Let's Hope These Don't Make You Lose Sleep Some More.

We simply could not overemphasize the importance of sleeping. Especially now that scientists link lack of sleep to Alzheimer's, obesity, heart ailments, and even death, among others.

Check out 5 of the dangers associated with chronic lack of sleep:

1. Alzheimer's Disease - that dreaded ailment anyone approaching the age of 65 starts worrying about. Why, it afflicts 34 million worldwide (Alzheimer's Disease International), and this number could increase by more than 35 million by 2010. To make things worse (and scarier) is that there is still no known cure for this disease. Alzheimer's Disease is the most common form of dementia. Those afflicted with it suffer memory loss and confusion. This will worsen to a point the patient will not be able to care for himself, and not know what to do when the urge to go to the bathroom arises.

In a study published by Reuters, scientists discovered that chronic lack of sleep spurs the development of toxic plaques in the brain that destroys neurons.

2. Alters hormones and metabolism - having just four hours of sleep each night can make you look old - after less than a week. Sleeping less than the standard eight-hour sleep produces a significant change in your glucose tolerance and endocrine function. These changes resemble the effects of aging or diabetes in it early stages.

3. Weight gain - the most obvious tie-ins to obesity would be sleep-deprivation and the wooziness that makes exercise a near impossibility. But it's more than that. As cited above, some of the changes include hormonal imbalances involving leptin and ghrelin. Leptin suppresses your appetite so you'll stop eating, and makes you more active so you burn off more energy. Ghrelin, on the other hand, stimulates hunger. You have more ghrelin before meals and it decreases after meals.

When you are sleeping, leptin increases so you don't feel hungry. When you lack sleep, leptin is at a low supply and you have too much ghrelin that tells your brain you are hungry. So you eat. And eat. And eat.

3. Increased susceptibility to common cold - in a study published in Archives of Internal Medicine, 153 healthy participants' sleep efficiency were monitored for 14 days. They were then quarantined and administered nasal drops containing rhinovirus, a type of virus that is responsible for common colds in adults and children. Those who had slept less than 7 hours on average were found to be more likely to develop colds compared to those who sleep at an average of 8 hours or more.

4. Heart problems - Time.com reports a study published in the Journal of American Medical Association, that "too little sleep can promote calcium buildup in the heart arteries, leading to the plaques that can then break apart and cause heart attacks and strokes."

5. Diabetes - chronic lack of sleep causes hormonal imbalance (there it is again!) that affects glucose regulation. You don't produce enough insulin producing cells that, in turn, cause your glucose levels to rise. Insulin is necessary to keep your blood sugar level in check. If you don't sleep enough (7-8 hours a night) for a whole week, insulin and blood sugar levels in your system mimic those of a diabetic's.

We've just named 5, and there are a lot more. As it weakens your immune system, one possible effect of chronic lack of sleep is death. Continually depriving yourself of enough sleep could lead to long-term changes in the brain or mental disorders such as depression. Sleep is the time when our brain consolidates memory and information, it is needed to regenerate certain parts of the body.

If you think you are being productive when you skip sleep to work, think again. Don't go to bed thinking about this tonight as this could be worrisome. Worry causes stress.

Stress can keep you up at night, sleepless. 

(For a scientifically-proven solution to insomnia and sleep deprivation, check out iMusic Deep Sleep.)

This brings us back to exercise, as the best option. Exercise helps us sleep easily and it increases the amount of time in deep sleep, which is the stage of sleep where our brain works at repairing itself, developing new neurons, and consolidating information.

(Check out: FitDrive iMusic Suite - easy help for those who find it difficult to will themselves to exercise and stay on the program)

You want to rush committing a new skill or knowledge to memory? Get a 90-minute daytime snooze and it might help: you get instant memory consolidation.

Here's the experiment as reported by LiveScience: participants are instructed to learn a complex thumb-tapping sequence. The participants are then divided into two groups; one group napped for an hour and the other stayed awake. The result? Those who took the afternoon siesta showed great improvement in their performance of the newly learned skill on the evening of that same day.

Further experiments also showed that a 90-minute snooze could lock in long-term memories faster. If we send this report to HR, do you think they'd start extending lunch breaks for catnaps?

Meagan Daley, psychology professor at Laval University in Quebec, notes that despite the fact that alcohol is more expensive than even the regular main brand of sleep meds, insomniacs turn to a glass of wine for relief. We just can't help but wonder cheekily: perhaps the respondents prefer the "happy hour" that goes with drinking compared to the boring sleeping pills.

The Scientific American report, aptly titled "Looking for Sleep in All the Wrong Places" (which was published January 1, 2009, in the journal Sleep) says alcohol doesn't help you sleep. In fact, it worsens your sleep problem; as three to four drinks prior to bedtime can wake you up in the middle of the night.

Maher Karam-Hage, addiction psychiatrist at the University of Texas in Houston says long-term drinking can lead to the suppression of deep sleep. It means your body and mind are deprived of the refreshing effect that a good night's sleep provides. Don't forget also that deep sleep helps (or is needed by) your brain for its "housekeeping tasks" and "memory consolidation" functions.

The report named some "over-the-counter" sleep medications that could help, but Karam-Hage cautions that these meds should not be taken longer than seven to ten days, as these could pose some negative side-effects.

A terrifying fall that seems to go on forever, or being chased by a horrible creature which could be anything fearful like a ghost, a monster, (or a zombie IRS agent!) while you try so hard to flee but you're fixed on the spot, are some of the most common, but disturbing nightmares, people could have.

A nightmare could be anything from terror -- you think your head will explode with fear -- to something so terribly upsetting that you wake up gripped with misery.

If you think chronic nightmares fall into the realm of the unexplained, you are in for a pleasant surprise: having chronic nightmares is a medical problem and it can be treated. Dr. Ross Levin, a psychologist and sleep researcher at Yeshiva University in New York says when you slip into REM sleep (made evident to observers by the rapid flitting of your eyes behind closed lids), "the whole brain changes. Neurochemically, it's like the Fourth of July. The limbic system becomes incredibly active, much more so than when you're awake, which is why you're emotionally on edge in dreams." The limbic system, as Dr. C. George Boeree says in a separate paper here, "appears to be primarily responsible for our emotional life, and has a lot to do with the formation of memories."

Scientists believe that nightmares are a result of the brain's struggle to process stress or severe trauma. Unfortunately for some people, they get stuck in a recurring pattern of troubling nightmares. Treatment of recurring nightmare is through "image rehearsal therapy." You will be delighted to learn that this type of treatment is usually brief-lasting only for two to three sessions.

REWRITING THE SCRIPT

You don't like your nightmare? (who does!!??) The treatment involves helping you with imagery rehearsal therapy, where the focus is on rewriting the script of your nightmare during the day. If your nightmare finds you falling from the air, you could train yourself to spread your arms and transform that fall into an enjoyable flying maneuver; if your recurring nightmare is about a monster or a ghost chasing you and you cannot run, you can choose to imagine turning around to face your fear and it will disappear in disappointment.

Dr. Shelby Harris, clinical psychologist at the Sleep-Wake Disorders Center at Montefiore Hospital in New York , says,"We mention the nightmare once and forget about it. I tell patients to change it anyway they wish. You can change a tiny bit of it, or change the whole thing." The basic element to the treatment is to practice the new version of the dream by recreating a more desirable one several times during the day.

The treatment has proven to be successful and some have developed the ability to change the nightmare while they are in it. Dr. Harris says those who are often awaken by recurring nightmares, or those who are developing insomnia, or fear of sleeping, must seek professional help before things get worse.

Recurring nightmares could lead to the disruption of your REM to non-REM sleep cycle, loss of sleep or insomnia which could in turn greatly impact your cognitive functions. iMusic Deep Sleep Suite is one scientifically tested and proven tool that could greatly help you get that restful sleep, and wake up ready for the world!

Freddy Krueger?---Just say, "I'm not afraid of you!" (Repeat 24x a day and call me in the morning).

Are you one of the 50 to 70 million Americans who are suffering from insomnia? If you are, check out this warning:

Sarah Baldauf reports that people who have insufficient sleep (less than 7 hours a night) are more prone to obesity. When you have less sleep, Gherlin (hormones that command you to eat) goes berserk, while your body supply of Leptin (your appetite-suppressant hormone) suffers a recession. She adds that you also tend to prefer a cholesterol or fat-laden diet, which could result in hypertension, or worse, you are more prone to heart attack and/or becoming a diabetic.

Among other things, sleepy drivers are at a higher risk of getting involved in vehicular accidents, your balance is off, and kids are more likely to suffer behavioural problems.

We didn't put the above warning items in a bullet list but if you count, there's only nine.

We have some reservations about the tenth reason, that goes: "10) Death's doorstep may be nearer. Those who get five hours or less per night have approximately 15 percent greater risk of dying-regardless of the cause."

Uh ... as far as we know, uhm, we're all going to die 100 percent, right?

Don't get confused.  For extensive (and reliable) reports on sleep, sleep deprivation, and more enlightening facts about deep sleep, check this page here.

 

 

 

 

It has always been believed that the human brain gets its "rest" during the non-REM phase of sleep, as shown by previous brain imaging studies. You know, much like a computer shutsdown so it can rest. The fact that you do not remember anything during sleep (except for occasional recollections of a dream during REM sleep) seems to support this.

 

However, recent studies published in ScienceDaily (Oct. 17, 2008), have shown that even during our deepest stages of sleep or "slow-wave-sleep," there is a transient and recurrent increase of activity in some parts of our brain.

With the use of functional MRI (fMRI) combined with EEG, researchers have evidence of slow oscillations interpreted as an increase of brain activity during non-REM sleep. These areas of activation during deep sleep are pointing towards the functions of sleep in memory consolidation. It's much more like your "computer" isn't shutdown, it goes on auto-defrag.

This study, supported by the National Fund for Scientific Research in Belgium, the University of Liege, and the Queen Elizabeth Medical Foundation is another breakthrough in establishing sleep's crucial function to our intelligence.