Do you suffer from sleep deprivation? You know by now how you feel without a good night sleep: tiredness, irritability and a loss of concentration are high on the side effects list for insomnia. Therefore, it is very important that you find your cause of insomnia and an insomnia cure as soon as possible.
Sleep deprivation and sleep apnea affects our nervous systems by leaving us drowsy and unable to concentrate. Even losing sleep a few nights a week can significantly impair your ability to function and decrease the quality of your life. Not getting enough sleep also leads to poor memory. If sleep deprivation continues, hallucinations and mood swings will develop. In the same vein, sleeping problems are common in both mental and physical disorders including schizophrenia and depression, stroke, cancer, and head injuries.
Insomnia treatment and cure: For getting a proper sleep at night, do the following:
Sleep only when sleepy. This reduces the time you are awake in bed.
If you can not fall asleep within 25 minutes, just get up and do something boring until you feel sleepy. Sit quietly in the dark listen to some nice relaxing music. Do not expose yourself to bright light while you are up.
Do not take naps. This will make you tired at bedtime. If you just cannot make it through the day without a power nap, sleep less than one hour, before 4 pm.
Go to bed and get up the same time every day. When your sleep cycle has a regular rhythm, you will feel much better.
Refrain from exercise at least four hours before bedtime. Regular exercise is recommended to help you sleep well, but the timing of the workout is important. Exercising in the morning or early afternoon will not interfere with your sleep.
Develop sleep rituals. Listen to relaxing cds, read something soothing for twenty minutes, have a cup of warm milk, and do relaxation exercises.
Avoid caffeine, nicotine and alcohol at least four hours before bed. Caffeine and nicotine are stimulants that interfere with your ability to fall asleep. Alcohol may seem to help you sleep in the beginning as it slows brain activity, but you will end up having a restless night.
Have a light snack before you go to bed. If your tummy is too empty, that can interfere with sleep. However, if you eat a big meal before bedtime, that can interfere as well.
Take a hot bath ninety minutes before bedtime. This will relax your body and will help you fall asleep.
Make sure your bedroom and bed are quiet and comfortable.
Getting a good night's sleep is as important as having a proper healthy diet and exercising to keep a healthy body. A good night sleep makes your skin look fresh and it also helps make your brain more alert. Though in a busy lifestyle we always try to sacrifice sleep for work but it is very important that you set aside enough hours for some good old-fashioned beauty sleep. The average person needs eight hours of sleep, while infants need sixteen hours of sleep, and teenagers need about nine hours.
Scientists believe that sleep maintains and repairs our bodies and minds. Every night we cycle through three stages of sleep ranging from light sleep to deep sleep, and finally, to rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. A complete sleep cycle takes ninety to one hundred minutes on average. While we sleep our brains are using important neuronal connections that might otherwise get worse from lack of activity. During deep sleep, brain activity that control emotions, decision-making processes, and social interaction stops, allowing us to maintain optimal emotional and social functioning when we are awake. Cell repair and cell growth takes place to combat the affects of stress and UV rays in this stage as well. Hence, deep sleep is really beauty sleep.
Sleep also strengthens our immune system and helps our bodies fight infection. This is because our immune system releases a sleep inducing chemical while fighting a flu or an infection. Sleep helps the body conserve energy and other resources that the immune system requires to mount an effective attack. Start your insomnia treatment as soon as possible to prevent sleep deprivation.
Symptoms Of Sleep Deprivation
How much impact does sleep deprivation make on a person's mind and body? A little drowsiness at the office...a millisecond of mental shut-down as you drive down the highway? The facts glaringly bear out the dangers of losing sleep. Some of the worst industrial disasters recorded in history --- the Chernoby Nuclear Disaster and the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill --- all happened because someone who was supposed to be wide awake and alert allegedly fell asleep on the job.
In 1986, a flawed nuclear reactor design led to a stem explosion and fire that released at least five percent of the radioactive reactor core. The radioactive fumes flowed into the atmosphere and left a total of 54 fatalities, almost 20 years after the incident. The radioactivity caused people to get sick and die painfully slow from the effects of exposure to the nuclear fumes. While officially, the records show that it was a mechanical failure that caused the steam explosion, many attribute the tragedy to poor training, lack of safety measures, and the poor concetration of a sleepy worker at the nuclear plant.
Three years after Chernobyl, another major disaster occurred that has again put the lack of sleep as center of the blame. In 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez struck a reef and spilled approximately 11 million gallons of oil into the sea. At the time of the accident, the captain of the ship was in his stateroom --- leaving a ship officer and a seaman on the control. According to reports, the two men on the bridge were apparently tired and sleepy and, thus, momentarily lost their concentration while maneuvering the tanker. Exxon,the company that owned the tanker, spent around $3 Billion to finance the oil clean-up operations and to settle damages incurred by fishing companies that operated in the site of the accident.
Sleep deprivation also causes other relatively smaller scale incidents, like a car accident, which is, by no means, less tragic. Sleeping while behind the wheel is the culprit for the 13 percent rise in highway road accidents in the United States. According to studies made on road accidents, one in thirteen drivers regularly felt drowsy while driving a car on a busy highway. It does not take much to be in a road mishap. Even if a driver closes his eyes for a millisecond, that is enough for him to unintentionally swerve the vehicle to the opposite lane and cause a head-on collission. Based on records by the World Health Organization, at least 1.2 million people die each year on the road due to a car accident.
So, how can we prevent accidents due to sleep deprivation? The answer is as simple as this: people should get enough sleep. Studies show that the amount of sleep needed by an individual is influenced by genetics. While some people feel fine with just five hours of sleep a night, most doctors and health experts prescribe at least eight hours of sleep. While the number of hours of sleep time somehow decreases with age, it is clear that lack of sleep makes a person lose concentration which could have disastrous consequences.
People who are under extreme stress or those who suffer from insomnia need additional help in getting sleep. For many years, millions of people have turned to the sleeping pill to find quick relief from sleeping disorders like insomnia. Over the counter sleeping pills are among the most bought pharmaceutical products today, especially in highly industrialized Western countries. These sedatives help a person experience relaxation which eventually leads to sleep. Still, users of the drug are strongly cautioned about the side effects of sleeping pill use which include slurred speech, slow reflexes, and poor judgment.
Accidents happen unexpectedly, without any warning. Perhaps, there is close to nothing that we can do to totally prevent minor mishaps and large-scale tragedies from happening. Still, ensuring that we get enough sleep may be a good start. Failing to get enough rest at night not only disrupts our body processes and reduces our mental capabilities, it can even lead to the fatal incidents that could possibly lead to the sleep of death.
Both Andrew Chin & Fris Arbes are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Andrew Chin has sinced written about articles on various topics from Parenting, Self Esteem and Infants And Toddlers. Andrew Chin is a recognized authority on the subject of . His web site on. Andrew Chin's top article generates over 33100 views. to your Favourites.
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