sleep •

Surviving the Downsides of Seasonal Time Change

If you are like most people, you must love sleeping and experience some level of difficulty getting up early in the morning to go to school or work. Some of us are unfortunately terribly affected by the seasonal time change and thus have to endure these changes twice a year. However, there are a couple of tips you can try to adapt to the new time.

Doctor Kelly Brown has conducted a study on sleep in order to better understand how we adjust to the seasonal time change and how we can combat some of its unpleasant effects. It appears that it comes easier to adapt our circadian clocks to the daylight saving time rather than the seasonal time change, which involves settings the clocks one hour forward.

Dr. Brown, who is a medical doctor at the Vanderbilt Sleep Center, has explained that human internal clocks have the ability to adapt more quickly to the time change that occurs in autumn than the one I spring. This happens because most of us tend to stay up late and get an extra hour of sleeping during the morning. So what can we do to avoid the negative effects of the change?

As Dr. Brown has advised her patients, it is always good to go one hour earlier than normal to bed. If you find yourself unable to fall asleep, you can try minimising the time, as in going to sleep fifteen minutes earlier than you usually do. You can start the adaptation process already since the seasonal time change will take place this Sunday, March 13.

Dr. Brown also recommends doing all activity that is physically straining during the day. Sunlight contributes to the shutdown of the plant that produces melatonin, which is the hormone of sleep. Furthermore, you should also do exercise more in daylight. However, if the day happens to be cloudy, you can occupy your time with other tasks from work or shopping at the supermarket, and thus reserve sunny days for exercising.

It also appears that while artificial light cannot substitute sunlight, it can help our bodies adjust to the new time. However, the light emitted from computers, TVs, smartphones or tablets should be avoided in the evening. Lastly, it is also recommended that you avoid alcohol or products that contain caffeine.

Image Source: timeanddate

Do Americans Get Enough Sleep?

By Leave a Comment

A new study has found that more than thirty-three percent of adults in the United Stated are getting enough sleep.

The new study – conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – was based on survey in which more than 440,000 Americans took part. The results showed that more than thirty-five percent of the study participants said that they usually slept less than seven hours per night.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, adults between the ages of eighteen and sixty should get at least seven hours of sleep a night. Too little sleep may lead to an increased risk for diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, stroke, mental distress, and heart disease, the CDC stated.

The percentage of people, who slept at least seven hour per night, differed from state to state. It ranged from fifty-six percent in Hawaii to about seventy-two percent in South Dakota, the researchers found.

A higher percentage of people who got a healthy amount of sleep appeared to be present in states from the Great Plains, such as Colorado, Kansas, Utah, Nebraska, Montana, and Idaho.

On the other end of the spectrum, states like New York, West Virginia, Ohio, South Carolina, Kentucky, Alabama, and Georgia – which are located along the Appalachian Mountains and in the Southeast – had a lower percentage of people getting at least seven hours of sleep a night, compared with the national average.

Seventy-two percent of people with college degrees said that they got a healthy amount of sleep, compared with sixty-eight percent of people who only had a high school diploma, according to the study.

Moreover, the researchers also found that sixty-five percent of people who were employed said that they slept at least seven hour per night, compared with sixty percent of people who were unemployed.

Some tips for getting better sleep at night – recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – include: removing electronic devices, like laptops, TVs, cell phones, computers, from the bedroom; having a quiet, not too cold and hot, dark sleep environment; avoiding alcohol, caffeine, and large meals before bedtime. Doctors could also educate their patients about the importance of healthy sleep, the CDC added.

Image Source: atheasupplements

Trouble Sleeping? Turn Away From Social Media

By Leave a Comment

Trouble sleeping? Turn away from social media because researchers founds they are prone to fragmented sleep patterns among frequent users. There’s no doubt that social media has taken over the internet. Be it for pictures, posts, videos, or overall existing in the digital world, most people have an account here or there.

However, besides online bullying or fierce political debates that know no end, there are other issues that can be attributed to prolonged use. Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh conducted a study on 1,788 adults in the United States, aged between 19 and 32 years old. The purpose was to hone in on the effect of social media on sleep.

Previous studies have shown that smartphones and other gadgets may have an impact, but this is the first of its kind that directly concentrates on several platforms. The participants were asked about their frequency of use of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google Plus, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit, Tumblr, Pinterest, Vine, and LinkedIn. These are all major social media brands that have proven themselves popular among young adults.

According to their findings, each person spent, on average, around 61 minutes per day on social media and visited various accounts around thirty times per week. Over 50% of the participants reported problems sleeping that ranged from medium to high disturbances. And, apparently, those who often frequented social media had the biggest problems. This ranged from insomnia, trouble falling asleep, or not getting enough rest through the night.

Those who frequently checked social media throughout the week were three times more likely to report sleep disturbances. On the other hand, those who also spent the most total time on various platforms were twice as likely to have trouble sleeping. Whether frequency of use or total time, it seemed that avid social media users did report the most problems.

According to lead author of the study, Dr. Jessica Levenson, from the university’s Department of Psychiatry, this is the first time a study has shown the impact of social media on sleep. And it’s no wonder. Technically, this is the first generation to grow up with such an extensive diversity of social media platforms. They’re are in full bloom and too many options to count. However, it’s also very impacting.

This may indicate that young adults reporting sleep disturbances should also be inquired by doctors on their social media use. Then, perhaps a method to stop the “obsessive checking” should be one of the methods used. However, the matter requires more investigation. While there is a definite association, it’s difficult to say which influences which.

Does social media cause sleep disturbances? Do people with trouble sleeping frequent social media more often? Or it is a combination of both? It’s tough to tell, but the researchers will persist with their investigations.

Image source: static.images.publisher.attn.com

Electronic devices use before bed can cause sleep disorder: Study

By Leave a Comment

Now-a-days, the craze for electronic devices including smartphones, tablets or e-readers are attracting more and more people and they exhaust most of their time while peeping into it. But none of us think that how much these devices affect our body.

Apart from other health risks, the most common problem that these devices cause is that it hurts your sleep.

According to a new study, regular staring at electronic devices before going to bed could ruin sleep very badly. The researchers said that the devices, like e-readers or iPhones, emit a kind of light that can confuse the human body.

Anne-Marie Chang, assistant professor of bio-behavioral health at Penn State, said, “Electronic devices emit light that is short-wavelength-enriched light. These lights have a higher concentration of blue light — with a peak around 450 nm – compared to natural light. They are completely different in composition from natural light and hence, can have a greater impact on sleep and circadian rhythms.”

For the study, the team of researchers involved 12 adults and monitored their electronic devices usage pattern and sleep disorder, if any, for two weeks. The researchers group carried a comparative analysis of the nights when the study participants went to bed with a book and those nights when they went to bed with an e-reader. During the study period, various sleep related factors were measured in the participants, like their quality of sleep, melatonin levels and their alertness level when they woke up.

It was found that when the participants used the e-readers before bed-time, they took 10 minutes longer to fall asleep. And when they didn’t use an e-device before bed-time, they were found falling into deep sleep in shorter periods of time.

“Our most surprising finding was that individuals using the e-reader would be more tired and take longer to become alert the next morning. This has real consequences for daytime functioning, and these effects might be worse in the real world as opposed to the controlled environment we used,” said Chang.

The study’s findings were published on Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Categories