Can Astronauts Sleep Better in Space?

Sleeping in zero gravity is a challenge. Far away from home, unfamiliar environment, weightlessness and shorter days all make sleeping in space a real challenge. No wonder sleeping pills are the main medication used by astronauts.

How do astronauts sleep?

Inner compartments of a space station are pressurized. The pressure resembles Earth's atmospheric pressure at sea level. The air composition matches closely to our own atmosphere. But one thing that puts a spin into everything is zero gravity in space.

The weightlessness means astronauts can never sleep in a bed surrounded by pillows. All of it will soon drift away, colliding with each other. So instead, astronauts sleep in sleeping bags tethered to the walls. Even the pillows are strapped onto their heads!

Challenges of sleeping in space

• Circadian rhythm disturbances: Astronauts undergo vigorous training leading up to their missions. So when they do, they hardly have time to adjust to the new routine.
• Shorter days and nights: Astronauts aboard the International Space Station orbit the earth every 90 minutes. This means they experience 16 sunrises and sunsets everyday. So they work to a 24 hour day set at Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
• Noisy environment: You may not have any neighbours, but a space station is a noisy place. Astronauts often wear ear plugs to clog out noise when sleeping.
  
  

Why do Some People Kick, Punch or Yell During Their Sleep?

Sometimes we wish our dreams took place in real life. While most of us experiences dreaming in a manner similar to watching a movie, some people 'act out' their dreams while still fast asleep.

A condition known as the REM sleep behaviour disorder, it is a disturbing sleep disorder. It poses a risk of injury to self or bed partner, and even be an early sign of a neurological disorder.

REM sleep behaviour disorder
Rapid Eye Movement sleep or REM sleep is a stage of deep sleep that involves heightened brain activity. Because the brain waves are similar to the pattern when you are awake, it is also known as paradoxical sleep. During this active sleep, our muscles remain paralyzed. This prevents us from 'acting out' our dreams. In REM sleep behaviour disorder, this paralysis is absent or incomplete, making us play the roles portrayed in our dreams.

Symptoms of REM sleep behaviour disorder
Dream enacting behaviour is the main symptom. Yelling, Punching, Kicking, Jumping or any other movement involving muscular activity can be a symptom. When awaken, the person can't remember what he or she was doing, but can clearly remember the dream responsible for the action.

Relaxing Music to Help You Sleep - Ideal for Social Media Addicts

If you spend a lot of time in front of your computer before sleep, it can disturb your sleep pattern. In an ideal world, we all should 'wind-down' before going to sleep. Relaxing before sleep helps overcome insomnia. Even if falling asleep isn't a problem for you, proper relaxation, can optimize your sleep. You can get a good rest with less hours in bed. Relaxing music also helps you to fall asleep, when you stay up late beyond your usual bedtime. The music can drift your body into a sleepy mode, making it easy for you to fall asleep.

I recently bumped into this nice website soundsleeping.com. It's been a very useful sleep resource for me. It is a collection of relaxing sounds. There are five channels to play a combination of your choice.

Positives

• The music on the website is free, so you can try it anytime.
• It is fairly easy to use.
• You can become your sleep DJ by playing with different sound combinations.
• Can adjust to your environmental noise. Certain sounds like the rain, work better for noisier environments.
• Can play while working on computer, logged on to facebook or studying.
• Useful addition to your late night yoga or medication session.

Negatives

• Cannot save your sound combinations.
• Playback of the same track. Can feel like repetition after a while.
• It may take time to get used to natural sounds, if you live in a city.
• If you log on to internet just to listen to relaxing music, then you may get hooked up with other sites and social media.

Share your view of the website and tell us how it has helped you to sleep better.

10 Ways to Get a Good Sleep When You Have a Cold

When you suffer from a cold often you find it difficult to get a decent rest. A blocked nose or airway can impair your breathing, cutting off oxygen. It's like having an obstructive sleep apnoea. Here are ten things you can try to get a good sleep while you recover from your cold.

1. Use steam to open up the airways
Steam can be a good source to unclog your blocked airways. The warm, humid air can help dilate the airways so air will move freely between the lungs and outside.

2. Control your bedroom temperature
If you can't heat up the your bedroom, avoid making it colder. Switch off the air conditioner or fan. Close windows.

3. Get a hot shower
Having a steamy shower is just like steaming up your airways. It will also relax your body for a comfortable sleep.

4. Check your medications
You often need medications to control your cold symptoms. But some medications can interfere with your sleep. Sedative anti-histamines can cause drowsiness. While this is good for night time sleeping, drowsiness during the evening might prompt you to have longer daytime naps, keeping you awake at night.

5. Gargle with salt water
Gargling your throat with mild hot water or salt water can help clear your throat. Alternatively you can use lozenges or throat sprays.

How to Transform Your Personal Diary into a Sleep Diary

At the beginning of each year, we start out writing our diaries. Thrilled by our new found diary, which often is a gift, we happily make entries during the first few weeks. But soon the enthusiasm dies and keeping a diary just adds to the failed new year resolutions.

Social media and online diaries have also diminished our need to keep records on paper, the old-fashioned way. So if you are looking for alternative use for your diary, this post will help you transform your diary into a log that records your sleep habits.

What are the benefits?

• The usual benefits of any sleep diary like keeping a record of your sleep habits which can be used by your doctor in diagnosing or excluding a sleep disorder, assess the treatment.

• Ordinary sleep diaries, intended for treatment purposes, record only for 2 to 3 weeks. Making entries on your personal diary gives you a longer account that help you to see the trends not picked up by a short term sleep diary

• Most people find it hard to maintain a separate diary dedicated for their sleep habits, so this is a decent compromise.

• Having the same diary, encourages you to regularly keep records of your sleep habits as opposed to a separate sleep diary.

• Sleep advice differs from person to person, so you can really see what works for you. It will help you get the full use of your sleep education.

3 simple steps to start your sleep diary

• Divide each day into two components: Since you go to sleep on one day and wake up the following day (usually), have separate entries for the night and morning. Write about the daytime sleepiness and things you did in the evening, and what you did before going to sleep. Keep everything brief. In your morning entry include things about sleep and interruptions, how sleepy you felt after waking up etc.

• Use symbols and abbreviations: Having your own code will save you space and in an makes it easier to record your sleep habits. While you are free to use whatever symbols or codes of your choice, here's a simple guide that will help you,
• BT - Time you went to bed
• ST - Time you fell asleep
• In - Interruptions, waking up during sleep
• WT - Time you woke up
• Total - Total hours of sleep
• PN - Power naps and daytime sleep

• Add remarks: To get the most out of your sleep diary, you need to focus more than just the hours spent in bed. Include your habits in the evening. If you changed your sleep habits, include that in your sleep diary. Write notes on exercise, sleeping pills, other illnesses or anything that you think will affect your sleep.

Why Stanford University Basketball Team Slept for 10 Hours

Sleep research is churning out interesting findings all the time. While it is now regarded that 7 to 8 hours of sleep is enough for most of us, the same may not be true for sportsmen and women. This interesting discovery was made from a research conducted by the Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic and Research Laboratory last year. The research was designed to test sleep extension (sleeping few hours more than usual) over a period of few weeks. And the effects on this new sleep habits on athletic performance, reaction time, mood and daytime sleepiness was measured.

The basketball players who overslept
The research was done on 11 basketball players of the Stanford University men's team. They were aged 19 to 21 and had their normal sleep routine for 2 to 4 weeks before switching gears for the extended sleep. The extended sleep schedule lasted for 5 to 7 weeks. The basketball players were asked to sleep for at least 10 hours comprising of nocturnal sleep. Their athletic performance was recorded at every practice session. The mood and daytime sleepiness was checked using Profile of Mood States and Epworth Sleepiness Scale.

The 10 hour sleep and peak athletic performance
The results revealed that basketball players ran the 86 meter sprint (three lengths of the basketball court) on average 1 sec quicker when they slept for 10 hours. They also showed an improvement of their shooting with a 9 percent increase. The 3-point shooting improved by 9.2 percent. It is interesting that these improved performances were seen among all the 11 participants.

The secret to better performance
It is too early to apply the findings to the general population. The sample was quite small, comprising only 11 basketball players. But the unequivocal nature of the results indicate that sleep does improve the performance. Sleep experts say that we may not feel bad after a shorter sleep, but we may not be at our best. The improvement in the mood and daytime sleepiness is more applicable to many of us.

If you want to read the priginal Standford research on SLEEP journal, follow this link

Lack of Sleep Makes You Feel More Pain

Insomnia is can be a pain itself. Not getting enough sleep makes you irritable and often the things you hate seem worse. It is what exactly sleep researches found, when they tested sleep loss with the ability to feel pain.

The studies were first done on mice. They were sleep deprived and then tested how their tails reacted to hot water. The findings concluded that lack of sleep reduced the pain threshold of the mice. Thus they reacted to a lesser amount of pain compared to mice which had a good sleep.

Not surprisingly, healthy humans showed a similar trend when they were tested for pain after disturbing their sleep. In one study, healthy volunteers, who had no sleep disorders and were pain free were tested on a sleep routine that involved a 8 hour, 4 hour, and sleep with REM sleep disturbance. The following day, they were tested using a radiant heat stimulus and measuring the time taken to withdraw the finger.

The results showed that loss of 4 hours sleep made the volunteers to respond to pain 25 percent faster. When the REM sleep was disturbed the response time was 32 percent faster. This indicated that it is the REM sleep that is more responsible for pain perception the following day. Similar studies have confirmed that it is the loss of REM sleep that makes us perceive pain in an exaggerated manner.

What are the implications? REM sleep is more concentrated at the latter part of our sleep. So when you stay up late and have to get up early, your REM sleep suffers more than other sleep stages. This increase in pain sensitivity may not be visible in our daily work. But for people who have undergone surgery, the increased sensitivity to pain makes a huge difference. It has been suggested that opioid medications used post surgery to relieve pain, can actually interfere with REM sleep. So when your REM sleep is knocked down by medications, it can backfire by increase the pain sensation. The exaggerated pain response will also make any painful experience, seem worse.

So the next time you need a pain-killer, use mother nature's best pain treatment - REM sleep.

10 Warning Signs That Tell You About Obstructive Sleep Apnoea

Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is a common and potentially serious sleep disorder. It is often unrecognised until the symptoms become very severe to affect your daily activities. Obstructive sleep apnoea results from narrowing or blocking of our airways carrying oxygen to the lungs. This causes a brief cessation of breathing and wakes up from our sleep and disrupts the sleep cycle. Since this can happen many times during the night, people with sleep apnoea spend most of their sleep in light sleep. Obstructive sleep apnoea can cause chronic sleep deprivation, which is a risk factor for obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure.

The following is a list of 10 symptoms and signs that points towards obstructive sleep apnoea.

• Loud snoring - Not everyone that snores has obstructive sleep apnoea. But many people with OSA snore loudly.
• Gasping for breath during sleep - Often the bed partners reveal that people with OSA get up during sleep to catch their breaths. This can happen many times in severe forms.
• Excessive daytime sleepiness - If you fall asleep while watching TV, driving or in the middle of a conversation, then it strongly suggests OSA.
• Morning headache - While there are other causes for headaches in the morning, OSA needs to be excluded especially if you have above three symptoms.
• Dry mouth - Prolonged mouth breathing can give you a dry mouth in the morning.
• Excessive urination - People with OSA also need to go to the bathroom many times during the night.
• Mood changes - Lack of sleep can alter your moods in the morning.
• Become easily irritable - Chronic insomnia and inadequate night's rest due to interrupted sleep can make you very irritable. It is often noticed by others around you.
• Depression - Prolong sleep apnoea can leave you feeling depressed.
• Forgetfulness - Not enough deep sleep means a drop in your concentrating ability. This can interfere with your work and also put your life and others in danger.

Do You Grind Your Teeth While Sleeping?

Teeth grinding or Bruxism is the third commonest sleep related symptom after insomnia and snoring. This disorder can range from mild to severe, with the severe form affecting the quality of your sleep and health of your teeth and gums.

How can you find out if you grind your teeth while sleeping?
In the severe form, it can be detected by your partner or family members. It can disturb the sleep of your partner. The following symptoms point towards bruxism.

• Tooth pain
• Sore gums
• Damaged teeth
• Jaw muscle pain
• Jaw stiffness when you wake up
• Dull headache
• Sleep disturbances

Is teeth grinding harmful?

Bruxism affects both children and adults. Milder forms can go unnoticed. But when it is severe, it cal disturb the sleep of others. Teeth grinding can damage your teeth, gums, and also cause pain in the jaw and earache. In extreme cases long standing bruxism can even change the appearance of your face.

Causes of bruxism

There is no direct cause, but 7 out of 10 people develop it due to stress and anxiety. It is also associated with,

• Obstructive sleep apnoea
• Sleep talking
• Sleep paralysis
• Higher educational status
• Ambitious personality types
• Tobacco, alcohol and caffeine use

How to stop teeth grinding

There is no definite cure, but it can be prevented by removing the causes that trigger bruxism. These include reducing stress and anxiety levels. Relaxing. Avoiding caffeine, alcohol and smoking. Refraining from chewing movements such as clenching teeth during the day and also chewing gum. If that doesn't stop the nighttime grinding, then you need to use a mouth guard or mandibular advancement device. 

Gentle Rocking Improves Deep Sleep and Helps You to Fall Asleep Faster

Rocking cradles help babies fall asleep. Hammocks help adults to get a good rest. What we instinctively knew about sleep and rocking motion is now proven with scientific evidence.

In a study carried out by sleep researchers of University of Geneva, it was revealed that gentle rocking movements can boost deep sleep and improve the overall sleep quality.

The Geneva study
In this research published in June, 2011 in Current Biology, the sleep scientists have tested 12 volunteers. The experiment was carried out during the evening. The volunteers were screened for sleep disorders and none of them were in the habit of daytime naps. They all slept well during the 3 days preceding the experiment.

They were tested on stationary and rocking hammocks with each nap lasting for 45 minutes. The hammocks rocked at a rate of one cycle every 4 seconds.

Rocking promotes sleep
The research concluded that gentle rocking,

• Shortens the during of sleep latency. So the subjects sleeping in the rocking hammocks fell asleep faster the stationary position.
• Rocking also accelerated the onset of deep sleep and increased the duration of NREM stage 2 sleep.
• The participants also rated the rocking sleep as 'more pleasant' compared to stationary sleep.
• There were changes in the electrical activity between swinging and stationary sleep positions. Subjects on rocking hammocks experienced increased sleep spindles on their EEG recordings.

Sleep spindles are nature's ear plugs

One of the most striking findings of the study is the increase of sleep spindles with gentle rocking. Sleep spindles are believed to act as sound barriers. People with high sleep spindle activity can get sound sleep even with external noise.

How to Wake Up Early Without Feeling Sleepy

Waking up early morning is a good habit. But it is a difficult habit to master. Even on days when you wake up, you feel sleepy and fall back into bed. Here is a quick guide to beat that morning slumber and to become an early riser.

Getting up early involves changing your habits not just during waking up, but also when going to sleep and during sleep. Having a good quality sleep is the surest way to wake up fresh every morning.

Before going into bed

• Avoid caffeine: When you drink tea, coffee or eat chocolate close to your bed time, it can prevent you from falling asleep.
• Have your meals early: When there is a gap of at least 2 to 3 hours between your dinner and sleep, the meals won't interfere with your sleep.
• Calm down before going to bed: Make it a habit to switch off TV,  computer and rest before going to bed. You can try meditation, a body massage, reading or listening to soft music just before falling asleep.
• Go to bed feeling happy: Stress, worry and unhappy thoughts can rob you of good sleep. And you find it hard to get up early in the morning as you try to squeeze in few more minutes of shuteye.
• Regular sleep time: When you have a fixed bedtime, your biological clock can synchronize easily. So you will naturally fall asleep much easier.

During sleep

• Get enough sleep: Not getting a good night's sleep is the number one cause for not waking up early. Get at least 6 to 7 hours of sleep.
• Beat snoring: It is a sign of poor sleep. Try controlling your weight, changing your sleeping posture and also using snoring preventive aids to eliminate snoring.
• Keep your bedroom sleep-friendly: Having a comfortable bed, appropriate pillow, noise-free environment all will contribute to a good night's sleep.

Waking up

• Fixed wake up time: This like the regular bedtime, will ensure that your biological clock is synced with your alarm clock.
• Customize alarm tone: If you use a phone, experiment with softer tones. But some find it easy to wake up to harsh alarm tones, especially when they don't get enough sleep.
• Get up straight away: Avoid the temptation to hit that snooze button and get up quickly.
• Morning exercise: Do a brisk workout as soon as you get out of bed. Alternatively you can try stretching or yoga.
• Paint your bedroom in yellow colour: Yellow reflects sunlight and make the rooms appear brighter helping you to feel less sleepy.

What helps you to wake up early? Share your tips with others at our comments section.

13 Things You Should Know About Restless Legs Syndrome

The urge to move your legs at rest can affect your sleep. Restless legs syndrome is an irritable sleep disorder robing your sleep by waking you up in the middle of the night. Here are 13 important facts about restless legs syndrome (RLS).

• Symptoms are not limited to your legs. Arms or any other part of the body can be involved.
• There is an urge to move legs and the symptoms are worse at rest and lying down.
• While mild to moderate forms may go unnoticed, severe restless legs syndrome can cause sleep deprivation.
• RLS is commoner than you think. It affects 10 percent of the population.
• RLS is more common among women and the middle-aged.
• Very often there is no exact cause for restless legs syndrome
• 50 percent of people with RLS have a close family member with RLS.
• Chronic diseases like diabetes, Parkinson's disease, iron deficiency, peripheral neuropathy can cause symptoms of RLS.
• Certain medications used to treat nausea, cough and cold, allergies, depression and mental illness can trigger RLS.
• Pregnant mothers get RLS during the last three months of pregnancy. But the symptoms settle within one month after childbirth.
• Sleep deprivation and alcohol can also cause RLS.
• There are no tests to confirm or rule out restless legs syndrome. Your doctor will diagnose RLS based on your symptoms. Because of this, often there is a delay in diagnosing RLS.
• Treatment of RLS include having a regular sleep pattern, getting enough sleep, regular exercise, avoiding alcohol and caffeine and controlling the chronic diseases and switching medications that cause RLS.

Little Known Facts About Sleepwalking

"It was the last night of my three day camp. After dinner, we all went to our respective tents and fell into a deep sleep without knowing that something extraordinary has happened during the night. When we were all sleeping one of our friends had walked past the teachers tent in the middle of the night as if she was in a trance. The teachers had asked her what she was doing and she had been too disoriented to answer properly."

Somnambulism is a sleep disorder which can be explained in simple English as ‘sleepwalking’. Though the term sleepwalking implies only walking during your sleep time, this term is applied to numerous other activities that are performed during sleep stages 3 and 4. Those activities range from simple repetitive movements like sitting up in the bed, walking, cleaning to complex activities like cooking, driving and unbelievably even homicide.

Symptoms of sleepwalking

• Sleep-talking
• Doesn't respond when spoken to
• Appear dazed
• Resist waking up
• Clumsy 

Why Exercise Won't Improve Your Sleep

Do you find it easy to fall asleep after a workout? You might agree but the idea of exercise improving sleep may well be a myth. Exercise seems to play no part in sleep among healthy individuals . Some interesting studies have shed light into this intriguing field of exercise and sleep.

The Swedish research

A research involving 862 Swiss college students have found no evidence to claim that exercise promotes sleep. In the research, the students were given questionnaires to collect details about exercise, perception on fitness and sleep problems. The results found that those who considered themselves as 'physically fit' enjoyed better sleep regardless of the amount of exercise they received. And those who rated themselves as 'less fit' experienced sleep problems. So the study concludes that it is our perception rather than exercise which promotes sleep. Experts agree that the relationship between exercise and sleep is a complicated one.

More evidence...

In another research study volunteers were given sleep and exercise diaries. After analyzing the data spanning few months, the researches have concluded that exercise has no effect on sleep. The sleep patterns of both the active and inactive groups are almost identical. The only difference being that physically active individuals on average, fall asleep one minute faster than their sedentary counterparts.