Sleep Better by Avoiding Blue Light

Lenette Nakauchi says you can naturally improve your sleep by avoiding blue light.

In order to fall asleep, the human body produces melatonin, a hormone created in the pineal gland. Melatonin allows the body to relax enough to sleep, allowing it to follow the natural circadian rhythm. However, some environmental factors can interfere with the production of melatonin and make falling asleep naturally a highly difficult task. One such factor is blue light.

Why is light such a crucial factor? Before technology and electricity, the human body relied upon environmental light to determine when it was time to sleep and when it was time to wake up. In today's world there are alarm clocks, cell phones, and other devices that dictate when it is time to get out of bed, but the body has yet to adapt to these technological changes. Despite the fact that you may have depended upon an alarm clock for your entire life, your body is still capable of matching its sleep cycle to the natural cycle of the environment.

Blue light is a part of the light spectrum that is especially visible during the day, making its appearance a cue to the body to wake up. No matter how tired you are, your body may be limited in its production of melatonin if you are exposed to blue light. It follows, then, that avoiding blue light before going to bed is a great way to allow your body to produce the natural levels of melatonin that it needs to fall asleep. Read more

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Posted in: better sleep,blue light,insomnia,melatonin

5 Foods That Help You Sleep Better

Besides making you abrasive and unpleasant, a lack of sleep can make you fat. Here are five foods to help you sleep better.

As you go about your hectic lifestyle, one thing that you must be sure that you're not shorting yourself on is a sound sleep. If you're working out hard in the gym, without that proper night's rest each evening, you're going to really struggle to keep up with your recovery and progress.

In addition to this, those who aren't sleeping well throughout the night are more likely to see elevated levels of cortisol in their body, which will then encourage belly fat accumulation. If a lean midsection and a healthy rate of muscle building are two of your main priorities, you definitely want to look into how to sleep better. You’ve come to the right place.

What you eat will have a big influence on the quality of your sleep. You can easily sleep better by making a few changes and being sure to include foods that promote rest. Note, however, that you should not eat these foods immediately before going to bed, as that can keep you awake due to the increased blood flow to the digestive system; eat them one to two hours before you plan to turn in for the night. This will allow the heaviest part of digestion to take place and also give the sleep-enhancing effects a chance to kick in.

Let's have a quick look at the top foods you should consider if you want to sleep better. Read more

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Posted in: better sleep,insomnia,nutrition

Simple Home Remedies to Stop Snoring

If you notice your spouse is sleeping more frequently on a different room, you’re probably making disastrous music while you’re asleep. This music may be keeping you asleep but this kind of music will drive your spouse nuts.

This music you’re making while you’re asleep is called snoring. The musical instrument you play with this kind of music with is your throat muscles. Snoring can ruin your relationship with your spouse. It is a fact that some people in the United States have filed divorce cases on the grounds that their sleeping partner is always snoring.


Not only will snoring ruin your relationship with your sleeping partner, but it can be a sign that your body is malfunctioning. Studies have found that snoring is a sign that you have diabetes, you are obese, and you may also have undiagnosed serious heart condition.

Another complication of snoring is that aside from not letting your sleeping partner sleep soundly, you will also wake up and shift your bed position in order to stop snoring. You may not know it but snoring may wake you up from deep sleep. The human brain needs enough oxygen to function and also to prevent brain damage. Since snoring will obstruct your airway, your brain will go on full alert and wake your body up from deep sleep and make it shift to another sleeping position in order to open the blocked or partially blocked airway. You may not know that you wake up but your sleep-deprived sleeping partner will be a witness to the events that you will always wake up from your sleep and shift sleeping positions.

Snoring will result to lack of sleep, morning headaches, lightheadedness, and also irritability throughout the rest of your day.

These are the reasons why you should take all the necessary steps to stop snoring or at least minimize it. Today, there are various ways on how you can prevent snoring.

However, you have to know what causes snoring first. As mentioned before, snoring is caused by your throat muscles. If the throat muscles are too relax when you are sleeping, or if it is full of fatty tissues, then the throat muscles will obstruct your airways. The air coming in and out of your airway will cause the relaxed muscles to vibrate and will cause the sound that you will call snoring.

Now that you know why people snore, you now have to know how to stop yourself from snoring.

The primary cause of snoring is being overweight or being obese. Fat tissues will build up around your throat and will cause your throat muscle tissues to sag. So, in order to prevent yourself from snoring is to go on a diet. Exercise and tone those throat muscles down.

By losing weight, you will eventually stop snoring or at least minimize it to a level that will be tolerable to your sleeping partner.

Here are other home remedies that you can consider in order for you to free yourself from snoring:

•    Stop smoking. Smoking before going to bed causes your throat muscles to relax.
•    Stop drinking alcoholic beverages. As with smoking it will also cause your throat muscles to relax.
•    Stop eating heavy meals before bedtime. It will also cause your throat muscles to relax.
•    Stop taking sedatives. Also relaxes your throat muscles.
•    Sleep on your side. Light to moderate snorers will be more silent when sleeping on their side.
•    Get rid of large pillows. It’s comfortable but it’s a snore contributor.
•    Raise your bed. Elevating your bed from the upper torso will stop snoring. Get an old book and elevate the legs of the head of the bed with it.

These are the simple yet effective home remedies that can free yourself from snoring. By following these simple steps, you can be sure that you and your sleeping partner will have a good night sleep and you as well.

Get the best sleep you've had in years with proven snoring remedies in a step-by-step guide that quickly and easily cure snoring permanently. To find out how to reinvigorate your love life, restore your energy, and regain the healing benefits of sleep for a more relaxed and stress-free you, click here!

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Posted in: better sleep,insomnia,snoring

4 Tips to Help Stop Snoring

Snoring is a laughing matter for some people, but what they don't realize is that many conflicts have developed from snoring. Almost half of normal adults suffer from occasional snoring while an estimated 25% of them are known to snore habitually. It is good to point out that these figures did not choose to have fallen as victim to this nighttime dilemma. Instead, they just happened to be less lucky than most of us.

Driven by the need to resolve the disturbances caused by snoring, patients often seek relief from various stop snoring products such as devices, pills, and sprays. You should realize, though, that there is still no sufficient data to back the claims of these products. To help find relief for those people who only want to have restful sleeps, here are four tips that can help you to stop snoring.

Change of sleeping position. During sleep, our air passages must have room enough to avoid o avoid the collision of certain parts forunobstructed breathing. If you sleep flat on the back, it is likely that the throat will be constricted in a way that the air passage is obstructed. However, when we sleep on our sides, these same passages will be released from possible intrusion of the dangling tissues. Additionally, the likelihood that the jaw will drop to cause obstruction will be lessened.

Lose weight. Not only would you benefit from the various consequences of losing off some pounds, you would also get around from the risk of snoring. Overweight individuals tend to have bulky necks, which create more possibilities of snoring.

Change your lifestyle in general. Vices such as alcohol and smoking are recognized as detrimental to healthful living, which for most parts is certainly true. These are good ways to encourage smoking since both have effects that can immediately affect the tissues used in breathing.

Alcohol has relaxant effects that contribute greatly to uncontrollability of throat muscles. Cigarettes, on the other hand, have the effects of changing the cells lining the esophagus. This change can create reactions suitable for encouraging snores.

Establish a good sleeping pattern. Sleeping at the same time every night can help induce a more-or-less fixed sleeping pattern. This does not cure snoring, but it can help in making the rest you want, even when you snore so loudly at night. Once your body get used to the same habit each night, simple grunts and frequent noises coming from your own mouth would no longer cause you disturbances, enough to keep you awake all night.

Get the best sleep you've had in years with proven snoring remedies in a step-by-step guide that quickly and easily cure snoring permanently. To find out how to reinvigorate your love life, restore your energy, and regain the healing benefits of sleep for a more relaxed and stress-free you, click here!

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Posted in: better sleep,insomnia,overcoming insomnia,snoring

Sleep Yourself Thin

It's not only leaving us sick and tired, but experts say too little sleep is making us fat.

For women, lack of sleep is so common that the standard reply to ‘How are you?’ is: ‘Shattered!’ But a growing body of evidence indicates that chronic tiredness isn’t just affecting our ability to function well - it’s also making us fat.

Around 60 per cent of British adults are overweight or obese, and research suggests that the cause may not be overeating or lack of exercise, but sleep deprivation.

As you will see, the reason that singer Jennifer Lopez looks ten years younger than she is may be due to her ability to get eight hours of sleep a night. Read more

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Posted in: better sleep,insomnia,Weight Loss

How to Sleep Better, Lose Weight, and Live Longer

Did you know that sleep deprivation makes you fat? Dr. Mark Hyman gives tips to help you to not only sleep better, but also lose weight and live longer.

You can lose weight without changing what you eat or doing one minute of exercise! It's a bold claim. And don't get me wrong: Nutrition and exercise are important! But there's another key to weight loss -- and most people don't even know about it. It's sleep.

In fact, besides eating whole foods and moving your body, getting enough sleep is the most important thing you can do for your health. On the flip side, sleep deprivation makes you fat -- AND leads to depression, pain, heart disease, diabetes, and much more. Read more

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Posted in: better sleep,insomnia,long life,sleep tips,Weight Loss

Do Cold Temperatures Improve Sleep?

If insomnia is a problem, maybe your bedroom is too hot or too cold. Both can affect sleep.

Studies have found that in general, the optimal temperature for sleep is quite cool, around 60 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperatures that fall too far below or above this range can lead to restlessness.

Temperatures in this range help facilitate the decrease in core body temperature that in turn initiates sleepiness. A growing number of studies are finding that temperature regulation plays a role in many cases of chronic insomnia. Read more

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Posted in: insomnia,overcoming insomnia,sleep tips,sleeplessness

Beauty Sleep Is Real

Sleeping Beauty may have had the ultimate secret to looking great and maintaining the soft, dewy skin of youth. The best skin-care treatment may be a good night's sleep.

It's a universal truth: When you're in your 20s, you can stay out all night and look fresh the next morning. Unfortunately, as we age, lack of sleep affects us more deeply and shows more prominently on our faces -- lackluster complexions, dark circles, fine lines and, in more extreme cases, rashes and eczema.

Progressive loss of cellular water may be one reason sleepless nights affect our skin more visibly as we age, says board-certified dermatologist Dr. Howard Murad. Water retention is key to keeping skin moisturized and supple, which can translate to fewer lines and a smoother complexion. Read more

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Posted in: better sleep,insomnia,sleeplessness

Is Your Sleep Deprivation Leading You to Diabetes?

Sleep deprivation can have serious effects on your health in the form of physical and mental impairments. In fact, Dr. Michael J. Breus says sleep deprivation may even lead to diabetes.

While sleep may not seem like it belongs in the same category as words that revolve around weight, it actually has everything to do with weight and whether or not you're at risk for diabetes. Two fascinating studies that just came out to further prove it:

1. One study out of a sleep lab at Penn State College showed that insomniacs who slept only five to six hours a night had greater odds of developing diabetes. Read more

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Posted in: diabetes,insomnia,sleep deprivation,type 2 diabetes

10 Ways to Fall Asleep More Easily

What are the top ten ways to fall asleep more easily? Find out and vote on your favorite.

For people who have trouble falling asleep, bedtime is the start of the most stressful part of the day. Instead of tossing and turning, try some of our suggestions to help you rock yourself to sleep. Some are not new, but are so often forgotten. Consider this your reminder. Read more

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Posted in: better sleep,insomnia,overcoming insomnia

Why Fat People Can't Sleep

The ultimate misery: you're overweight AND you can't get to sleep at night. It turns out these two problems may be related.

Insomnia has long been associated with poor health, including weight gain and even obesity. Now researchers at UCLA have found out why.

In a study to be published in the May issue of the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology and currently available online by subscription, Sarosh Motivala, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, and colleagues looked at two hormones that are primarily responsible for regulating the body's energy balance, telling the body when it is hungry and when it is full. The study found that chronic insomnia disrupts one of these two hormones. Read more

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Posted in: better sleep,ghrelin,insomnia,leptin,overcoming insomnia

10 Ways to Stop Insomnia and Get Some Sleep

Don’t let sleeplessness keep you from getting the rest you need. Try these ten ways to stop insomnia and get some sleep.

If insomnia is derailing your sleep, a prescription sleeping pill may not be the best cure. Here are some options to explore:

Practice good "sleep hygiene." This does not mean making sure your bedding is clean! It means following good sleep habits, especially ensuring the bedroom environment is conducive to sleep. Read more

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Posted in: better sleep,insomnia,overcoming insomnia,sleep better

Why We Need a Good Night's Sleep

Scientists warn of the dangers of sleepless nights after discovering how the brain clears out the day's mental rubbish.

To sleep, perchance to dream, said Hamlet. Now scientists have shown that sleep is more about getting rid of the previous day's mental rubbish than it is about dreaming.

A study into slumber has found that the nerve connections built up in the brain during a busy day are pruned back during the night in an attempt to keep the mind from overloading on junk information.

The findings lend support to the idea that a good night's sleep is essential for consolidating important memories of the previous day and getting rid of things that would otherwise clog up the system. Read more

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Posted in: better sleep,insomnia,overcoming insomnia

14 Reasons You're Not Sleeping

It's estimated that one in 10 adults struggle with chronic insomnia, and one in three occasionally deal with the condition. However, experts say many people have no idea what is keeping them up at night because those who've been dealing with sleep difficulties for long periods of time often forget the initial catalyst or don't realize the extent of their problem

Beyond not recognizing what's wrong, many people also unknowingly learn self-perpetuating behaviors or come up with solutions that hurt more than help.

"When you look at people who are having problems sleeping, a lot of the logical things they are doing to fix the situation actually end up making it worse," says Philip Gehrman, an assistant professor of psychology at University of the Sciences in Philadelphia who treats people with insomnia. Read more

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Posted in: better sleep,insomnia,overcoming insomnia

How to Sleep Better

Good sleep hygiene can have a tremendous impact upon the problem of insomnia. WebMD suggests eleven sleep hygiene solutions for better sleep.

From having occasional difficulty sleeping to insomnia, there is a lot you can do to get a better night's sleep, feel refreshed when you awake, and remain alert throughout the day. It's called "sleep hygiene" and refers to those practices, habits, and environmental factors that are critically important for sound sleep. And most of it is under your control.

There are four general areas important to sleep hygiene: Read more

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Posted in: better sleep,end tiredness,insomnia,sleep better