Sleep in Mindfulness Peace

father and son asleepFor centuries, people have employed a variety of techniques to help them fall asleep faster, and to do so longer. Those techniques have included everything from warm milk to counting sheep to, currently, sleeping pills and supplements like Melatonin. In a quest to fight insomnia and to get the rest that your body undoubtedly needs, people have and will try most anything. So, why not try mindfulness?

Recent studies show that the practice is effective for aiding in sleep, just as it has been effective for therapeutic techniques and used in the past alongside medications to aid in sleep therapy. The reality is, many of the issues preventing sleep are deeper than mere exhaustion. Things like stress and anxiety will impact one’s ability to rest. You’ve probably experienced this before. You get in bed, prepared to go to sleep, and thoughts of what happened during the day, issues pending for days to come, and any other stressors run through your mind, making it more difficult to truly sleep. Mindfulness gives you a chance to take control of such thoughts and to create a better atmosphere that allows sleep to occur.

In the study, researchers used 49 participants with moderate sleep problems and 54 with chronic insomnia. In both cases, mindfulness increased the quality of sleep as diminished disturbances like constant movement or waking up throughout the night. As a result of better sleep during the night, participants remained more alert throughout the day and in better spirits, showing a decrease in the presence of depression. Thus mindfulness essentially aided in two functions: sleep quality and mental health.

Furthermore, the research showed that the process was effective among all age groups, though most studies show it being most beneficial for the elderly. Another group to have responded positively to the practice is veterans. Understandably, many of them have difficulty sleeping, due to post-traumatic stress and accompanying variables which incite insomnia. So, though the research is still in its infancy, quite a few studies are showing a positive correlation between mindfulness as slumber. Since rest is a very necessary part of our lives, finding tools such as mindfulness to aid in improving any related illnesses, is crucial.

At the moment, the primary treatment for disturbances with sleep exists in the form of medication, with brands like Ambien and Lunesta being the most well-known. However, not all prescriptions are effective, and when they are, the side effects pretty much cancel out existing benefits. For Ambien, in particular, side effects include daytime drowsiness, tiredness and headaches. With results like that, it’s practically the same issues one would encounter because of sleep deprivation. While mindfulness is not an absolute guarantee, there are no detrimental effects.

Hopefully with this research and growing body of knowledge lending additional credence to the ancient practice of mindfulness, we’ll see more people benefiting for all types of problems. We all need sleep; it’s how we live, think, grow. Any resource that can improve our ability to do so, is definitely welcome.

Positive Thinking & Exercise Alleviated Symptoms of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Study Shows

Jerry Daskoski shares a picture of a fatigued womanYou may or may not have heard of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, but you should have. The illness affects more than one million people and is more common than lupus, multiple sclerosis and some cancers, in the United States. It is not age discriminatory (though more likely to occur in adults than children) nor prevalent in some races more than others, as diseases like diabetes or skin cancer, which unequally affect African-Americans and Caucasians, respectively. So, it something on which everyone should be educated.

Among the known symptoms of the disease are fatigue–as suggested by the name–joint pain, stomach pain, sore throat, insomnia as well as poor memory and concentration. Because of the range of issues, the disease was once dismissed as just a flu, despite being diagnosed as early as the 19th century. Still, not much is known about the disease, particularly there is no one-time cure nor vaccination. However, a recent study published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal has produced promising news for those affected.

The 2-year study included 481 participants and four treatments, by which doctors determined how patients responded and overall effectiveness. What the findings revealed is that neither standard medical treatment nor adaptive therapy, which seeks to help patients adapt to their condition, showed significant improvements in the symptoms experienced by patients. However positive thinking (believing that symptoms could get better, rather than merely accepting them or thinking negatively about them) coupled with exercise proved most beneficial.

One of the study’s researchers, Professor Sharpe had this to say about the findings: “It’s wrong to say people don’t want to get better, but they get locked into a pattern and their life constricts around what they can do. If you live within your limits that becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.” The research expresses clearly that the issue is physical rather than one of mental health, however, changing the course of thoughts from doom to possibility was, in fact helpful, and even allowed participants to perform exercise, which was previously thought by many of them to exacerbate the issue rather than help.

I’m certainly glad that more people are seeing the benefits of positive thinking, not just as form of meditation, but as a serious step toward holistic health and wellness, even for chronic illness. Perhaps, not as the only form of medication, but certainly as an aid, as shown with this study. The motivation to adhere to treatment or the move toward progress indeed starts with even believing that such could work. Even when not directly correlated as in this example, mental health should be as much a goal as that of the physical. Positive thinking is good for living, positively.

3 Secrets to Successful Snoozing: Improve your Sleep for a Better Day

Family SleepingEach day brings about a new adventure. Whether your waking hours involve thriving at school, succeeding at work, keeping the household running smoothly, or some combination of all that and more, one thing is certain – to do your best, you need to feel your best. To accomplish that end, you will need to be rested. This is a simple truth that all of us can attest to anecdotally. Everyone is well aware of how much longer a day can feel when you start it feeling groggy and unprepared on the wrong foot. However, what many people completely undervalue, is how severe the consequences can still be when your lack of sleep persists in a less dramatic fashion.

If you stay up all night, the negative impacts are obvious. However, cheating yourself out of an hour or two of sleep each day until it becomes a habit yields equally destructive results. In contrast, prioritizing your sleep and well-being can be nothing short of transformative in your ability to be productive, sharp, emotionally balanced, and full of energy. Here are three tips to help you maintain the highest possible level of cognitive function and achieve your best self by knowing when it is time to making snoozing your number one mission.

Consistency is Key

Identifying and committing to your body’s natural sleep-wake cycle (called your circadian rhythm) is a crucial strategy in achieving deeply restorative sleep. Going to sleep and getting up at the same time every day will help you feel refreshed, significantly more so than if you were to hit the same raw numbers of hours asleep but at dramatically different times. Shifting by as little as one or two hours is enough to throw your body off. So, it is essential to establish good habits and defend them against all the curveballs of life. Set a regular bedtime and do your very best to not break this routine. That includes on weekends, when it may be more tempting to stay up late. By the same logic, also wake up at the same time. You will know you are getting enough sleep because you biological alarm clock will soon set itself. If you find you are unable to get up without the alarm, you likely need to turn in a little early the night before. If you do end up needing a nap, it is better to take one during the afternoon, rather than sleeping in late and thus disrupting your circadian rhythm.

Build the Right Habits

Your body naturally regulates your sleep-wake cycle through the production of a hormone called melatonin, which is controlled by light exposure. Your brain produces more melatonin in the evening, when it is dark, and thus makes you sleep. Alternatively, you produce less during the daytime when the sun is out and you need to alert. The vast advances in modern technology, however, have made it increasingly easy to disrupt melatonin production and thus your circadin rhythm. For example, spending all day away from natural light because you are working in a dark office can alter your wakefulness. On the other hand, exposure to the bright lights of TV, phone, computer, and tablet screens that extends late into the night can suppress melatonin production and keep you wide awake.

To counter these challenges, increase your exposure to natural light during the day. Try to spend more time outside when possible and let as much natural light as possible into your home and workplace. In the evening, turn off all your technology well before bedtime. Many people enjoy relaxing with a TV show or social media session before bed, but this is a mistake because they can be overly stimulating. Instead, listen to music or an audio book. Before sure your room is sufficiently dark and, if you do have to wake up, use a flashlight instead of turning on all your home’s lights to keep your light exposure in the late evening to a minimum.

Treat Your Body Right

Much like how you sleep during the night can affect what you are able to do throughout the day, how you spend your waking hours very much impact how well you sleep. It is especially critical to be aware of what you put into your body leading up to bedtime. Avoid large meals at night and avoid heavy, rich foods within two hours of when you get into bed. Fatty foods require a substantial amount of energy to digest and can therefore keep your body working hard, which will make it harder for you to get to sleep. Similarly, imbibing alcohol before bed might make you fall asleep better but it reduces the quality of that sleep since your body is up and busy processing it. Cut out caffeine as much as possible, especially after noon, given that it can have a measurable chemical impact as much as ten to twelve hours after you consume it. Drinking too many liquids at all before bed is also a sure way to have you waking up throughout the night to relieve yourself, so avoid too much drinking of any kind before bedtime as well.

Your Sleep is Worth It

It can seem counterintuitive that going to bed, which you have likely done just about every single day of your life, stands to benefit so significantly with just a little conscious effort on your part. However, the positive impact of building excellent sleep habits cannot be understated. Put your mental and physical health first by making great sleep a priority.