News stories can strike you in so many different ways. Some will seem stupid, others heart-warming. In some cases, there’s just an overwhelming sense of sadness. You just ask yourself, “How could things have been allowed to get so bad?” So it is with the death of Michael Jackson. Millions of people seem to have liked his music and been prepared to forgive his more obvious eccentricities. Perhaps no-one can live so much in the glare of publicity and not end up a little strange. Read the rest of this entry »

Those people who are working during the night shifts expose their nervous system to a very strong stress, because our daily activities are strongly influenced by luminosity levels and having a sleeping schedule different from the typical light-and-dark pattern is really hard for the body. Our sleep is induced by a hormone called melatonin, the production of which is directly related to the luminosity levels of the environment the person is in. Working at nigh shifts not only makes it harder for you to socialize with people, as you are sleeping when everyone’s awake and visa versa, but it also makes your body struggle its natural drive to get rest during the night. Read the rest of this entry »

If you have experienced problems with falling asleep then the thought that almost people on Earth have them too from time to time should give you a bit of comfort. Read the rest of this entry »

Insomnia is not standing apart from the current trend of alternative treatments that many medical conditions are addressed with. Despite the intense advertising efforts made by pharmaceutical giants, more and more people are looking into traditional, herbal and alternative medications to cope with their health problems. Herbal treatments are believed to be much safer and sometimes more effective than the usual chemical solutions, which tend to have certain side-effects and in some cases make sleep disorders even worse. Read the rest of this entry »

We all know that having a good healthy sleep is really important for functioning properly during the day, and having problems with sleep is likely to cause you hard times both at work and at home. Of course, all of us have hard time falling asleep every now and then, and there’s nothing to worry about here. But if your sleeping problems are persistent it is a cause for being alarmed as your whole lifestyle can be strongly affected. Not having enough rest will strongly influence your ability to solve problems and if it’s required extensively throughout your regular lifestyle chronic insomnia can be a really serious problem. Read the rest of this entry »

Having to deal with sleep issues is nothing pleasant and refreshing, especially when you have to overcome such problems as insomnia. Defining the cause of condition is already a half way to resolving it and enjoying a good healthy sleep, which is simply necessary for the body. Our body needs a good prolonged sleep, because during this period the body regenerates itself and maintains all of its systems, starting with nervous and ending with cardiovascular. And it’s evident that not getting enough sleep - time for the body to refresh - will certainly resolve in overall decline and aggravation of certain health problems that were already present. Read the rest of this entry »

When you look around the world, there are troubles in almost every country. Whether it’s yet another terrorist attack in Mumbai, riots in Greece or flying shoes in Iraq, people are finding their lives disrupted. Medically, stress can affect people in a number of different ways, but one of the most common is to cause a change in sleep patterns. When life is calm, the normal habits kick in. We sleep around the same time every night for however many hours represents our average good night’s sleep. Now let’s change something. In the US right now, more and more people are facing the threat of unemployment or foreclosure of their homes. Suddenly, that good night’s sleep is elusive. For the first few nights when people toss and turn, there are few consequences the next day. Although people are more tired than usual, they cope. But if the days become weeks of sleep disruption, this starts to look like insomnia. It becomes a separate problem from the loss of job or home. Read the rest of this entry »

Experts on sleep are converging on Glasgow this September for the annual conference of the European Sleep Research Society (ESRS). In celebration, let’s take Scotland as our point of interest for this post. As a country, Scotland has a population of some 5 million hardy souls. Yet, every year sees Scottish doctors hand out some 30 million sleeping pills. Local politicians don’t appear on television often enough to send the country to sleep naturally. Read the rest of this entry »

In the most recent issue of Current Biology, researchers suggest that healthy old people lose some capacity for sleep. The research group at the University of Surrey, UK, recruited 18 participants aged between 60 and 72 years, and 35 participants aged between 18 and 32 years. They were all healthy and none had any problems in sleeping. Their sleep patterns were assessed by self-reporting, and those reports were followed up by formal monitoring overnight in a sleep laboratory. Read the rest of this entry »

Wherever you turn, you hear people complaining they had a bad night’s sleep, or they feel whacked out because they woke up too early. In reality, all these “symptoms” are quite normal. So long as you ignore these “symptoms”, they usually go away after a night or so. The situation only becomes abnormal if it lasts for more than a month or so. Read the rest of this entry »