Sleep Hygiene September || Take 2 Tips: Make your bedroom an oasis

JULY 26 || HUFFINGTON POST SLEEP + WELLNESS
5 Ways To Make Your Bedroom The Perfect Sleep Sanctuary
"As part of the Angie’s List sleep sanctuary contest, lifestyle and design experts Carter Oosterhouse, Jennifer Bertrand and Mandi Gubler created their versions of the perfect bedroom for sleep. The designers used five tips from Arianna Huffington’s book, The Sleep Revolution, to provide their clients with a space conducive to a good night’s sleep."

AUG 21 || INSTYLE
A 2-Week Sleep Cleanse: Why I Turned My Bed Into a Shrine and You Should, Too
"After raiding my local bodega for some peonies and staging my bedside sleep shrine, I Marie Kondo–ed the clutter (good-bye, agita-inducing parenting books) and unplugged as much as I could: my digital alarm clock, iPad, laptop. My husband drew the line at the flat-screen TV and cable box, so—following Huffington’s advice—I covered the tiny lights with masking tape."

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SLEEP HYGIENE TIP OF THE WEEK: Clean your bedroom!

This isn't just advice for those messy teenagers with wet towels on their bedroom floors, unmade beds, collections of soiled dishes, and mounds of dirty laundry in direct contact with the space where they sleep.

Even though recent studies suggest that teenagers may have problems with sleep thanks to the smells coming from their bedrooms, the problem of messy, unkempt sleep spaces is not limited only to people in their age bracket.

How we keep our bedrooms has a direct impact on the quality of sleep we can expect at night. The three main areas of concern for any bedroom center on comfort, clutter, and sanitation.


Comfort

Comfort matters. If we are uncomfortable, we can't relax, and if we can't relax, sleep will be hard to come by. Don't shortchange yourself basic comfort at the end of the day. It's not really optional, much in the same way sleep is not optional.

• Have you ever noticed... an unmade bed is not comfortable to climb into at the end of a very long day. A made bed is inviting, smooth, and enveloping. Show yourself five minutes of self-love in the morning by making your bed. You will thank yourself after a long, hard day.
  
• Flat pillows that are no longer "plumpable" need to be replaced, not only because they are no longer comfortable, but because they can contribute to neck and shoulder pain and problems with breathing. They can also harbor microorganisms if they are not cleaned properly. You can simplify this by bagging your pillows with washable liners before placing them into cases.
  
• Mattresses that are lumpy, caving in at the center, missing their bounce, damaged by fluids, or which have springs poking through the surface need to be replaced. Most mattresses last about 10 years. Again, this is not only a comfort measure (which still counts as good sleep hygiene) but also critical to avoiding back and hip problems. Pain is the enemy of sleep; don't let your bed be the reason you can't sleep!
  
• Room temperature is much more critical to good sleep hygiene than you might think. A cooler room not only means it will be less stuffy, but it means your body will be better prepared for sleep. The body's thermostat makes important changes during the sleeping period that are a reflection of the circadian system. Too warm a room can mean your core body temperature is not cool enough to allow for quality sleep. Lower your thermostat and add more blankets in layers that you can adjust throughout the night if you find it hard to sleep in a cool room.

Clutter


There's plenty of discussion these days about how to keep up with clutter, how to deep clean personal spaces, and why decluttering is good for your overall mental health. This definitely relates to the bedroom as much as to the more active living spaces in your home.

• If you take work with you to bed, the chances are high you have a nearby mess of pens, papers, folders, electronics, notepads, or paperwork that is cluttering the space. This clutter can not only get in the way of sleeping (literally), but it's also an unpleasant reminder of work "still to do." It's quiet presence alone can fuel racing thoughts at bedtime and prevent sleep onset. Also, waking up to reminders of unfinished work is not exactly a good way to rise and shine. Best practice: Don't take your work to bed with you.
  
• General clutter has been shown to negatively alter important cognitive functions and mood (as well as serve as a dust magnet!—See Sanitation below). Is this how you want to wake up in the morning? How you want to go to bed at night? Think about it. Television's popular home improvement shows frequently describe how the bedroom should be a "sanctuary," and they are right on. Your bedroom should be a welcoming space, not one that you dread going to or waking up in.
  
• Do you use your bedroom as a storage space to make other rooms in your home more accessible? You might want to rethink this habit, not only for the purposes of "preserving your sanctuary," but because a bedroom's main purpose is for sleep and intimate time with your partner. The clear delineation between your sleeping space and your living space is not accidental; living space is for living, sleeping space is for sleeping. When these two purposes collide, anxiety enters the picture and messes with both the sleep and wake portions of your daily life.

Sanitation

This is the most obvious reason to keep your bedroom clean, but it bears repeating. We all get busy and don't always make housekeeping the priority. Here are some reminders why getting out the vacuum and the window cleaner are not only investments in your home, but also in your health.

• If you don't vacuum or dust regularly, all those particulates in the carpets, the bedding, the air, and collecting along the woodwork can worsen air quality and lead to congestion, allergies, and all the other upper respiratory problems we normally attribute to air pollution. Make sure any air intakes or filters are regularly cleaned (or filters changed) to improve air quality.
  
• The same goes for clean sheets and pillowcases: your body sheds skin cells and bodily fluids at night even if you don't notice them. These can create an environment for bacteria as well as leave odors and contribute to allergies. Anyway, clean linens smell great and feel great!
  
• Dirty laundry smells just as bad in an adult's bedroom as it does in a teen's room. The term "nose-blind" seems appropriate to use here (see also "Why can't you smell your own home?"). It describes our inability to note the odors in our own personal living spaces even as strangers entering the house may notice them right away. This isn't a missive on aromatherapeutics, however. Spraying a fragrance does not fix the underlying problem. Odors you don't notice in your own sleeping space still introduce bacteria in the airspace and become part of "room air," which you breathe all night long.
  
• Recycled air in a bedroom, even when the laundry isn't allowed to pile up, becomes less "aerobic" when the windows are sealed shut all the time. Anaerobic means that the amount of oxygen available to you as "room air" is not adequate for good health in the long term: it contains less oxygen, which your bloodstream requires for sustaining the body's myriad functions. "Room air" is measured normally as 21 percent of any space's atmosphere (that is to say, 21 percent of the atmosphere you breathe is composed of oxygen). The less aerobic the air in your bedroom means your body, over time, will need to compensate in other ways—such as by altering the respiratory rate—so that you can maintain a healthy oxygen balance in your bloodstream. (Read this interesting discussion of what happens to a human locked in an airtight room for some ideas about why.) But the solution is pretty simple: Most homes are meant to "gas off" to help achieve a healthy, balanced atmosphere; briefly opening the windows, even in winter for just a few minutes, can make all the difference.

• Check your windows for mold patches and any mildew formed around the frames or inside the mesh screens. These can enter your airspace and lead to disease. Wipe windows, frames, and screens regularly—frequently if you have windows that leak air or water. Moisture and/or oxygen in a warm space can provide the breeding ground for microorganisms, which can detract from your bedroom's air quality. 

SLEEP HYGIENE TIP OF THE WEEK: Get yourself some decent sheets!

We don't talk often enough about bedding here at SHC, but the fact is, decent bedding, mattresses and pillows figure prominently into one's ability to get quality sleep.

Let's talk about sheets in January. Specifically, buying new ones. January, in case you didn't already know, is a really great month to buy home linens.

Why should you buy new sheets?

Chances are, the sheets you have are worn out. That doesn't mean they are perfectly soft. That means they are probably not staying on your bed, resulting in twisted piles of linen collected at one or more corners of the bed after a night of sleep.

If you have to totally remake your bed every night because the sheets have come off, it's a sign that you either have a major movement disorder of sleep, or you were up all night with insomnia, or you have sheets that need replacing. (Maybe you have a wild sex life, but that is not the subject of this blog.)

If the elastics in your fitted sheets are loose, that's your clue. If you have small tears in either sheet, it's only a matter of time before they lengthen and become actual holes.

Sheets should be replaced after two years or as needed. If you have five-year-old sheets, you are likely overdue, regardless how much money you spent on that at point of sale.

So what are the best sheets for sleeping?

Buying sheets is a personal endeavor and what one person finds delightful in one kind of sheet may not be particularly cozy for another. However, Today.com posted this useful article about choosing sheets which should help you decide what works best for you.

Don't forget, January is the month! Save yourself some cash while you're at it... this way you can meet your new year's resolution to sleep better AND save money at the same time!

SLEEP HYGIENE TIP OF THE WEEK: Watch your thermostat

People pay good money to sleep in cold rooms! Fortunately, you don't
have to sleep in an ice hotel in order to benefit from a lower thermostat.

Despite our desire to feel warm and toasty to get us through the winter, our bodies need a cooler room to sleep in. We set our household thermostats to a warmer setting without realizing that the ambient warmth at night might be creating a challenge for our own personal thermostats.

The National Sleep Foundation (NSF) recommends between 60° and 67°F. 

From the NSF website:

"Your body temperature decreases to initiate sleep—and the proposed temperatures above can actually help facilitate this. If your room is cool, rather than warm, it will be much easier to shut your eyes for the night. Thermostat settings far lower or higher than what’s recommended could lead to restlessness and can also affect the quality of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, the stage in which you dream."

Does this sound too cold for you? You can adjust your household thermostat while also making adjustments to your personal thermostat so you don't have to shiver all night.

The best solution is to have a cool room temperature but use several layers of blankets to adjust throughout the night. Start with a bottom sheet, a thermal or fleece blanket, then a comforter and then add or subtract according to your comfort level. Some people like wearing socks to bed as well, or filling a hot water bottle and placing it at the foot of the bed.

Do the NSF recommendations sounds too warm for you? If you wake up in the middle of the night, lighten your layers of sheets and blankets to help correct any overheating, then pull them closer when you feel sleep returning.

Sometimes simply sticking your foot outside your bed coverings allows it to cool down; this also helps to correct whole body thermoregulation.

If you are someone who lives in a household where the temperature is much higher than you prefer, you can also drink a glass of ice-cold water at bedtime (or at any time you wake up in the night and feel overwarm), as this can quickly adjust your body's core temperature to one more amenable to sleep.

SLEEP HYGIENE TIP OF THE WEEK || MONSTERS OF SLEEP || Safe sleeping with PTSD

People with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can experience continued psychological mayhem even while asleep. It can lead to anxiety, confusion, terror, even unintended violence to or by the sufferer.

Often forgotten in this are the loved ones who are the sleep partners of PTSD patients. They have additional challenges because they have to deal with safety issues, for both their loved one and themselves, every night.

The main thing that loved ones can do to help make nighttime sleep safer and sounder for everyone is to support the following sleep hygiene basics, which can really help the PTSD sufferer achieve more peaceful sleep. They include:

• Using the bedroom only for sleeping and sex. This means removing media from the room so as not to bring in stimulus-producing sources.
• Soundproofing your bedroom, or if you can't soundproof it, use white noise machines to help keep out external noise. If nothing else, encourage the use of earplugs.
• Keeping your bedroom dark in order to facilitate smooth transitions between sleep. Even nightlights and the tiny lights on electronics devices can interrupt sleep. Eye masks make good options.
• Turning down your thermostat. It is much better to have a cool room with multiple blankets that can be added and removed. Having too warm a room can mess with circadian rhythms.
• Maintaining a consistent sleep schedule and make sure everyone in the household can honor it. 
• Avoiding stressful, energizing or stimulating activities before bed so that the body can properly relax when it needs to.
• Encouraging relaxing bedtime activities like warm baths, soft music, herbal tea or light reading to aid the brain in calming down for the night.
• Practicing meditation and/or yogic breathing to help induce relaxation. 
• Writing down worries and anxieties in a diary before bed so that your brain can "let them go" until the morning.
• Avoiding stimulating foods containing caffeine before bedtime (chocolate, cocoa, tea, coffee, soda)
• Avoiding alcohol at bedtime; despite its ability to relax the body, alcohol alters sleep architecture and can compromise quality deep sleep.
• Avoiding nicotine at bedtime as it can both stimulate and relax the brain.
• Asking your doctor and pharmacist to review your prescriptions to determine if any of them, by themselves or in interaction with others, may have a negative impact on sleep. 

Following these instructions may be difficult for some PTSD sufferers, so support for them from their loved ones and sleep mates really makes a difference. Any or all of these suggestions may not only improve the sleeping experience for the PTSD sufferer but for their sleep partners as well.

---

Information for this post was compiled from the Sleep and PTSD page at the National Center for PSTD, US Department of Veterans Affairs website.

Sleep Hygiene Tip of the Week || Check out Grandpa's sleeping conditions

"Mark Twain, New Hampshire, 1905," by
The New York Times. Public domain.

Sleep health in the elderly can be compromised for any number of reason. Aging itself means less human growth hormone is released because elderly people experience fewer deep sleep stages in their golden years; these are the sleep stages when HGH is produced.

On top of that, chronic health conditions and their medications can disrupt sleep health.

Elderly people who continue with unhealthy lifestyle habits like abusing alcohol, smoking and poor eating habits can expect to see the consequences result in impairments in their sleep health.

In addition, many elderly folks deal more regularly with the loss of loved ones; bereavement itself can be hazardous to good sleep.

Some of these things can't be changed easily for elderly people by their loved ones. However, there are other things that families can do to help out grandparents who might not be practicing the best sleep hygiene (or who might not have the opportunity to do so).

Take a look at these options when you next visit your elderly loved ones, whether they live independently or reside in a nursing facility or retirement community where they have access to services.

1. Consider the quality of the actual mattress they are sleeping on. Do they need more support? Is their bed hard for them to get in and out of? Sometimes elderly people choose an uncomfortable couch for sleeping over an inaccessible bed. Neither option is acceptable. Also consider whether they need additional pillows, a wedge to help them sleep more upright or risers for the head of the bed; elevating a bed at the top can make sleeping much more comfortable. Sometimes elderly folks prefer a reclining chair to a bed; you might discuss this option. Finally, make sure they have comfortable, clean sheets and an adequate amount of blankets.

2. Look at the light sources in the room. The elderly do need additional nightlights in the evening so they can be safe walking from one room to the next. However, rooms with too much additional light (from house lights outside or streetlamps or traffic) can make it harder for them to fall asleep do to lack of melatonin production. Some facilities have regular visits from ambulances and aid cars in the evenings, and the added light from these vehicles can also disturb the sleep of residents. Consider adding appropriate window treatments and/or nightlights to fix lighting problems in your loved one's living quarters.

3. Listen for noise. Not all elderly people are hard of hearing. Many hear just fine, and that means they can hear their neighbors' television sets (especially if their neighbors are hard of hearing!), the traffic outside, the noise coming from nearby businesses during the evening. If they can use earplugs in a noisy environment, encourage them to do so. Setting up a white noise machine can also help block out noise at night so they can sleep better.

4. Ask if they are always cold or always hot. Sometimes, facilities and community housing have less than ideal temperature controls, especially if the structures are older. While it's not unusual for elderly people to have a very limited bracket of comfort when it comes to ambient temperature, sometimes it's a matter of adjusting thermostats, blocking drafts, using carefully placed fans or having layers of blankets on hand.  In addition, make sure to review medications regularly and consider their side effects and interactions if your elderly loved one is complaining about being too hot or cold all the time. Finally, keep in mind seasonal changes. What we as adults can tolerate can be far too extreme for our grandparents. Ultimately, a sleeping space that is too hot or too cold for them will be hard for them to sleep in.

Sleep Hygiene Tip of the Week || Just say No to phones and beds

It's a common habit (we see it in the sleep lab all the time): people take their phones to bed with them, often tucking them under their pillows or next to them on the bedding.

People, don't do this. Four good reasons:

1. You could catch your linens on fire. Cell phones have been known to melt or otherwise catch on fire because of a faulty battery. They can also overheat if left in a functional mode. This is advice from the category of Good Common Sense: if you need to have your cell phone nearby, then at least put it on a firm surface. Read more: "What's causing your cellphone to get so hot?"

2. It might be even Better Common Sense to not have your phone in the same room with you at all while you sleep. Why? Every time you get a text or a call, even if the sound is turned off, the screen flashes on, and in doing so, it emits blue spectrum light. Your body can still perceive blue spectrum light even if your eyes are shut, due to photoreceptor cells that are contained in your skin. Blue spectrum light has been shown to delay or block the production of the sleep-promoting hormone, melatonin, in the pineal gland. If your body is not getting adequate melatonin, it cannot effectively achieve sleep onset. So... perhaps turning the phone off entirely would make more sense, or at least turning it face down with the sound off would be the alternative if you just couldn't stand to not have your phone with you. Learn more: The melanocyte photosensory system in the human skin.

3. Though the jury is still out on this point, you might consider the fact that cellphones to emit a small amount of electromagnetic radiation (EMR). Sleeping with a constant stream of EMR emissions next to your head or even next to your bed may be yet one more reason to not have your phone in the same room with you at all while you sleep. Check out this detailed discussion at the David Suzuki Foundation, which does not take a position on the debate surrounding EMR and cell phone use.

4. Finally, having a cell phone in bed with your, or even next to you, means you are more likely to answer it, no? You are woken up by a text or a call... how much self control do you have? If you receive important calls at night because you are on call or in management or for some other legitimate reason, that's one thing. Using your cell phone as an alarm is common and, probably, harmless if you keep your phone plugged in away from your head. But we have seen patients in the sleep lab who are just having conversations with people in different time zones at that time. Patients who are taking calls from people who have no business calling at that time of night (meaning: people who are practicing very poor sleep hygiene and have no respect for other people's lifestyles). Patients who reach for their phones to check the time in the middle of the night, though there is no healthy reason to check the time in the middle of the night (it will not make you go back to sleep more easily, that's a guarantee!) Or patients who, because they can't sleep (see number 2), turn on their phones to find something to pass the time, which further interrupts melatonin production and more grossly enhances their sleeplessness. Are you worried you might have a cell phone addiction? Check out these various entries on cell phone overuse at Huffington Post.

Bedtime is supposed to be about sleep. If you are struggling to get sufficient sleep and keep your phone at your bed because you can't resist checking out the latest Pinterest link your friend has just texted you or playing your round of a smartphone game app as soon as your opponent's notification arrives--even if it's at 2am--then you need to be thinking about what your priorities are. You cannot live well with insufficient sleep. Insufficient sleep causes car accidents, loss of sex drive, impaired judgment, reduced performance on the job, increased risk for disease (especially cardiovascular, but stroke and diabetes, as well), accelerated aging of the skin, weight gain, memory loss, cognitive deficits, and depression. It's up to you to decide if that Pinterest link arriving at 2am is worth breaking a healthy cycle of sleep for, but we suspect that you will ultimately decide it's not.

Sleep Hygiene Tip of the Week || Stay Cool!

"Kawasaki Electric Fan," 2004. Credit: CC BY-SA 3.0

It may seem obvious that warm weather makes it hard for many to be comfortable enough to sleep during the summer, especially if they don't have air conditioning or good air circulation in their homes. But keeping a proper temperature in your sleeping space at every time of year is important for more than just comfort.

Part of your body's circadian system relies on your body's careful regulation of its temperature. A general reduction in core temperature helps to facilitate sleep. You achieve your lowest core temperature about four hours into your sleep period and this low point helps reset your rhythms for the day.

By no means does this suggest you make your efforts at body temperature reduction extreme, as being too cold can also keep you from sleeping. But generally speaking, the human body has a thermal pattern that includes a cooling off period at night which helps make you sleepy.

So there's a heat wave on where you live. What then? If the ambient room temperature in your sleeping space is uncomfortably high, you will end up sweating, tossing and turning because your body isn't going to achieve the lower core temperature required to become drowsy.

While there isn't a perfect room temperature conducive to sleeping for all human beings, being in a sleeping space that's 54-75 degrees Fahrenheit is one's best bet. Therefore, if you don't have air conditioning or even a fan to help move air and make you feel cooler, and it's very warm in your sleeping area, you may need to cool your core temperature with cold fluids at bedtime or even take a sponge bath using cool (not icy) water to help cool yourself off before going to bed.

Research has shown that insomniacs generally have a higher core body temperature, no matter what time of year, which could be part of their sleeping challenge. One way to help drive that drop in core temperature for them might be to take a hot bath right before bed. I know, it seems counterintuitive! But once out of the hot bath, the body naturally cools in a cooler space and this could lead to the drowsiness that can elude some insomniacs.

Also, if you wear too many blankets at any time of year and sweat a lot during the night because of it, this could hamper your efforts to more quickly fall asleep, so you might think about turning down your room temperature if you can't get rid of the blankets, or try for lighter blankets so you can better facilitate your own good sleep.

Sleep News || June 2014

JUNE 2
The Consumer Electronics Association has teamed up with the National Sleep Foundation to create valid standards for new wearable devices which allow consumers to measure their sleep patterns.

The FDA recently approved the first-ever device used in the treatment of Restless Leg Syndrome

JUNE 4
People with Alzheimer's might benefit from circadian stimulation

JUNE 11
Check it out: Digital sleep dentistry

JUNE 12
Hearing loss and sleep apnea... a connection?

JUNE 16
Learn what "junk sleep" is and how to combat it.

JUNE 17
The National Sleep Foundation has created a new website to help consumers to make their bedrooms the most conducive sleeping environments possible.

JUNE 25
A British man claims he did not rape his wife because he was asleep.

JUNE 27
Health spas are taking an interest in their sleep-deprived clients.

The debate over mandatory sleep tests for public transportation operators continues unabated.

JUNE 29
Are you a morning lark or a night owl? Your preference for "morningness" or "eveningness" may say something about your driving skills. 

If you're middle aged and have insomnia, you might be at risk for losing your (cognitive) mind.

Corporations may begin to include sleep health in their wellness programs after statistics show alarming rates of sleep deprivation among workers, which can lead to poor job performance and even the inability to handle daily job tasks

Sleep apnea is not just an adult disease; if your kids snore, they might need to be checked for sleep apnea

JUNE 30
Treatments for sleep apnea may also help those who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder