Chronic Insomnia

It is common for everyone to occasionally experience a sleepless night. But it becomes a serious issue when you’re experiencing chronic insomnia. Chronic insomnia can be caused for many reasons. Approximately 17% of people have chronic insomnia.

Chronic insomnia can be a result of medical problems such as sleep apnea, neurological, endocrine, or pulmonary disorders, psychological issues such as depression and anxiety, work related issues such as shift work and from alcohol or drug abuse, to name a few. But sleep is one of your most precious resources. You simply can’t undervalue its importance of sleep to your health, longevity and the quality of your life at your peril. Health issues will arise if you ignore the importance of sleep and allow chronic insomnia in your life. Just as eating nutritious food your body with a solid foundation for health, so does good sleep. And just as processing your emotions and stressful events in a productive way helps you remove the barriers to achieving optimal health and fitness, adequate high quality sleep is also a core building block for a lifetime of wellness. Don’t stay up late a few days to finish your projects and become unable to sleep until late at night due to the changes in your biological clock. Don’t underestimate the effect of chronic insomnia.

Chronic insomnia can have serious, far-reaching effects on your health. Among them:
• A single night of sleeping only four to six hours can impact your ability to think clearly the next day.
• Good sleepers and poor sleepers experience about the same number of daily minor stressful events, but good sleepers are less disturbed by them. Poor sleepers experience life events as being more negative than do those who sleep well.
• Sleep deprivation can cause changes in your brain activity similar to those experienced by people with psychiatric disorders.
• Sleep deprivation puts your body into a pre-diabetic state, and makes you feel hungry, even if you’ve already eaten.
• Interrupted sleep can dramatically weaken your immune system
• Tumors grow two to three times faster in laboratory animals with severe sleep dysfunctions.

Stress is a huge contributor to chronic insomnia.

If your life is hectic and you allow chronic insomnia in your life because of too much stress or anxiety, then you need to practice relaxation or yoga more often! Your life depends on it. You need seven to eight hours of sleep each night or you may shorten your life expectancy. Please don’t take chronic insomnia too lightly.

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The Important Stage of Sleep that Affect Learning

Most of us are probably aware of REM sleep: the stage of sleep where our brain activity is the most similar to wakefulness; the stage where we dream. But we are probably not aware that REM sleep is just a part out of five, and that we cycle through all four stages repeatedly through the night. The 4th and 5th stage of sleep is especially important in affecting growth and learning.
We spend most of our sleeping time in the 4th Stage of sleep. This stage of sleep is deep, slow-waved, and is the stage of sleep where the brain slows down as the blood flow slows. The 4th stage of sleep is especially critical for children and adolescents, as it is when growth and development takes place. Beyond growth and muscle repair, healing takes place as well. Our immune system kicks into high gear during this stage of sleep. Children who don’t get enough of stage 4 sleep will have more colds and flus. Allowing children to have caffeine, especially after around 2PM, can prevent them from reaching the 4th stage of sleep during the night.

Another important stage of sleep is REM sleep, the 5th stage of sleep. This stage of sleep is when our neurons, or brain cells, are incredibly active, forming new networks and categorizing information. This stage of sleep also helps with memory formation and retention of new material learned during the day. In addition, it also helps to associate new material with prior learning. Moreover, the REM stage of sleep is when neurotransmitters are replenished. Neurotransmitters are the chemicals that your brain uses to send messages from one neuron to another, and they are used up every day. Without enough REM sleep to replenish them, our ability to learn and remember material the next day is diminished.
So how much sleep should our students get?
School-aged children need 8-9 hours every night, and adolescents need between 9-10. Current data shows that most adolescents average around 5-6 hours, about a four hour deficit every night. That’s a lot of learning being lost.

Invisible Benefits of Sleep

Just for a moment, allow yourself to feel the benefits of sleep: imagine waking up tomorrow morning without the alarm clock – feeling rested and ready to face the day ahead! Now imagine going about your normal daily activities with loads of energy, the kind of energy you can only get when you sleep soundly each night.  A lack of good quality sleep makes it almost impossible to live up to your potential, both work and health. Well-rested folks, on the other hand, are more likely to feel energetic and accomplish a lot more than those who are tired and run down all the time. If you had more energy, don’t you think you’d have an easier time getting that promotion at work, attracting that hottie down the block or just enjoying a fun day with your family? Other than these seeable positives, there are many invisible benefits of sleep.
Invisible Benefits of Sleep 1. Helps the body make repairs: Sleep is the time for one’s body to repair damage caused by harmful exposures. Our’s cells produce more protein during sleep. These protein molecules form building blocks for cells, allowing them to repair damage. They also help our immune system to mend our body at a cellular level when we’re stressed or have been exposed to compromising elements such as ultraviolet rays, pollutants and infectious bacteria.

Invisible Benefits of Sleep 2. Keeps heart healthy: Sleep help keeps blood pressure and cholesterol levels in check. Lack of sleep has been associated with worsening of blood pressure and cholesterol, all risk factors for heart disease and stroke. It is no wonder heart attacks and strokes are more common during the early morning hours.

Invisible Benefits of Sleep 3. May prevent cancer: People who work in the late shift have a higher risk of breast and colon cancer. This is reasoned by researchers as caused by the differing levels of melatonin in people who are exposed to light at night. Light exposure reduces the level of melatonin, a hormone that makes us sleep and protects us against cancer

Invisible Benefits of Sleep 4. Reduces the change of diabetes: researchers have shown that lack of sleep may lead to type 2 diabetes by affecting how one’s body processes glucose, the cells’ fuel. The Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School reports that a study showed a healthy group of people who had reduced their sleep from eight to four hours per night processed glucose more slowly. Other research initiatives have revealed that adults who usually sleep less than five hours per night have a greatly increased risk of developing diabetes.

Invisible Benefits of Sleep 5. Reduces stress: A good night’s sleep can help lower blood pressure and elevated levels of stress hormones, the natural result of today’s fast passed lifestyle. The body’s functions are put on high alert when your body is sleeping deficient. This causes an increase in blood pressure and produces more stress hormones. These stress hormones, unfortunately, make it harder for one to sleep.

Invisible Benefits of Sleep 6. Reduces inflammation: Sleep helps to reduce the levels of stress and inflammation in your body as your cardiovascular system is constantly under pressure. High levels of “inflammatory markers” are linked to heart disease and strokes, cancer, and diabetes. Inflammation is also thought as one of the causes for the deterioration of one’s body as he/she ages.

Invisible Benefits of Sleep 7. Strengthens one’s memory: While researchers don’t completely understand why one sleeps and dreams, but a process of Memory Consolidation occurs during sleep. One’s brain is still busy processing his/her day during rest, making connections between events, sensory input, feelings and memories. Getting more quality sleep will help one remember and process things better.

Invisible Benefits of Sleep 8. Help one lose weight: researchers have found that people who sleep less than seven hours per night are more likely to be overweight. It is thought that the lack of sleep impacts the balance of hormones in the body that affect appetite (ex. Ghrelin and leptin). This will make one’s appetite increases; however, instead of increasing the craving for fruits and veggies, rather, one’s body longs for foods high in calories, fats, and carbohydrates. Sleep helps regulate these hormones that affect and control one’s appetite.

Invisible Benefits of Sleep 9. May reduce the risk for depression: Sleep impacts many of the chemicals in human body, including serotonin. People with a deficiency in serotonin are more likely to suffer from depression.

Worthwhile Sleep

How much is getting a good night’s sleep worth to you?

Animal studies show that sleep dramatically enhances changes in brain connections. Researchers at the University of California examined the effect of sleep on brain plasticity in young cats that had just experienced an environmental challenge. The animals that were allowed to sleep for six hours after the stimulation developed twice the amount of brain change, compared to cats kept awake afterward. “This is the first direct evidence that sleep modifies the effect of environmental stimuli on the development of new brain connections,” said Marcos G. Frank, Ph.D. The
finding has broader implications for plasticity in the brains of adult animals and people. What’s more, the amount of plasticity (connections between nerve cells) in the brain depends on the amount of deep sleep, which is indicated by large slow brain waves. Stryker said this is precisely the time in life when the brain reorganizes its connections to attain the perfect precision it needs as an adult.

In short, sleep deprivation makes life harder than it needs to be. So how much is getting a good night’s sleep worth to you? To me personally, it’s priceless. After all, there’s not much I can accomplish when I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck. However, far too many people turn to sleeping
pills and high-priced prescription medications just so they can get to sleep at night… only to be left with that terrible groggy feeling in the morning and a lot less cash in their pockets. There are definitely better methods: natural sleep can be made simple. See tips for natural sleep methods next page. Don’t waste it on some harmful chemicals that will only worsen your health and not help you sleep better.

Health Benefits Of Sleep

How much is getting a good night’s sleep worth to you; answer that again after my article about the health benefits of sleep!

Health Benefits of Sleep 1. Sleep helps the body make repairs damages caused by harmful exposures through producing protein and other important cells. Out cells produce more protein, the molecules that form building blocks for cells,  during sleep. These cells helps our’s immune system to mend our body at a cellular level when one’s stressed or have been exposed to compromising elements such as ultraviolet rays, pollutants and infectious bacteria.

Health Benefits of Sleep 2. Sleep keeps heart healthy by help keeping blood pressure and cholesterol levels in check.  It is no wonder heart attacks and strokes are more common during the early morning hours.

Health Benefits of Sleep 3. Sleep may prevent cancer: People who work in the late shift have a higher risk of breast and colon cancer. This is reasoned by researchers as caused by the differing levels of melatonin in people who are exposed to light at night. Light exposure reduces the level of melatonin, a hormone that makes us sleep and protects us against cancer.

Health Benefits of Sleep 4. Sleep reduces the chance of type 2 diabetes. Research have shown that lack of sleep affects how our body processes glucose, the cells’ fuel. The Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School reports that a study showed a healthy group of people who had reduced their sleep from eight to four hours per night processed glucose more slowly. Other research initiatives have revealed that adults who usually sleep less than five hours per night have a greatly increased risk of developing diabetes. This other than diabetes, also means weight lose is harder if we are sleep deprived, impressive health benefits of sleep!

Health Benefits of Sleep 5. Sleep reduces stress by lowering blood pressure and elevated levels of stress hormones, the natural result of today’s fast passed lifestyle.

Health Benefits of Sleep 6. Sleep reduces inflammation through reducing the levels of stress and inflammation in your body. This is the result of our cardiovascular system when constantly under pressure. High levels of “inflammatory markers” are linked to heart disease and strokes, cancer, and diabetes. Inflammation is also thought as one of the causes for the deterioration of one’s body as he/she ages.

Health Benefits of Sleep 7. Sleep strengthens one’s memory: While researchers don’t completely understand why one sleeps and dreams, but a process of Memory Consolidation occurs during sleep. One’s brain is still busy processing his/her day during rest, making connections between events, sensory input, feelings and memories. Getting more quality sleep will help one remember and process things better, another important health benefits of sleep for our competitive society.

Health Benefits of Sleep 8. Sleep may help one lose weight. Researchers have found that people who sleep less than seven hours per night are more likely to be overweight. Sleep deprivation impacts the balance of hormones in the body that affect appetite (ex. Ghrelin and leptin), which will make one’s appetite increases. Yet, instead of increasing the craving for fruits and veggies, rather, one’s body longs for foods high in calories, fats, and carbohydrates. Sleep helps regulate these hormones that affect and control one’s appetite. Now we can’t say because we sleep, we will gain weight like a pig – I love these health benefits of sleep!

Health Benefits of Sleep 9. Sleep may reduce the risk for depression: Sleep impacts many of the chemicals in human body, including serotonin. People with a deficiency in serotonin are more likely to suffer from depression.

Health Benefits of Sleep 10. sleep dramatically enhances changes in brain connections. Researchers at the University of California examined the health benefits of sleep on brain plasticity in young cats that had just experienced an environmental challenge. Results have shown that the animals that allowed to sleep for six hours after the stimulation developed twice the amount of brain change, compared to cats kept awake afterward. What’s more, the amount of plasticity (connections between nerve cells) in the brain depends on the amount of deep sleep, which is indicated by large slow brain waves. Sleeping is precisely the time in life when the brain reorganizes its connections to attain the perfect precision it needs as an adult. Wow right? That’s another impressive health benefits of sleep?!
There are so many health benefits of sleep and harms to a lack of sleep. Many researches show that a lower amount of sleep equals higher risk of getting cancer, heart attacts, obesity, brain under-development, and diabetes. For those who don’t take quality sleep seriously, they lose out more than imagined health benefits of sleep. So how much is getting a good night’s sleep worth to you? To me personally, it’s priceless. After all, there’s not much I can accomplish when I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck. However, far too many people turn to sleeping pills and high-priced prescription medications just so they can get to sleep at night… only to worsen your health, be left with that terrible groggy feeling in the morning, a lot less cash in their pockets, and not have the health benefits of sleep. There are definitely better methods: sleep can be made simple and natural. There are natural ways to attain the health benefits of sleep.