For one thing, it may take us longer to prepare our meals. We may also develop health issues that interfere with our eating habits.

Both of these factors can influence when we eat, making it more likely that our meals will be delayed.

Our sleep patterns may change, too. Becoming something of a “night owl” can increase the likelihood of having a late breakfast.

Why does any of this matter?

Eating breakfast later and later can have a cascading effect on aging adults, leading to an earlier death…

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Breakfast timing provides clues about health status

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have found that breakfast timing may be a valuable tool in monitoring the health of older adults.

Led by Dr. Hassan Dashti, a nutrition scientist and circadian biologist at Massachusetts General, the research team analyzed data from 2,945 adults in the UK ages 42 to 94. They then followed these subjects for more than 20 years.

They found that as older adults age, there is a tendency to eat breakfast and dinner at later times, narrowing the overall time window in which they eat each day and having a significant impact on their health and well-being.

Eating breakfast later was consistently associated with having physical and mental health conditions, including depression, fatigue, sleep problems and oral health problems.

But most alarming, a later breakfast was also associated with an increased risk of death during the follow-up period.

“Up until now, we had a limited insight into how the timing of meals evolves later in life and how this shift relates to overall health and longevity,” says Dr. Dashti.

“Our findings help fill that gap by showing that later meal timing, especially delayed breakfast, is tied to both health challenges and increased mortality risk in older adults. These results add new meaning to the saying that ‘breakfast is the most important meal of the day,’ especially for older individuals.”

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The most important thing: Consistency

Dr. Dashti suggested that encouraging older adults to have consistent meal schedules could become part of broader strategies to promote healthy aging and longevity.

So if you tend to be a night owl and a late breakfast eater, take some steps to turn those habits around.

According to research from Harvard and MIT, pushing back your bedtime and wake time by just one hour can lower your depression risk by 23%.

And you’ll be doing yourself a favor in other ways, too. You’ll be reducing your risk of diabetes, heart disease and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

No matter what time you head off to bed, sticking to a regular sleep schedule is crucial — as well as aiming for 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night.

Duke University researchers found that going to bed and getting up at about the same time each day lowers your risk for obesity, hypertension, and stroke — even if your total sleep time is less than optimal.

Specifically, disrupted sleep has been shown to increase the number of white blood cells, known as monocytes and neutrophils, in the blood. These cells are known to contribute to the development of plaque inside the arteries and put individuals at risk for heart problems and strokes.

To improve your chances of being ready for bed in the evening…

• Try moving around during the day, taking short walks, preferably with friends or neighbors.
• Turn off electronics or TVs to reduce blue light, which can interfere with sleep.
• Aim for a consistent bedtime.
• Practice good sleep hygiene by avoiding falling asleep in a chair or on the couch.
• Stop drinking caffeine at least 6 hours before bed. Try some chamomile tea instead — but do so about 2 hours before bedtime to keep your bladder from waking you up.
• If needed, a bedtime snack of walnuts and cherries is a good source of natural sleep-promoting melatonin.
• Don’t forget to brush your teeth before bed.

Sweet dreams!

Sources:

Scientists reveal how breakfast timing may predict how long you live — Science Daily

Meal timing trajectories in older adults and their associations with morbidity, genetic profiles, and mortality — Communications Medicine

The post The clues breakfast timing holds about your longevity appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

According to cardiologist Dr. Elizabeth Klodas, during sleep, your heart rate and blood pressure drop, reducing the workload on your cardiovascular system. This nightly “reset” allows your heart to recover and prepare for the next day. The body also regulates stress and hunger hormones during sleep.

So it’s no wonder poor sleep is linked to increased risks for heart attack, stroke, diabetes, dementia, hypertension, depression, respiratory disease and more.

It can be tempting turn to sleep aids, but there are many reasons we shouldn’t…

For starters, they can keep the glymphatic system from doing an important job: Clearing waste from the brain while you sleep.

And for people over 65, who have slower metabolisms, both OTC and prescription sleep aids pose unique dangers, including upping their fall risk.

Luckily, there is a natural way to boost your sleep that researchers say rivals pills in effectiveness — yet comes with zero unwanted side effects.

Thanks to its benefits and its safety, they’re calling for it to be “the primary treatment strategy for poor sleep.”

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Taking an exercise-based approach

The findings of their research show that the use of certain exercises restores healthy sleep patterns by altering brain activity and hormonal levels, improving relaxation, curbing inflammation and more.

They say these exercises may not only work as well as pills, but also as effectively as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) — which is considered a gold-standard insomnia treatment, but can be difficult for patients to access and pay for.

So which exercises can help you get the ZZZ’s you need to take back your life and your health?

Here’s the list, along with the sleep results they can offer:

1. Yoga – The results showed that practicing yoga could help boost your sleep time by nearly two hours and improve your sleep efficiency (the ratio between the time you spend asleep and the total time dedicated to sleep) by nearly 15%. Yoga has the added benefit of reducing the amount of time spent awake after falling asleep by nearly an hour, and shortening sleep latency (the time it takes to fully fall asleep) by around half an hour.
2. Walking or jogging – Engaging in physical activity, such as taking a walk or increasing it to a jog, was shown to reduce insomnia severity by nearly 10 points.
3. Tai Chi – The practice of Tai Chi was found to be especially powerful for sleep, reducing poor sleep quality scores by more than four points, increasing total sleep time by more than 50 minutes, and reducing time spent awake after falling asleep by over half an hour. It also shortened sleep latency by almost 25 minutes. Tai Chi was even shown to work better for sleep for all outcomes than existing treatments, including prescription sleep aids and cognitive behavioural therapy, for up to two full years!

I don’t know about you, but after reading those results, I’m already Googling Tai Chi YouTube videos.

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The biology behind the benefits

So, how does exercise work to improve sleep? Here’s what the researchers say is the secret sauce…

For yoga, they say that it helps to alleviate the anxiety and depression that can keep you from getting a good night’s sleep by focusing your attention on body awareness and controlled breathing.

Walking or jogging offers benefits like increased calorie burn, lowered stress hormones and improved emotional regulation. It can also enhance the production of melatonin, your body’s natural sleep hormone. (Keep in mind your body requires adequate levels of vitamin D to produce melatonin.) All of this can mean more time spent in the deep sleep you need to feel truly rested.

Finally, like yoga, Tai Chi emphasizes breath control and relaxation. These actions calm sympathetic nervous system activity and the hyperarousal levels that can keep you tossing and turning in bed. Additionally, the gentle, low-impact exercise combines meditative movement and mindfulness to promote emotional regulation, deactivate ‘mental chatter’ and reduce anxiety.

And my favorite benefit of Tai Chi is how it can help to “curb the production of inflammatory chemicals over longer periods.”

That could benefit not only your sleep, but your overall health, since chronic inflammation is a known disease trigger.

Clearly, if you want to sleep better, choosing one of these exercises should be your #1 choice of “prescription.”

You might not notice improvements immediately, but keep at it. Anything worthwhile takes time and practice.

Sources:

Tai chi, yoga, and jogging rival pills for beating insomnia — ScienceDaily

Why you should take sleep as seriously as nutrition and exercise — Easy Health Options

The post The sleep solution that rivals pills to tackle insomnia appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

But for the person with ADHD, who may experience frequent nights of insomnia, it can affect life in a more dramatic and ongoing way.

It turns out that it may be insomnia that’s dragging their mood and quality of life down, compounding the struggles associated with attention deficit and the challenges of emotional regulation when living with ADHD.

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Insomnia has a significant impact on people with ADHD

Adults with ADHD are at higher risk of depression and lower quality of life (QoL) and research has revealed that sleep problems associated with ADHD may be why.

Specifically, insomnia could be the “missing link” that connects ADHD with depression and poor life quality.

Dr. Sarah Chellappa is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Southampton in England. She is also the senior author of a recently published study.

“We know that sleep disruption can impact neurobehavioral and cognitive systems, including attention and emotional regulation. At the same time, sleep disruption may arise from ADHD-related impulsivity and hyperactivity, suggesting a reinforcing cycle between sleep disorders and ADHD,” says Dr Sarah Chellappa.

Researchers from the University of Southampton and the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience looked at data from the Netherlands Sleep Registry.

They singled out responses from 1,364 of the over ten thousand participants in the Registry, looking at answers to questions about ADHD traits, insomnia, circadian factors, depression and quality of life.

Their findings made it clear that ADHD traits were associated with worse depression and more severe insomnia — and that insomnia and other sleep disorders were the potential link between ADHD, depression and lower quality of life.

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Hope for better interventions… and what to do until then

Professor Samuele Cortese, a co-author of the study, is also from the University of Southampton.

“There needs to be more research to understand this complex interplay. By improving our understanding, we could uncover treatment options that improve the quality of life of people with ADHD,” he says.

“For instance, targeting insomnia complaints in individuals with higher ADHD traits, with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia or Sleep Restriction therapy may help improve their quality of life.”

But there are simple, safe ways for people with ADHD to help themselves right now.

Melatonin is a hormone your brain produces to regulate your sleep and wake cycles. People with ADHD tend to have inhibited melatonin release and more difficulty preparing their bodies for rest. A French study found that melatonin helps adults with sleep disorders and ADHD.

Phosphatidylserine (PS) is a phospholipid that’s normally abundant in the brain and nervous system. It stimulates dopamine, a neurotransmitter that plays a role in sleep and emotional regulation. An imbalance of dopamine can lead to depression.

Omega-3s. Besides being good for heart health, omega-3 fatty acids may improve symptoms of ADHD, including behavior, cognitive skills and focus.

Other supplements that research has linked with improvement in ADHD symptoms include zinc, iron, magnesium, ginkgo and ginseng.

Always talk with your doctor before adding a new supplement to your daily regimen, particularly if you are taking medications for ADHD or other conditions.

Sources:

Can’t sleep, can’t focus, can’t thrive? ADHD and insomnia may be a vicious cycle — Science Daily

Associations of ADHD traits, sleep/circadian factors, depression and quality of life — BMJ Mental Health

Melatonin, Omega 3 & Dietary Supplements: ADHD Hype or Help? — ADDitude

6 Natural Supplements That Benefit Most Brains — ADDitude

The post The vicious cycle of adult ADHD and insomnia appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Medications we take, stress from the day, pain, bathroom trips, too much screen time, daytime napping and irregular sleep habits can add up to sleepless nights.

Chronic insomnia, where sleep is elusive night after night can be maddening. But a solution may be within reach — one that doesn’t require a prescription or come with side effects…

Researchers are onto a strong connection between chronic insomnia and a particular “food group.” If they make up a large part of your diet, getting the valuable sleep you need may be as easy as giving them up…

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The rise of fake food

Within the last decade, the proliferation of “fake food” has gotten so out of hand that the United Nations began applying the NOVA system of food classification to keep it all straight.

The NOVA system separates foods into four classifications: unprocessed or minimally processed, culinary ingredients (like olive oil), and two more: processed and ultra-processed foods.

Processed foods, by definition, are any “raw agricultural commodities that have been washed, cleaned, milled, cut, chopped, heated, pasteurized, blanched, cooked, canned, frozen, dried, dehydrated, mixed or packaged” — like a can of vegetables.

But ultra-processed foods are products that have gone through so much processing that they no longer bear much resemblance to real food. If you read the labels on these foods, you’ll see multiple unrecognizable ingredients.

Things like chicken nuggets, frozen pizza, microwaveable meals, and chips… even some cereals and packaged baked goods fall into this category.

Ultra-processed foods have been linked to a host of health conditions including dementia, depression and anxiety, and hypertension, bowel disease and a range of cancers.

And evidence says they’re stealing our sleep too…

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Ultra-processed foods’ connection to chronic insomnia

A group of French and American researchers recently looked at the possible connection between chronic insomnia and the consumption of ultra-processed foods.

“At a time when more and more foods are highly processed and sleep disturbances are rampant, it is important to evaluate whether diet could contribute to adverse or good quality sleep,” says Marie-Pierre St-Onge, a nutrition and sleep scientist at Columbia University.

St-Onge and her colleagues looked at data collected on 38,570 adults as part of the NutriNet Health Study, a study that focused on connections between nutrition and disease.

While St. Onge and her colleagues did not establish a causal relationship between ultra-processed foods and insomnia, they did find a statistically significant association between higher consumption of ultra-processed foods and increased chronic insomnia risk.

It’s important to point out that this is not the first time these foods have been associated with stealing sleep…

A Columbia University study demonstrated that postmenopausal women who ate the most refined carbohydrates — particularly added sugars — were 16 percent more likely to develop insomnia than those who ate the least. And if any food “group” contains a bevy of refined carbs and added sugars, it’s the ultra-processed one.

By the way, that same study found women who ate more vegetables, fiber and whole fruit (not juice) were about 14 percent less likely to lie awake at night.

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Beat insomnia the easy way

If you’re having trouble sleeping, it’s clear that sticking to “real” food could help eliminate one thing that’s likely to be causing it.

But of course, kicking the ultra-processed food habit is not easy. So start slow if you can’t go cold turkey, by ditching the two foods a 30-year study found to be the worst ones you could eat.

Then start adding in more of the good stuff. If eating fresh fruits and vegetables seems difficult at first, consider green powder mixes. They mix with water and many also contain fruit and fiber.

Steer clear of sleeping pills if you can. They come with some nasty side effects and aren’t guaranteed to work for everyone.

Instead, try the bedtime routine of a toddler and these other sleep-inducing tips.

Sources:

Chronic Insomnia Linked to Ultra-Processed Foods, Study Finds — Science Alert

The association between ultra-processed food consumption and chronic insomnia in the NutriNet-Santé Study — Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

One in four Americans develop insomnia each year: 75 percent of those with insomnia recover — Science Daily

Mediterranean diet pattern and sleep duration and insomnia symptoms in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis — Sleep

The post Are these foods behind your chronic insomnia? appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Too little can wreak havoc on your health by increasing your chances of developing heart disease, cognitive issues, kidney disease, high blood pressure, weaker bones, diabetes, stroke, obesity and depression.

Too much can actually put you at greater risk of coronary heart disease, stroke and diabetes than too little of it.

Clearly, the solution is to land in that “just right” sweet spot — of seven to nine hours of sleep a night.

By doing so, you’ll be supporting the health of your heart, brain, bones and metabolism — not to mention cutting down on infections….

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What’s sleep got to do with it?

Evidence already exists that sleep problems can raise your risk of infection. A previous study found people infected with rhinovirus were less likely to catch a cold if they reported healthy sleep.

To confirm this link between infection and sleep issues, a team of researchers in Norway collected 1,848 surveys of patients visiting their GP. The surveys asked them questions about their sleep quality and whether they had had any infections or used any antibiotics in the previous three months. The survey also included a scale to identify cases of chronic insomnia disorder.

The researchers found that patients who reported sleeping less than six hours a night (defined as chronic insomnia disorder) were 27 percent more likely to report an infection. They also had a higher risk of needing an antibiotic to overcome an infection.

Those who reported sleeping more than nine hours a night reported an even higher likelihood of infection: 44 percent.

“The higher risk of reporting an infection among patients who reported short or long sleep duration is not that surprising as we know that having an infection can cause both poor sleep and sleepiness,” says Dr. Ingeborg Forthun, corresponding author of the study. “But the higher risk of an infection among those with a chronic insomnia disorder indicate that the direction of this relationship also goes in the other direction; poor sleep can make your more susceptible to an infection.”

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Finding your sweet spot

We’ve written extensively about good sleep hygiene and the various natural steps you can take to fall asleep and stay asleep.

But first, it’s a good idea to keep a sleep journal to determine if you’re sleeping too much or too little. In this journal, you should record the following:

• The time at which you go to bed
• An estimate of when you fall asleep
• When and how often you wake up in the night
• Sleep quality
• How you feel when you get out of bed
• How you feel during the day

If after tracking your sleep for a few weeks you find that you’re consistently sleeping more than nine hours a night, you could be suffering from hypersomnia.

Hypersomnia could be caused by narcolepsy, sleep apnea, insomnia or other sleep disorders. Or it could be a symptom of another health condition like depression, anxiety, obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic pain or hypothyroidism (also known as low thyroid).

Talk with your doctor and share your sleep journal with them so they can help you get to the root of your hypersomnia and correct the issue.

Many of the same tips that help with insomnia can help with hypersomnia. They include:

• Setting a regular sleep schedule. If you go to bed and wake up at the same time each day it will help you avoid sleep loss and feeling like you need to make up for it by oversleeping.

• Creating a bedtime routine. Your routine should help you relax and prepare for sleep. This means no electronics in the hour or two before bedtime, as the blue light they emit can delay sleep onset.
• Setting a proper sleep environment. Make sure your bedroom is at a cool temperature and is protected from excess light and noise.
• Keeping active during the day. Daily exercise and sunlight exposure help you sleep well at night. But don’t exercise too close to bedtime, as this can make it hard to fall asleep.
• Napping Early. If you’re going to nap during the day, make it earlier rather than later. Late afternoon naps can make it hard to fall asleep on time at night.

Sources:

1. Sleep too much or too little and you might get sick more, scientists find — Frontiers Science News

2. The association between self-reported sleep problems, infection, and antibiotic use in patients in general practice — Frontiers in Psychiatry

3. What Are Sleep Deprivation and Deficiency? — National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

4. Too Much Sleep Can be Bad for Your Health — Premier Health

5. Oversleeping — Sleep Foundation

The post For infection prevention, hit the sheets appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Unfortunately, there are times when persistent insomnia can’t be solved with good sleep hygiene, a cup of chamomile tea or a sleep meditation.

At those times, it may be tempting to reach for an over-the-counter (OTC) sleep medication or to ask your doctor for a prescription sleep aid. But you need to be aware of the potential risk these medications can pose to your brain…

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The impact of sleep medications on cognition

Previous research has found a link between anticholinergic medicines and elevated dementia risk. This category of drugs includes nighttime cold remedies and certain OTC and prescription sleep medications.  

Some studies have found that taking these medications can increase your risk of developing dementia by as much as 54 percent!

Then there’s benzodiazepines. This drug class includes medicines like Xanax and Halcion and is often prescribed to treat anxiety and insomnia.

Previous research analyzing the effects of “benzos” found using these drugs consistently led to impairments in memory and concentration. In older people, benzos can also cause physical and psychological dependence, drug tolerance and brain fog.

Now, another study has indicated that benzos are one of three categories of drugs that can increase the risk of dementia, along with certain antidepressants and next-generation sleep medications such as Ambien.

The Health, Aging and Body Composition study was led by the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). They followed about 3,000 older adults without dementia who lived outside of nursing homes for an average of nine years. The average age of these individuals was 74, and about 58 percent were white and 42 percent were Black.

Previous research has shown people who are Black have a higher chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease, the most common type of dementia, than people who are white. Black individuals also have different risk factors and disease manifestations than white individuals.

Roughly 20 percent of the participants developed dementia during the study and they made some interesting findings…

• According to the results, white participants who “often” or “almost always” took sleep medications had a 79 percent higher chance of developing dementia compared to those who “never” or “rarely” used these drugs.

• The use of sleep aids was markedly lower in Black participants, and frequent users had similar odds of developing dementia as those who abstained or rarely used the medicines.

• The type and quantity of medication may explain the higher risk, as well as the ethnicity of the person taking the medication.

• The UCSF research indicates that people who are white are three times as likely as people who are black to take sleep medications “often,” defined as 5 to 15 times a month, or “almost always,” defined as 16 times a month to daily.

• White individuals were almost twice as likely to use benzos like Halcion, Dalmane and Restoril, all of which are prescribed for chronic insomnia. They were 10 times as likely to take trazodone, an antidepressant that may also be prescribed as a sleep aid. And they were more than seven times as likely to take so-called “Z-drugs” such as Ambien, often referred to as a sedative-hypnotic.

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What to do instead of medicating

After seeing these results, it would be wise to do as first author Yue Leng, Ph.D., of the UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Weill Institute for Neurosciences, advises — and that’s to hesitate before considering medication to fix your sleep problems.

First, you’ll want to rule out sleep apnea as a cause due to its association with cardiovascular complications. If you snore, wake up during the night gasping for air, wake up with a dry mouth or a headache, talk to your doctor about a sleep apnea test.

If that’s not your problem, you still have some non-drug options, including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for insomnia. CBT for insomnia is a structured program that helps identify feelings or behaviors that contribute to poor sleep while introducing habits that promote restful sleep.

Of course, melatonin may be the most well-known natural sleep aid. It certainly has a great reputation for safely improving sleep and has other benefits to boot.

Melatonin is a hormone naturally produced by the body that helps regulate the circadian rhythm — or sleep-wake cycle. Exposure to electronic screens and light can cut down on its production.

If you’ve tried melatonin in the past and didn’t find it helpful, your vitamin D levels may have been to blame. The sunshine vitamin is essential to the natural production of melatonin in the body and people over 50 tend to have insufficient levels.

Sources:

Do Sleep Medications Increase Your Chances of Dementia? — University of California San Francisco

Race Differences in the Association Between Sleep Medication Use and Risk of Dementia — Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease

The post The unsettling truth about sleep medication and your brain appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

But if you find yourself following a regular bedtime routine, winding down, going to sleep at the same time each night, yet at 2 a.m. you’re staring at the ceiling unable to fall back to sleep, you’re dealing with a phenomenon known as “middle insomnia.”

Sometimes, this middle-of-the-night waking is healthy and normal. Research shows that we tend to sleep in chunks of two to four hours, with a period of being awake sometime during the night.

If you are awake during the night but don’t find it distressing, you can use this brief window to meditate, read or listen to music. The worst thing you can do is to try and force yourself back to sleep.

If you do read, try and use candlelight or dim light. Don’t expose yourself to the blue light of a phone or computer screen, which will disrupt your circadian rhythm.

But if you repeatedly startle awake in the wee hours, and are exhausted each morning, there are a few things that could be happening…

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5 reasons for middle insomnia

Waking up a couple of hours before your alarm is set to go off is like being robbed. If you’re anything like me, you need your sleep, crave your sleep and want every last second of it.

Most likely, middle insomnia is happening due to a handful of reasons. And, fortunately, there’s something you can do about each of them…

1. Blood sugar crashes.
The food choices we make each day are intimately linked to pretty much every aspect of our health, and none more than our ability to get a good night’s sleep.

The typical American diet is loaded with refined carbs and sugars. Even small amounts of these eaten throughout the day can create a blood sugar nightmare that wakes you up at night.

The stress hormone cortisol also manages your blood sugar. To your body, an overly rapid change in blood sugar can feel the same as a panic attack or burst of anger, fear or frustration.

Every time your blood sugar crashes, such as after eating a big, sweet dessert, your body goes into a stress response When this happens in the middle of the night, the stress response disrupts your sleep.

A healthy, real-food diet is the answer to this problem. But for a quick fix, try eating a handful of almonds or a spoonful of almond butter or coconut oil before bed.

2. An out-of-control stress response.
For many of us, it’s hard to “unplug” at the end of the day. Thoughts of tasks left undone, worries and plans for the following day won’t leave us alone. Here are a few ways around that:

• “Outsource” your worries. Before bed, write down everything: your worries, to-do lists, plans, even questions. That way, it’s there when you want to worry about it, and you don’t need to keep replaying it in your head.
• Take 20 minutes or so before bed to disconnect from everything, most importantly from electronics. Breathe deeply, meditate, listen to calming music, anything to disconnect the “before” of the day from the “after” of sleep.
• Learn to say no to activities that rob you of down time. Reserve some daytime hours for reading, walking or just staring out the window.

3. Don’t get overtired.
Our bodies naturally want to fall asleep a few hours after sunset. We each have an ideal time, and if you pay attention to your body for a few nights, you’ll notice it. Mine is about 11 pm.

If you stay up past that ideal sleep window, you’ll get that “second wind” that sounds good for getting things done, but really leaves you feeling “wired” and unready for sleep.

4. Alcohol.
A nightcap may seem like a good idea upon occasion, but what alcohol actually does is disrupt your sleep rhythms. It makes you sleep more deeply at first, often leading to waking up during the night as if it were time to get up.

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5. Medications.
Antidepressants, particularly benzodiazepines, are notorious sleep disruptors. Even medications meant to improve sleep, such as Ambien, can have a negative impact. Always work with your health care provider in order to make changes to your medication.

Other medications that can disrupt your sleep, according to the National Sleep Foundation, include:

• Beta Blockers
• Corticosteroids
• Headache pills that contain caffeine
• Thyroid hormones

The post 5 reasons you wake up at night and how to stop appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

A growing body of research has demonstrated that poor sleep and obesity go hand-in-hand. And lack of sleep is associated with the development of type 2 diabetes and mood disorders.

Sleeplessness has also been found to nearly double your risk of dementia.

A strong connection has even been discovered between bad sleep and a bad attitude about aging, making you simply feel older, which can be detrimental to your future physical health.

Yet, one of the biggest dangers of not getting your rest might just be to your heart.

Doctors have long warned that untreated sleep apnea can lead to serious heart issues and raise your risk of a heart attack. However, even that warning might have been too light according to researchers from Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute.

In fact, they say that while sleep apnea is undoubtedly dangerous, it’s even worse when combined with a second, all-too-common sleep concern.

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Raising your risk of death by 50 percent

Yup, as if the deadly potential of sleep apnea (which already doubles your risk of suddenly dying from all causes alone), weren’t enough, your chances shoot even higher if you also live with insomnia.

“Insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea are the two most common sleep disorders, affecting 10 to 30% of the population, but people can often suffer from both at the same time,” says Dr. Bastien Lechat from the research institute.

Basically, doctors knew that people who had both conditions were likely to suffer worse outcomes than someone living with only one of the two. They just didn’t know how much worse.

So those Flinders researchers set out to find the answer.

The team studied over 5,000 people, following them for a whopping 15 years.

And what they discovered is frightening…

Their results showed that having both sleep apnea and insomnia make you:

• Two times more likely to have high blood pressure
• An incredible 70 percent more likely to have cardiovascular disease
• And 47 percent more likely to die for any reason at all

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Hitting your sleep stride on both cylinders

The authors concluded that “Given that these people are at higher risk of experiencing adverse health outcomes, it is important that people undergoing screening for one disorder should also be screened for the other.”

In other words, if you have either sleep apnea or insomnia, it’s time to see your doctor and get checked out.

Additionally, when it comes to sleep apnea, even a little movement makes a difference. That’s why getting as little as 20 minutes of exercise a day could save your sleep and your heart.

In addition to exercise, it’s important to take steps to lose any unwanted pounds and avoid alcohol, tranquilizers and sleeping pills. It can also help to sleep on your side or stomach instead of your back and use nasal spray, nasal decongestants or antihistamines to keep your nose from getting stuffy.

If your insomnia is due to anxious thoughts, it may help to take beta-sitosterol, a natural supplement that tames anxiety and has the added benefit of lowering cholesterol. We’ve also previously written on seven additional natural supplements that can help you win the sleep game and get the rest you need.

And before you turn to prescription sleep medications and their side effects, you might want to try “sedating music” which has been shown to help seniors sleep without risky pills.

Sources:

Common sleep disorder combo could be deadly – EurekAlert!

How does inadequate sleep affect health? – NIH

The post The sleep disorders that more than double heart dangers appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

I personally prefer not to take prescription sleep meds. Still, I’ve tried almost everything else… all the herbs, meditations, foods and other natural remedies that are supposed to knock you out cold.

A few have helped me. Medical marijuana was a game-changer. Acupuncture helped get me through some lousy insomnia spurts, too. But even though I have an arsenal of helpful remedies for my insomnia when it flares up now, I’m still always on the lookout for new ones… you never know when one of your old methods will stop being as effective or when you’ll need to double-up (or even triple-up) on natural sleep aids.

That’s why a new study from researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden recently caught my eye. The study found that a safe, natural insomnia remedy can make a serious dent in insomnia in a short time… or even send it into remission…

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Weighted blankets work wonders for people with insomnia and mental health issues

Researchers at the Karolinska Institutet just conducted a randomized, controlled study to see how weighted blankets impacted sleep quality for insomnia sufferers with psychiatric disorders. In case you don’t know, weighted blankets are hefty blankets that apply gentle but firm pressure to your body.

The study included 120 adults who had clinical insomnia, as well as one of the following disorders: major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or generalized anxiety disorder. Researchers asked them to sleep at home with either a chain-weighted blanket or a control blanket. Here’s what they found…

After just four weeks, people using the weighted blanket were a whopping 26 times more likely to experience a decrease of 50 percent or more in their insomnia severity. They were also close to 20 times more likely to put their insomnia into remission. And guess what? Researchers gave all participants the opportunity to continue using (or start using in the case of the control group) the weighted blankets for a year after the study.

When they followed up with them, they found that 92 percent of weighted blanket users responded positively to the blanket and that 78 percent put their insomnia into remission. Many participants also experienced a reduction in their anxiety and depression.

Why do weighted blankets work?

Here’s what lead investigator Dr. Mats Alder suspects…

“A suggested explanation for the calming and sleep-promoting effect is the pressure that the chain blanket applies on different points on the body, stimulating the sensation of touch and the sense of muscles and joints, similar to acupressure and massage. There is evidence suggesting that deep pressure stimulation increases parasympathetic arousal of the autonomic nervous system and at the same time reduces sympathetic arousal, which is considered to be the cause of the calming effect.”

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What to know before you buy a weighted blanket

Ready to give weighted blankets a try? Me too! The results of this study were so impressive that it’s hard not to be convinced. But what kind of weighted blanket should you buy?

People in the study used a weighted chain blanket, which contains metal chains sewn between padding. You’ll also find weighted blankets on the market that contain things like glass beads or plastic pellets. Since they’ve become more popular, you can find weighted blankets at a variety of prices, too. The cheapest typically fall around $50 to $60, and the most expensive are between $200 and $300.

How heavy should your weighted blanket be?

In the study, participants received a weighted blanket of about 17.6 pounds. But 10 people thought that was too heavy, so they received a replacement that was about 13.2 pounds. However, some experts say the weight of a weighted blanket should be tailored to your body weight. According to them, the ideal weight for a weighted blanket is about 10 percent of your body weight plus an extra pound or two. So, you may want to give that formula a try when you’re shopping for a weighted blanket to send your insomnia packing.

Sources:

Study shows weighted blankets can decrease insomnia severity — MedicalXpress.

A randomized controlled study of weighted chain blankets for insomnia in psychiatric disorders — Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.

The post The easiest way to send your insomnia into remission appeared first on Easy Health Options®.