in the human brain during sleep, we must first understand the different sleep stages that are cycled through. The brain has 5 sleep stages it enters into throughout the night to help ensure you wake up rested and energized. Non-REM sleep and REM sleep are building blocks to our sleep cycle, and typically follow a predictable pattern, going from light sleep to deep sleep several times during the night. To help understand why 8 hours is recommended as the proper sleep duration per night, we need to first understand our sleep cycle.

Stage 1:

Another 4 Conditions for a Better Night’s Sleep

Sleep is crucial for the human body to function and prepare you for another day’s work. Making sure you get the best sleep possible is why we exist. If you read “4 Conditions for a Better Night’s Sleep,” made some changes in your sleep routine, and found that you are sleeping better, you saw how easily we are affected by things that we never thought would impact our sleep. Making proper changes in our bedtime routines can have a much bigger payoff than one may suspect. Increased motivation, less stress, less fatigue, and a better overall outlook on tomorrow’s challenges will ultimately lead to a much happier life. But what happens when you make the necessary changes, and sleep does not improve? Then we may need to look a little bit closer at what conditions you are sleeping in. Let’s branch off of “4 Conditions for a Better Night’s Sleep,” and add another four to help solve this common problem.

#1 – Mattress