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Many of us find ourselves with leftover medications from past seasons, acquired for everything from treating colds and various ailments to acting as sleep aids or for preventive measures, such as when planning a trip. However, much of these medications end up unused, surpassing their expiration dates while still sitting in our medicine cabinets, kitchen drawers, and nightstands. This leads to uncertainty among many individuals about the proper way to dispose of these old medications. Is it safe to simply toss them in the trash, flush them down the toilet, incinerate them, or find another method of destruction? We aim to delve deep into this issue and address all your concerns regarding the disposal of expired or unused medications.

Once your sleep pills are no longer in use, or they expired, the best option is to dispose of them promptly and remove from your house, by doing so you reduce the chances that someone from your household accidentally takes or even intentionally tries to misuse them. There are three primary ways, which we recommend to dispose of old drugs:

• Medicine take-back
• Disposal in the trash
• Flushing them in the toilet

Sleep Medication Disposal

With the increased number of people suffering from sleep disorders, the industry of sleep aids has been in an expansion, and they are now widely used in therapies of sleep disturbances. People take them to fall asleep more naturally, but there are also some pills which help them stay awake, it all depends on the disorder. It is crucial not to take sleeping pills on your own before consulting with the doctor, because in some cases simple behavioral changes may do the job without the need for pills, and also most pills come with some side effects which include headaches, nausea, memory impairment, or allergic reactions. When it comes to the disposal of sleep medicine, you should follow the instructions from the container, but if nothing specified was written about it, then follow some general rules of disposal, which we will explain thoroughly in this post.

Most people in the US deal with insomnia; hence, many sleep aids are dedicated to helping them fall asleep easier. But the pills should never be your first option, try with some lifestyle changes and healthier sleep routine first, or if that is not possible, which is the case with shift workers, for example, then opt for pills. Some of the often prescribed ones include:

• Melatonin supplements are the most effective solution for people with a disorder of circadian rhythm, and those going through jet lag, struggling with shift work or falling asleep. Melatonin is a hormone, which our brain produces once it gets dark outside, and it regulates our sleep-wake cycle by letting us know when it is bedtime. These supplements can be bought without the prescription and should be taken right before the desired bedtime.
• Sedating antihistamines will also help you fall asleep faster, but they are more recommended for temporary use, you cannot get addicted to them, but if you use them regularly, their effect will start to fade because our body tends to get used to them quickly.
• Valerian plant root is a sleep aid known from the ancient times, even the Greeks and Romans left notes about its sleep-enhancing features. Today, it comes in pills, and it is available without a prescription.
• Hypnotics are more “serious” type of sleep aid, and they are not available without the prescription. They can be prescribed for various sleep disorders, but mostly for chronic insomnia, RLS, or periodic limb movement disorder.

Now let’s take a closer look how to dispose of different types of sleep drugs.

Medicine Take-Back Options

Take-back is the most preferred and recommended way to get rid of drugs that are no longer in use, and there are two ways to do that, either on periodic events or at the permanent collection sites.

• Periodic events. The US Drug Enforcement Administration occasionally organizes events, such as National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day, when permanent sites are held all around the community for people to bring their old drugs. It stands for the vast majority of medications, but here we would like to mention that there is a small group of medicines which are not meant to be taken back; instead, they need to be flushed down the toilet when you stop using them. Instructions on how to do it are present on or within the packaging. People can contact their local waste management to inform about upcoming events during which they can return unused medications.

• Permanent collection sites. If a registered DEA collector exists in your community, you can take your meds to them anytime. Such places are usually pharmacies, either retail ones or the ones in hospitals and clinics, as well as some law enforcement facilities. At some places, collection receptacles or mail back programs are also available to help people safely dispose of their stuff.

Disposal in the Trash

If none of the permanent sites is near your house, or you have not heard about any upcoming medication take-back events, and your drugs are not meant to be flushed, then you can dispose of them in your trash can. Here is a step by step guide on how to do it safely.

• If you have any tablets or capsules do not crush them. Instead, mix them all together with substances such as dirt, cat litter, or used coffee grounds.
• This mixture should be put in a sealed plastic bag and thrown in a trash bin.
• Take all bottles and packages and check for any personal information about you, and delete them immediately, after that you can dispose of the container.

Flushing Medication Down the Toilet

A very small number of drugs comes with an instruction to be immediately flushed once you no longer need them, that is because they are potentially dangerous. A lot of people think about flushing as the easiest and right way to get rid of old medications, but that is not right, and drugs should not be flushed except in these rare cases. 

The medication recommended for flushing are extremely dangerous if misused, even fatal with just one dose if another person uses them. 

Otherwise, there is no need to promptly flush your medications since the number of temporary and permanent collecting sites is rising all over the country. So if none of them is near you at the moment, place your medications in some safe place, unreachable to kids or pets, because they can easily replace them for sweets and treats.

There are even some drugs which represent a particular risk when they are not disposed of by instructions, one example of it is people who carry fentanyl patches, their used patches need to be immediately flushed after being removed. This way, you are preventing any unpleasant situation, and keeping others safe from accidentally touching or ingesting it.

Most of the medicine comes with instruction for disposal, and you should blindly follow these instructions each time. If it does not come with instructions, first check if there are any permanent disposal sites, or temporary ones upcoming in the near future. If not, then as your last option you need to check is your drug on the list of medicine that is recommended for flushing.

Influence of Flushing Medicine on the Environment

There are good reasons why flushing should always be your last option, and even though it seems like the easiest thing to do, you should not practice it like it is a regular thing. Flushing many different and potential harmful medicine opened up a safety question, how safe it is for the environment and us to do it that way? FDA also recognized this problem, especially with the recommendation that some medication can be flushed if currently, other disposal options are not available to the user. There were concerns about the impact of flushed medicine on the environment, contamination of the soil, and even drinking water, so in order to make things more clear and address these concerns, FDA published a paper on it. In that paper, the impact of 15 different medicine on human health and environment was evaluated, and FDA concluded that their influence is neglectable and that it does not represent high risk; however, many agree that additional data is needed to confirm these statements for some of the listed medication.

FDA strongly believes that commonly known risk of complications, fatal consequences, and any other type of harm coming from accidental or intentional misuse of medicine is much higher than any risk for humans coming from flushed drugs.

On the FDA official web page, you can find a full list of drugs which they recommend flushing when none of the take-back options is available.

Recommendations for Safe Removal of Unused Drugs

The medicine should always be responsibly disposed of the house, and almost all of them can be disposed of by one of the take-back programs. When none of these is available in your surroundings, you can throw them in the trash in a way we described above, or as your last option, flush them down the toilet.

Authorized collectors are by far the safest way to do this, and now when some pharmacies offer the option to mail-back your old medicine, there is no need to risk with throwing it in trash cans or flushing it. 

To target a disposal site near your household you should visit DEA’s official webpage, or contact them through the phone to get information about authorized collectors near you. 

If you opt to throw them in the trash, do not forget to follow our steps for safe disposal, and erase all personal data from labels. A few prescription drugs contain substances which can be fatal if someone who is not the prescribed patient takes them, and they should not, in any case, be thrown in a trash can because some animals may reach it. The best is to opt for one of the medicine take-back options if available. 

Accidental Exposure to Medicine

With medicines you never know what could happen if a person who is not meant to use them accidentally takes them, hence it is essential to keep the drugs we are using, and the ones we are not far away from kids and pets because they are the most vulnerable. 

Unfortunately, accidental exposure to drugs in households is the reason for many pediatric poisonings in the US. Every year, around 60,000 visits to the emergency centers and 450,000 emergency calls to poison centers happen because children younger than six years ingested some medication without supervision. These numbers are alarming and should represent a wake-up call to many parents who are not paying enough attention to what their child is doing. Pill bottles are no rattles, and kids should not play with medicines or be exposed to them. What is even more concerning is the fact that more than two-thirds of emergency center visits due to the accidental pediatric exposure to medication are with children that are only 1 or 2 years old. Around 20% of all cases require hospitalization. 

Keeping the medications that are expired, or that you don’t need to use anymore is potentially dangerous and irresponsible because it creates health risks for all members of the household. Some containers are child-resistant, but it doesn’t guarantee that a child will not find a way to take them.  One study focused on children who were exposed to medications of their grandparents, and it showed that in 45% of cases, medicine was previously stored adequately in child-resistant containers. 

Many of these and similar cases were published, and you can find them online and read to inform how quickly things can escalate from zero to nothing with children. 

Disposal of OTC and Diet Supplements

These should be disposed of in the same way as other medication, so regardless if you have some unused dietary supplements or over the counter drugs. Take-back option is, again, the safest and strongly recommended, but if that is not an option, you should follow the guidelines for safe disposal of medication in the trash can. 

How Not to Dispose Of Your Old Medicine

As a responsible member of society, you do not want to do anything that could harm your loved ones or anyone else. That is why medication should be handled carefully, while we use them, and even more after, when we no longer need them and forget that they are still in some corner of our drawer or locker.

We mentioned that if you decide to throw your medical waste in the trash can, you should mix it with something else. We suggested using some dirt, but we need to mention that in no case, you should combine your medicine with food. Old bread, meal leftovers, or anything edible, no matter how old it is, it is still food, and there is a risk that some stray dogs or homeless people may find it and try to eat it. 

If you are throwing pills, you need to take them out of the container and scatter them in dirt or over the trash. You should never throw pills in bottles, but what is even worse than that is to leave your prescription on the bottle. First, you are jeopardizing your privacy because anyone who goes through your trash can know what type of medicine you use, and why, but also this increases the risk of misuse and can be harmful to anyone who is not the prescribed person. Always scratch or paint over your personal information, and make sure that they are not readable.

Also, never borrow your prescribed drugs or sleeping aids to your friends or family members, even if it seems that you are suffering from the same condition. Only a doctor can determine therapies and medication dosages based on his examinations; hence, it can be dangerous to assume such things and play with someone’s health. Another thing is the fact that controlled drug prescription system exists for a good reason. What is right for you does not necessarily have to be suitable for someone else with the same condition, in contrast, it can have a negative impact if a person is allergic to some substances or has some other situation which can hinder the way medications work. The best and safest way is to encourage your close ones to pay a visit to an expert and get their therapy with prescribed medications.

Can Expired or Unused Drugs be Donated?

This is an arguable and somewhat controversial question, and in reality, the situation differs from one state to another. For most states, you can check online if the pharmaceutical donation or some types of reuse programs exist in your country. However, most state programs would not accept back some controlled substances.

Ever pondered how a simple cup of coffee could actually make your nap better? Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? Typically, we consume coffee to fend off sleepiness and skip naps, or perhaps just for its flavor. So, could this be a case of reverse psychology, or what’s going on here? If the headline has left you scratching your head and curious, continue reading to uncover how this could be a reality.

Different Concepts of “Power Naps”

Some countries in Europe, such as Italy, Spain, and some parts of Croatia, still use the so-called siesta, which is a mid-day break from work, and a lot of shops, restaurants, etc. are closing after lunchtime, and opening again in a few hours. These types of lunch breaks are common in the Meditteranean, tropical, and subtropical countries.

The “time is money” expression, and a different lifestyle here in the US do not allow us to make such breaks in the middle of our work time. Instead, we rely on shorter breaks and power naps since they are more adequate for our work routine. But, some US companies which have a specific concept of working space have separate areas where their employees can sleep and rest, for example, Google and Ben&Jerry’s.

Many people who have regular 9 to 5 jobs know what a struggle it can sometimes be to stay alerted and concentrated, short lunch breaks are necessary because we need to eat, but we also need some time to rest and recharge. Long shifts and stress are a recipe for tiredness and poor judgment, which is not how you want your doctor to work, or any other people who work on some very responsible positions,  because the risk is too high, and mistakes can be very expensive. 

The good news is that a lot of companies are willing to introduce power naps to their employees since it has been proven that even  20 minutes of sleep during the afternoon can enhance alertness, focus, and cognitive abilities. Even NASA conducted a study which proved that their astronauts and pilots had their alertness improved for 100%, after a short nap. Another study showed that after taking a power nap, people were less impulsive, less frustrated, and showed a higher level of tolerance than the people who were watching a documentary about nature for the same amount of time.

So why are these brief sleep breaks so effective? When we start falling asleep, we go through two lighter stages, N1 and N2, but we enter the deep sleep phase only at the N3 stage. During that stage, a reduction in sleep drive occurs, significantly faster than in the first two, lighter sleep stages. 

Generally speaking, it takes some time to get from being alert to relaxed and sleepy enough to enter the stages N1 and N2, and then after the final N3 stage of deep sleep. If a person only has 20 minutes to rest, it would be hard to reach that deep sleep in such a short period of time, but it is not impossible. Waking up from deep sleep is much harder than waking up from some lighter stages, and it is possible that you will wake up feeling groggy and even more tired than you were before. This is known as sleep drunkenness or sleep inertia, and it is not how you want to feel right before you need to go back to your work and be fully alert. The mood is also affected by it; you will be easily irritated, feeling down, which is also not the best thing if you need to interact with your colleagues, customers, or family, soon after your “power nap.” 

Another thing is the fact that deep sleep relieves sleep drive, and by already achieving it once during the afternoon, you may have difficulties with experiencing it again later during the evening, when you go to bed. It is like eating a desert right before dinner, it will ruin your appetite, and you will be full before the main course. That is how a long afternoon break can hinder your sleep, for that reason shorter breaks for rest are more recommended, because they do not leave you enough time to enter the deep sleep phase.

What is a Caffeine Nap?

You have maybe heard of it, caffeine or coffee naps appear to be a new hit among the young business people who do not want to waste their time. It sounds crazy, but people are taking coffee to improve their sleep, and once you get it, it is genius, so let’s jump straight into it. 

So how exactly this works, you drink your coffee, and straight away you go to sleep, right after the consumption of caffeine. That is it; you are no longer drinking it to remain awake; you can take a nap after a cup of your favorite hot beverage. Now the not so fun part about it is the fact that you need to set your alarm clock, and it needs to ring in about 15 to 20 minutes, so no time for oversleeping or counting sheep till you fall asleep, this one needs to be done quickly. 

If you are wondering how much caffeine is recommended, well, usually one or two servings will do the job, in studies which proved the benefits of this concept usually 150 to 20 mg of caffeine were used. To make it more clear, one cup of brewed coffee contains 164 mg of caffeine. The caffeine does not necessarily have to come from coffee, although we are so used to that combo that we forget about other sources of caffeine. You can even drink tea, soda pop, caffeine pills, energy drinks, etc. anything that contains caffeine, but keep in mind that those things do not have the same level of caffeine, and also that your sensitivity to caffeine is determined by the amount you usually consume.

How Does a Coffee Nap Work?

Workers around the world have found a new way to enhance their productiveness and stay entirely alert all the time. Quick consumption of a caffeine pill, espresso shot or a strong tea, followed by a 10 to 20 minutes long power nap, appears to be a new way of an energy booster for working people. The brief rest will remove some of the desire to sleep, which was already on our mind while we were awake, and restore our alertness right before caffeine starts to work, or before it gets to our brain do its magic by sharpening our senses.

Our need to sleep depends on two different processes, circadian alerting signal, and homeostatic sleep drive. Sleep drive means that the longer you are awake, the more you will crave for sleep, and this happens because a particular brain chemical called adenosine starts accumulating. Our body cells use adenosine triphosphate as their main source of energy, what remains after the energy is used is adenosine; hence, the longer we stay awake, the more energy we will use, and more leftover adenosine will start piling up in our brain. 

Sleeping is one way of getting rid of that accumulated adenosine, after a night of good rest, in the morning, the level of it is at its lowest, and as the day progresses, it rises. If you sleep, for example, only four hours in one night, once you wake up you will still be sleepy, because there was not enough time to clear up all adenosine leftovers.

But, there are ways in which even short periods of sleep can reduce the level of accumulated adenosine. When caffeine is combined with a nap, precisely that happens because caffeine alone blocks the adenosine and promotes wakefulness, this is how it works as a stimulant. This combination showed to be highly effective even more than if you just took a nap, or drink a cup of coffee.

The Right Time For Coffee Nap?

Could there ever be a wrong time for coffee or sleep? Not really, but in the adult world, we need to plan and schedule everything in advance, and the same is with our rest time. Generally speaking, you should make this break whenever you feel tired, sleepy, or you need a break from work, and the ones working from home can use this at its best, be careful and try not to oversleep.

So for most people, the wave of afternoon tiredness strikes somewhere from 1 PM to 3 PM, which is, by the way, the time when the above-mentioned siesta break time usually starts, because the early afternoon is also the hottest part of the day for them.

If you do not want to have any problems with your bedtime and want to avoid insomnia symptoms, you should not make your coffee nap later in the afternoon or evening before your desired bedtime. Once the caffeine gets into your system, it is being metabolized by the liver, and it takes around 5 to 6 hours to eliminate half of the amount you have taken, so that is why it is recommended drinking it during the early afternoon, anytime later can hinder your bedtime routine.

Can Coffee Naps Boost Your Energy?

If you are still skeptical about this theory, but you also did not get the chance to try it for yourself, do not worry, researchers have already done their part of the job for you.

Although many are still arguing is it more useful to sleep for 20 minutes, or to combine it with caffeine, a number of small studies were conducted to test this theory.

They were all given 200 mg of caffeine before taking a 15-minute long nap, after that they were placed in a driving simulator for two hours, the results showed that they were 91% less sleepy behind the wheel than the group who did not consume caffeine or went to sleep. This study also concluded that even the participants who were not able to be fully asleep during those 15 minutes still showed some improvement in their energy level.

Other, similar study included ten people who consumed 150 mg of caffeine, and they got less than 15 minutes to rest after it, and right after they were behind the wheel on a driving simulator, and still performed better during those two hours of test-driving than the control group.

Some other small study focused on the performance in computer-related tasks, ten healthy adults took 200 mg of caffeine, and then rested for 20 minutes. Based on the results, this way of rest improved their energy and performance better than a nap itself, or face washing, or even exposing your face to bright light. 

It is essential to mention that the participants of these studies used caffeine pills, so clearly they are very efficient, but it still needs to be proven how useful coffee or strong tea could be in these situations.

Should You Take Coffee Naps?

Since we live in such fast times and have no time to waste, it is not a surprise that people are willing to try whatever is possible to get the maximum out of every 24 hours. There are a lot of different ways to boost your energy, and coffee naps are the latest trend; however, researches are still ongoing since there are many ways in which we can consume caffeine, different products contain different amounts of it, and all of those variations need to be tested in order to be completely sure that this will work every time.

If you are still interested in trying this, pay attention to the type of coffee or beverage you take, and to the amount of caffeine inside of it. The dose of caffeine which was used in most studies is approximately around two cups of coffee. Two coffee cups should, in theory, have the same effect as one caffeine pill, as long as they contain the same dose of caffeine, but the comparison of the impacts of these two is yet to be done. If you prefer your coffee with milk, sugar, or any other added flavors, it could decrease the effectiveness of this caffeine break, so it is better to drink pure black coffee for the needs of this instant restorative break.

Many experts agree that everything up to 400 mg of caffeine per day should be safe for the vast majority, and that is approximately four cups of coffee.

Bear in mind that caffeine is a strong substance and that the excessive intake of it can trigger muscle tremors, anxiety and many other problems, but most importantly, it can significantly disrupt your sleep if you consume it close to your bedtime.

Other Ways To Avoid Sleepiness

Some people simply do not like coffee, they cannot stand it, or their body does not react well to caffeine, so they avoid taking it in any form. For them, a coffee nap is a no-no, so they need other ways to stay focused and energized during the day, and avoid after lunch sleepiness. 

• Take a walk. Our body has a natural tendency to nap in the afternoon, so before you sit down at your desk, get outside and take a quick walk around the street. You will burn some calories, get some light exposure, clear up your mind, and be back to work feeling refreshed.
• Stretch. Some light stretches are something you can do anywhere and anytime, it will wake you up, but it will also be beneficial for your neck and back because it will prevent stiffness and aches.
• Eat healthier. If your lunch consists of carb-rich food and a soda, it is no wonder you are all sleepy and hard to function after it. A healthy meal can do much more than just satisfy your appetite, healthy fats and proteins can be found in chicken, salad, all types of nuts, fruits, and they are all tasty and energetic food which will be very beneficial for your health and overall performance.
• Drink cold water. Did your mom ever threaten to pour cold water over you if you do not wake up for school? Mine too. The good old way of waking yourself up and clearing your mind, nothing says “wake up” better than a splash of cold water right into your face. Excuse yourself to the bathroom and take a deep breath before doing it.
• Laugh. A genuine laugh can boost mood, lift your energy, and wake you up. Try watching some funny YouTube videos alone or with your coworkers, read comics, tell funny stories from the office, anything that makes you laugh will work. 
• Rest your eyes. Spending too much time in front of computer screens has become an inevitable part of many jobs, staring at them for hours causes fatigue and tiredness, and our eyes require a break. Try changing your focus to something else every few minutes, or looking at something else.
• Chew gums. Some people hate them, but we promise, as long as you are not chewing loud, it is going to keep you alert because it stimulates your facial muscles and increases the blood flow.

Individuals grappling with allergies understand the difficulty of their situation. Research from the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America reveals that around a third of Americans suffer from some form of allergies. Common triggers include pollen, dust, pet dander, mold, certain foods, and a range of other surprising sources. Symptoms like an itchy throat, watery eyes, and a runny nose might seem minor, but they can escalate to the point of disrupting everyday life, and in extreme cases, they can be life-threatening.

Today we will be talking about all the things that we can do in order to make our home allergy-proof. Since our house is the place where we spend the vast majority of our time, we want it to be safe for our health. While some allergens are specific for outdoor surroundings, such as pollen, a vast number of them can be found inside of our homes; thus they represent a potential threat to our health, and we need to take care of them. But, before we jump into practical advice, let’s see how what are allergies and how they can impact our sleep. 

Allergies 101

People who suffer from allergies are usually entirely healthy, but slightly over-reactive, which means that their body releases histamine-like chemicals to get rid of allergens, substances that are otherwise harmless. Histamine forces our body to remove allergens through our nose, eyes, or mouth, and that is how your symptoms are caused.

The vast majority of allergies are triggered by the things we breathe in, so there is something in the air that causes symptoms such as sneezing, itchy nose, eyes or throat, etc. But a lot of these symptoms are similar to the ones we experience when we catch a cold, and it is easy to confuse these two conditions. The duration of the symptoms is one of the important indicators, a cold can last from 3 to 14 days, but allergies can stay around for months if people do not reduce their exposure to whatever is causing their symptoms. Another way to differentiate them is to pay attention to the type of your symptoms, a cold would rarely cause your eyes to be itchy or watery, but an allergy will do that for sure. If you are feeling any pains, aches, it is probably a cold, allergies can make your life difficult in so many ways, but they will not cause you pain, the same thing is with fever.

Allergens, which are everywhere, cause allergies, and the most common ones are pollen, dust mites, spores, mold, dust, and pet dander, and there is no way to eliminate them, the most you can do is to take an allergy test and find out which ones affect you and then try to avoid them as much as possible.

We differentiate two main categories of allergens, seasonal and year-round.  As their name suggests, seasonal ones are attached to a specific season, and they are triggered by particular pollen or spores coming from the grass, trees, and other things that flare up seasonally. For example, in spring most of the pollen allergies come from grass and trees, in the summer it is the same, but in the places that are mainly hot and humid, mold can expand quickly also. Autumn is another humid season, suitable for mold and mildew which develops on wet soils and grass, but also for ragweed, which is the leading allergen of the season. Winter is a bit more specific, due to the lower outdoor temperatures there is barely any pollen or other allergens outside, but inside of the house, where we spend the majority of our time during the winter, there is always some dust, pet dander, mildew, etc. to which many people are sensitive.

Year-round allergies are the ones concentrated indoors, which is somewhat the topic of today’s post, and they are always present, but usually more prominent during the winter. While the days are cold, we spent more time inside; windows are shut most of the time, a lot of people use fireplaces, heating vents are not cleaned as often as they should, which all creates conditions suitable for dust pilling, and lowers the air quality. If you live with pets, they are in your home all the time, but during the winter they do not spend much time outside, and that is when they scatter their dander wherever they go, a protein that can be found in their dander, urine, and saliva causes allergy symptoms in people.

Allergies and Sleep

It is not hard to assume that if you have any of the symptoms, you will probably have some issues with your sleep, it is inevitable. A study showed that around 48% of seasonally allergic people had disrupted sleep. These people are more prone to developing sleep disorders, such as insomnia, chronic sleep deprivation, daytime fatigue, etc.

If you often wake up in the middle of the night to sneeze, cough, or you cannot breathe, these are the signs that your allergy is taking over the control, and depending on the type of allergen you need to see what kind of precaution measures can you take. Waking up often during the night will mess up your sleep routine, your body will not be able to rest properly, and you will be fatigued on the day after. Some more extreme types of allergies can cause snoring, or sleep apnea if you have a child dealing with allergic rhinitis than pay special attention to these symptoms. 

Getting rid of an allergy is almost impossible, the best you can do is to keep those symptoms under control, but first, pay a visit to a doctor, take the tests so that you can know for sure which things are you sensitive, and then follow the guidelines. Possible treatments for alleviating the symptoms include eye-drops, prescribed medications, nose sprays, or some lifestyle changes, for example, if your pet is causing you those symptoms, then maybe keeping him outside of the house, or taking him to your parent’s home, etc. Even the same type of allergy differs from one person to another, the severity of the symptoms does not have to be on the same level; hence, everyone needs to try different things until they find the right one, sometimes, simple things, like removing all the carpets, can create a significant difference.

Tips For an Allergy-Proof Bedroom

Out of all the places in the house, the bedroom is one room which should always represent our oasis and sleep sanctuary; hence, it is crucial to create a safe and pleasant environment. People who are suffering from allergies know how difficult it is when they wake up often due to their symptoms, so the best they can do is to ensure that their bedroom is allergy-proof, but how to achieve that? Here are some of our suggestions on how to improve the quality of the time you spend in your bedroom, and most importantly, how to keep the allergens away from it.

• Bed and bedding. As our first recommendation, we would like to start with the primary and necessary things, which is the bed and its bedding. If possible, shop for bedding which is made from natural materials, and check the declarations to see if they claim it is hypoallergenic. We recommend opting for mattresses made of all-latex, organic wool, or cotton, because they are a great choice, except if you have a wool allergy (although that one is pretty controversial since not everyone agrees that such thing exists). When choosing a blanket, pillow, or a comforter, avoid materials such as down, feather, or wool, because they can trigger allergic reactions.

• Dust-mite covers. Dust mites are tiny, microscopic creatures, which enjoy living in our mattresses, bedding, carpets, etc. To protect your bedding from them, it is the best to use dust-mite covers, which can be found for mattresses, pillows, or even box springs. One study showed that children who were less exposed to dust mites had fewer chances to experience asthma complications; hence, it is essential to protect their beds and bedding and raise them in a safe and healthy environment.

• Laundry. When washing your sheets, pillowcases, blankets, and all other parts of bedding, it is mandatory to wash them in hot water, on  130F, or 54C, at least, although we highly recommend using even higher temperatures because they will be able to kill any germs, dust mites, and keep your bedding hygienic. 

• Windows. It is essential to let the air inside your bedroom, but make sure your windows are always clean, and we are not talking about the rain stains or fingerprint marks. Window frames and sills are a perfect place for mold to pile up, so it is essential to clean them as soon as you notice any marks and condensation stains. Also, if you use curtains, wash them regularly.

• Environment. The bedroom should be neat and tidy, without clutter and unnecessary stuff, but also pay attention to the materials your furniture is made. If you have an opportunity to choose and furnish the bedroom on your terms, go for the materials which are sleek and easy for maintenance, for example, wood, leather, plastic, or metal. Upholstered furniture is harder to clean, and it catches more allergens. Besides that, remove everything that could be a potential dust collector, such as books, because dust quickly accumulates around them, and to be honest, none of us likes to clean the dust every single day.

• Carpets. If you are prone to allergies or already suffering from them, the best is to remove all the rugs from the house, if that is not an option, then at least throw out the ones in your bedroom. Fuzzy carpets are a nice touch that warms up every room, but they are such dust and germ collectors, and no matter how often you vacuum them, it is impossible to keep them clean and safe all the time. Avoid wall-to-wall carpets, or placing a rug directly over concrete. We recommend installing wooden floors or linoleum flooring, or if that is not possible, at least use low-pile carpets, they are easier to maintain and would not collect as much dust. To keep your carpet free of any allergens you need to vacuum it as often as possible, and the best is to do it with vacuums that have air filters, or HEPA filter. Also, try using a dust mask while vacuuming, so that you cannot inhale the dust flowing around in the air.

• Bedroom air. Warm and humid surroundings are what molds and mildew prefer, so it is essential to use air conditioners of fans when it is too hot, it is better than relying on the outdoor breeze. If you live in an area with a tropical climate, you should invest in a dehumidifier or air purifiers to can reduce the humidity in your bedroom and ensure the air is always fresh.. Dust mites cannot bread as much when the temperature is below 77F. Another option is to use air-filtration systems with HEPA filter or small-particle filter, they will keep the air in your bedroom fresh and healthy, and can work with central or portable AC units, as well as with heating systems.

• Pets. As much as you love your pets, maybe it is not the best idea to share your bedroom with them. Pet dander, urine, saliva, fur, all carry different allergens, so ideally your pet should at least sleep in another room. This can get quite tricky if children become allergic to their pets, since they bond so quickly, and some things are better to prevent on time. Test your kids on allergens and do not let the pets sleep in the same bed with them. Also, keep your pets clean and wash them regularly.

How to Treat Allergies?

Besides practicing all the above-listed advice for a clean and healthy sleep environment, you will, of course, have to take some other measures to reduce your symptoms and go through another allergy season as easily as possible. Allergy control begins from your home, that is why all those things are vital, medical help will not work if you do not get rid of the allergens or at least reduce your exposure to them.

Nasal sprays

• Steroid nasal sprays are invented to prevent your immune system from overreacting to common allergy triggers, they are not always the best solution, but it is probably what any doctor would recommend you to begin with.
• Saline nasal flushes are a temporary solution for nasal congestion, they are efficient, but the effect does not last long, and after a few hours you will need to use them again.
• Nasal decongestant sprays are also used to clear a stuffy nose, but they should not be used for more than three consecutive days, because after that time they are not as efficient

Medication

• Antihistamines should dry runny nose, but they come with side effects, such as dizziness, hangover effect, sleepiness, and even blurry vision, so use them only if there is no other choice, and do not exaggerate with the amount, they are not meant for long-term use.
• Nasal decongestant liquids and pills can have a long-term effect and relieve the symptoms significantly, but it is not recommended to use them at night, because depending on their composition, some of them can keep you wide awake. Read the labels and avoid the ones containing phenylephrine and pseudoephedrine. 
• Corticosteroid creams can help reduce allergy-related skin rashes, inflammation, and itching. They are also available in the form of pills, and some milder version can be bought without prescription while for the strong ones a medical prescription is required.

Other methods

• Immunotherapy is a long-term option for those who have chronic allergy symptoms or have been bitten by some insects.
• A healthy diet is one way of dealing with different food allergies, but it should be done only in consultation with a dietitian because foods need to be eliminated in a way so that they do not jeopardize patients’ health. If you are allergic to nuts or peanuts, you can stop eating them, and the problem is solved, but if you are allergic to milk, that means that you need to find alternative sources of proteins and calcium.
• Homemade remedies are still waiting to be scientifically proven as effective solutions, but again, a lot of people believe in them. One natural and harmless home remedy is raw honey. Many food experts claim that eating local, raw honey will reduce pollen allergies, in a way similar to allergy shots. Other home remedies include herbal teas made from gingko, red clover, yarrow,  milk thistle, etc. Another popular herb is Butterbur, and its extracts are often used for migraine treatments, as well as for cramps and allergies.
• Acupuncture is, according to one review which gathered the data from different studies, very helpful in reducing the symptoms of seasonal and perennial allergies, because it impacts our immune system.

If you find yourself lying awake at night, chances are you have ample opportunity to ponder over various matters ranging from concerns about past relationships to deciding on what to prepare for dinner the next day or devising strategies to ace an upcoming exam. But, have you ever stopped to think about the process of falling asleep? What transpires in those brief moments as we transition from wakefulness to the realm of dreams? And how come we’re hardly conscious of this shift? Whether we enjoy a restful slumber or find ourselves tossing and turning is largely influenced by the activity within certain small areas of our brain. However, numerous other factors can also disrupt this delicate balance, leading us to feel sleepy or remain alert at times when we shouldn’t.

Out of 24-hours we have at our disposal, we usually spend 16 hours awake, and sleep for the rest eight hours. It’s very interesting that only a small number of brain cells is in charge of that, so, today we will see what science has to say about it, and how exactly our brain falls asleep.

The Flip-Flop Switch

With many scientific achievements and discoveries over the past century, scientists were able to find out how exactly our brain falls asleep and to understand better how the entire process which controls our circadian rhythm functions. We can think about our brain as an electrical system, which has ongoing circuits that can switch off or on, to induce sleep or wakefulness. The transitional phase between these two conditions is called sleep state switching; one way to explain it is known as the flip-flop switch model. In this model, the neurons switch off or on to prevent arousal or sleep, and to keep you asleep once you fall into it, or to keep you alert during the periods of wakefulness. 

For the majority of people who do not have any sleep-related problems or disorders, switch model is useful in regulating their sleep pattern, which is in accordant to their social obligations and daily functioning. In other words, this is what keeps us awake in situations where it is not appropriate to fall asleep, for instance, at a business meeting or in a restaurant. Patients who are diagnosed with narcolepsy or other sleep disorders have a problem with the way this switch functions. Since it does not switch properly, it gives them the ability to fall asleep anywhere and anytime, no rules, even when they would rather be awake.

How Does it Work?

Sometimes, falling asleep can turn into a real struggle, and it can last for hours, but the essential part of transitioning from wake to sleep phase lasts only a few seconds while getting to that point can take much longer. The ability to stay asleep or awake for a stable period of time is an outcome of mutual inhibition of two different groups of neurons. Wakefulness and sleep are two different states, and we cannot be both at the same time, even though only a few seconds is between them, they inhibit one another. That is why experts agreed to use the term flip-flop switch, which is otherwise used in electronics to describe the circuit with two stable states, but flip-flops do not have transitional stages, they are either on or off, which is basically how scientists understand our sleep and wake stages work.

The neurons which participate in the switching process are located deep in our brain; one of them is orexin. Orexin or hypocretin is in charge of regulating the arousal, wakefulness, and appetite, lack of in the brain can cause cataplexy, which is a type of narcolepsy. The human brain contains around 10-20.000 of neurons which produce orexin, and most of them are located in the lateral hypothalamus and perifornical area. Hypothalamus is a part of the brain in charge of different functions related to endocrine and nervous systems. Some of the duties of the hypothalamus that are related to the nervous system include control of circadian rhythm, inner clock and sleep-wake cycle,  body temperature, hunger and thirst, emotional response, etc.

Now, let us go back to the core of things, orexin keeps us awake until the switch occurs and triggers the ventrolateral preoptic nucleus in our brain to start producing GABA and galanin neurotransmitters. Galanin is present in the brain, spinal cord, and gut, and it is involved in a few different functions, including sleep regulation. GABA is a neurotransmitter related to mood, and a lot of people take GABA supplements to enhance their sleep and mood. These two can calm the brain and prepare it for the state of sleep by blocking orexin, which use to keep us awake. By doing so, they reversed the cycle, or switched it, and induced sleep.

When talking about these things, we should make some things clear; neurons are the cells which are a part of the nervous system, to communicate with other cells they need to use neurotransmitters, which can pass their information to other cells like a carrier. Neurotransmitters are chemical compounds which tell neurons what to do, so in the spirit of today’s topic, if a group of sleep cells gets a message to stop their activity, they will stop, and the brain will also understand that message and start promoting wakefulness because those cells are now taking over, while the sleep cells are inhibited.

The model of sleep state switching can also be used to explain how we go from one stage of sleep to another. Some of the researchers claim that the switch occurs in the mesopontine tegmental area, which is located near the center of the brain. Right there, the neurons are regulating the switch between REM and NREM. In this case, while we are already sleeping, on both “sides,” we have neurons which produce the GABA neurotransmitter, but the switch in charge of triggering REM also has some glutamatergic neurons.

The flip-flop switch model is just a mechanism of how the switch happens, but by practicing some healthy habits, we can enhance the work of it, as well as our inner circadian clock.

What If The Flip-Flop Does Not Work Correctly?

Having a disbalance in your flip-flop switch is usually a sign of some other sleep-related disorders that follow destabilization of the switching process. For example, when the person is in the prolonged state of arousal, certain chemicals will start piling up in the brain and move the balance to the state of sleep, but chemicals are not the only ones in charge of triggering neurons. A lot of things around us, such as light, stress, or sound, can speed up or delay our sleep onset, but also some other conditions such as homeostatic sleep drive or circadian rhythm. 

Here are some of the disorders that go hand in hand with changes in the flip-flop switch.

• Narcolepsy. As we mentioned it, this is by far the most common condition which can be related to inconsistency of the switch model, and to the lack of orexin, which promotes wakefulness. People suffering from this condition usually experience excessive sleepiness, which hinders their normal daily activities, and it is often followed by vivid hallucinations, seconds before falling asleep.

• Cataplexy. This is a condition which strikes around 70% of people suffering from narcolepsy, there are no cases of cataplexy without narcolepsy, so they always go together. Cataplexy refers to sudden and temporary episodes during which a person is in a state of paralysis. The person is fully aware and conscious, but her muscles are weakened, and this condition is usually triggered by some strong, happy emotions, such as laughter, or happiness. This condition occurs when autoimmune destruction of neurons which produce orexin in the hypothalamus occurs, but it is still a mystery why only positive emotions can trigger it, and not the negative ones.

• Hypnagogic hallucinations. Hypnagogia refers to intense, dream-like hallucinations which occur right when we start falling asleep. So as the person is still somewhat aware of what is going on, he/she can have the feeling that someone else is inside of the room, to smell or to hear something, etc. This mental phenomenon can also include lucid thoughts, dreams, or sleep paralysis, which is a separate sleep disorder.

• Sleep paralysis. This is a type of muscle paralysis similar to cataplexy, but it does not stop once the person awakes, and in some cases, it can be followed by hallucinations. Sleep paralysis can occur either when the person is waking up or falling asleep, and the person is conscious and aware of the situation, but unable to speak or move any parts of the body. These episodes of brief paralysis usually last no longer than a few minutes, although, to the person going through it, it may seem like it lasts a whole eternity. There are no rules when it comes to liability, it can strike healthy people, those diagnosed with narcolepsy, and it can also run in families as a genetic predisposition. It is triggered by sleep deprivation, stress, or irregular sleep patterns.

How to Ensure Proper Work of Flip-Flop Switch Pattern

After we have seen what the consequences of irregular flip-flop switches can be, let us see now what we can do to prevent that from happening, and secure a healthier sleep routine that will enhance the quality of our life. These tips are all common sense advice, and the things we know we should practice, but somehow we always tend to avoid them, even though they are a part of sleep hygiene. Establishing healthy sleep hygiene sounds general and well-known, but a lot of people are not aware of what that means. Sleep hygiene implies a number of different habits and practices which should be followed on a daily basis to secure proper sleep quality and alertness during the daytime.

• The right amount of sleep. We all need to sleep, but not all of us need the same amount of rest every night. For example, babies and children sleep far more than adults. Eight hours of sleep are considered an optimal and recommended amount of shut-eye for an average adult person, but we all know people who run on less or more hours, depending on how it works best for them. The crucial thing is to understand what your body needs, and to get enough rest. Sleeping significantly less or more than eight hours is usually a sign of some sleep disorder.

• Sleep patterns. Once you know how much sleep you need, you will benefit even more from going to bed and waking up at the same time every day. You do not have to be very precise, but maintaining some type of a schedule will improve your sleep, and after only a few days of adjusting to it, your body will naturally be prepared for rest at the desirable time.

• Avoid stimulants. Among different types of sleep stimulants, caffeine is probably the one that most people consume daily, and that is why it is so dangerous for our flip-flop switch because it can cause orexin disorders. Being moderate is the main thing when it comes to usage of stimulants such as caffeine, nicotine or alcohol, and their use should be avoided during the evening, even alcohol, which is known as a sleep inducer. If you drink it before bedtime, you will probably fall asleep faster, but it is also more likely that you will wake up during the night as the body starts processing alcohol.

• Light physical activity. Not only exercising is good for your physical shape and health, but it will also help with your sleep habits because no matter how light or short exercises you are practicing, it is still going to exhaust your body and induce sleepiness. It is recommended to avoid exercising right before bedtime, but since this is not the same for everyone, we suggest trying different times, and finding out what is the right time for you.

• Food. In the past, food was considered just a basic need for survival, but today there is a whole science around it, and we now know what should we eat if we do not want our stomach to wake us up in the middle of the night. All foods that are fatty, fried, spicy, or carbonated drinks, can cause issues with digestion and sleep, especially when they are taken late at night. 

• Exposure to natural light. It is underrated, but crucial since the daylight has an essential role in our sleep-wake cycle. Being exposed to sunlight during the day, and to the darkness at night helps to maintain our inner clock in balance, and keep our sleep-wake cycle away from any potential disorders.

• Bed equipment. This stands for basically anything that is a part of your bed, starting from the mattress. The right mattress is essential for sleep, since if it is uncomfortable, it can mess up your sleep, and the same goes for pillows. Today a wide selection of materials and compositions is available, so that everyone can find something that fits their needs and terms of comfort. Comfortable sheets, appealing patterns, and designs, or whatever makes you feel good, the overall impression should be pleasant to you, since it should represent your oasis.

Millions of individuals worldwide are impacted by sleep apnea. This condition manifests in several forms, yet each variant consistently interrupts sleep patterns and poses the risk of leading to further health issues down the line. Given that sleep apnea cannot be cured, acquiring a positive air pressure (PAP) machine emerges as the optimal strategy for ensuring a good night’s sleep. Nevertheless, the financial investment required for such a device often proves challenging for many to accommodate within their budget.

The three main methods used to treat sleep apnea (based on what kind of apnea you’re experiencing) include CPAP (continuous positive air pressure), BiPAP (bi-level positive air pressure) and APAP (automatic positive air pressure) machines. All of these can have a huge price variance, so it’s important to know in advance how much you’ll have to spend on a quality piece of equipment. Not only that, but you often have to purchase the breathing mask and airflow humidifiers, adding to the overall cost. This is where we come in – this article was made to explain everything you need to know about which PAP machine you may want, and how much you’ll have to spend for it. Let’s get into it:

Sleep Apnea Overview

Sleep apnea is a disorder characterized by brief periods of interrupted breathing during sleep. It can be as serious as it sounds, which is why getting it diagnosed and treated is so crucial. You should do your best to find out what kind of apnea you’re dealing with because they don’t all require the same equipment. Here’s a list of symptoms you can look out for if you suspect you might have sleep apnea of any sort:

• Loud snoring or interrupted breathing during the night (typically reported by someone else in your home)
• Waking up with a very dry mouth
• Major difficulties staying asleep at night
• Moments where you gasp for air during sleep
• Excessive daytime sleepiness
• An inability to stay focused or alert during the day
• Frequent headaches, especially in the morning
• Irritability

If you end up visiting the doctor, make sure you’re thorough in explaining all your problems. Diagnosis methods used to detect sleeping disorders are pretty reliable, but you want to make it as easy as possible for them to narrow down the list of potential conditions. You may have to fill out a questionnaire or spend the night in a sleep lab, but it’s worth it. The results of these tests can indicate one of the following kinds of sleep apnea:

• Central sleep apnea (or CSA for short), a disorder that manifests as an inability of your brain to send signals to crucial muscles that control breathing;
• Obstructive sleep apnea (or OSA for short), which occurs when there is a physical blockage in your air passage as a result of your throat muscles relaxing;
• Mixed or Complex Sleep Apnea, which functions as a combination of the previous two, and is less frequent.

Unfortunately, all three of these conditions share one important downside – there is no real cure. However, that doesn’t mean you’re entirely out of luck, as PAP therapy is incredibly reliable and doesn’t require much effort to implement – outside of purchasing the necessary machinery. This is where the biggest part of your financial investment occurs. A sleep study doesn’t typically break the bank, but PAP machines can be quite expensive. How expensive? Let’s see.

PAP Machines and Their Prices

Positive air pressure machines function in a way that’s easy to understand without getting too technical. The star of the show is the airflow generator, which uses a fan to draw in outside air and then pressurizes and humidifies it. This air is then delivered to the patient’s nose and mouth through a breathing mask, connected to the generator through a tube. The pressure setting is measured in centimeters of water, and PAP machines tend not to deviate from the 4-20 cmH2O range. The exact range will often depend on the type of PAP machine it is. For example:

• CPAP machines are used to treat obstructive sleep apnea, and their air pressure settings hover around 12-15 cmH2O.
• BiPAP machines tend to operate on two different air pressure settings – one for inhalation (commonly referred to as IPAP), and one for exhalation (typically called EPAP). The IPAP value tends to hover around 16 cmH2O, whereas the EPAP rate is closer to 12-13 cmH2O. These machines are used to deal with central sleep apnea.
• APAP machines are used to treat mixed sleep apnea, and their pressure rate tends to vary more than with the other two categories, as they’re made to accommodate many breathing patterns. You can expect a range of 10-18 cmH2O for one of these.

PAP machines are considered by the federal government to be Class II medical devices. The same goes for masks and air humidifiers, which means that, by law, all of this gear requires a prescription to purchase. So how much are you expected to pay for one of these pieces of equipment? Bear in mind that an airflow generator is not the only thing you need to get, as in many cases, you’ll have to pay for the mask, or even the humidifier itself too. To put it simply, the prices will depend on whether or not you have insurance to cover for some of the costs.

Luckily, sleep apnea affects more and more people as the years go by, so it’s getting increasingly wide recognition. More people are starting to realize just how many health problems can arise if this disorder isn’t dealt with, which compels new insurance providers to provide coverage. Of course, this doesn’t mean every provider will have your back in this situation, but it shouldn’t be too hard to find one that’s good for you. Several factors influence how much coverage you will receive, and it’s important to go over them one by one. The list goes as follows:

• Deductible: In the world of insurance, a deductible is a set amount of money that you have to spend on a service or purchase out of your own pocket before insurance coverage kicks in. As a rule, the higher the monthly premium you sign up for, the lower the deductible is. You should expect to see numbers ranging from $300 to $3,000 with most insurance providers.
• Coinsurance: Once you reach your deductible threshold, the insurance company doesn’t necessarily pay everything from that point onwards. Coinsurance represents the amount of money (in percentages) that the patient still has to put forth on their own. For example, if the coinsurance rate is 25%, that means that a quarter of all post-deductible costs have to be covered by the client, while the insurance company pays for the remaining 75%. This rate will vary from plan to plan, and it’s hard to pinpoint an average value, so you have to poke around and find a good deal.
• Copays: Copays are essentially fixed fees for certain services (such as doctor visits) that the client and insurance provider agree upon. In most cases, these fees will remain within the $30-60 range, although this can vary depending on which provider you end up sticking with. In-network physician visits will almost always cost significantly less than out-of-network visits, so keep that in mind.

Various insurance providers may also implement special rules when it comes to PAP treatment coverage. For example, you may be asked to rent equipment from predetermined companies before you commit to a full purchase. This is done to make sure the patient is willing to follow through with the therapy, and that the money isn’t being wasted. The rental period can last for up to a year in most cases, but will typically be closer to six months. Special rules will differ based on who’s imposing them, so before you make any kind of commitment, contact your insurance provider and work something out.

With all this in mind, let’s look at the prices. PAP machines and related gear such as masks and humidifiers are well worth the investment, as they can massively improve your long-term health, but it’s still a good idea to carefully plan out your budget. To be able to make concrete plans, you need to know the price ranges you will be working with while browsing your options. In this article, we will be using average prices, so be mindful of any potential variance and surprises.

Let’s examine the machines themselves before anything else. If you are on the market for a CPAP machine, and you have adequate insurance coverage, you will usually have to pay around $225 out-of-pocket. A BiPAP machine is the most expensive option and will set you back around $675 on average, which is not a light sum by any stretch of the imagination. An APAP machine sits at roughly half of that price, with an average cost of $320. Without insurance, these costs are typically doubled, making some of these machines quite difficult to invest in for some.

Now for the side gear. An air humidifier is the most expensive piece of equipment in this category, with a cost that hovers around $82.50 with insurance. A full face mask costs somewhere around $77.50, which isn’t an unnoticeable sum but is pretty affordable. Nasal cradles cost $65, while nasal prongs and nasal pillows are easier to afford, sitting at $40 and $45 respectively. As with the machines themselves, you can expect the costs to be doubled if you don’t have adequate insurance coverage.

Other Cost Considerations

In some cases, you can get away with spending less money than usual. For example, some organizations offer subsidization programs for PAP therapy, allowing patients with sleep apnea to procure PAP machines, tubing, humidifiers, and masks at a much lower price than what you’d normally expect. Sometimes, the cost can go down to as little as $100 or less! Unfortunately, you may run into supply issues, or only have ownership of the equipment temporarily. In other cases, you may need to provide proof of financial hardship or something similar.

Your employer could also provide some much-needed assistance. If you are covered by a high-deductible insurance plan, you could be eligible for a health savings account. This account is owned by you, the employee, and both you and your employer can typically make deposits to it. The downside of having a high deductible is made up for somewhat by having access to health savings funds even before the threshold is reached.

Alternatively, you could receive support via a health reimbursement account. An HRA is owned by the employer, but held in the employee’s name. The employer is the only party that can make deposits to this account, but the upside is that you’re not forced into high-deductible insurance deals. A flexible spending account is similar to an HRA but allows the employee to make deposits as well. We recommend consulting your company’s human resource department to figure out which of these options are available to you if any.

Online purchases can be annoying to deal with. While there are online PAP retailers, they typically won’t make deals with insurance companies, which gives you the responsibility to act as a middleman between the two parties and submit claims to your provider to receive coverage.

In today’s fast-paced society, it’s becoming increasingly common to have one’s sleep schedule disrupted. Many individuals find themselves overburdened with professional responsibilities, leading them to compromise on much-needed sleep to stay on top of their tasks. Others might have jobs that require them to frequently switch shifts, making it difficult for them to get adequate rest at the appropriate times. Additionally, some might be dealing with health issues, such as sleep disorders or chronic pain, that make it hard for them to achieve a restful night’s sleep.

In these situations, a nap often seems like the best idea. Whether you want to dispel a headache or catch up on some of your missed sleep from last night, napping can offer some much-needed relief, but as with all things in life, moderation is key. It’s important to know how napping can affect your daily life and sleep schedule before you start including it in your routine and causing potential problems. That’s where we come in – we’ve prepared all the information you’ll ever need about napping, so you can get some extra sleep in without creating issues in your schedule. Let’s examine the topic together, shall we?

The Circadian Rhythm and Why It Matters

To understand the effects of napping and why it may or may not be a good idea depending on various factors, we have to dig into the topic of what the circadian rhythm is and how it affects our daily life. Try to think of it like this – you have a clock, located somewhere in your brain stem. This clock uses built-in photoreceptors to pick up on natural sunlight levels from your surroundings, and ultimately tell what time of day it is. Once it sees that it’s nighttime, it affects the production of sleep-related hormones like melatonin, slowly convincing your body to go to sleep. Once it’s time to wake up, your body produces cortisol and other chemical compounds that rouse you from your rest.

Now, the circadian rhythm isn’t only responsible for managing your sleep schedule. A whole host of other biological processes answer to this master clock, including your appetite, sex drive, daily energy levels, immune system, etc. While your circadian rhythm is balanced and functioning properly, your body is at peak performance, and you feel much more energized and ready to tackle incoming challenges. Your appetite is healthy, you’re less likely to get sick, and so on.

However, as you might have guessed by now, it’s not always that simple. This biological rhythm is incredibly easy to disrupt and can get thrown off-balance by anything from diet problems or bad sleeping habits (maybe as a result of shift work) to sleeping disorders and trauma. Once it falls out of rhythm, the consequences range from inconvenient to severe, and can seriously damage your performance in various fields during the day. Think of how many times you’ve seemingly been unable to feel rested after 7+ hours, which usually does the trick for almost everyone. Perhaps you’ve experienced trouble falling asleep at a reasonable time, only dozing off several hours later? These things are tied to the circadian rhythm, and this is why it’s essential to maintain a balanced sleep schedule.

The Structure of Sleep

It’s easy for an uninformed layman to imagine sleep as a binary thing, and separate a daily cycle into “hours we spend while awake” and “sleeping hours.” However, understanding sleep (and, by extension, napping) involves learning about how it transitions and alternates between different stages. As a whole, sleeping has us alternating between two broad sleep phases – REM and NREM (non-REM) sleep. Both of these are responsible for restoring our body and mind to prepare us for the coming days. Let’s examine what their rough purpose is, to put things into perspective and provide context:

• Stage 1 is the only stage that never gets repeated during any other sleep cycle, and it happens right as we’re falling asleep. It doesn’t last very long, with most people spending about 3% of their sleep in this stage, which roughly translates as 5-15 minutes. Your body temperature begins to drop slowly, along with your heart rate, and your breathing slows down. As you lose consciousness, you become less responsive to anything that’s going on around you. At some point, you will enter stage 2.

• Stage 2 begins roughly 15 minutes after stage 1 and is a more emphasized version of it. Your heart rate and breathing slow down even further, and your body temperature lowers. The movement of your eyes slows down as well, and signature light sleep brainwave patterns (called spindles and k-complexes) start showing up. Light sleep takes up around 50% of your overall time spent sleeping, although it doesn’t occur in one go. This stage is crucial for consolidating memories and learning, which is why college students are sometimes advised to take naps during their free time. Once your body is ready, you move into stage 3.

• Stage 3 is commonly known as deep sleep, and this is where you start becoming entirely unresponsive to almost anything that goes on in your surroundings. While light sleep is easy to break, it’s much, much harder to rouse you from deep sleep, hence the name. Your muscle movement slows down to the point of stopping, which is why people rarely move in this stage. Deep sleep is when a lot of bodily repairs take place. Toxins are flushed out of your body, and tissues are mended. Deep sleep occupies around 20% of our total sleeping time and leads into stage 4 after a while.

• Stage 4 is normally called REM sleep, but has properties that lead some people to call it “paradoxical sleep.” When you examine the brainwave readings of a person in REM sleep, it bears a striking resemblance to the readings an awake person would produce. Certain parts of the brain are dormant, while others show more activity than while you’re awake. As a whole, REM sleep is where your mind is “repaired” and prepared for the following day. People who regularly have issues concentrating or remembering important information might just struggle to get enough REM sleep. Stage 4 becomes more and more prevalent as the night goes on until, eventually, the person wakes up. It takes up around 25% of your total sleeping time, assuming you’re not interrupted.

An Overview of Napping

So how does napping play into all of this? Well, the first thing you should remember is that light sleep is the only stage where it’s easy to wake someone up without creating a very unpleasant period of sleep inertia. For those of you that aren’t aware of sleep inertia, it’s just a fancy term for that groggy feeling you get when you wake up, especially if you haven’t had enough rest overall. The problem with sleep inertia is that is causes a massive drop in performance for many actions you wish to perform before that grogginess subsides, including maths or memorization.

If you are roused from a deep sleep, that sleep inertia hits you so much harder and takes way longer to pass. It means that if your daytime nap comes right before something important, you want to take care of, and you allow yourself to enter stage 3, you’re far more prone to errors than if you had simply avoided the nap altogether – a potentially life-threatening scenario if you plan on driving anytime soon. Logically, this would mean that naps are best left within the realm of light sleep, which usually limits your resting time to around 20 minutes at most. But this isn’t the only reason to impose that kind of time limit – we have to talk about sleep onset latency.

Sleep onset latency represents how long it takes you to fall asleep once you are in bed and trying to doze off. The lower the sleep onset latency, the easier it is for you to start sleeping. Many disorders tend to drastically increase this latency, causing periods of insomnia that can last for hours, and seriously impact your overall sleeping schedule and health. Simply dipping into deep sleep is enough to increase your sleep onset latency in the future – mainly, when you have to go to bed in the evening. The problem can then loop back into itself – if you don’t get enough rest during the night, you will be more willing to take a nap, and can easily set yourself back on later sleep, which makes you tired the following day, and so on. However, staying in light sleep dampens this issue, even if it doesn’t remove it altogether – another reason why your naps should last 20 minutes tops.

During 2006, a study was published in the official journal of the Sleep Research Society (or SRS for short) where they had groups of subjects nap for predetermined periods, and then report any cognitive improvements or impairments they experienced after waking up. The goal was to narrow down the optimal nap duration and help people get some rest without risking their entire sleeping schedule. They used a control group of subjects that didn’t take a nap and then compared it to the results from people who slept for 5, 10, 20, and 30-35 minutes. The results were clear as day.

The group that had slept for five minutes reported very little cognitive improvement, which meant that five minutes of napping doesn’t accomplish much compared to just not sleeping. Subjects who had taken 30-minute naps as part of the study had to deal with a period of unpleasant grogginess but reported noticeable cognitive improvements for almost three full hours after their sleep inertia subsided. Meanwhile, subjects who had slept for 10-20 minutes performed better than either of these two categories. Their cognitive improvements were easy to notice and lasted two or more hours without almost any sleep inertia.

When and Where Should You Take Your Naps?

So we’ve established the ideal duration for your daytime nap, one that leaves you refreshed and ready to perform without having to slog through a period of grogginess. But that still doesn’t answer all of our questions. It can be easy to think that you can just take your nap whenever, and get the same results as the ones we’ve mentioned above. When you take your nap can be just as important as its duration, and our body gives us subtle hints during the day.

Assuming you have a normal sleep schedule, your body will start producing melatonin during the period between 2 PM and 4 PM. For most people, this coincides with lunchtime and seems specifically hard-coded into our system to offer some mid-day relief. We’re naturally sleepier during this time of day and will wake up even more refreshed if we end up taking a nap (as long as it lasts between 10 and 20 minutes). Even if you have to take a nap outside of this specific period, make sure to leave at least 3 hours between that nap and the point where you go to bed for the full night.

The location is also important. It’s not difficult to imagine what kind of place helps you sleep the easiest. You want to establish a temperature that hovers between 60-67 degrees Fahrenheit (which translates as 15 to 19 degrees Celsius) and lie down in a dark room. Natural sunlight is easy to get rid of, but you also want to remember that electronic devices can interfere with your relaxation, especially ones that create a large amount of artificial light. If you let sunlight creep into your bedroom during nap time, you risk throwing your circadian rhythm off-balance due to how it responds to natural light.

Note: Insomniacs are advised to avoid naps whenever possible since napping can amplify their problems with falling asleep at night by extending their sleep onset latency. If you’re worried that naps would be unhealthy for you, consult your primary care physician.

What are Coffee Naps?

Coffee naps are a recent thing, a method many people have been using to ensure they feel refreshed and energized after their daily nap. If you drink a cup of coffee right before you take a 20-minute nap, you create the optimal conditions for yourself. As soon as you wake up from the nap, the caffeine kicks in, jumpstarting your body and mind in a way that improves your performance throughout the rest of the day. This combination is so potent that it’s been skyrocketing in popularity in recent years.

Napping is great for removing excess adenosine from your body. This chemical compound causes drowsiness, and would normally neutralize the coffee, as they have opposite effects. However, when it’s gone, there’s nothing to stop that coffee from zapping you full of energy as soon as the nap ends. Try to drink the coffee as quickly as possible, to make sure the caffeine boost comes at the ideal time.

Tests that were done on subjects who have attempted this method showcase an improvement in the subjects’ ability to perform in cognition and memorization tests. Subjective feelings of improvement were reported as well, suggesting that a coffee nap can also subtly affect a person’s confidence and overall comfort during the day.

How to Take a Short Nap Without Oversleeping

Controlling the duration of your nap is easier said than done. When we’re tired, our body wants nothing more than to sleep for 7 or so hours straight. If we do that, however, we ruin our sleep schedule and create health-related complications in many cases. Luckily, there are methods you can rely on to help you control how long your mid-day naps are. Let’s list the most prominent ones:

• Drink a cup of coffee right before your nap. We mentioned this above, but the effectiveness of a caffeine kick should not be underestimated. Not only will it energize you for the rest of the day, but it will make it easier to wake up if your nap extends 5 minutes past the intended limit. Try to avoid putting any sugar or milk in the coffee, just in case.

• Set an alarm for when you’re meant to wake up. It may be self-explanatory, but exhausted people tend to forget even simple things. To make sure you have a reason to get out of bed, put the source of that alarm on the other side of the room, especially if it’s a smartphone. By forcing yourself to walk across the room to turn off the alarm, you’re putting yourself in a position where you’re already up and running. Try to make the ringtone an aggressive or upbeat song, something you can’t easily sleep through.

• Ask anyone else in your home to help you wake up at the designated time. If you somehow miss your alarm ringtone, you want to have a backup plan, and family members or your partner can help you shake off the sleep inertia and get back into the action.

Despite the passage of decades and our ongoing discovery of intriguing new aspects of sleep study, the realm of the unknown appears not to diminish in size. In fact, with the considerable advancements we’ve achieved to date, it feels as though we’re just starting to comprehend the intricate and elaborate nature of our brains, extending beyond just the topic of sleep.

The realization of how much we don’t know is humbling, but it also sparks a great deal of curiosity as to what we’ve yet to learn. The amount of knowledge we’ve accumulated by now makes us that much faster and more efficient in finding out new information. A lot of ground has been set, but even so, loose ends can be found in almost any corner of current research. To make it a more understandable and accessible point of reference to build on later, researchers have proposed different models and theories explaining what goes on inside our brains during sleep.

The two-process model of sleep regulation is globally accepted as the most authoritative posit today. We will take a closer look at it further down in this article, but for now, let’s say it’s a well-done sketch rather than the entire painting. Though this model provides a good angle to observe the core processes of sleep, its overly black-and-white, basic nature fails to demonstrate how inseparable and interconnected these processes are, as well as the many other factors that come into play besides them. It is partly intentional, to make it more widely accessible, and partly due to our lack of complete information necessary to form such a precise overview. In any case, it’s essential to note that all bodily processes, and not just those closely related to sleep regulation, have an impact on our well-being and sleep. After all, the quality of our sleep directly affects other aspects of our health, so it isn’t strange that the transaction can go in the opposite direction, too. One key element of our health and a cog in the sleep mechanism is our immune system.

Immune System

Our immune system is the main line of defense against bacteria, viruses, and infections. It is a network made of cells and tissues assigned with different tasks to ensure we’re able to maintain our health. When we feel worn out, weak, or get sick, that means our body’s under siege, and our immune system is taking up most of our energy to fight off the intruders. Too many blows and our immunity can be weakened, lowering its ability to protect us and resulting in the same cold or sickness returning a couple of times after it seemed to be gone.

The immune system is comprised of barriers that intercept any form of a pathogen in their way. It is tightly intertwined with other systems in our body, like the endocrine, and nervous system, and has a crucial role in our ability to regenerate other cells. When coming in contact with pathogens, our body needs to recognize their type to be able to call for appropriate action. This is the so-called “adaptive immunity” trying to be very specific and effective in how we will respond to the threat, and saving us the trouble of going all-out every time we get a cold. Adaptive immunity is the more serious and narrowly targeted mechanism, contrasting to the standard procedure of our “innate” immune system – the default setting of our bodies, doing patrols and sending generic responses when certain alarms go off. The main types of cells to keep in mind here are called T-cells and B-cells.

Their distinction is quite simple and shows the moment they run into a pathogen. In order to recognize that a cell is, in fact, foreign, both T-cells and B-cells carry small screening receptors. For a T-cell, this is not enough; it needs an additional, “self” molecule (called MHC) to serve as sort of a mirror and make it evident that a pathogen looks differently. B-cells, however, don’t require such assistance as it carries an antibody on its surface. Subgroups exist of both of these cell types; a complete set of B-cells represents all the antibodies our organisms can produce. Furthermore, the adaptive mechanism is the one that can remember infections and bacteria once they have been successfully dealt with. This feature is a significant point of our evolutionary progress and a crucial factor in our ability to overcome and avoid future diseases.

Besides the T- and B-cells and their variants, other elements like some hormones, proteins, and vitamins have a role in how, when, and how well our body will defend itself against invasions. It’s also important to note that our immunity, like all other systems in our bodies, can work against us instead of protecting us. This happens when our healthy, normal cells get targeted and damaged by the diseased immune system that stops differentiating between friends and foes in our organisms.

The Link Between the Immune System and Sleep

We’ve just scratched the surface. By now, you should understand a couple of things:

• There are two different categories of the immune system, the innate and the adaptive one
• The innate one is the autopilot; it recognizes patterns and sends generic responses
• The adaptive system is the manual option; it seeks out various types of pathogens and responds on a more personal level. It also learns and remembers stress it’s overcome and keeps the antibodies so that the diseases can’t repeat.
• Antibodies aren’t the only thing in our arsenal against infections.
• A disordered immune system can become diseased, and mistakenly start working against us.

But let’s zoom out for a second. What does all of this mean in terms of everyday life? What makes our defenses impeccable or meek and easy to breach?

There are some ordinary things we consider significant when it comes to our health, and some measures we take to liven up when we get sick. For the majority of people, vitamin supplements, leafy-green diets, and exercise take the first few spots on the list when they feel good, while soups and rest come up only when we are already under the weather. This about sums up the problem: we are willing to try any shortcut to boost our health, but getting to a point when we’ll consider prioritizing sleep usually requires failed quick alternatives, and sometimes weeks of therapy. As a consequence, up to 20% of adults cut their sleep short by 90 minutes on average, and many frequently experience excessive daytime sleepiness. Others have it worse, where insufficient sleep leads to sleep deprivation, marking about half way to forming a sleep disorder.

But, apart from sleep deprivation further impairing your sleep, it also takes a toll on other areas of your health. One of them, you guessed it, is your immune system.

Due to its regenerative and protective role, it’s hardly surprising that lack of sleep can mess up your busy schedule. When your sleep quality or duration goes down, they bring everything down with them. Say you had a busy week at work and had to pull a couple of allnighters to tie all loose ends. The lack of sleep and the stress you went through at the same time don’t just add up; they get magnified. Sleep deprivation impairs your cognitive abilities and emotional well-being, making you perform worse than usual at work. Difficult as it is to make your deadline, you also feel miserable, and on top of that, you stress because you realize all of this and feel its weight. Now, the lack of sleep made sure your defenses are lowered, and your body isn’t regenerating as quickly as it usually is. The amount of stress you are experiencing builds onto this, and before you know it, you’re sick.

In a brighter scenario, sufficient amount and quality of sleep promote a healthy immune system and strengthen it, fighting off any traces of inflammation quickly and effectively. In the other way around, your immunity also has a role in sleep regulation. It is clearly shown in the way your sleep structure changes when you’re ill, but there’s more to it than that. In order to better understand the immune system and sleep, there’s another essential factor we need to introduce to the story – cytokines.

What are Cytokines?

These small proteins are the immune system’s mediators that have a significant role in cell activity and communication. Depending on which type of cell releases them and how they work, they can be categorized as lymphokines, monokines, chemokines, and interleukin (IL), although researchers recently concluded that these categories aren’t strict due to the redundancy of most cytokines. 

As there are cytokines that don’t display redundancy, they are listed into structural categories:

• The four-α-helix bundle family, with subfamilies IL-2, Interferon (IFN), and IL-10.
• The IL-1 family
• The IL-17 family
• The cysteine-knot cytokines

More importantly, cytokine action can also be classified into three groups based on which type of cell they tend to:

• Autocrine action focuses on the cells that made the cytokines
• Paracrine action focuses on nearby cells
• Endocrine action focuses on cells that are further away

A group of cells often creates a single cytokine for a specific task. When acting on cells, cytokines stimulate them to generate more cytokines.

These proteins can sometimes be confused with hormones. The exact distinction isn’t completely known yet, but there are some pointers in this direction. For one, the range of hormone magnitudes is very narrow, while cytokine concentration may start out smaller but gets increased up to 1000 times during an infection or similar stressful event. Moreover, these proteins can be produced by almost any cell that has a nucleus, and anywhere in the body, while hormones are secreted by specific glands. Lastly, the role of cytokines doesn’t end at one’s immune system. These proteins are involved in initiating pathological pain and its duration, inflammation-induced nerve sensitization, but also, according to accumulating research, sleep.

Cytokines and Sleep

There are some basic criteria that peptides and other substances need to pass to qualify as Sleep Regulatory Substances (SRS) according to the PMC. Here are some of them:

SRS needs to enhance the duration of a sleep stage or the EEG wave power

Reduced SRS has to reduce spontaneous sleep

The amount of SRS in the brain needs to be linked with sleep propensity.

Cytokines fulfill all of these criteria and more, proving their connection with sleep-related processes in our bodies. IL-1 and TNF (tumor necrosis factor), in particular, have been widely accepted as two essential contributors to the sleep-wake homeostasis. This process, along with the circadian rhythm, is a key point in the two-process model of sleep regulation. Homeostatic processes throughout your body are in charge of micromanaging different systems, including temperature regulation, insulin levels, etc. As each homeostasis has its own subject, the sleep-wake homeostasis (or process S) is what makes you increasingly sleepy as the day goes by and builds the pressure to indicate you need rest.

In contrast to process S, the circadian rhythm (also known as process C) works as your internal clock, in tune with the external time of the day. Basically, by recognizing clues such as light, your circadian rhythm has a good idea when it’s daytime or nighttime outside and aims to synchronize your sleep accordingly. That means it will keep you alert during most of the day, but open the gates when the night falls for sleep-inducing processes and secretion of hormones like melatonin.

In the mechanism of these two processes and their correlation, IL-1 and TNF have sort of a bridge function. If either of these cytokines gets inhibited, it shows, as your sleep gets disrupted either in the middle of the night (IL-1) or just before dawn (TNF). These two also interfere with the expression of some clock genes, which have a part in the circadian rhythm.

Moreover, both IL-1 and TNF influence and increase the duration of NREM sleep, as well as the EEG power in humans and many other species. The more of these SRSs you have in your body, the longer time you will spend in NREM, especially slow wave sleep. It also means that these proteins are elevated during many health conditions you may experience – chronic fatigue, insomnia, sleep apnea, AIDS, alcoholism, Alzheimer’s disease, and many more. All of these are linked with insufficient sleep, excessive daytime sleepiness, and often, a weak immune system.

IL-1 levels also peak at the moment before you fall asleep and are heightened when you’re sleep deprived. It signifies a correlation with the sleep-wake homeostasis, which is also at its all-time high during sleep onset and then gradually lowers right until you wake up.

Other cytokines are also being studied because of their connection to sleep. They include IL-2, IL-6, IL-8, IL-15, and IL-18. Some others potentially affect NREM, too, but it is too soon to tell how exactly they work. Lastly, some neutrophils also can induce NREM and REM sleep.

Unanswered Questions for Further Research

The relationship of all cells in our organisms are complex, and almost certainly impossible for us to fully understand at this point. It is especially interesting to learn about the substances that are meant to connect and affect other cells and systems and study all the ways they are useful (and sometimes harmful) to our health. A lot of research is currently taking place in hopes to clarify the role of cytokines as sleep regulatory substances further, but also unrelated to sleep. Many studies and hypothesis’ have yet to be attempted, and the existing ones approved. However, some ground has been set, and researchers have strong reasons to believe they will discover a whole lot more when it comes to this topic. Here are some points that are being considered and tested as we speak, and some that may spark further research:

• The role of cytokines in cortical column state
• The neuroconnective feature of sleep and its link to cytokines
• The Adenosine Triphosphate-Cytokine-Adenosine Hypothesis
• The role of cytokines in physiological sleep regulation

For many, hitting the hay isn’t a struggle. Between long work hours, managing relationships, dealing with homework – it’s pretty standard to be beat by bedtime, zonking out the second your head touches the pillow. But, the daily grind can also do a number on us, acting just the opposite. Clock in more than eight hours at the job, only to spend your supposed “downtime” plugging away at more work? Suddenly, everything else in life starts to tilt.

Our human nature requires us to fulfill some aspects of life regularly: besides eating and sleeping, we also need to socialize, take breaks, have some fun to thrive rather than just survive. When you insist on putting one of these factors above the others, over time, it takes a toll on your health, no matter whether it’s partying all the time, overworking yourself or not eating enough. Unfortunately, most of us prioritize almost everything else from this list over sleep, and when you think about it for a second, it really shows.

Nowadays, we have a culture of endless hustling powered by caffeinated drinks. We rely on coffee to push us through all-nighters, work at three jobs at once, and still struggle with debt, financial insecurity, personal fulfillment. We try to hack our bodies into needing less rest, shock our organisms out of inertia in the morning and do all it takes to put all our efforts into being busy and productive.

As a direct consequence, 20% of adults sleep 90 minutes less than recommended on a daily basis, according to research, and between 50 and 70 million Americans suffer from a sleep-related disorder. And why? Because we’ve all been trained into thinking that our productivity dictates our worth.

This kind of lifestyle is in itself unattainable – conditioning yourself into thinking you must deserve health and happiness will only have them slipping away beneath your fingers while you focus on business. In turn, impaired health and discontent with your life will strip you of the ability to function at your highest potential and as a result, decrease your efficiency at work, forming a rather sad cycle. However, there are things to be done about it. Not convinced? Bear with us.

Excessive Daytime Sleepiness

Being tired during the day may seem like a normal occurrence to most of us, for reasons we just explained above. Common as it may be, excessive sleepiness still signifies that something is wrong with our bodies. When it happens many days in a row, it may well be a roadside message board on your way to forming a sleep disorder.

Sleep is closely tied to every other area of our health. When you feel sleepy during the daytime, it means you’re not getting enough rest during the night, whether your sleep is too short or poor in quality. In other words, this isn’t something you would typically experience regularly. If you don’t check your behavior, and this problem keeps happening, it leads to sleep deficiency, which quickly takes hold of your physical, emotional and mental well-being, often leaving you feeling weak and moody. Besides the risk of sleep disorders, excessive daytime sleepiness carries its own, present-moment issues. One good example is drowsy driving. Being excessively tired while sitting behind the wheel is regarded as equally dangerous for yourself and others on the road as driving while drunk. When you are sleep deficient, you have difficulties performing tasks you usually wouldn’t struggle with. This includes poor focus, short attention span, difficulties making decisions, solving problems, taking too long or being too sloppy with your work or school. In children, overly active behavior, tantrums, mood swings, irritability, inability to stay still or focus often accompany sleep deficiency.

These issues often occur due to poor sleep hygiene, irregular sleep patterns, low-quality rest, or an existing sleep disorder. It may be caused by a mental condition or another health problem, but it can also help in forming a sleep disorder.

Sleep Disorders

Sleep disorders are very diverse and go beyond insomnia, although it is the most common annoyance you can face. Similar disorders are grouped into subcategories, like sleep-related breathing disorders, or circadian rhythm disorders, based on which aspect of your sleep they affect the most. Although it’s not always certain what causes them, their roots can usually be traced down to genetic predispositions, environmental factors, and, the universally favorite – poor lifestyle choices. 

Maybe you’re thinking, it’s not always by choice that we delay sleep, which is true, but it happens more than you would initially presume. Teenagers, after a tiring day at school and topped with a pile of homework to do, end up with limited time to do other things, like socializing. While most of us need this aspect of life, at their age, socializing is especially of vital importance for teenagers. That’s why the majority of them will choose it over sleep, whether it’s going out with friends or just chatting over the smartphone. In fact, most teenagers sleep with phones in the bed with them, while many wake up an hour after they fell asleep to answer a text or call.

It’s not a very different story with adults, either. Due to our busy lives, most of us can think of a task that needs to be wrapped up last minute before bed, and effectively postpone our sleep more than we expected, even for hours.

On top of that, many of us deal with additional health conditions like depression, anxiety, or GI issues, that make it an even bigger challenge to have everything under control. All of these can add up gradually, and we often don’t notice it when the problem first begins. After a week of nights laying in bed, closing our eyes, only to stay awake for hours, we realize something is wrong.

Scary as they may sound, all sleep disorders can be treated and managed, if not completely cured. After having some tests done to get yourself a diagnosis, your doctor will prescribe one or a number of treatment options accordingly. Some are more narrowly focused on a specific disorder, some involve light treatment or even sleep medication, but all of them will start with introducing proper sleep hygiene.

Before we move on to bedtime routines, note that sleep disorders have a wide range of symptoms that can occur with or without the presence of sleep deprivation. If you experience any of the following, go see a doctor:

• taking too long to fall asleep
• inability to fall asleep when desired – naturally sleeping in an “off” time
• waking up during the night or too early in the morning
• difficulty waking up in the morning
• falling asleep spontaneously while engaged in passive activities like reading or watching TV
• needing a nap to get through the day
• feeling exhausted
• difficulties performing simple tasks
• waking up in pain or confused
• getting out of bed and/or engaging in an activity while asleep

Tip: if you aren’t sure how often a symptom occurs or want to make sure to keep a thorough track of your situation, it’s a good idea to start writing a sleep journal. Whatever you notice during the day and night alike will be useful for your doctor once you’re ready to go to your appointment. You can also have your partner, parent, or household member write one to cover symptoms you may not be aware of, like talking in your sleep, limbs twitching, unusual noises, etc.

What is a Bedtime Routine?

A bedtime routine is an essential aspect of establishing good sleep hygiene. It focuses on removing anything that will distract you or work you up when you should be transitioning into the relaxed, calm state needed to fall asleep. The thing is, many of us use our last waking hours to talk with friends, play video games, scroll on social media, or watch something engaging. As fun as those things are, for our bodies, they count as stress. Although it doesn’t feel like a negative thing, the adrenalin your body makes while watching a horror movie or the fresh, exciting idea you just got for your art project sends a signal to your body that you are about to do something opposite of winding down for bed. You suddenly choosing to go to sleep because you notice it’s late can’t make your body flip its course of action.

To avoid the mess and replace it with sleep-promoting, relaxing set of tasks instead, doctors never fail to advise you to check, readjust, or set up a good bedtime routine.

This should be something easy to follow that you need to tend to every evening without exception, which will help you develop a more organic and efficient transition between being fully awake and ready for bed. Over time, your brain will be trained to recognize the pattern and learn to expect sleep to follow, ensuring you will fall asleep faster, have a better quality of sleep and wake up fresh for the day. Setting up a bedtime routine is also a good start for any additional treatment required if you have a sleep disorder, and it’s used all the time as part of cognitive behavioral therapy.

Bedtime Routine for Adults

When planning out your evening ritual, you need to keep in mind that it’s something you will repeat every single day. Maybe you are very excited about the concept right now, but making a list too elaborate will just set you up for failure. Likewise, writing down things that will take too long to do, like an hour-long bubble bath, makes it likely that you will quickly become annoyed with your routine and have you procrastinating sleep even more than you would have without it. Keep your steps manageable even when you’re tired, and keep them few. Here is an example to get you started:

• Shower
• Take off makeup
• Brush your teeth
• Put on cozy PJs
• Set up your alarm
• Meditate for 15 minutes
  Go to sleep

You can also try reading a bit, dimming the lights, praying, having a warm drink, or whatever else you can think of that might make you feel peaceful before bed, as long as you can fit it all into 45 minutes at most.

Bedtime Routine for Children

When it comes to building your children’s habits, it can get a bit trickier to get them engaged and up for it. To make any plan work, you need to explain it to them in a way that will make them understand why and how it will help them. Let them know that you already have one, or if you are just setting it up for yourself, too. You can discuss with them what it can include, and ask them what they think would be enjoyable and relaxing for them. Maybe you can do some elements of the routine together (like brushing teeth or taking deep breaths) and make it that much more fun. In any case, keeping the steps as easy as possible, and being consistent with them is of vital importance. Here are some ideas for kids to try:

• Changing into favorite PJs
• Brushing teeth
• Getting cozy in bed
• Getting hugged or kissed goodnight
• Listening to a bedtime story or lullaby

Any steps you choose to do, don’t forget to repeat them every night in the same order. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests a “Brush, Book, Bed” approach to keep it fuss-free and effective.

Additional Tips for Better Sleep

What’s included in your routine mostly revolves around you winding down and priming for bedtime. However, there are things you can do outside of that time window to make your rest that much more satisfying.

• Leave your smartphone in another room. Perhaps you don’t sleep with your phone in hand, or you feel you are disciplined enough when it comes to phone usage before bedtime. Why risk it, though? As long as it’s near you, there is the temptation to check up your Facebook one last time, which soon becomes an hour-long scrolling session of a cat video comment section. Keeping it out of the room eliminates all chances of distraction. If you have to use your smartphone as an alarm, place it at the opposite end of the room, far enough out of reach that you would have to leave the bed to pick it up.

• Don’t grab your phone first thing in the morning. As much as it can cause unnecessary issues in the evening, your smartphone isn’t exactly safe in the morning, either. Picking it up the instant you open your eyes may have you lying in bed for hours while you look at the screen, making you increasingly slower as the time goes by. Speaking from experience, mornings started in front of a screen drag out into sluggish, lazy days, and worse – there’s no reason for it! You feel worse, and you get less done. Instead, get dressed, have breakfast, and do whatever you usually do in the first hour after waking up before letting yourself check the phone.

• Avoid foods high in fat and sugar in the evening. You don’t need spikes in blood pressure or sugar levels that close to bedtime. They will get you energized and alert instead of sleepy and serene. Swap that heavy dinner for a lighter version with leafy greens, vegetables or some nuts and seeds, and leave the spicy, calorie-packed foods for lunch.

• Turn off electronics in the bedroom at least half an hour before sleep. We’ve mentioned how distracting screens can be, but there’s another element – blue light. Although not inherently harmful, when used in the wrong way and the wrong time of day (think: with other lightings off, at bedtime and for an extended period at once) it can postpone our melatonin production, and automatically sleep, too. It is because our body views the light the same way it does daylight, which has a crucial influence over when our bodies will be tuned to sleep. It is made possible by the circadian rhythm in our bodies, which matches our alertness with daytime, and primes us for rest at night. In order for this process to work properly, you need to make sure not to disrupt it by giving mixed signals via TV, computer, or any other screen in your bedroom.

• Avoid coffee and alcohol before sleep. Whenever else possible, too. Although some of these substances have a sedative effect at first and may masquerade as sleep aids, they are everything but that. You might fall asleep faster under the influence of alcohol, but your sleep pays the price later, and you wake up feeling tired despite how long you’ve been asleep. If you feel you need a sleep aid, schedule an appointment at a sleep clinic, and discuss it with your doctor. These medicines are not intended to be used as quick fixes instead of actual treatments and certainly aren’t risk-free. Be responsible; consider all your other options first, and leave meds as a last resort. That being said, if you do have a medical condition, tend to the treatment plan as instructed by your doctor.

• Make your morning less busy by doing something in advance. This could be a simple preparation step like picking out your outfit or prepping breakfast or lunch; it can also mean tackling a tedious chore before it becomes urgent. If you struggle to get out of bed, setting up something to look forward to might help you resent mornings less. Leaving your dishes washed, countertops clean, or even plugging your phone to charge before hitting your bed can make a huge difference in the morning, especially if you’re in a rush.

• Exercise. When you’re rusty, and out of shape, it can be challenging to start with physical activity. You may find a million excuses why you don’t need it or why a particular exercise won’t benefit you. And, until you start, it certainly won’t. But think of it this way: for the beginning, any activity will be better than none. You can always try different things and find the one that fits you best. Increasing the time spent or the difficulty level won’t be as big of a problem later, but first, you need to put on your sneakers and start moving. Fifteen minutes of lifting weights, a 30-minute yoga session for back pain, or even planking for one minute and calling it a day is fine. Just remember that what you do with your day matters as much as your bedtime routine will. Health is a wholesome deal; you either put in the effort to improve, or you don’t. Half-attempts won’t cut it.

The majority of individuals have faced difficulties trying to fall asleep at some time. Research indicates that approximately 70 million people in the United States are affected by sleep disturbances. In today’s world, our days are filled with activity, our responsibilities have increased more than ever, leading to high stress levels that adversely impact our sleep quality.

If a person has constant difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep enough to get rested, it might be a symptom of chronic insomnia. There are several ways to prevent or recover from this condition. Recent research suggests that hypnosis can be one of the better treatments for insomnia, as it is natural, and generally good for physical and mental health. Read on to find more about insomnia and how hypnotherapy may help with this condition.

The Importance of Good Night’s Sleep

Quality sleep positively affects every aspect of our lives, and sleeping less than our body requires can lead to serious health problems. There is evidence that shows that bad sleeping habits can even shorten our lifespan. Heart problems may arise if we are constantly tired. Lack of sleep can also affect how we deal with the world around us. We are more likely to get angry and not be able to control our emotions properly. Because our focus decreases, we are more prone to accidents and have a harder time adapting to stressful events. Although not as essential, our social life can suffer as well. When we don’t get enough sleep, we appear less physically and socially attractive to others.

If you have sleep problems, reaching for sleeping pills is not always the solution. In most cases, sleep medications help you to fall asleep by making you feel drowsy. As a consequence, you won’t feel refreshed in the morning, but rather as you were run over by a train. Before reaching for sleeping pills, it’s better to try some natural treatment options such as herbal supplements and teas, CBT-I, or even hypnosis.

What is insomnia?

Insomnia is one of the most common sleep disorders, and people who suffer from this condition have problems falling asleep or staying asleep long enough to get rested. Waking up too early and not being able to go back to sleep can also happen. Common symptoms include difficulties concentrating, fatigue, and trouble with performing everyday tasks.

Based on what causes it, this sleep disorder can be primary and secondary. Primary insomnia is not caused by another condition, while secondary insomnia occurs as a symptom of another health problem or condition. Insomnia can also vary in how often it happens and how long it lasts. It can be short, and only occur occasionally, for instance, the night before or after some stressful event. This condition is called acute insomnia. 

On the other hand, chronic insomnia can last several nights in a row over at least three months. If this happens, treatment is recommended because it can be a sign of other medical or psychological issues. Knowing what causes sleep disturbance is vital as it will help with treating it correctly. 

Scientists believe that one of the causes of insomnia is a problem with the sleep and wake cycle in our brain. For instance, when our brain is supposed to enter the sleep cycle, we stay awake. Additionally, the wake cycle lasts significantly longer than normal, so we don’t feel the need to sleep even though our body is tired.

Medical conditions are some of the most common causes of secondary insomnia. Among leading causes are chronic back pain, arthritis, asthma, heart disease, endocrine and gastrointestinal problems, etc. If any of these conditions cause sleep problems, it is recommended to inform a doctor as there may be a way to alleviate the symptoms and improve your sleep. Some medications can also lead to sleep disorders as a side effect.

Psychiatric conditions such as depression, anxiety, and emotional discomfort can cause insomnia that ranges from mild to severe. Mental disease and insomnia are usually linked, and symptoms of one condition can worsen the symptoms of the other.

What is Hypnosis?

The origin of the name hypnosis comes from a Greek god of sleep “Hypnos.” Even though it means “put to sleep,” the state that is induced by hypnosis is not sleeping. It is sometimes referred to as hypnotherapy as it usually involves a researcher or a health professional working with a patient. This type of alternative therapy is used to improve the patients’ state of mind through increased focus, relaxation, and attentiveness. Patients are awake during these sessions, but they are less aware of what is happening around them and more responsive to suggestion. 

When it comes to inducing hypnosis, most people think of swinging watches that make them slowly drift to sleep, but in reality, it is less exciting. Hypnotherapists perform verbal cues that patients listen to and get drawn into a trance-like state. These cues are usually spoken in a soft voice and help patients enter a state of deep relaxation. When hypnotized, patients have increased suggestibility, which means that they are more likely to respond to any suggestions made by the therapist. As hypnotherapy heavily relies on the placebo effect, some people are more suggestible than others. When successful, hypnotherapy shows results within a few sessions, and some of its positive effects can last a lifetime. Even though hypnosis can be a great help, it is recommended to use it as an additional tool to improve other therapies. 

Can Hypnotherapy Help With Insomnia?

If you suffer from more severe sleep disorders, like chronic insomnia, the best course of action is to consult your physician. This way, you can find out if your problems are a symptom of another medical condition. If it turns out you have chronic insomnia, your physician may recommend other therapies like CBT-I. Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is one of the most effective ways to treat insomnia, and it consists of several different therapies, including a type of hypnosis. The effects of CBT can be further improved when combined with hypnotherapy. Ask your doctor to refer you to a good hypnotherapist with experience in treating insomnia, and ask for additional resources that can help you learn more about this type of therapy. 

When visiting a hypnotherapist, one of the most crucial things is the willingness to participate in the session and do what you are told. Telling yourself that it will not work or having any doubts can make the process more difficult. As hypnosis is similar to meditation, it is essential to be relaxed as much as possible. The difference is, with hypnosis, you are in this state with the purpose of changing thoughts or patterns. When it comes to insomnia, hypnotherapy is used to train the unconscious mind to sleep naturally and with ease. Those who have long-term insomnia usually feel anxiety when they need to fall asleep, making it even harder to do so. Through hypnosis, a therapist will try to help you deal with this unconsciously by generating more positive associations towards sleep. This is done by using positive words while hypnotized to describe your sleeping experience. For instance, “rest,” “tranquility,” and “peace” are known to work well. Your mind will stop treating sleep negatively, and it will be easier to get enough rest. If someone has problems falling asleep occasionally, these problems are often caused by high levels of stress and inability to relax your mind. Therefore, hypnotherapists usually use a step-by-step process that helps gradually reduce conscious thoughts.

Even though it has not yet been medically proven that hypnosis helps with insomnia, many studies have been performed claiming that this type of alternative therapy helps with sleep disorders. Research has shown that problems with restless legs syndrome (RLS), insomnia, sleepwalking, and night terrors have been reduced through hypnotherapy. Hypnosis can have a positive impact on your rest in several ways. For instance, Swiss researchers reported that participants who were hypnotized experienced sleep of much better quality. They spent more time in the deep sleep stage, slept longer, and were more well-rested. Different research has shown that those who visited a hypnotherapist and participated in sessions several times a week were able to fall asleep faster. A study that was performed in 2007 had promising results. Participants received only one session, and a month later, over half of them reported the improvement of their condition. 

Because of its positive results, and the fact that it is a natural treatment, hypnotherapy can reduce the symptoms of this sleep disorder. Full recovery is possible as well, with both acute and chronic type. If you want to achieve the best results, you should combine it with other therapies.

Can Self-Hypnosis Help With Insomnia?

One of the best things about hypnosis is that it is simple, and almost anyone can lead themselves into this state. Although sessions with a therapist are recommended for more severe sleep disorders, acute insomnia can be dealt with by using self-hypnosis techniques.

There are several ways of self-hypnotizing. It is usually done by following already established programs for inducing self-hypnosis. You can also listen to a guided recording. These programs and recordings are available online, so there is no special preparation necessary to try this. 

Most self-hypnosis programs have similar steps that need to be taken to reach a state of deep relaxation and be subjectable to hypnosis. First of all, it is crucial to find the most comfortable position, and your sleeping position is usually the best choice. Next, your eyes should be closed, and you need to relax your mind and body. It can be helpful to try to imagine tension and stress leaving your body. Afterward, you can use different breathing techniques. The program you follow will usually have a guide that will assist you. If not, you should breathe deeply and rhythmically. Take around 3 seconds for each inhale and exhale. Finally, you will need to recite a script that will help you fall into a relaxing sleep. When you wake up, you will feel refreshed and rested.

When it comes to recordings for self-inducing hypnosis, they commonly contain a guided audio or video session. These are often recordings of some of the best hypnotherapists giving advice and strategies on how to enter a state of deep relaxation. When you succeed, a therapist will use softly spoken words that should help you fall asleep. For instance, phrases like “yawn,” “peace,” and “let go” work best. Even though it sounds simple, these words are what helps transfer your unconscious mind from meditation-like state to sleep. All these recordings are relatively short, as they last up to 15 minutes. 

If your insomnia is not too severe, and you visit a hypnotherapist, he or she might give you a script that you can work with from the comfort of your home. You can also ask a professional to recommend some techniques for meditation and self-hypnosis because they can be useful for many other things. For example, they can help reduce work-related stress, relax your body after intense physical exercise, or help you improve your emotional health.

In conclusion, if you can clear your mind of thoughts and lead yourself into deep relaxation, self-hypnosis will probably help you with insomnia. Although it might be harder with more severe cases, reducing anxiety with these techniques can at least improve some aspects of dealing with this sleep disorder. 

Can Hypnosis be Used on Children?

Children can also be affected by various sleep disorders or just have occasional problems with falling asleep. Since there are no sleeping pills for children that are FDA approved, other therapies need to be used. Changing their sleep hygiene can prove helpful, and if not, CBT can be very successful. Children who have some type of insomnia can also combine these therapies with hypnosis. Hypnotherapy can also be helpful by itself. There is evidence that younger people, children especially, enter the state of hypnosis more easily than those past adolescence. Furthermore, some studies show that children have been successfully treated with hypnotherapy from various problems, including headaches, night terrors, and even insomnia. 

Takeaway

Even though there is still only a limited number of studies that show positive results of hypnosis, hypnotherapy is a promising new way of dealing with insomnia.

The important thing is not to get discouraged if it doesn’t work right away. Solving your sleeping disorders with hypnosis requires commitment and willingness. Sometimes, positive results can manifest after more than five sessions. Moreover, to fully recover from insomnia, treatments may need to last several years. Hypnosis is one of the most natural ways to get yourself to sleep without any side effects.

Every process on our planet operates in a cyclical manner. This ranges from the regular alternation of day and night to the shift in seasons; it all seems to follow a pattern of repetition. Every form of life has adapted to these environmental changes, possessing innate timers which are capable of operating independently yet also adjust in harmony with external signals. The Sun acts as the primary environmental trigger, with the majority of organisms timing their behaviors in alignment with the rhythmic cycle of daylight and darkness.

Circadian rhythms are described as repeating patterns that occur daily. The term is coined from the Latin “circa” meaning “around,” and “diem” meaning “day.” Most living things have an internal clock that is controlling every activity based on these rhythms. Only a small portion of organisms that live in coastal regions are synced to lunar days and don’t follow this pattern. Instead, they depend on the Moon and its gravitational impact on tides. A lunar day is a time it takes the Moon to finish the rotation around its axis compared to the Sun. It is slightly longer than the day, and its duration is 24 hours and 50 minutes.

Let’s take a closer look at how this circadian system works, the different factors that can impact it, and what you can do to boost it and use your biology to improve other aspects of your life. 

How Does Our Internal Clock Work?

The master clock is located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), which is a part of the hypothalamus, a region that plays a role in regulating many vital functions like body temperature, appetite, thirst, sleep cycle, sex drive, emotions, blood pressure, heart rate, and many more. If we were to describe what hypothalamus does, we would say that it is in charge of keeping the homeostasis, the principle on which all organisms function. Homeostasis represents the dynamics of the body that uses various feedback mechanisms to keep everything in balance. It doesn’t mean that the state of your body is always the same, but that it is within specific parameters.

The SCN is the size of a pea, and it contains around 20,000 small neurons that send signals to other parts of the brain to regulate sleep/wake cycle, hormone production, body temperature, and other functions. Each neuron exhibits a near 24-hour activity rhythm, which suggests that the clock mechanism works even on a cellular level. When these brain cells are individually grown in a Petri dish, they each follow a 24-hour rhythm, but when they are incorporated in the SCN, they all synchronize together. In the experiments where researchers would remove the SCN in mice, the animals that are otherwise active at night and sleep during the day, show little to no preference in these activities. Their activity didn’t seem to follow a pattern and was random through both day and night. 

This biological clock needs to check its accuracy each day and to do that it uses external stimuli, mostly the sunlight. There are specific photoreceptive ganglion cells in the retina of the eye, which are entirely different than rods and cones that are in charge of generating pictures of the world around us. These cells contain a light-sensitive pigment called melanopsin, that is most sensitive to blue light. Exposure to daylight stimulates a pathway from these ganglion cells, and send a signal about the time of the day so that our biological clock can adjust. Interestingly, most blind people can sense these stimuli, since these photoreceptors can recognize daylight even through closed eyelids. The signals are sent via the optic nerve to the SCN, and it then regulates itself accordingly.

Our internal clocks don’t need light to function, and the circadian rhythms exist even if the person is cut off from the daylight completely. However, the length of day and night varies during the year, and with different geographic locations, so light in addition to other external cues like temperature and meals, serve to synchronize with your environment and prevent small timing errors. Without this feedback, the circadian system could become unbalanced and cause some problems. For instance, shift workers can never fully adapt to their irregular sleep patterns and face many health problems simply because artificial light is not as efficient in resetting the circadian clock in these people. It has been shown that increasing natural daytime lighting in elderly care homes can significantly improve mood disorders, sleep patterns, and can reduce cognitive decline. That is why scientists suggest that everybody should spend some time outside in natural light, as it appears to have many benefits.

Other secondary biological clocks are located throughout the entire body, and they can be found in the heart, liver, kidneys, pancreas, intestines, lungs, lymphocytes, and skin. They are affected by other cues other than light, such as meal times and environmental temperature. The SCN receives feedback from these secondary clocks and uses the information for further synchronization and coordination. Chronobiology is a relatively new discipline that found practical use in the medical field. It turns out that the effectiveness of treatment can significantly increase if it’s applied at the right time, depending on the involved organ.

Circadian Rhythms in Animals

Other living beings on Earth experience the very same natural rhythms that we do. From single-celled bacteria, through plants, to other animals, every organism seems to have an internal clock that regulates its activity. That became evident with the first simple experiments that took place in the 18th century. Curious researchers decided to put plants in the dark to see what would happen, and it turned out that plants tried to adjust to new conditions, but also kept some of the previous activities that otherwise wouldn’t occur during the night. 

The modern-day research of circadian rhythms is mostly done on fruit flies (Drosophila). We have learned a lot about how different genes, biochemistry, and environment all impact the internal clocks. 

In birds, mammals, and reptiles, the central biological clock is located in the hypothalamus, while other organisms don’t have this brain part, so it is located somewhere else, or the rhythms are regulated on the cell level in bacteria. The light is sensed with eyes, or pineal gland in some animals. It is located at the top of the head, and it can also perceive light stimulus and send the information to other parts of the brain. 

Animals need these signals to adjust their activities. For instance, rodents are active during the night, and they use their strong sense of smell to forage for food. Many predators like owls and felines are also active during the night, and they hunt rodents and other animals that are active at that time. Animals that mostly rely on their vision use daytime for their activities. Herbivores eat throughout the whole day and then rest during the night, as they can’t see as clearly, and they would be easier prey for predators. Interestingly, squirrels are most active at dusk and dawn, and they avoid overexposing both during the day and night.

A presence of light is essential for circadian rhythms, but it also signals changes in seasons, and most animals combine it with other environmental cues such as temperature to prepare for mating, hibernation, or migration. That ensures they survive the unfavorable period, and leave the offspring when the conditions are most suitable for their survival.

It is interesting how different animals adapted to conditions where the light is not an adequate stimulus. For instance, deep sea and cave-dwelling fish don’t experience sunlight in their environment, and their internal clocks seem to be operating on its own without being based on the presence of light. Also, reindeer and other animals that live in polar regions with long daylight periods during summer, and exceptionally long nights during winter, seem to be independent of this day/night cycle. 

Genetic Background 

Many different genes that play a role in maintaining circadian rhythms have been identified in recent years. It is no surprise that they are mainly active within the cells of the SCN, but they are also found in other tissues of our bodies. Scientists estimate that around 15% of our genes operate on a 24-hour cycle, and CLOCK, CRY, TIM, PER, and BMAL have been identified to play an important role in the process of sleep. Although scientists are still not sure about all different mechanisms through which they regulate sleep, research in this field is very active. It is known that mutations in these genes are closely linked to several different sleep disorders.

Research of different genetic markers in all organisms discovered something interesting. Even though mammalian clock genes are similar to those of most living things, there is one group that stands out. There is still no connection between genes that regulate circadian rhythms in cyanobacteria, which leads to the conclusion that these systems have evolved independently at least two times. However, there is more research needed to shed light on what is happening there, so we look forward to discovering more about it.

Unexpected Consequences of Circadian Rhythms

Many processes in our bodies occur rhythmically. Our internal clock regulates when to go to sleep and wake up, controls alertness, food intake, temperature regulation, organ functioning, and hormone production. Some other processes are linked to circadian rhythms, even though it might not seem like that at first glance:

• Giving birth usually occurs at night, because the evolution has timed hormones to trigger labor at this time. There is a simple explanation behind this, a mother and her newborn are probably less vulnerable in the dark as they are not as visible to predators, which increases their chances of survival. Even though modern day humans don’t have this problem, it appears that deliveries after midnight are still more frequent.
• Blood pressure spikes in the morning, which generally has the effect of waking us up and promoting alertness, but it also increases the chances of heart attack and stroke. 
• Allergies are often worse in the morning. As much as 70% of allergy sufferers report more symptoms such as sneezing and runny nose in the mornings.
• Asthma attacks are also more prevalent at dawn. One of the possible explanations is that the cortisol levels are very low at that point, which is a steroid hormone that plays a significant role in battling inflammation.

These and many other discoveries lead to the development of chronotherapy, which aims to use natural rhythms to predict the best time to take medications for maximal effectiveness.

Circadian Rhythm Disorders

Several different conditions limit the body’s ability to get sufficient rest. People with circadian rhythm disorders suffer from the lack of sleep, too much sleep, or simply not resting enough at the right time. Their internal clocks are off for some reason, and that can lead to a series of consequences. Here are the most common circadian rhythm disorders:

• Delayed sleep phase syndrome (DSPS) is relatively common, and some estimations show that around 15% of teenagers in the United States suffer from it. People with it usually have 3 to 6 hours delay of sleep onset time. Naturally, they also wake up later. They are getting sufficient sleep, it’s just that their internal clocks are not synchronized with the environment, and they follow their schedule. This behavior is usually frowned upon, and people with DSPS are often labeled as lazy and unmotivated. Because their rhythm is different than what is socially acceptable, they often fail at fitting in their responsibilities. By sacrificing sleep, they can risk the development of insomnia, and people with DSPS often suffer from depression and anxiety disorders.
• Advanced sleep phase disorder (ASPD) is pretty much the opposite of DSPS. People affected by this condition usually experience sleep onset between 7 pm and 9 pm, and they wake up around 3 am. Since this schedule fits in what is socially acceptable, these individuals usually don’t experience as much backlash as people with DSPS, but social alienation can lead to depression. There is a strong genetic link behind this disorder, and people suffering from it have a 50% chance of transferring it to their offspring. 
• Non-24-hour sleep-wake disorder affects the synchronization of the body clock with the environment. Affected people usually have slightly longer than the usual 24-hour day/night cycle, with the gradual expansion. They have trouble falling asleep most of the time but can get a good quality sleep a few times a month when their clock aligns with the photoperiod, and they can feel temporary relief.
• Irregular sleep-wake rhythm is characterized by the complete absence of regular sleep patterns. There is no prolonged sleep period during the night, and sleeping times seem sporadic and random. This condition is extremely rare and is usually in correlation with certain neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s, mental retardation, dementia, and brain damage.
• Shift work sleep disorder affects people working at night and those who are always rotating shifts and don’t have a steady schedule because of it. These people are often sleep deprived, have a higher chance of developing insomnia, and experience excessive sleepiness during waking hours. They are also at a higher risk of having a driving or work-related accident because of the drowsiness and decreased concentration.

The disruptions in circadian rhythms can be a consequence of traveling through several time zones. Jet lag can affect everybody, and people usually have trouble adjusting to a new schedule for several days. Other factors include pregnancy, medication, changes in daily routine, mental health problems, menopause, medical problems like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Disruption of Sleep/Wake Cycle and Mental Health

Everybody who has missed a night or two of sleep knows that it affects the ability to function the next day. Lack of sleep affects your mood, it makes it harder to concentrate, memorize things, and decreases your work and academic performance. Long term effects go far beyond feeling moody and distracted.

The disruptions of circadian rhythms can affect our physical and mental health. Sleep deprivation is linked to the increased risk of developing anxiety, bipolar disorder, and depression. Increased activity during the resting hours and inactivity during the day have the strongest connection with the higher risk of mood disorders, slower reaction times, and worse subjective feelings of well-being.

Unfortunately, it looks like more and more people are experiencing both mental health problems and sleep disruptions. The faster way of life has got us all chasing around, and sacrificing precious rest to do as many activities as we can. Here are some things you can do to sync your internal clock with the environment and enjoy better sleep, health, and the subjective feeling of well-being:

• Try to maintain a stable sleep schedule. Going to bed and waking up at the same time can help your brain realize when to rest and when to be active. 
• Create a relaxing nighttime routine that will help you unwind and fall asleep faster. You can try reading, meditating, or listening to music. Ban the electronics from your bedroom, and keep it dark, quiet, and cold, to promote a distraction-free environment.
• Control your light exposure. Walking outside the first thing in the morning will get you some sunlight, and it should help your clock restart. Consider spending some time outdoors in the natural light each day for the best results. You can try getting smart light bulbs at your house since you can adjust the light they emit. That way, you can dim them and set a warmer shade in the evening to let your brain know that it is time to go to sleep. That should boost the production of melatonin. Avoid screens at least a couple of hours before bedtime as they emit blue light that can confuse your brain into thinking that it is the morning, which is the time to be active. 
• Try to exercise daily. Only 20 minutes of moderate exercise can do wonders for your sleep and overall health, so try to incorporate it into your everyday routine. Don’t do it too close to bedtime, as it can make it harder to fall asleep since it takes some time for your body to cool down.
• Enjoy a balanced diet with whole grains, lean protein, and plenty of fruits and vegetables. It is best to create a schedule for your meals as well; consume them in a 10-12 hour window and then leave 12-14 hours for your body to rest and repair. Avoid nicotine, alcohol, and caffeine in the second part of the day since these stimulants can disrupt your sleep.