Sleep Secrets

Sleep requirements vary from individual to individual and range from as few as four hours to even nine or ten hours per day. However, it is important to understand that the quality of sleep is perhaps more important than the number of hours of sleep. One can sleep for ten hours and yet feel morose and weary afterwards, whereas someone who enjoys as little as four hours of good sleep can feel greatly refreshed upon waking up. The following tips can aid in improving the quality of your sleep.

1)    Set up and stick to a sleep schedule. If possible, also establish and maintain a “sleep ritual” before bedtime. Going to bed and waking up the next morning, at the same time each day is an excellent way to keep the body’s in-built sleep rhythm toned and in good condition. The sleep ritual can include performing a simple sequence of activities that condition the brain and body to feel sleepy before finally going to bed.
2)    Having a slightly lower body temperature, along with moderate levels of physical exhaustion helps you swiftly fall asleep without much tossing and turning in bed. A good way to achieve this would be to follow a short twenty or thirty minute exercise regimen somewhere in the late afternoon. During exercise, body temperature is elevated but afterwards, the relaxation period begins and by bedtime the body temperature falls off to a point that helps in sleep induction.
3)    A warm bath before going to bed can work wonders to relax the body. Adding a few drops of certain aromatics oils to the water can provide additional relaxation. An example of such oils is Lavender oil that has known calming effects.
4)    Bedtime reading is another useful aid to falling asleep gently. The material can be stories or articles that do not elicit too much thinking. Magazine material with plenty of serene imagery or descriptions of natural scenery, etc… make apropos bedtime reading.
5)    Doing away with foodstuff that can potentially cause upset stomachs is advisable. Specifically, hot and spicy foodstuff, and those with plenty of oil should be avoided as such food items can give rise to severe heartburns and stomachaches during the night.
6)    Drinking a glass of warm milk before going to sleep is recommendable for most people. Milk contains an amino acid called tryptophan that is known to promote sleep.
7)    For the majority of us, listening to soft music, without the vocal has a relaxing effect, which in turn promotes the process of falling asleep.
8)    Shutting off arrhythmic and intense signals that stimulate our sense organs helps us in enjoying better sleep. Shrill sounds, loud noises, excessive lighting, strong or noisome smells, a badly made bed, etc… are things to be avoided in the sleeping area.
9)    Excessive fluid intake prior to going to bed should be done away with. Drinking plenty of fluid before taking to bed, will, during the course of the night cause a full bladder, which in turn will trigger strong urges to urinate that can disrupt sleep.
10)    Abstaining from alcohol consumption before bedtime is recommended. Although alcohol can help a person fall asleep rather abruptly, it can give rise to bouts of wakefulness during the night and cause disturbed sleep.

Sleep is an essential task in every person’s life. There are many things to discuss about caffeine in particular. You can find both the positive and negative effects of caffeine in your daily life. This drug has got something to do with your sleep.

Caffeine is a drug, which becomes addictive when used regularly. It alters the brain’s natural state of a person. It really affected nearly 90% of the Americans as per the survey. How Caffeine work is, it closes the blood vessels in the brain enabling the brain and body not to sleep. It causes the release of adrenaline into the human body so that the body remains alert and active and manipulates the dopamine production in the brain of a person so that he experience a high temperature.

A Pure Form of Caffeine

Caffeine is commonly found in its natural state in many plants such as coffee beans, tealeaves, and cocoa nuts. You can find the pure form of caffeine in its white, bitter, crystalline powder blended from the decaffeinating process of tea and coffee. Some of the products in which caffeine generally comes are: milk chocolate, colas, tea, coffee, pain relievers and etc

Those who are regular users of caffeine should consume it daily otherwise, they may suffer from disorders such as fatigue, irritability, depression, jumpiness, tremors, deprivation of deep sleep and headaches when the blood vessels in the brain dilates. In some cases, Prominent Doctor’s suggest to use this drug medicinally because of its positive effects on a person’s life. It is mostly used as a cardiac stimulant.

Finding Caffeine in Pain Relievers

Why most people rely on pain relievers when they get headache or any other pain in their body? Pain relievers generally contain caffeine, which allows the brain blood vessels to constrict thereby easing the pain. The short-term side effects arising from the consumption of caffeine include renewed energy, alertness, and pleasure. Though there exists long-term side effects with the consumption of caffeine, still they are not life threatening.

Caffeine is not only the single aspect, which affects your sleep, but your daily activities are also responsible for your sleep disorder. If you take too much of alcohol also, you may get sleep problem. You need to carefully monitor your daily diet, exercise patters, personal habits, sleeping environment and lifestyles, etc. These all factors will be responsible in a person’s life as to which is causing him sleep apnea.

We all agree that sleep is a natural and important part of our life. We also agree over the fact that over-sleeping as well as sleep deprivation has a negative influence on our physical and mental health. However, the point on which we do not frequently agree upon is the question of “How much sleep do we really need?” Although a vast amount of research has been carried out on the subject, the reports of such studies have been at times been somewhat confusing and inconclusive. But, there is reason to believe that eight hours of sound sleep seems to be the magical number for the typical adult.
Sleep researchers and clinicians sometimes divide people into “Short sleepers” and “Long sleepers” with the majority falling somewhere in between these two categories. People who require less than six hours of sleep per night are dubbed short sleepers and those who require about nine hours of sleep are termed long sleepers.
As most of us know, sleep requirements vary from person to person and there are some well studied factors that contribute to this variation. A well known factor is the age of a person. Newborns and infants typically require a lot of sleep, anywhere between fourteen to sixteen hours a day. Several studies have indicated that the average, active teenager requires about nine hours of sleep during the night. In the case of adults, eight hours of sleep per twenty-four hours is the recommended number, going by a number of research reports. Scientific studies that have examined the sleep requirements of older people (above sixty-five years of age), conclude that although the elderly require around eight hours of sleep, they enjoy only light sleep and their periods of deep sleep are reduced.
Apart from age, sleep requirements also depend on genetic factors as well as on the quality of sleep. In the context of this discussion, the concept of “sleep debt” springs into prominence. For instance, if a person who requires eight hours of sleep per day, manages to sleep only seven hours for two consecutive days, then on the third day he ends up a sleep deficit (or debt) of two hours. By sleeping ten hours that night, he can successfully close the sleep debt of two hours. Many people who incur daily sleep debts carry it forward to the week-end when they sleep for longer periods to effectively “pay off” the debt.
How does one know if he or she is incurring a sleep deficit? Sleep deprivation can cause a variety of signs some of which are explicit (like yawning frequently) while others are implicit (such as reduced response times and subtly impaired cognitive function). The tell-tale signs that may be used to diagnose sleep deprivation include feeling tired and drowsy during the daytime, falling asleep for short periods during work, etc…It has also been argued that if a person constantly falls asleep within five minutes of going to bed, then he is most likely carrying a sleep deficit. Importantly, many studies have shown that chronically sleep deprived persons are at a greater risk of causing automobile accidents if they drive for long, continuous periods. Chronic lack of sleep, then, clearly causes reduced levels of alertness!
Like any other basic necessity in life, you can have too less or too much of a good thing. It is important to know one’s own sleep requirements and adjust one’s lifestyle so that chronic sleep deprivation and over-sleeping are avoided.

Of the multitude of factors that affect the quantity and quality of sleep, caffeine intake is one that merits serious discussion. The effects of caffeine on sleep have been well studied and we also know many of the underlying mechanisms behind caffeine’s biological effects. While caffeine has been hailed as an effective “pick me up” that helps to provide a sudden surge of mental vigor and alertness, it has also been called as an addictive drug by many. This colorless, flavorless chemical substance is present in a variety of natural and artificial foods and food products. Coffee beans, teal leaves and cocoa nuts constitute some natural sources of caffeine. Caffeine is also found in most cola brands.
Coffee, a typical cup of which contains around 75mg of caffeine, is the drink that has been used traditionally by those who want to stay awake during the night. The effects are attributed mainly to caffeine.
Scientific studies have pointed out that caffeine intake is associated with sleep disturbances and sleep deprivation. In short, caffeine can cause insomnia, leading to delay in falling asleep and considerable shortening of the sleeping time. However, the influence of caffeine on sleep depends on the amount of caffeine consumed. Moderate consumption of caffeine, (around or less than 250 milligrams daily) does not, in most people, cause any significant sleep problems. Consumption levels of more than 300mg per day points to caffeine addiction and such “caffeine addicts” may develop sleep problems that can even become chronic in nature.
At least some of the mechanisms underlying caffeine’s sleep delaying activity have been illustrated.
Caffeine is known to cause constriction of blood vessels supplying blood to the brain. The reduced blood supply to the brain does not allow either the brain or the body to reach a sleep state. Caffeine also triggers the release of a hormone called adrenaline that has the property of imparting a heightened wakefulness (or alertness) to the person. Also, caffeine has a mild stimulatory effect on the heart and therefore serves to increase the heart rate. Increased heart rate is not helpful to attaining sleepiness.
There is yet another mechanism that is believed to contribute to insomnia caused by caffeine. Caffeine, by increasing blood flow through the kidneys, acts as a diuretic. If a person takes caffeine rich drink such as coffee prior to going to bed, then his sleep can be disturbed in the night by a full bladder and the urgency to urinate.
Lastly, the time of intake of the caffeinated drink plays an important role in determining its effects on sleep. Caffeine, following ingestion, crosses over into the blood stream and reaches peak blood levels after approximately an hour. Therefore, for those who are coffee addicts, and who simply cannot do away with caffeine, care should be taken to stop coffee consumption at least a couple of hours before the intended bedtime.
Although coffee (and in essence, caffeine) is generally associated with causing insomnia, in a minority of people, especially in coffee addicts, having a cup of coffee a couple of hours before going to bed can actually work to induce sleep. This is attributed to some of the delayed-relaxing effects of caffeine.
If caffeine consumers want to make sure that their coffee doesn’t make them lose their sleep, then it is advisable to make sure that they limit their caffeine intake and to have last cup of coffee at least a couple of hours before bedtime!