The Positive Effects of Daylight Saving Time

via http://www.goddiscussion.com

It’s natural for most people to focus on the negative implications of Daylight Saving Time (DST), especially for those people who are already sleep deprived. Losing another hour of sleep can greatly impact our health and job performance. But with the negative does come the positive, and for some, it may outweigh any negatives. We did an article last year  How the Extra Hour of Sleep from the End of Daylight Savings Affects You. The Monday following DST leads to higher car accidents, heart attacks and may cause the formation of a sleep disorder. But no one sheds light (pun intended) on the positive aspect of DST, so let us tell you about it.

The Symptoms and Causes of Hypersomnia

Hypersomnia is a disorder characterized by excessive sleepiness. It is a condition that is opposite to insomnia, in which people have trouble staying awake during the day. People who have hypersomnia are able to fall asleep at any point in time, whether it be during work or while they’re driving. The National Sleep Foundation has reported that up to 40% of Americans have experienced hypersomnia symptoms at some point in their life.

Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome and its Symptoms

Do you find yourself falling asleep after midnight each and every night? Are you dozing off around the same exact time in the early morning hours? If you have answered yes to these questions, you may be dealing with the sleep disorder, delayed sleep phase syndrome.

The Symptoms, Causes and Cures of Sleep Paralysis

Have you ever found yourself lying in bed thinking you’re awake, but are unable to move or yell for help? Have you felt pressure on your body or a sensation of choking during the night? If so, you may have experienced sleep paralysis. There have also been reports of people facing hallucinations during sleep paralysis, by hearing, seeing or feeling things that are not really there. Although it’s an extremely scary incident, sleep paralysis is not considered a serious health issue.

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:

What is Fatigue and How to Beat It

Two common phrases that often times gets confused are “I feel weak” or “I am fatigued.” Knowing and understanding the difference between weakness and fatigue are important in figuring out possible causes and reliefs from such symptoms. Weakness is a lack of physical strength in your muscles as well as the need to exert more effort to move your limbs. Possible causes may be over working, poor diet or exerting too much force. Fatigue is generally the feeling of being tired or exhausted, and having a lack of energy or motivation.

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