Category: Healthy Sleep Habits

The Cognition and Sleep Quality Connection

Cognition and Sleep Quality Connection Mental health and cognition are two key benefits of quality sleep. Researchers continue to learn about the importance of sleep for cognition and mental health. Quality sleep can improve thought processes, mood, and efficiency. Poor

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First Night Effect

Have you ever travelled somewhere and couldn’t sleep well the first night? If so, you are not alone. This common experience is known as the First Night Effect (FNE). What is the First Night Effect? Healthier Sleep spoke with Dr.

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Sleep for Parents and Infants

Sleep is a game-changer for the health and happiness of both babies and parents. The way babies sleep affects how well parents rest, and vice versa. Let’s untangle this important relationship and explore some practical tips for getting through those

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ASMR and Its Benefits for Sleep

Have you ever felt a pleasant tingling sensation when someone whispers or taps their fingernails? This feeling might be ASMR, which stands for “autonomous sensory meridian response.” While not everyone experiences ASMR, many people do, and some say it helps

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Sleep Like a Professional Athlete

 There’s sleep, there’s good sleep, and then there’s sleeping like a professional athlete. When it comes to professional athletes, even good sleep isn’t good enough. If you have poor sleep habits, fixing your routine can feel insurmountable. But at the

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Benefits and Drawbacks of Napping

There are as many opinions on napping as there are hours in the day. Is napping good or bad? How long should you nap? When should you nap? Do kids need naps? These are some of the questions that Dr.

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Sleep’s Role in Recovery

Don’t Skip This Part of Your Workout! You go to the gym every day. The day isn’t complete without a workout or practice, and your cupboard is stocked with everything you need to rebuild and recover – or so you

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Sleeping at High Altitudes

Many bodily functions can be impacted by high-altitude and low-oxygen environments, especially sleep. High-quality sleep is crucial for mood, memory, and overall health and well-being. When sleep is consistently disrupted, troubles with focus, stress, problem-solving, and energy can arise. High-altitude

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Better Sleep Through Better Nutrition

Waking up rested and ready for the day is a wonderful feeling. Stress, noise, or snacking on spicy chicken wings too close to bedtime can lead to a terrible night of sleep. Reducing stress or noise can be hard, but

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Sleeping Your Way to Better Performance

Sleep is a normal and reversible activity that is essential for recovery. Studies show that sleep is important for health and performance, especially for athletes. Getting enough sleep not only helps athletes perform better but also impacts overall physical and

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Soothing Bedtime Routines

One healthy sleep habit is having a consistent and soothing bedtime routine. Ideally a bedtime routine begins 30 to 60 minutes prior to bed and is consistent. This signals to your mind and body that it is time to prepare

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The Power of Noise for a Good Night’s Sleep

When you think about getting a good night’s sleep, you probably imagine a completely quiet room. When that isn’t possible, a little noise might actually help you sleep better. Different types of noise can mask disruptive sounds and help you

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Sleep Deprivation in the Elderly

What Causes it and How to Remedy It While sleep deprivation – or not getting enough sleep is common, there is a remarkable increase as we age. Sleep deprivation affects about 10 to 20 percent of individuals in the general

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Promotion of Sleep Around the Globe

Sleep is a crucial biological process. Humans need an average of 7-8 hours of sleep each night to operate at our best. However, studies suggest that up to 1/3rd of the population does not achieve this amount. Lack of proper

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The Stages of Sleep

Each night as you drift off to sleep, your brain begins going through a series of sleep stages. These stages combine to form a sleep cycle, but it doesn’t end there. You go through several sleep cycles each night. What

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Sleep Is Essential for Health

On an intuitive level, we all know that good sleep is vital for our health. However, if we scratch the surface of this understanding a little bit, problems can start to emerge. Do we know what good sleep truly is?

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Sleep and Meditation

Is This the Master Key? Sleep might be one of those rare occasions when science needs to listen to poetry. In Macbeth sleep is extolled because it “knits up the raveled sleeve of care,” perhaps the most famous Shakespeare comment

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Sleeping Pills and Travel

Whether you love to travel or have to hit the road for work, traveling can interfere with getting quality sleep. Traveling may have an adverse effect on your sleep for a few different reasons, including the following: Change in circadian

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Medication and Air Travel

If you take any type of medication, it is important to understand how traveling may affect your medication schedule and the effects of the drugs. It is also helpful to take steps to ensure you stay on track the best

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Alcohol and Sleep

Many people struggle with not only falling asleep at night but also staying asleep all night. Typically, this restlessness is blamed on work and home stress. It could also result from too much screen time that can leave your nerves

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Jet Lag and How it Affects Sleep

Everyone’s body has an internal clock that regulates your sleep-wake cycles. This is referred to as your circadian rhythm (patterns your body follows based on a 24-hour day). Unfortunately, when you travel over multiple time zones, your internal clock does

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Sleep in the Spotlight

Over the past several years, two hot topics have emerged, with an impact on health and safety, from issues associated with daytime sleepiness. The first calls for the elimination of Daylight-Saving Time. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine put out

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The Science of a Good Night’s Sleep

While sleep seems “quiet and restful”, it is, in reality, an active process and involves complex neurophysiology, engaging a number of brain systems. This multi-component physiology leads to restful sleep night after night but also presents multiple vulnerabilities that can

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Short Sleeper & Long Sleeper

  At 5:00 am sharp, my daughter’s eyes fly open. After just six hours of sleep, she’s bouncing with energy, eager to start her day. Meanwhile, her non-identical twin brother burrows deeper into his blankets – he won’t emerge happily

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Ways to Get Through the Day on Little Sleep

There are many indicators of poor sleep quality. While many warning signs are sleep sensitive—such as irritability, poor mood, worse performance, difficulties concentrating—most could also be explained by other factors.   The main test I use is to ask: How do you

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Consequences of Poor Sleep Quality

What happens if you regularly sleep less than seven hours per night and/or usually live with disrupted sleep to the point of sleep deprivation? Sleep professionals are often asked, “Why should I care about my sleeping habits?”  The reason you

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Understanding Caffeine & Sleep

A majority of adults begin the day with caffeine. Drinking caffeine 4-6 hours before bed has been shown to impact the ability to fall asleep & sleep quality.  Research shows consuming caffeine before bedtime can suppress the production of melatonin, a

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Better Sleep, Better Immunity

I was always fascinated by the conventional wisdom and personal experience that sleep helps fight infections. And isn’t it interesting that, on the other hand, not sleeping enough makes us more susceptible to get infected? There is something happening during

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How to Know if You Have a Sleep Disorder

What is a sleep disorder? Simply put, a sleep disorder is a problem or condition that results in lack of quality sleep. Lacking quality sleep impacts daytime function and a myriad of physical and mental elements. Sleep is a basic

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What is “Regular” Sleep?

Understanding the definition and why it’s important for our health. Regular sleep can be explained as being “not irregular” and vice versa. Sleep is naturally prone to be irregular, as it occurs in “chunks” that are loosely linked together, and

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The Case for Later School Start Times

Why starting school later is healthier for our teens. By helping the next generation maximize their potential, decrease risk-taking behaviors, improve driver safety and improve quality of life, adjusting school start times can have a positive effect on an entire

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Gender Differences in Sleep

For decades, researchers have reported and recorded differences in sleep for women and men, with more recent studies including transgender and nonbinary individuals. Dr. Michael Grandner of the University of Arizona has been working in the field of sleep medicine

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Sleep Changes as We Age

A Q&A with Dr. Catherine McCall Catherine McCall, MD is a sleep medicine physician and psychiatrist working at the Seattle VA. She is also the Acting Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavior Sciences at the University of

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Sleep in the Spotlight

March offers global opportunities to celebrate sleep. With the realization that sleep improves almost every facet of life, you may want to share this important message with family and friends. How can you? The best way is by joining in

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Creating Your Optimal Sleep Environment

There are many things that affect sleep, including physical health, mental health, sleep habits and the physical environment. The physical environment is generally defined as all the things in a person’s sleeping space that are either conducive to sleep or

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4 Things to Know about Sleep & Stress

The topic of stress and sleep is of the outmost importance as we head into 2021. The unprecedent times we have been living in since March 2020 have had a devastating effect on sleep, especially because of the stress caused

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Danger on the Road

Watch out for drowsy driving. High speed. No skid marks. A serious accident. These hallmarks often indicate to crash scene investigators that a driver nodded off at the wheel. MICROSLEEPWe’ve all seen someone do it: in a meeting, in a

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Let’s Talk About Sleep

When international sleep experts collaborate, the public benefits Pop quiz, hotshot. If someone asked you to name the three pillars of health, could you? Sure, there’s healthy food (please stop talking about kale) and then there’s exercise (can I get

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The Sleep Secret Experts Prioritize

…And Why You Should Too Sleep is one of the three pillars of good health, along with a balanced diet and regular exercise. The world’s leading sleep experts have hectic daily agendas, often directing a sleep center or university department

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5 Untruths We Believe About Sleep

The 94 classified sleep disorders are not always to blame In the world of medicine, Sleep Medicine is a relatively young subspecialty, but it’s evolving at a rapid pace. Sleep Medicine is a subspecialty of practice and research devoted to

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Healthy Habits for Healthy Sleep

Healthy sleep is sleep which restores and energizes you so you feel wide awake, dynamic and energetic all day long, yet 1 in 3 Americans is not achieving healthy sleep. Many people assume getting a good night’s sleep is judged

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