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Annually, close to 20 million mattresses get thrown away by residents of America. This trend stems from the growing demand for fresh bedding in the continuously expanding number of homes across the country. The aggressive marketing tactics employed by mattress manufacturers encouraging the purchase of new mattresses have culminated in the use of over 132,000 square miles of land.

Over the last few years, the traditional methods of mattress disposal have become stringent. People have seen the introduction of several regulations. Authorities and environmentalists are putting more stress on recycling and reusing old mattress more than ever. There has been a sharp rise in the number of non-profit organizations in every state of the US that can transform mattresses into other products.

Recycling centers have been trying to make a difference by reclaiming the land that discarded beds take away each year. There are only about 40 mattress recycling centers in the Northern States. It outlines the enormous gap between the discarding and reclamation process.

Why is Mattress Disposal so Hectic for the Regular American Homeowners?

Mattress dumping has been a persistent issue for the EPA and even for the mattress buyers. The rise in bedding purchase has not made responsible disposal any more comfortable than before. More and more numbers of landfills and junkyards do not want them anymore since they are bulky. Traditional mattresses are not very amiable to crushing, and they frequently jam machinery. Old mattresses are a nuisance at home and the landfill.

The mattress-scrapping confusion is giving rise to a growing number of unscrupulous third parties, who will throw a new cover on your old mattress and sell it to an unsuspecting customer for retail prices. Till 2017, it has taken away $1 billion in sales from retailers. Although recycling offers a solution that is friendly for everyone, finding the correct party and the right prices is not always possible for a customer.

The problem of old and discarded mattresses is becoming an epidemic in the US. It is because beds have an average lifespan of 8 to 10 years. At the end of its life, what you do with your mattress is up to your discretion. In case your beddings are not entirely hanging by their last thread, you can always donate it. There are some national charities and non-governmental organizations that accept used household items in usable condition. It usually includes mattresses, pillows and mattress toppers. National charities use them as whole or recycle them to new products.

Even with so many charitable organizations all around, people find it easier to dump their mattresses in the junkyard. Donating a bed is not as straightforward as giving away a pack of clothes or old books. The donation process depends on the condition of the mattress, the dimensions of it and the composition. The rule of the thumb is, if you find it unusable, you should not give it to others for regular use. Since there are no costs of donation, most organizations often prefer it when donors drive down to their geographic locations to give the mattresses. However, most of the NGOs and recycling companies have some home pickup provision for each of their localities.

Here are a few places you can try for donating your old bedding.

• The Salvation Army. The Salvation Army has been around since the 1860s. This international organization now maintains several thrift stores and charity shops across the 50 states. People working here are always ready to accept an act of generosity. Mattresses are costly, and sometimes, people are inclined to throw out perfectly good beds because they are moving to a new city or a smaller apartment. At Some locations, the Salvation Army offers free furniture pickups, but you can also drop the mattress off at the spot in person. The donations must be free from damage and in excellent condition. Most of the contributions to the Salvation Army are also tax deductible.

• Furniture Bank Association of America. The furniture bank association of America is active in over 80 locations across North America. Most of these fronts limit their pickup services to a 15 to 20-mile radius. The FBA works towards providing each American household furnishing at almost no cost. Ring them up to find out if they have pickup services at your location. Some of them have semi-large trucks that can support 450 miles of the journey for substantial donations from families.

• Goodwill. This is one of the best known American charity organizations that operate thrift stores, provides job training, and charity shops across the US. They have over 3500 thrift stores in the country. Goodwill does not accept used mattresses, but you can donate other parts of your bedding including your linens, bed toppers, and bed frames. They are always working towards generating more revenue from the donated goods since 85% of it goes into their community outreach programs.

• Habitat for humanity international. Habitat for humanity international is a non-profit that aims at providing affordable living conditions to people across the globe. They have several “ReStore” home improvement centers in several locations that sell everything from used dining tables to bedding. They also accept used mattresses as long as they are in usable condition. Several of these locations have pickup services for individual donors. You may drop your stuff by at any ReStore after giving them a call since some of the sites may not accept used mattresses.

In addition to these popular donation options, several local organizations accept mattresses from households. They might have their regulations and requirements for approving used bedding, but donating it to another family is much better than throwing it in with the trash. You can check with women’s shelters, family shelters, and local thrift stores as well.

Mattress Stewardship Law

Connecticut was the first state to implement this law in 2013 and California became the third in the US. The new law helped to standardize the use of hygienic fiber components. Their only aim is to reduce the frequency of mattress disposals in the state. The law prevents the illegal dumping of mattresses in landfills and empty plots. It promotes the practice of reusing and recycling pallets.

According to this law, bedding defines a material or a combination of materials, natural or silk, that provides support and comfort during sleep. That also includes renovated foundations and mattresses people buy from retailers or manufacturers in the USA. This law also designates several solid waste disposal facilities that provide the necessary means for the correct disposal of any bedding material.

A mattress recycling organization can design, fund, and manage its stewardship program. That is possible as long as the organization includes a planning committee consisting of qualified industry members. Each recycling committee or organization should ideally set up a mattress recycling, goal, and report to their state recycling unit annually. The Stewardship Plan outlines the goals, responsibilities, and etiquette for the mattress recycling facility within the state.

Take Your Bedding to a Recycling Center

Did you know? Almost 90% of your old mattress can become something new and astonishing if it lands in the hands of the right people. You should always start by looking for a place that recycles old household items. Several sites that do accept used household items do not necessarily receive used mattresses. Running a Google search for an organization that allows used beds will yield a list of such places within your reach. There are dedicated search engines cum databases that assist users in the process of finding the right centers that accept bedding, curtains, linen, and furniture in their vicinity.

In today’s world, it is common to receive some form of compensation or appreciation for offering our belongings. However, for most of these organizations, to get recycling services, you must pay them. It is usually a nominal $10 or $20 for a mattress if you drop it off. The home pickup and recycling service can cost you a pretty $40 or $50. They do not accept mattresses that have bed bugs, stains or tears in them. In several places, the state laws apply to the donor and the accepting organization.

In individual states, people can buy new mattresses feeling guilt-free because the state emphasizes mattress stewardship law during purchase. The extra costs help pay for the transport of discarded mattresses to the collection sites, provide an incentive for recycling events and even purchase containers for transport to the collection zones. The foam, steel springs, box springs, and wooden parts are all recyclable parts of the mattress. Without the help of a recycling organization, it is impossible for regular people and DIYers to indulge in mattress recycle activities by themselves.

How Should you Prepare for a Successful bedding Dumping?

There are some situations where a mattress has no life left and is crying for disposal. In case you have prominent stains on the mattress, tears, broken springs and far too many lumps, you may want to forego donation.

Several national or statewide junk removal companies provide door-to-door services. Due to the recent modification of new landfill laws, most of these companies will verify if your mattress qualifies to go to the junkyard. You can fast forward this process by following these steps below.

1. Check the warranty of the company before throwing your mattress away. Some retailers and sellers offer buy-back services and even disposal services.
   
2. You should also find out the approximate weight of the mattress before you commission the junk removal services. Several companies charge by weight, while others can put a base removal fee.
   
3. Always run a thorough analysis of all facilities in the locality before you choose your junk removal service. Some of them might have home-pickup charges that they do not mention on their websites, so give them a call and find out their cost calculation before hiring them.

Breaking down and reusing a mattress is no easy job. It needs dedication and a lot of love for the environment to commit. A mattress has several non-biodegradable and biodegradable components. That gives each owner limitless possibilities to create new stuff out of their rundown mattresses.

What is the Correct Process of Mattress Disposal?

Sometimes, when you have no other way than to junk your old bed and go for a new one, you need to make a few tough calls. First, you need to overcome that urge to hand it over to the garbage truck in the morning.

You cannot just throw a whole mattress out in the street, and your state law probably forbids you from doing that. Second, follow up on your state’s mattress recycling and disposal laws. This step will save you a lot of hassle and a lot of money in the long run. Thirdly, follow these steps carefully.

• There are few sellers, who do not provide buyback services and transport services on their old mattresses. Now, you need to get rid of your old mattress as soon as your new one comes home, so you can ask the delivery people if they know of any agencies that transport old bedding or recycle them. Most experienced mattress delivery-people are aware of transport services that haul old mattresses for correct disposal.

• In case you can drive the mattress to the location, check if it will fit inside your car or if you need to hire/borrow a truck for it. It is likely that there are traffic laws that will apply to haul large and bulky objects inside or on top of family cars. Check in advance with your local traffic control units as well. You do not want to tangle in the middle of tickets and fines with a large mattress on or in your car.

• Mattress disposal comes at a cost. This cost varies between cities or states. You should ask your city council about the necessary expenses of transport and dumping before throwing it in the back of your truck and driving all the way to the end of the world. Several dumps have strict working hours, so give them a call ahead of time.

How to Recycle Used Bedding and Its Components?

Most companies that work with used or rundown mattresses begin by cutting the mattress open and separating the inside material. The softer parts contribute to a host of industrial and household products including carpets, textiles, cushions, and insulation. A more significant portion of the steel goes into making building material. After using about 70% of the mattress components, there are still leftovers that go into the landfill.

You will need a wide array of tools and some steady hands to repurpose your old bed. Do remember to get some sturdy gloves, sharp cutters, sturdy pliers, screwdrivers, and baskets for trash. Start by cutting around the edge of the mattress along the cover seams. It will make it easy for you to set the cover aside as you dig into the deeper layers. You can keep removing the layers and sorting the different components out simultaneously. It is what you can expect to find, depending on your mattress type and how you can use them.

PU foam. Polyurethane foam mattresses are economical, long-lasting, and highly reusable. Several organizations, companies, and even homeowners use the PU foam from the core to design carpets, cushions and car seats. Some eco-friendly pet furnishing companies use them to make scratchers, cat furniture, and dog bedding. They are very durable.

Memory foam. Memory foam and latex foam mattresses have similar potentials. Memory foam mattresses are usually costly, and they serve for at least a decade. Departing with your memory foam bedding can be close to impossible so that you can turn it into cushions for your work chair, pillows for your car and even the plush pet bed. Believe us, and your back will be thanking you if you can successfully fashion your memory foam bed.

Spring mattresses. Double-sided spring mattresses are the tricky ones here. Unless you have a home workshop, you will find it very difficult to repurpose them. They have about 25 pounds of steel, which makes lifting them quite challenging. The first job is to separate the springs from the softer parts. You can melt the steel and use them to craft new products. It is the sculptor’s sweetest dream. Steel is quite costly, and you can sell the springs off as scrap if you lack the time or the resources for DIY melting. A quick Google search will reveal all local metal workshops and scrap yards in your locality that purchase separated bed springs. You can usually make between $10 to $100 on your sale of bed springs, depending on their bulk and condition.

Natural fiber beds. Natural fiber mattresses are the best for recycling. You can take them apart without professional help. They include wool, silk, cotton and even rayon. You can use the material as insulation, or you can make new padding for chairs, duvets, futons, and headboards from it.

Wooden parts. The wooden elements of the bed like the frame and slats are precious for home remodeling. You can use them for making new shelves in the garage or add new cabinet separators to your kitchen. If you lack the creative finesse, do not worry. You can dry them thoroughly and use them as firewood on your next family bonfire. You can also make lawn mulch from the leftover wood from the bed. The smaller parts like screws, nails, and buttons find use in several DIY projects around the house. You can use the braiding in some of the most original DIY tasks and home redecorations.

There are state laws that prevent consumers from breaking mattresses and selling their parts or throwing them away. If you plan to do that, always check with the local mattress authorities (yes, there is something like that for every state) before dumping the parts in the landfill. Repurposing eliminates the associated costs of disposal and recycling by professionals. It is indeed the most cost-effective solution for the average American. The only possible disadvantage is the detailed, time-consuming nature of the process. While taking the mattress apart will make it easier to move and store, you must remember that selling individual parts can take much longer than selling a mattress. So unless you are handy with tools and creative projects, it is best for you to spend a couple of extra bucks and hire professional hauling services.

What Are some DIY ideas for Mattress Recycling?

We know how difficult it can be to handle a day job, manage family and then think about new ideas to repurpose old furnishing in the house. So here are a few fun ideas to help you reuse your old mattress parts around your home.

• You can use the springs to create fancy candle holders, flower vases, plant or small pot holders and frames for your paintings.

• Spray the mattress springs in shiny bright colors to use them as tree decorations for the upcoming holidays. You can also use them for wreaths and Halloween decorations.

• Give your pet a comfy bed by cutting up your old memory foam mattress and sewing the ends together with a new durable cloth.

• You can buy beanbags without the fillings and use the shredded latex foam to create a super comfy and pocket-friendly array of mix and match beanbags.

• You can give back to the environment by creating a compost bin using the wood from the bed. Scatter the stuffing and the natural fiber around the pile for protection.

• Rugs for your entire home including your toolshed, attic and basement area become a lot cheaper when you use the old linen and your old bedding.

If these ideas do not seem enough, you can always check on Pinterest and YouTube for new ideas that will help you recycle old mattresses. Sometimes, repurposing your almost-discarded bedding can breathe a new life into your home decoration within a cost-effective budget.

Have you Thought About Reselling Your Mattress?

The easiest way to transfer responsibility for your current mattress is to start looking for a buyer when it still has some life left in it. The rise of social media and C2C business forums has enabled people to sell virtually anything online. While you are sitting with a catalog of brand new mattress just waiting to say goodbye to your older one, your next-door neighbor might be looking for a second-hand mattress.

Craigslist can help you find potential buyers for your bedding, almost-new linens, old furniture and almost-new set of tools within days. This platform allows all users and potential sellers place free ads for their products. Craigslist and OfferUp are websites ideal for meeting the new owner of your old mattress. The buyers can contact you directly through the site.

Facebook, Pinterest, and WhatsApp are other potential social media cum messaging platforms that can put you in touch with buyers, DIY enthusiasts and even recycle organizations interested in your product. However, remember to be honest about the condition and quality. Always remember that if you would not want to sell it to a friend, you do not want to sell it to a stranger on Facebook or Craigslist either.

Getting your mattress professionally cleaned will be an investment decision before putting it up for sale. Your cleaning service can cost you lesser than $100, but you can fetch between $200 and $400. The selling price of your mattress will depend upon the material, condition, and integrity of the mattress. The brand will also make a massive impact on the price. It might even get rid of the sweat stains, old smells and the used feeling that old mattresses usually have. Do not forget to include the price of the mattress in the product description area and the number of years you have used them.

Do You Need to Throw Your Bedding Away?

We have seen so many perfectly useful mattresses go to waste that we cannot help but ask you to double check your mattress status. Only about 1% of the total discarded mattresses in the US go for recycling. Unless your mattress is visibly sagging in the middle or there are rips on top, there is no reason for you to throw it away. Sometimes, all an old mattress needs is some flipping and a robust topper. If there is a visible sag in the middle, your mattress might need a foundation adjustment only. You can place plywood of 0.5-inch thickness to prop the bedding up from underneath.

Your decision can cost you or save you hundreds of bucks. Adding a mattress protector when you first buy your bed can also save you all the hassle. In fact, we have seen a lot of mattresses sag in the middle due to foundation faults. Sleepers who weigh above 230 pounds require a topper thicker than 4 inches to give them complete joint and spinal support during sleep.

There are cases when the mattress becomes too soft or too firm upon constant use. All you need is a mattress topper for extra firm mattresses to make them comfy. To manage excessive softness, you can adjust the foundation of your mattress and add a plywood board, in case mattress rotation does not solve the problem.

How to Make your Mattress Last Longer the Next Time?

Beddings tend to last longer for people who weigh less. It looks like obesity poses not only as a life risk but also a mattress-risk. Sleepers weighing significantly more than 200 pounds need mattress protectors and mattress toppers to secure the even distribution of their weight. Presence of an added layer on top of the bedding also makes it more comfortable for the sleepers. Some manufacturer warranties require the users to buy protectors. The lifespan of your bed can extend from 6 years to 10 years if you manage to find the correct topper and protector duo that go with it.

Mattresses last longer with the right box spring pair. Some manufacturers explicitly state in their warranty terms about the mandatory use of box springs with their bedding. The modern beds with wooden slats or platform beds do not need box springs. They can provide optimal support to almost all kinds of contemporary mattress designs. Nonetheless, the box springs can add a few years to your precious mattress. Your bedding may cost nearly 6 to 8 times that of a box spring, so investing in one makes all the more sense.

To Dump, or Not to Dump: That’s the Real Bedding Confusion

Sometimes, all you need is a change of mattress to change the way you sleep. A peaceful 8-hour long slumber can clear your mind and rejuvenate your senses. Recent sleep studies show that the lack of complete 8 to 10 hours of restorative sleep can take a toll on a person’s cognition and decision-making abilities. However, there are times when a lump inside the mattress or pronounced sag keeps us from getting the rest we deserve.

The quality of a mattress can determine the quality of your sleep, the condition of your back muscles and the health of your spine. The presence of unwanted sags can create problems of the spine. In fact, new research shows that people with joint pain (including arthritis) sleep better on memory foam mattresses or medicated adjustable mattresses, due to the support they can provide to the muscular-skeletal system. Proper support and even distribution of pressure are mandatory for assuring the complete comfort of the sleeper.

You may be facing the disposal problem either because you did not find a mattress protector and box spring set or your mattress merely is at the last leg of its journey. Irrespective of the cause, you need to decide whether you want to throw it away, donate it for charity or recycling or turn it into your DIY project. What you choose can cost you between $10 and $300, or you can end up making money from it by reselling it on websites like Craigslist and OfferUp.

While many people stick to their sleep schedules and wake up feeling refreshed and ready to take on the new day, there’s also a large group that turns to sleeping pills, hoping to get at least six hours of slumber before their alarm marks the beginning of another day. After years of comprehensive research and evidence collection, scientists, healthcare experts, and doctors have all agreed: sleep is a precious commodity that should not be taken lightly. Despite being a basic right, the privilege of enjoying restorative sleep isn’t something everyone can easily have.

About 70 million Americans suffer from some sleep disorders and about 4% of the adults US citizens depend on prescription medication for getting proper sleep. This data comes from a 2014 Center for Disease Control and Prevention USA. The numbers may seem staggering, but they are correct. Not getting enough sleep every night, lying awake staring at the ceiling while your brain feels shut down or waking up too tired to leave the bed each morning are severe signs of fatigue and the lack of quality sleep.

You should never ignore these signs. However, there are at least another 50 million people in the US, who do not want to consult a physician or a sleep expert for their sleep-related issues. It is because they do not think of it as a long-term chronic disorder and also because they believe that all sleep-related problems warrant prescription medication. While modern science and tech have been providing us with easy one-pill-a-night solutions, they are not without side effects. As a result, it keeps a lot of people from seeking a possible answer to their sleep problems.  

Why are Essential Oils for Sleep the Best Alternative for Sleeping Pills?

If you are thinking about trying medication, here are a few things you should know.

• Sleeping pills cannot be a long-term solution since people can build up a tolerance to the compounds and the dosage.

• Sleeping medication can cause hangover-like symptoms in adults the next day. It increases the risks for individuals driving themselves to work early in the morning and also for those who are operating heavy machinery on a regular basis.

• Some can develop a dependency or an addiction to sleeping pills. Discontinuing the medication can lead to depressive symptoms.

• There are several categories of prescription medications that can cause erratic behavior changes in the patient. Compounds like triazolam can increase chances of sleepwalking and exacerbate amnesia.

• Taking sleeping pills for a long time can make it very difficult for an individual to “wean off.” It is like cold turkey, and you can experience worse spells of long sleepless nights due to the sudden cessation.

• Some sleeping medication interferes with the activity of blood pressure medication. Taking some somnolent compounds with antidepressants and antipsychotics can have unpleasant side effects. You should always disclose the complete details of all medicines you are on to your sleep specialist.

 

• Mixing sleeping medication and alcohol increase the levels of intoxication. Health risks are much higher for individuals who drink regularly or use recreational drugs.

Why do People go for Sleeping Medications?

Now, you must be wondering why people take sleeping medication at all if the health risks involved with the practice are so high. It is mostly because long-term insomnia, delayed sleep onset, and poor-quality sleep usually have worse effects on the brain and the body, than sleeping medication does.

We need sleep for normal functioning, maintenance of health and our wellbeing. Here are the few reasons why you should probably pay a little more attention to your sleep than you already do.

• Sound sleep helps in transforming short-term memory to long-term memory.

• It helps your brain to act like a learning machine that overflows with new information regularly.

• During sleep, the brain directs several repair and rejuvenation tasks inside the body.

• Good sleep boosts the immune system and charges our immunity generating organs.

• Sleep is vital for fighting fatigue, depression and hormonal disorders.

• You need sound sleep every night to fight obesity, blood pressure problems, and mood swings.

Several painters, mathematicians, and scientists often state that they got their best ideas while they were sleeping. It is not at all surprising since connecting the dots using the information we already have is more natural in the subconscious, while we are sleeping.

How Much Healthy Sleep do You Need?

The average child between the age of 6 and 12 needs about 10 hours of sleep, teenagers need about 8 hours of sleep and adults can function with 7-9 hours of sleep. The elderly usually need more sleep since their bodies need a longer time to heal. The case is similarly applicable for the sick. The sick may require up to 10 hours of sleep per day.

The longer a person sleeps, the faster his or her body heals. It is just one reason why many people go into a pseudo-hibernation mode when they contract the flu or have stomach flu. Sleeping helps the body to conserve energy by restricting movement and saving more for the repairs. A sleep-deprived brain is a tired brain. Sleeping is not a luxury for the kids and the elderly only. Even a healthy adult needs their regular dose of sleep for the best performance every day.

What are the Best Natural Sleep-Inducing Agents?

These provide reason enough for any responsible adult to look for healthier alternatives. Thanks to the advancements of modern sciences, people have found evidence on how essential oils can stimulate nerve signals, relax muscles and calm the senses. Some of the more potent, natural aromatic oils can act just as well as any sleeping medication or chemically generated compound to induce sound sleep in adults.

• Unlike most of the synthesized somnolent, these essential oil blends are perfect for people of all ages.

• When you use them in the right doses, you do not experience any side effects or adverse hang-over like symptoms the last day.

• They usually do not interact with other medicines.

• They come with several other benefiting effects for all individuals.

• Essential oils are not harmful for long-term usage.

• You can quickly switch between aroma oils to check which one works the best for you, without any adverse effects on health.

• You can mix and match various aromatic oils for bathing, aroma dispensers, candles, and tea, depending on your choice and necessities.

 

• Essential oils are a highly concentrated form of aromatic extracts from flowers, fruits, leaves, and trees and this makes them highly useful for their particular purposes.

The 9 Natural Essential Oils That can Make you Sleep Like a Baby

Just like medication, not all essential oils for sleep work efficiently for everyone. These are naturally occurring aromatic compounds. Therefore, their action depends on the presence of several receptors in your body, levels of natural hydrocarbons, and other essential minerals needed for the activity of these aromatic compounds. So, here’s a list of the nine most active essential oils that can change the way you sleep at night from today!

Ylang-Ylang

Ylang-ylang means flower of the flowers. This essential oil gets its name due to the strong and sweet smell of the concentrate. The flowers that produce this oil are prevalent in the Orient for their hypertension controlling and/or treating properties.

Researchers have been exploring the beneficial effects of Ylang-ylang, and right now, hundreds of cosmetic brands use this essential oil in their products. Healthcare brands are manufacturing directly consumable forms of this essential oil for their patrons.

• Ylang-ylang is a potent anti-depressant that does not warrant any aberrant side effects the chemical compounds and synthetic dopamine blockers have.

• This essential oil also has antiseptic and antiseborrheic properties.

• Most importantly, Ylang-ylang helps people sleep. It has somnolent properties and nervine properties, without significant side effects.

The presence of terpenes, sesquiterpenes, quinines, and anti-oxidants make it extremely desirable to people looking for a relaxant, somnolent, and an antidepressant from the natural sources. There are several ways you can use Ylang-ylang for getting a good night’s sleep.

1. Steep it with your tea.
   
2. Mix it with your bath water.
   
3. Blend with the carrier oil and use it in your aroma dispenser.
   
4. You can also mix it with almond oil or coconut oil for a gentle, relaxing head massage.
   
5. Mix it with distilled water to make it a ready-to-spritz solution.

Too much Ylang-ylang can cause nausea and headache. You can mix it with bergamot oil, lavender and sandalwood oil to unleash its calming powers.

Valerian

Valerian essential oil can reduce stress and fatigue with continuous use. While the powers of valerian root were common knowledge among the alternative medicine experts in the Eastern countries, the Western countries are currently exploring valerian’s medicinal properties.

• Valerian essential oil can treat a variety of sleep disorders including late onset of sleep and insomnia.

• It can also help you with heart problems by reducing palpitations and regulating blood pressure.

• It can also reduce cramps during menstruation.

• Valerian root extract can prevent recurrence of depression, anxiety disorders and helps in relaxation.

Since ancient times, people involved in alternative medicine have been using valerian essential oil to improve sleep quality, enhance cognitive abilities, and heal fatigued muscles. Once people referred to it as the “heal all” oil, now it finds extensive use in aromatherapy. You can use it in a carrier oil mix for massages, or you can directly use it in your tea. In fact, getting your hands on some valerian root would be quite remarkable since you can brew herbal tea directly from either the dried root or fresh roots.

Chamomile

Roman Chamomile or chamomile is famous for its sedative effects and healing properties. Several talk shows, health shows, and movies have shown how chamomile can help people fall asleep faster without struggles each day. Only a few do not know about its sedative properties.

You can make tea from the flowers or use the essential oil from chamomile to achieve desired results. For centuries, kings and commoners alike have used it to fight their battle against delayed sleep disorders, insomnia and poor quality of sleep.  

• Chamomile can relieve stress and fatigue.

• It can relax your tightly wound muscles at the end of the day and help you fall asleep.

• It is a powerful tool to fight off depression and anxiety disorders.

• Chamomile improves sleep duration and quality, thereby improving immunity.

It is powerful enough to induce sleep in adults, yet gentle enough for children. Aside from being a sleep aid, chamomile can also relieve arthritis pain, improve heart ailments, and boost digestive powers in adults and children alike.

Neroli

Neroli or bitter orange blossom essential oil has a sweet citrus like smell. It is fruity and floral at the same time. You could easily say that it has a terpene-like top note. The light floral fragrance can calm your senses with its dual note effects. Depending on the career oil you are using, neroli can act as a top note or a base note.

• It successfully reduces stress and improves mood.

• It reduces cortisol levels and helps in the production of calming neurotransmitters.

• Neroli essential oil exhibits rejuvenating activities.

• It lowers anxiety levels and stress levels to help people fall asleep.

You can blend it with clary sage, frankincense, chamomile, orange, myrrh, palmarosa, rose, Ylang-ylang, lemon, mandarin or juniper for the best calming effects. The best way to enjoy the benefits of neroli is by using it for aromatherapy and bathing. The right amount can not only help you get sound sleep, but it can also help you get glowing skin with long-lasting relief from acne.

You can commonly find notes of neroli in perfumes, makeup, and creams. You can infuse it with your herbal tea or merely use it in your summer skin spray mix. It soothes your skin, prevents breakouts, controls sebum and takes care of sun damage when you use it in the right blend. You can also mix it with carrier oils and use it as massaging oil on your entire body. Use it with your cold compress to treat neuralgia. You can dip a cotton ball in some essential oil and leave it by your bedside for sniffing all throughout the night.

Cedarwood

Cedarwood oil can help restore your sleep-wakefulness balance with a few drops per day. It has a signature woody aroma that is both aromatic and comforting. It has the power to cleanse and calm. In addition to its calming properties, cedarwood oil is also famous for its anti-hair fall properties, weight loss effects, skin soothing properties, and treatment of selective allergies.

Cedarwood has found numerous uses around the globe in households and houses of healing. Here are a few ways you can use it to experience better sleep.

• You can use cedarwood oil topically. Take only two drops on your finger and massage well on your neck, head, and back. For better spreading, you should use it with complementing carrier oil.

• You can choose to diffuse it in the air quite effortlessly by mixing the oil with water in a spray bottle.

• You can also use the cedarwood oil in a mixture with other carrier oils in aroma diffusers. Both electric diffusers and candle heated ones are alright for this oil.

You can also inhale the aroma of this oil directly. Soak a cotton ball in a few drops of oil and put it inside your pillowcase or open the bottle and inhale the fumes for over 30 seconds for feeling the calmness. The best carrier oils for cedarwood include coconut oil, jojoba oil, grapeseed oil, and olive oil. It is ideal to choose one and mix the cedarwood oil with it before use.

Several other essential oils blend well with cedarwood oil to enhance its calming abilities. You can try Ylang-Ylang, lavender, sandalwood, vetiver, neroli, jasmine and bergamot for the best results. Each of these has a distinct aroma, but all of them have soothing effects on the nerves.

Sandalwood

Sandalwood oil contributes to anti-spasmodic, anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, and astringent effects in human beings. It is also responsible for carminative actions. Above all, it balances all the organ systems and biomechanics. It brings forth the necessary homeostasis the body requires for proper functioning. Sandalwood has a powerful sedative effect which further helps to boost adequate health, memory, and immunity.

There are three main types of sandalwood and essential oils. The Indian sandalwood is the most effective among the three, Hawaiian sandalwood follows close. The Australian sandalwood finds more use in the commercial cosmetics industry and has fewer known positive effects on health.

• Sandalwood has a high content of santalenes, santalol, and santyl acetate. They have a soothing effect on the nervous system.

• You can buy them as incense sticks, perfumes, home sprays or create handmade scented candles and sprays from the essential oil.

• Mix it with the carrier oil and use it as massaging oil for your body and scalp.

• Mixing sandalwood essential oil with edibles can help boost your digestive system, reduce acid refluxes, and boost calmness of the organ systems.

• Directly inhaling the scent from concentrated essential oil bottles is often overwhelming, but the strong smell can induce sleep instantly.

• Mixing it with almond oil for body massage purposes helps in the reduction of systolic blood pressure and regulates eye-blink rate. It reduces physical stress and promotes a healthy resting state of the body.

Various researchers show that sandalwood oil can boost alertness. In part, because it can help your body find the rest it needs each night and in part because the distinct sweet aroma of the essential oil awakens the nerve synapses.

When buying sandalwood essential oil always try to go for the Indian sandalwood variety. Experts source this oil from the heartwood of the Indian sandalwood tree. Although the tree is now scarce and the oil is expensive, due to the concentrated bioactive aromatic compounds, you will require only 2-3 drops each time to experience a superlative quality of sleep.

Marjoram

Marjoram essential oil has multiple uses besides the regular culinary use. It has been popular as an analgesic, digestive, diuretic, sedative and hypotensive. Just like other essential oils, several active compounds make marjoram one of the most popular essential oils in the history of aromatic oils.

It has a protective and enhancing effect on the nervous system. Marjoram can improve cognitive functions and enhances sleep quality. Marjoram has multi-faceted uses. Here are a few ways you can experience the relaxing and healing effects of it at home.

• You can use it as a linen spray to refresh your sheets and induce better sleep each night. Mix seven drops of marjoram oil with seven drops of lavender essential oil and 150 ml of water.

• Mix marjoram oil with almond oil or coconut oil to use it as a soothing massage oil.

• Respiratory disorders can find relief with the continuous use of marjoram essential oil in the mixture. Use it in a diffuser for experiencing relief from respiratory stress during sleep.

• You can also use it as calming oil. You can dilute it with other lighter oils including jojoba, almond or olive oil and apply it on your neck and back to soothe tension.

• Put it in the diffuser to infuse your home with the sweet and calming smell of the marjoram essential oil. The sweet note will help you sleep.

In the Mediterranean region, people have been using marjoram essential oil for centuries. The oil usually comes from the distillation of dried leaves or fresh leaves of the knotted marjoram plants. It has scientifically proven medicinal uses. It contains several therapeutic compounds like alpha-terpinene, cymene, terpinolene, linalyl acetate and terpinols. The combined action of these compounds along with others promotes muscle relaxation, reduces pain and controls anxiety. Marjoram is excellent for inducing relaxation of the nervous system, and it improves sleep.

Vetiver

Vetiver is a widespread grass usually found in the tropics. It is very common in India. The Indian tribal communities have been using vetiver for centuries to weave mats, room separators, and curtains. Even without mechanical extractions the wet or dried grass releases a sweet, soothing aroma that instantly cools the body, releases the heat trapped inside the systems, and helps the muscles relax and promote sleep. It is a complex mix of some essential oils that has found a stronghold in the treatment of insomnia, ADHD, and depression too.  

You can create your mix of vetiver essential oil by soaking the roots in boiling water for 2 to 3 hours. Since vetiver mostly contains aromatic compounds, you must remember to close the lid of the container as the water boils or you will end up losing all the aromatic compounds.

• Use 2-3 drops of the oil with 100 ml of plain water and use as a linen spray.

 

• Mix about 8 to 10 drops of oil in your bath water to treat your muscle pains and insomnia.

 

• Use 3-5 drops of the oil regularly to prevent fatigue. Place one drop on each wrist, neck, and chest to induce relaxation.

 

• Mix vetiver oil and jojoba oil, five drops each. Use it as a calming massage oil to relax your dry skin and boost freshness.

The qualities of the oil come from the calming properties of the biochemical components from the roots of the grass. It has a very fresh, herbaceous smell that is not unlike the calming smell of freshly cut grass right after a refreshing bout of rain. It is indeed one of the most complex essential oils that can boost the immune system, repels bugs, stimulates muscle relaxation, and promotes sound sleep. It is one of the safest essential oils with very few possible side effects. It is safe for the new mother, infant, elderly and for people undergoing chemotherapy. Try it at home for busting stress after a long day.

Frankincense

Frankincense essential oil is an excellent product of the Boswellia sacra tree. The oil has a unique aroma. It comes from the sap or the resin of the tree. The resin is quite thick since it has a high consistency of carbohydrates and aromatic compounds. Distillation of this resin produces the highly concentrated essential oil for aromatherapy and healing treatments.  

Frankincense has found several mentions in popular literature, alternative medicine, and modern medicine. In the last decade, the popularity of this essential oil has grown steadily due to its soothing and sedative properties. It has alpha-pinene, limonene, beta-pinene and alpha-thujene. These are a few compounds you can also find in several other essential oils including lemongrass and lemon. Monoterpenes are the other ubiquitous aromatic compounds in Frankincense essential oil that contribute to its characteristic smell.

• You can experience the complete benefits of Frankincense by mixing it with grapefruit essential oil, Douglas fir, and water in 1:1:2:5 ratios. Put this in a spray bottle and use it as a room freshener before going to bed.
• Add the essential oil to your electric aroma diffuser before yoga and after a bath. It will give a beautiful and calm start to your mornings.
• Add 1 to 2 drops of the essential oil to your night herbal tea. Consumption of frankincense can help in the promotion of good sleep at night.
• Combining Frankincense with your moisturizer or cream before bed will elicit a soft, spicy and warm smell that will easily lull you to sleep without any side effects.

While Frankincense is quite powerful in inducing good sleep, you can blend it with lemon, wild orange, sandalwood, Ylang-Ylang, rose, and geranium to enhance its healing powers. Adding other aromatic essential oils can add an extra dose of sweetness, freshness or spice to the eponymous warmth of frankincense essential oil.

What do Experts NOT tell you About Essential Oils?

Before you can go out and buy a bottle of your favorite essential oil, you need to know a few secrets that no one is possibly telling you.

• Just like all organic compounds, you must test your essential oil choices for allergies. Your seasonal allergies or recurring allergies are a result of repetitive exposure to protein fragments or biologically active compounds. Essential oils can potentially elicit allergies especially if you are selectively allergic to certain flowers or fruits. For example, some people show severe allergies to Jasmine or rose. They are likely to experience some discomfort in the presence of jasmine or aromatic rose oils.
• Many of us are likely to believe that essential oils should not have any side effects since they are all “natural.” However, have you ever thought about the causes of your respiratory disorders, hives, or rashes? Most of the allergies are a result of exposure to “natural” components. So, believing that essential oils will not have any side effects or equal side effects on everyone is fallacious.
• Certain essential oils can be harmful to children, pregnant women, and lactating women. For example, peppermint is not a great option if you have children, pets or new mothers in the house. It is imperative to dilute the essential oils correctly to experience their healing effects. Not using them in the right blend can lead to unusual side effects or no positive results at all!
• The safest way to use essential oils is by diluting them and using them topically or merely using them in a diffuser. When you come across a new essential oil in the market which no one knows much about, try it in your diffuser or room spray first. If you see that it works in relaxing you and calming you down before bed, maybe you can mix one drop with your moisturizer or cream for topical use. When it comes to internal use or consumption, do so with extreme caution.
• Since these essential oils are nothing but products of the repeated distillation of leaves, flowers, buds, or barks, these are extremely concentrated and powerful. Unlike several other “natural” alternative therapies, these are super strong. So, if your prescribed dosage is not working, you need to consult an expert immediately instead of experimenting with higher dosAside from being a sleep aid, chamomile can also relieve arthritis pain, improve heart ailments, and boost digestive powers in adults and children alike.es.

Essential oils can help you fight off insomnia successfully, but only with correct use. They are very powerful and do not take a lot of time to elicit their actions. They should not make you feel light-headed, dizzy or nauseous. In case you are feeling out of sorts, you should stop using the particular essential oil and consult your doctor.

Sleep is a natural activity that is fundamental to all conscious beings. Unlike whales and dolphins, which sleep with one half of their brain at a time, almost all animals need sleep to function properly. The cycles of sleep vary among different species. The need for sleep can shift with seasonal changes and is also dependent on the specific physical requirements of each individual. Like other mammals, humans must get adequate sleep. Koalas require as much as 20 hours of sleep per day, while giraffes need as little as 2 hours, showcasing the broad spectrum of sleep needs across species, with humans needing about 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night on average.

Due to work pressure and social responsibilities, we often fall short on time for resting. Increasing screen time and lack of enough exercise often cause a lack of proper rejuvenating sleep in the urban youth. Being a “night owl” maybe the cool thing to do right now, but what is the price for it? Most of the people who suffer from delayed sleep onset are not going to bed later than usual on purpose. They suffer from delayed sleep phase disorder (DSPD or DSPS) that causes them to fall asleep beyond the socially acceptable bedtime.

People suffering from DSPS usually fall asleep after 12 am and find it extremely difficult to wake up in time for school or work. Delayed sleep phase syndrome affects 1 in 600 adults in the USA. The percentage prevalence of this sleep disorder in the total population of the country is still not accurate, but investigations indicate that the numbers could be somewhere between 7% in adolescents and young adults.

What is Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome?

Delayed sleep phase disorder occurs when the internal clock of a person is not a 9 to 5 schedule. It is understandable why they cannot fall asleep by 11 pm or why they cannot wake up fresh as a daisy at 7 am. Their internal clocks are not in sync with the external clocks. Our body’s circadian rhythm is responsible for keeping our biological clocks responsive to the external light and dark cues. However, for people with minute changes in the clock genes or the circadian rhythm, it becomes difficult to process the light signs from their environment. It is almost as if their bodies have sleep-wake cycles that control their bedtime and wake-time.

Doctors and sleep specialists used to believe that delayed sleep onset usually occurs in the elderly or working adults. That was because this age group typically reported feeling sleepless during the socially acceptable sleeping hours. However, modern research has shown that the recurrence of delayed sleep onset is a common “ailment” among the youth, adolescents and urban children as well. A large number of kids stay up beyond 10 pm to 11 pm engaging in gaming, web surfing or watching TV. There is thus a loss of individual productivity among children and the young adults alike.

For instance, Tammy is a bright young girl, who could not fall asleep before 3 am. No matter how hard she tried to wake up by 7 am each morning, she missed her school bus almost 4 days a week, and her father had to drive her to school reluctantly. She was tired nearly every day. She was tired of her legs hurting and her back killing her before and after PE.

Recently, she started binge eating and putting on a lot of weight, so her parents took her to the doctor. Her test results showed that her blood pressure was up, her cholesterol levels were off the charts, but her thyroid levels were normal! That is when they got in touch with a sleep specialist who diagnosed her with delayed sleep phase syndrome.

The incident is a real case study from one of many famous clinics around the country. Tammy is one of the few lucky ones who get the correct diagnosis before the sleep disorders took over their life. To many parents, teachers, and employers, delayed phase syndrome is just a fancy name for “staying up late.” Sadly, that is not at all the case. There are several genetic factors, neurological aberrations, and external factors that contribute to a skewed sleeping cycle in individuals of all ages.

Contrary to popular belief, individuals suffering from delayed sleep onset cannot engage in more laborious activities and tire themselves to restorative sleep each night on time. It is NOT a sign of laziness or an excuse to skip out on responsibilities. American Sleep Association recognizes it as a real ailment that requires diagnosis, therapy, and treatment. Right now, reports from clinicians state that over 400,000 Americans suffer from delayed sleep phase syndrome. While a number of them face symptoms of social jet lag, others face more dire results including loss of jobs.

The Leading Causes of Delayed Sleep-Wake Phase Syndrome

The pathophysiology of delayed sleep phase syndrome is varied. The heterogeneity of the syndrome mainly comes from the variation in the age of the affected groups, occupations, regions and other intrinsic factors. Several genetic factors play significant roles in the cause and onset of the disorder.

Developmental changes. Over the years several studies have shown the role of changing bodies in adolescents as the primary cause of sleep-wake cycles among them. Both psychological and social changes during puberty can become the reasons for DSPS in the teenagers. Several teens show high brain activity during the evening till about 20 years of age. This “eveningness” usually declines after the early 20s.

Intrinsic circadian rhythms. You cannot ignore the action of the intrinsic clock genes in the change of sleep-wake cycles in individuals. It usually happens when the intrinsic circadian periods are longer than 24 hours. When an individual’s biological clock takes more than 24 hours to complete a cycle, it demands more adjustments to a 24 hour day. Patients with DSWPD often have a longer circadian period as compared to the usual control individuals.

Light exposure alterations. Working in artificially lit offices often lead to alternations in the biological clocks. For example, people who work in laboratories or closed environments devoid of natural light suffer from aberrant circadian rhythm changes. The excessive blue light from the CFLs and cold LED lighting causes suppression in the normal melatonin synthesis process. Pre-sleep high intensity light exposure often causes people to feel more awake at night than the control groups that did not experience high intensity light exposure before bedtime. Blue light blocking glasses often help to suppress the symptoms of DSPS in patients. 

Hyper-sensitivity to light exposure. Alterations in sensitivity to nocturnal light can lead to DSPD in people. Hypersensitivity is a leading cause among people working in artificially lit environments for long hours. Lights emitting more than 2000 lux per hour can suppress melatonin in adults, which can potentially lead to delayed onset of sleep and long term sleep disorders including DSPS.

Several other factors like increase in screen time, fidgeting with electronic devices before sleep, use of particular antipsychotics like haloperidol and fluvoxamine and several genetic causes like the mutations in the Clock Genes can contribute to DSPS in all age groups. Adolescents often experience worse effects of delayed sleep onset due to peer pressure, social demands, and the rising use of blue light emitting devices like touchscreen phones, tablets, laptops, computers, and gaming consoles. Sleeping disorders are not acquired habits among kids and young adults. It is a serious condition that demands medical attention.

If you Have Trouble Falling Asleep: Could it be a Case of Delayed Sleep-Wake Phase Disorder?

There are several telltale signs of DSPS that people often confuse with other sleeping disorders like insomnia. There have been several cases when children and adolescents have been diagnosed with depression instead of DSPS due to overlapping symptoms. You might be 100% sure that you have a case of delayed sleep onset, but you should always rely on an expert for confirmed diagnosis.

• The leading symptom of almost all sleep disorders is feeling tired throughout the day and physically feeling the lack of sleep. As the bedtime pushes back, the individuals are less likely to get more than 4 or 5 hours of sleep per night, and this leads to a lack of restorative sleep due to a decrease in the number of REM and non-REM cycles. Chronic sleep restriction is one of the leading symptoms of delayed sleep phase syndrome.

• The affected individuals have bedtimes that are significantly later than the socially accepted sleep time. They also have delayed wake time that can be 9 pm or even later. Their weekend sleep time and wake time are usually more delayed than their weekday sleep time and wake times.

• They do not experience restorative sleep during early sleeping cycles. They encounter good quality of sleep according to their intrinsic circadian preference.

• Inability to fall asleep during an acceptable bedtime is often the primary symptom of both DSPS and insomnia. However, people with DSPS do not experience the lack of proper quality sleep or wake up before completing their 7 to 8-hour sleep unless they have to wake up for school or work on weekdays.

• Children, adolescents, and young adults often report feeling isolated and depressed as a result of the social aloofness, delayed sleeping hours cause. Depression is usually a result of the lack of enough restorative sleep and the odd sleeping hours, people keep. Unless the person already has a diagnosis of depression and is taking psychoactive drugs, it is unlikely that delayed sleep phase syndrome is a result of their depressive disorders.

Interestingly, people with DSPS usually do not report any other problems with sleep or the quality of sleep.

Why Should you Always go to a Reputable Sleep Expert for Delayed Sleep Phase Diagnosis?

You may want to think that not sleeping properly for a couple of days might be completely fine, or that sleeping at 1 am for months automatically makes you an insomniac, but you could not be more wrong. There are several sleep disorders, and with the rising variations in work environments, the diversity is increasing every day.

Confusing DSPS with insomnia and other sleep disorders is easier than you think. Therefore, there are systematic examinations and studies that are necessary to diagnose a person with any DSPS.

• The sleep expert usually insists that the subject maintain a regular sleep log that contains the daily bedtimes, waking times and sleep experiences.

• The doctor will also give the subject a thorough physical examination and run blood tests to see if there are any other underlying physiological causes of the sleep “disturbances.”

• If the doctor or sleep specialist sees fit, they can ask you to participate in sleep studies which will involve several sessions of sleep observations including your breathing rate, heart rate, and brainwaves. It usually helps rule out sleep apnea from the process.

• Several clinics also use salivary melatonin based immunoassays to determine the levels of melatonin secretion and suppression in the concerned patient.

The integral parts of any DSPS diagnosis are the sleep logs, polysomnogram and the description of the symptoms by the patient. In some cases, doctors use an autograph (a wearable tech device that can confirm the activity-rest rhythms of the body) to note the signs and symptoms associated with DSPS.

There are five conditions each patient must meet to qualify for DSPS treatments.

• The problem of sleep onset delay must be recurrent. It should reflect during both sleep time and wake-up time.

• The presence of the symptoms must be at least 3 months long.

• The maintenance of a sleep log and actigraphy monitoring for one week at least.

• Sleep disturbances should not be explainable by other disorders such as medical, psychological or neurological.

• When patients have the liberty to adjust their schedule as per their natural biological clock, they should exhibit a 24-hour cycle. They should also show better sleep quality.

Only when a subject meets all these five defining traits, they shall qualify for DSPS treatment. It is as per the requirements of the International Classification of Sleep Disorders (third edition).

Insomnia vs. DSPS: Why Do You Need an Expert to Help you Find out What Sleep Disorder You Have?

Many erroneously believe that DSPS and insomnia are the same. However, they could not be more wrong. People with delayed sleep phase disorder often stay in bed up until late unless it is a school day or a weekday. Many of them adjust their work schedules according to their intrinsic circadian rhythms by working from home offices. Insomniacs often cannot find sufficient rest or sleep without the help of sleep medication, irrespective, of their level of tiredness or the time of the day.

Merely feeling lethargic and out of energy during the day is not reason enough to believe that you suffer from DSPS. Several sleep disorders can lead to similar effects. Sleep apnea and circadian rhythm disorders often leave people feeling tired and sleepy throughout the day. Sleep disorders like these shorten the duration of sleep and interfere with sleep quality. Therefore, it is common to feel breathless, fatigued, tired and lethargic even when you do not have DSPS.

Even experts misdiagnose insomnia as DSPS and vice versa. Over the years, experts have characterized insomnia as the lack of sleep. Having insomnia means your body does not let you fall asleep or remain asleep for enough time necessary for healing actions, which is quite similar to not getting enough sleep due to late sleep onset time.

One way clinicians often distinguish DSPS from insomnia is by asking the patients what happens when they fall asleep according to the needs of their body. The patient’s sleep-wake schedules often determine the quality of sleep and help the doctors distinguish between overlapping signs of sleep disorders. Sleep onset insomnia is quite similar to DSPS in its symptoms and signs. It is the inability to fall asleep immediately after going to bed. The delay in sleep can be up to 1 hour. People often need to consult a sleep expert or a physician for the diagnosis, since the similarity of DSPS and insomnia leave them confused.

Management of Delayed Sleeping Phase Disorder: Is There a Way to Combat DSPD Without Medication?

Thousands of people shy away from medicinal help when it comes to sleep disorders. People are becoming more aware of the deleterious effects of sleep medication that can potentially give them a grip on their sleep schedules. The situation has spearheaded some studies aimed at the evolution of behavior modification techniques that can manage delayed sleep onset in subjects.

The ultimate goal is to advance the bedtime gradually and push the wakeup time that aligns with social necessities. It helps growing children, adolescents, and young adults, who cannot afford to take the chance of experiencing the strange side effects of sedatives and tranquilizers.

• The behavioral modification involves avoidance of caffeine-containing drinks and food.

• Avoiding naps during the day.

• Minimize consumption of alcohol and nicotine in adults.

• Making the right dietary choices.

• Avoiding poor sleep habits that can exacerbate the delay in sleep onset.

• The inclusion of physical activities and moving away from a sedentary lifestyle.

It is true that mobilizing your body can help you with several sleeping disorders. Not working out cannot only exacerbate DSPS but it can also worsen the problems that come with it. Arthritis, muscle fatigue, and weight gain become serious issues when a person refrains from all sorts of physical exercise.

What are the Modern Treatments of DSPS That can Work for all Age Groups?

While behavior modification, of course, helps in the correction of sleep-wake time in adults and children, in case of adults who have been suffering from DSPS for a long time, simple behavior modification can be difficult without external aid. To treat the chronically delayed onset of sleep, you will need a treatment plan. Your treatment plan will require.

Bright light therapy. This is when a patient needs a bright blue light of around 2000 lux hour in the morning. The exposure to bright light causes wakefulness and alertness in the mornings. It drives away sleepiness to a considerable degree. Doctors usually determine the frequency of the light contact in the patients. During the evening, the patients usually refrain from all kinds of light exposure.

For better effects, expert therapists often complement bright light therapy in the morning with no-bright light exposure in the evenings. The lack of enough light in the evening time prevents melatonin secretion. Experts usually ask their patient to opt for warm white lights or yellow lights (monochromatic non-blue light LEDs) in their bedrooms and evening hangouts. The stimulation with bright light helps in the suppression of melatonin in the mornings and the regulation of exposure in the evenings prevents the exposure. Melatonin stimulates proper sleep onset at the correct time.

Melatonin therapy. Oral consumption of melatonin for correcting sleep schedules is a time-tested therapy. Although melatonin consumption over long periods of time can have serious side effects, doctors prescribe it for adult and youngsters, who suffer from chronic sleeplessness during the desired bedtime. Taking melatonin supplements in the early evenings can help you fall asleep earlier than you do since DSPS caught a hold of you.

In case you are already undergoing melatonin therapy, but you are not experiencing an improvement in sleep onset time, you should consult your doctor immediately. You should never self-administer melatonin or increase the dosage without consultation. A sudden increase in melatonin levels can cause severe nausea, hair loss and weight loss in people. Children, adolescents, and pregnant women need to be very cautious about the dosage and the duration of the therapy. Always stay in constant touch with your doctor, while taking melatonin supplements in oral or injection form.

Chronotherapy. The name might sound quite intimidating, but it is a simple and wholesome therapy for those suffering from DSPS. It includes the modulation of your routine that allows the delay of your routine by 1 to 2.5 hours each six days. The delay stops when you achieve your desired bedtime and wake-up time. The key to successfully overcoming your DSPS with the help of chronotherapy is sticking to the new schedule once you establish it. Nonetheless, this method only works for those showing mild symptoms of DSPS or DSPD. For those suffering from more chronic cases, chronotherapy often requires complementary hormone treatments and light therapy.

Many research papers show that the administration of multiple treatment procedures together often yields better results. Chronotherapy along with light-box therapy and melatonin supplements elicit the best effects among patients suffering from chronic DSPS for years. The rate of recovery depends a lot on the patient physiology, duration of the disorder and the patient’s compliance with the new treatment. Not all people exhibit the same recovery responses.

What other Diseases Occur Exclusively with Delayed Sleep Onset Syndrome?

DSPS in adolescents and adults usually does not occur alone. Comorbid depression is recurrent among individuals with DSPS. In a study involving 205 adults, over 51% of them reported having severe depression or depressive episodes in their lifetime. About 7% of the population suffers from depression, but a study of people (a cohort) having DSPS shows a much higher co-occurrence rate. There are several reasons you should be aware of this familiar yet lesser-known syndrome and its signs.

The occurrence of comorbid depression or depressive episodes is less responsive to anti-depressant therapy as compared to the cases of depression in the general population. You could say that DSPS almost makes depression resistant to certain anti-depressants and anti-psychotics. People suffering from dysthymia or persistent depressive disorder (PDD), report building resistance to certain antidepressants much faster when PDD occurs with delayed sleep phase syndrome.

Delayed circadian rhythm often correlates with bipolar disorder in children, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in adults and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children. It is very common for children falling within the autism spectrum disorder to suffer from several sleep disorders, but the most predominant among them is delayed sleep phase syndrome.

Although the clinical history of DSPD is not well-known, it can be undoubtedly said that people irrespective of their age and gender can suffer from it. It usually begins during the young adolescent years and grows into early adulthood and beyond, if it remains without diagnosis or treatment. At the moment, doctors and dieticians are often relating delayed onset of sleep with other comorbid conditions like elevated blood cholesterol levels, higher blood pressure levels, and obesity. Several people have the habit of binging when unable to sleep and this often leads to the consumption of thousands of extra calories that contribute to high-fat deposits in the body.

DSPS paves the way for several other ailments that may not even be related to the common person. However, an investigation into the underlying causes, signs and diagnostic requirements of it are providing the scientists and doctors more information on the syndrome and its comorbid disorders.

In Case you Have Forgotten why Sleep is Essential for You

Sleep is necessary for people of all genders ages and professions. Irrespective of how much energy you consume and expend per day, your body needs time to heal itself. Your brain needs enough time to convert the short-term memories to long-term memories, process the information you have already collected throughout the day and to form new links between the data sets you have created. You can think of sleep as the time your body needs to do away with the day’s exhaustion and injuries and prepare itself for a brand new day’s work.

Sleep is also necessary to fight off immunity challenges, which is why you are more likely to feel sleepy during viral diseases. Without sound sleep, it is almost impossible to function properly. The record for going the longest without sleep is 11 days and 25 minutes, but Randy Gardner, the record holder, showed severe cognitive changes and mood swings in the later days. Sleep deprivation can also lead to behavioral changes in the subjects as the initial study by researcher William Dement showed.

Investigators have associated sleep deprivation with problems in concentration, incidences of paranoi, and hallucinations, short-term memory, loss and increasing fatigue. In fact, chronic fatigue syndrome is one of the most common effects of insomnia and DSPS among all patients. Evolution has designed our brains so that during sleep our body uses minimal energy, and a considerable part of the energy becomes available for repair, restoration, and rejuvenation.

Most of the new neural connections usually form when you are asleep. It is probably the reason why getting 8 hours of sleep before a test often gets you better scores as compared to a whole night of revisions.

Why Should you Pay More Attention to Your Sleep Schedule?

Circadian rhythm sleeping disorders usually occur when your body clock is out of sync with the external clock. Melatonin secretion and several other genetic processes that control sleep depend on external light cues. Night owls usually feel sharper and more active during the evenings. They are likely to fall asleep between 1 am, and 4 am, and they naturally wake up between 8 am, and 11 am. Advancing their sleep-wake cycles not only disrupts their normal body rhythms, but it also causes poor restorative sleep.

Several scientists suggest that in case an individual’s natural circadian rhythm is not interfering with their regular work, it is better to leave them alone in their usual routine. Sadly, a lot of adolescents miss out on schoolwork and adults suffer in their professional field due to DSPS. A lot of patients suffers from diagnosed cases of DSPS and report social isolation and the lack of a social life altogether due to their odd sleeping schedules. It is one of the significant challenges the youth of the country are facing right now. In fact, over 10% of the chronic insomnia cases are cases of a misdiagnosed delayed sleep phase syndrome.  

Securing enough sleep is essential for sustaining ideal health. The REM sleep stage is critical for revitalizing brain functions. A lack of proper rest can lead to ongoing fatigue, muscular pain, and reduced cognitive abilities. While everyone appreciates a good night’s sleep now and then, how much is necessary for your overall health?

Sadly, sleep experts report that there is something called “too much sleep” or hypersomnia. Sometimes, the subject rests for regular hours at night, yet feels excessive drowsiness throughout the day. A chronic lack of energy and confusion during decision making are problems that occur commonly in all cases of hypersomnia.

As per the data from National Sleep Foundation, over 40% of the people in the US show symptoms of hypersomnia from time to time. Men often suffer more frequently from this disorder as compared to women, due to a higher incidence of sleep apnea syndromes.

What is Hypersomnia?

Experts often use the words hypersomnia and hypersomnolence interchangeably. Hypersomnolence is a somewhat common affliction that causes the people to feel excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS). Their predisposition can be due to primary or secondary hypersomnia. The latter happens when EDS is a result of another persisting medical condition or physical discomfort.

Snoozing for more extended hours does not always qualify as a disorder. Summer temperatures and heightened levels of humidity can cause people to feel dazed. Sometimes the lack of enough energy reserves and an imbalance of electrolytes can cause people to rest for more extended hours. These are not cases of chronic hypersomnia, which usually negatively affects cognition, analysis and overall energy of a person.

Excess daytime sleep can attack a person for several reasons. It is a complex trait that can affect any person irrespective of age, sex, and vocation. Although it sounds like nothing but increasing affection for sleep, hypersomnia has a substantial socioeconomic burden. Students, working people, and homemakers can suffer from pathologically extended hours of sleep. There are a few investigations that classify sleeping sickness as a case of hypersomnolence. There are usually several reasons why a person can exhibit EDS. Therefore, experts classify the disease as primary and secondary hypersomnia.

How to Classify the “Excessive Sleepiness” Disorders?

Hypersomnia can either be a direct effect of another disease, or it can occur independently of other pre-existing medical conditions. When it does not coexist with other illnesses, experts refer to it as primary. When EDS happens as a result of another disease, it becomes a secondary disorder. In the majority of the cases, hypersomnolence is secondary.

• It can happen due to a pre-existing illness or disorder like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s. Neurological disorders and neuro-muscular dystrophies can be causes of EDS.

• Several medications, especially somnolent drugs, and antipsychotic medicines can increase the duration of nightly slumber for many people.

• Not getting enough restorative sleep every night can result in hypersomnia. Adults need between 7 and 9 hours of sleep, depending on their diet and profession.

• People with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have also shown several symptoms of EDS in the past. There are several studies on US veterans that highlight a relationship between PTSD, anxiety, depression and excessive need for rest or sleep.

 

• Cases of depression, bipolar disorder, and anxiety disorder often exhibit hypersomnia. Psychiatrists don’t yet know which the cause is and which the effect is, but a person diagnosed with depression and hypersomnia has both and should receive treatment for both.

What is Primary Hypersomnia?

Eight different central disorders can cause hypersomnolence. Narcolepsy Type 1 and Type 2, idiopathic hypersomnia and Kleine-Levine syndrome are the leading causes of excessive daytime drowsiness among people.

Kleine-Levin syndrome. This is the infamous sleeping beauty syndrome. It is quite rare, and as a result, the causes or the neuropathy of the disease is largely unknown. The symptoms often include episodic hyper-sleep. The patients can fall asleep suddenly following mood swings, and the sleep episode can continue for 22 hours at a stretch. The affected individuals barely wake up to eat and use the bathroom. KLS starts around puberty, and it usually begins as erratic mood changes, food cravings, hypersexuality, and chronic lethargy.  These sudden episodes last for up to 10 years and have a substantial social impact on the patients. EDS due to Kleine-Levin syndrome is the only one that goes away around middle age.

Narcolepsy. Narcolepsy is a sleeping disorder that can cause complete loss of control of muscles, sleep paralysis, and hallucination. People with this sleeping disorder often fall asleep during the day while working, eating or even driving. It is a chronic neurological disorder that usually affects middle-aged men, but it concerns a more significant number of women due to lifestyle changes as well.

Idiopathic hypersomnia. Idiopathic hypersomnia is very different from Narcolepsy. In the former disorder, people experience excessive tedium throughout the day irrespective of their sleep duration at night. People suffering from IH often experience confusion on sudden awakening and have difficulty waking up due to external stimuli. People often tend to confuse idiopathic hypersomnia (IH) with hypersomnia.

In case of IH, the causes are neurological but mostly unknown. Primary hypersomnia and IH are not synonymous. All IH are primary, but all central hypersomnolence disorders are not necessarily idiopathic. As we can see here, the underlying causes of hypersomnolence can be diverse, but the symptoms are similar.

How Do Experts Diagnose Primary Hypersomnia?

Patients with idiopathic hypersomnia tend to keep extended sleep hours, but that is not always the case. The diagnosis of hypersomnolence is not perpetually straightforward. Experts classify central disorders using advanced daytime nap tests. Narcolepsy Type 2 and IH also sleep for long durations up to 11 hours per day, but that is not a specific diagnostic criterion for these diseases. These Multiple Sleep Latency Tests analyze the REM and non-REM sleep phases in patients with Narcolepsy Type 1 and Type 2, and IH.

Experts also opt for cerebrospinal fluid analysis via spinal tap for diagnostic procedures. Narcolepsy has autoimmune origins, and the cerebrospinal fluid from patients ubiquitously contains reduced levels of Hypocretin. The hypothalamus sustains damage due to the immune system’s attack on the human brain in Narcolepsy Type 1 only. For Type 2 narcolepsy and IH, the level of hypocretin is standard in the CSF.

What are the Criteria for the Diagnosis of Hypersomnolence?

The International Classification of Sleep Disorders – 3 categorizes IH into several primary and secondary types. The criteria for the diagnosis include;

• There should be an absence of cataplexy.

• Daytime drowsiness and indomitable need to sleep for at least three months.

• One or no REM phase as per Multiple Sleep Latency Test. The REM latency is lesser than 15 minutes as per the polysomnogram.

• Sleep latency is of maximum 8 minutes as per the MSLT.

• The total duration of night-time slumber is more than 660 minutes or 12 to 14 hours.

• Doctors should be able to rule out all chances of insufficient sleep syndrome.

• The EDS is not a result of any other sleep disorder or is not explainable by other medical or psychiatric disorders.

Sadly, there is still no consensus on how to define idiopathic hypersomnia. There is a lack of biological markers that can concretely point towards the precedence of IH. Hypocretin, multidimensional fatigue inventory, and sleep studies help in the differential diagnosis of IH.

Why is it Tricky to Diagnose Hypersomnia?

The severity of this disease varies from subject to subject. The Multiple Sleep Latency Test is a powerful tool with which experts can qualitatively categorize the incidence of EDS in patients. The Epworth sleepiness scale also helps medical professionals determine the seriousness of the condition.

Sleep experts often use the Stanford sleepiness scale to measure the sleepiness of a subject subjectively. Without a complete medical examination of the patient, experts find it impossible to state the prevalence of primary or secondary hypersomnia conclusively.

What are the Primary Hypersomnia Mimics?

Excessive need for rest, daytime drowsiness and the lack of energy are popular symptoms of multiple ailments. A multitude of genetic disorders, neurological disorders, and neurodegenerative conditions can mimic the primary causes of IH. In many cases, researchers have noticed Narcolepsy-like Sleep Onset REM Periods (SOREMP) in their test groups.

Several genetic diseases like the Norrie Disease, Prader-Willi Syndrome, Myotonic Dystrophy and Niemann-Pick Disease (Type C) show EDS. Several neurological “accidents” like brain strokes, lesions that lead to cerebral strokes, hypothalamus or thalamus injuries, and injuries to the brainstem can cause similar symptoms. Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s can also increase the body’s need for sleep. Sometimes, significant head trauma can also elicit symptoms of EDS. However, head trauma also causes headaches, cognition impairment and memory loss in the typical cases, which is different from people with IH.

What are the Other Causes of Excessive Sleep?

Sometimes, patients undergoing treatment for various types of cancer can exhibit extended hours of daytime dozing. Experts refer to this kind of EDS as somnolence syndrome. Some chemotherapy drugs, anti-nausea medication, and pain medication can cause excessive sleepiness.

Antidepressants, antihistamines, and sedatives can cause it too. Here are a few other causes for which you might be experiencing daytime drowsiness, confusion, and unreasonable sleep .

• Anemia or low RBC count.

• Sudden hormonal fluctuations like the kind caused by menopause or pregnancy.

• Increased concentration of calcium in the blood.

• The lack of enough potassium in the system.

• Hypothyroidism or the decrease in levels of thyroid hormone.

Some simple changes in metabolism and shifts in the daily regimen can increase your daytime sleepiness. Although they do not classify as idiopathic hypersomnia, experts can consider them as sporadic instances of EDS.

Why do People with Excessive Daytime Sleepiness Experience Vivid Nightmares?

The exact causes of nightmares are mainly unknown, but studies point towards emotional stress as the leading cause. A detailed investigation into the causes have revealed a few contributing factors.

• Heart medications

• Sleep apnea

• Withdrawal from painkillers, sedatives, and anti-anxiety medications

• Bodily discomfort including chronic pain

Detailed nightmares are very common in people suffering from somnolence syndrome as a result of chemotherapy, radiation and cancer diagnosis.

What are the Physical Impacts of Sleeping Too Much?

The need for sleep varies from one person to another. There are people, who have gone through the better part of their lives with just 5 to 6 hours of sleep per day. Then there are others, who need 9 to 10 hours of rest per night to be functional the next day. The amount of sleep an average person needs is still debatable, but sleep experts generally settle for 8 hours. Children are likely to sleep more. Most prepubescent kids need about 10 to 12 hours of sleep. Adolescents require about 8 to 10 hours of sleep per night to accommodate their changing body and replenish the high levels of energy they lose from activities per day. There is one question you must ask your doctor or expert – “how much sleep is too much?”

Too much sleep can hinder social interactions. It can create psychological boundaries. Restricted social time stuns the personal and psychical growth of a person. Nonetheless, there are a few more noticeable physical problems that people often face as a result of snoozing too much.

Elevated blood glucose. Diabetes may depend on your genetic makeup, but recent research has established a robust connection between diabetes and unnaturally long sleeping hours. Sleeping too much for years can decrease insulin production and increase glucose levels.

Obesity. Over 33% of the US citizens suffer from obesity. Sleeping too much can cause an increase in fat buildup in your system. People who sleep over 10 hours per day have 21% more chances of gaining weight than those who sleep for about 8 hours per day. Snoozing for long hours signals our bodies to go into “hibernation” mode. That happens when our metabolism senses a lack of regularized intake of food. The metabolisms that keep us active and warm slow down as a result of prolonged hours of sleeping. It sends a signal to increase fat deposits, which contributes to the higher risks of obesity.

A headache. Sleeping longer than usual can cause migraines in most. Some people experience debilitating headaches when they make up for lost sleep during the weekends or holidays. Scientists believe that this is due to deregulation of hormone and neurotransmitter levels in the brain. Serotonin is one of the factors that experience fluctuations in secretion during extended hours of sleep.

Depression. Oversleeping might contribute to depression just like the lack of enough sleep does. About 15% of the people suffering from depression also suffer from EDS. That can be a subconscious decision to avoid social interactions, but instead of improving psychological health, it makes matters worse. Irregular sleeping habits have a deleterious effect on depression.

Back pain. The lack of physical activity due to oversleeping can increase muscle stiffness and weaken back muscles. It can exacerbate cases of arthritis and spondylosis in middle-aged men and women. There was indeed a time when doctors advised people with back pain to hit the hay early and sleep it off, but modern research shows that sweating the pain out might be a better way than resting.

Heart diseases. Irregularities of different hormones, increasing levels of cholesterol and fat tissues in the body can have a grave effect on the cardiovascular health of people. A study involving almost 72,000 women (the Nurse’s Health Study) showed that women who slept for more than 11 hours per night had 38% increased risk, of having coronary diseases. Women who slept for 8 hours were less likely to get heart problems.

Link with death. A recent study involving sleeping disorders in adults shows a marked connection between shorter lifespan and lasting sleeping hours. People who are more likely to rest for 10 or 11 hours experience shorter lives than people who sleep for 8 hours at a stretch. Scientists have not yet been able to lay down concrete correlations between the higher death rate and extended slumbers, but they have shown a link between prolonged sleep and low socioeconomic statuses.

How to avoid Sleeping for Unnaturally Long Hours?

All problems of daytime sleepiness begin at night. Children are very likely to feel sleepy during the daytime at least once a week. Sometimes, our bodies crave more sleep than what we can manage at night. However, for some people, EDS can become a chronic problem. It can get in the way of their education, daily work, family responsibilities and personal health.

People who nod off while driving are a risk to themselves as well as to their co-riders and others on the road. Along with genetic predispositions, the lack of proper sleeping hygiene can interrupt your rest and cause you to feel excessively worn out during the daytime. Try these tips and tricks to avoid oversleeping and EDS.

1. Try to sleep well at night. There is no substitute for straight 8 hours of deep sleep at night. It means your work from home, conference calls, emergency meetings, and extra office work should not eat up the dedicated 9 hours you need to prep for bed and to rest. We often give up an hour or two of our daily sleep for work, studies, family or fun, but none of these activities can restore your energy levels for the next day.
   
2. Practice waking up at the same time. Most working folks wake up by 6:30 am or 7:00 am on the weekdays. The weekend late mornings usually motivate them. Sleeping for just 5 to 6 hours per day and sleeping for 12 hours on the weekends is not the way to embrace a healthy lifestyle. Stick to even wake-up time. Try to go to bed by 11 pm, so you can wake up effortlessly by 7 am. Keep the routine same for the weekends as well.
   
3. Make your bed a no-mobile zone: Keep your mobile phones, tablets, and laptops away from the bed. All work should happen in the study or the living room. Even if you have to work on something in your bedroom, make sure you are away from the bed. It will retrain your brain that bed is only for sleeping. You should stop watching TV, chatting online and playing video games on the bed effective immediately. The increasing levels of blue light will leave you awake and sleep deprived throughout the night.
   
4. Improve your mealtimes. In the mornings, do not leave home without a high-calorie meal. A high carbohydrate breakfast recharges the body and provides the energy reserve you can use throughout the day. Follow this up with a quick snack and then lunch. Skipping meals sends the wrong message to your metabolism that causes you to feel sleepier throughout the day. Always finish eating dinner at least 2 hours before bedtime. Keep your meal light. Eating a high carb dinner might send your system on a tizzy and cause you to stay awake till late.
   
5. Regularize your workout schedule. You need to exercise to feel better and sleep better. Working out can smoothen out the fluctuations in hormones, neurotransmitters, and other biochemical signals in the body. Research shows that people with chronic idiopathic hypersomnia can benefit from the inclusion of regular exercise in their daily schedule. Aerobic exercise is especially helpful for regularizing sleep cycles for individuals of all ages.
   
6. Refrain from late naps. We know how difficult it can be to stay awake on a slow day. Be it at office or school. We like to sneak in a little naptime in the break room or at the back of the class during the late hours. However, napping for even 20 minutes can recharge you for a considerable period. Unless you want to stay awake counting stars at night once again, you should not give in. Try indulging in exciting activities, drink more water, send some electrolytes to your system and at all costs avoid caffeine.
   
7. Wait until you are sleepy. Going to bed tired and going to bed sleepy are two very different feelings. You can be tired but not sleepy. You may have already experienced this, your feet hurt, your eyes hurt and your thoughts are scattered, but there is no sleep. Feeling sleepy is very different, your eyes droop, and you feel drowsy. Most often people also doze off in case they do not make it to their beds on time. Always remember to go to bed when you are sleepy!
   
8. Develop a bedtime ritual. People find it easier to separate their day’s grind with their night’s rest. Some find taking a warm bath in relaxing essential oils helpful, while others find listening to calming music more helpful. Your pre-sleep ritual should be personal, but it should set your day apart from your night. Chamomile tea and warm milk also help but avoid them if you have bladder problems.
   
9. Do not drink alcohol. Even today, several people believe that a “nightcap” will help them nod off quicker. Studies show that alcohol prevents your brain from going into non-REM to REM sleep. So when that alcohol wears off, you will again be awake at night and probably with a hangover!
   
10. Check with a specialist. Daytime sleepiness sounds trivial and somewhat jocular, but it is a severe disorder that can affect anyone. Since there are primary, secondary and primary mimicking physiological challenges that can potentially cause EDS in patients, doctors always insist on thorough sleep analysis, actigraphy, and polysomnography. If you have been suffering from any symptom of hypersomnia in the last three months, you need to check with an expert immediately.

To wake up on time for work or school, you can try one of the new alarm clocks that take the words “you snooze, you lose” quite literally. Snoozing the alarm will either cost you money, or you need indulge in physical exercise to shut the notification off successfully. The new generation of creative wake-up calls on smartphones has these features. They are useful in preventing people from oversleeping each day.

How do Experts Treat Chronic Hypersomnia?

Hypersomnia does not have one cause. Therefore, the treatment is not as simple as most would like it to be. In most cases, the remedies are multifarious and can be highly personalized too, depending on the different necessities of people.

Non-Medicine-Based Approaches

The treatment of any sleep-deprivation disorder resulting in excessive sleepiness should begin with non-pharmacological steps. People should start by working on their sleep hygiene. Those, who find it impossible to fall asleep within 20 or 30 minutes of going to bed should leave the bed and engage in calming activities.

Listening to soulful music, reading, gardening, or practicing an art form can help them fall asleep much quicker. Leaving bed after 30 mins of waiting will prevent you from using your mobile phone in bed or using your laptop. You should return to bed only when you are sleepy once again.

Medicine-Based Approaches

Pharmacologic approaches can help treat cases of chronic hypersomnia more effectively. However, there can be multiple side effects that experts should always discuss with their patients before prescribing them the drugs. Modafinil, amphetamine, and caffeine are useful stimulants that can prevent daytime sleepiness in patients.

Most experts usually prescribe new anti-depressants that do not exacerbate EDS or night-time sleep deprivation. Modern medicine has made it possible for people to opt for REM-suppressing antidepressants that work marvelously for those suffering from Narcolepsy Type 1, Cataplexy and sleep paralysis due to EDS.

Since somnolence syndrome is a form of hypersomnia that occurs only in people undergoing cancer treatment, people with somnolence syndrome need different kinds of treatment for their condition. They require psychological counseling, antidepressants, multi-vitamins and replacement of several medications they are on to reduce the effects of hypersomnolence.

Conclusion: What is the Present and future of Hypersomnia Treatment?

Excessive sleepiness can be a symptom of several common diseases as well as grievous disorders. It is a universal complaint of people with psychiatric illnesses. Accurate diagnosis of hypersomnia depends on detailed analysis and dialogue with the patient. Experts have to be extra careful while dealing with secondary hypersomnia. Cases of EDS along with several comorbidities can make the situation more complicated. It often results in misdiagnosis, mistreatment, and severe side effects. It can contribute to compromising personal and public safety.

While treating someone for any hypersomnia, experts usually start with non-pharmacologic treatment processes. That includes the improvement of sleep hygiene and introduction of biphasic or polyphasic nap systems. There are several medicines now available in the market that can address issues of excessive drowsiness. However, to proceed to the pharmacologic treatment steps, doctors must always perform sleep studies on the patient. There are morning medications that increase alertness, boost wakefulness, and cut down the drowsiness.

Some of these medicines modify melatonin secretion and free melatonin levels in the system. They can improve cognition and mental performance in patients. Patients with narcolepsy find modafinil treatment more useful. It is a powerful CNS stimulant that can boost wakefulness. It is also beneficial for people with other sleep complications and disorders, who always have residual sleepiness in spite of non-medicine mediated treatment procedures.

Those with hypersomnia often find it difficult to cope with the socioeconomic implications of the disease. It impedes people’s social lives, carriers, and personal finances to a great extent. Sadly, hypersomnia is a lifelong disorder that affects over 5% of the people in the US. Although most organizations, educational institutions, and corporations do not regard hypersomnolence as a disorder, it can be disabling for a person on many levels. It can prevent an adult from driving themselves or their children, it can hinder a person’s use of heavy machinery at work, and it can be difficult for them to complete complex cognitive tasks as well as any other individual.

Most people have to deal with EDS throughout their lives, but thanks to advancements in medical technology, people can now manage their sleepiness better than before. No current case study yet suggests that there is a thriving and permanent treatment for hypersomnia.

Every one of us has a natural circadian rhythm built into our system. Remarkably, the genes responsible for our biological timekeeping have stayed the same across multiple species and genera for more than a million years. As a result, the genes that dictate circadian rhythms in plants function in the same way as those that govern our personal internal clocks.

It is quite incredible to see how nature has conserved specific functions across multiple taxa. The expressions of these inheritable clock genes are highly diverse among the different organisms. In human beings and other higher animals, the clock genes determine the sleep-wake cycle and other factors of the circadian rhythm.  

How Common is Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome in the US?

In the US, over 50 million people seek medical assistance for sleep disorders. Investigations estimate that there might be over 70 million people, who suffer from circadian rhythm disorders and other forms of sleep disorders. People see those with sleep disturbances and recurring bouts of chronic fatigue as lazy or weak. However, the case is rarely so.

People with sleeping disorders find it hard to experience restorative sleep or to fall asleep at socially acceptable hours. It causes accumulation of stress in their system and can lead to chronic sleepiness during the daytime. One such circadian sleep disorder is delayed sleep phase syndrome. People with DSPS find it difficult to fall asleep earlier than 12 am. Some of the people with chronic DSPS have sleep onset time at around 3 am or 4 am. As a result, their natural wake-up time is between 10 am, or 12 am.

Do you Have Delayed Sleep-Wake Phase?

Just because you have been feeling a little stressed these days, staying up late due to work and sleeping through your alarms up until 10 am, does not mean you have delayed sleep phase syndrome. For any circadian sleep-wake disorder, there must be a recurring history of at least three months. In most of the observed cases, the occurrence of DSPS began in the adolescent periods and continued into adulthood.

In many cases, researchers have seen the suppression of delayed sleep phases due to imposed social sleep-wake hours. As a result, children often miss out on 70 minutes to 90 minutes of sleep each night. The morning school hours keep them from completing their rest, and they suffer from daytime drowsiness, irritability, attention problems and other behavior problems.

What are the Common and Uncommon Circadian Rhythms that do not Qualify as a Delayed Sleep-Wake Disorder?

There are several types of circadian rhythms among human beings. While most people practice monophasic sleep, people from Spain, Portugal, and countries of South East Asia practice biphasic sleep. The melatonin levels peak at night, resulting in sleepiness.There is another sleepy phase in the mid-afternoon which contributes to siesta or afternoon naps in the countries mentioned above. People usually depend on several external cues to conform to their natural sleep-wake cycles like sunlight, alarm clocks, television routines and mobile wake-up calls.

A group of people with seemingly “normal” circadian rhythms can exhibit vastly different sleep-wake cycles. While some people are more active during the mornings, others are more active during the evening or nighttime. The morning larks usually exhibit lower levels of melatonin early in the morning, and they complete their restorative sleep by 6 am or 7 am each day. The night owls are often self-diagnosed insomniacs with late bedtimes that can range between 1 am, and 4 am.

There might be biological causes driving these characters since people with DSPS are unable to alter their bedtime routines. People with normal circadian rhythms find it easy to adjust to new bedtimes and wake-up times, but those with any form of a circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorder find it utterly impossible to achieve restorative sleep during hours different from their internal clocks.

Is Delayed Sleeping Phase a Fancy Term for Jet Lag?

DSPS might sound a lot like jet lag to you, especially if you have recently traveled across the world to a foreign country. However, it is very different indeed. The drastic change in the day-night hours due to the time zone change causes jet lag, but delayed sleep phase does not depend upon external cues. Jet lag usually resolves quickly, quite unlike DSPS.

People with this sleep disorder have sleep onset insomnia, due to which they find it impossible to fall asleep at regular hours. These people are more likely to wake up tired due to incomplete restorative sleep, go through the entire day exhausted, but liven up during the evening. When night comes, they are again wide awake and unable to sleep despite the severe lack of sleep. It is an indefinite cycle that causes chronic sleep deprivation among the sufferers. Without medical attention, these people might find it difficult to achieve good quality sleep at modified hours.

Why is Insomnia not the Same as DSPS?

You must realize that people with DSPS are not insomniacs either, although they tend to call themselves so. People with DSPS might find themselves awake at the wee hours of the night, but when they do fall asleep, they can experience restorative sleep as long as they stick to their internal biological clocks. Insomniacs find it difficult to fall asleep at any hour and do not suffer restorative sleep.

There are several stark differences between insomnia and DSPS since the treatments for them are entirely different from one another. Insomniacs can experience relief from their symptoms after treatment of underlying physical or mental disorders. The most common forms of therapy for insomniacs include behavioral therapy, psychotherapy and regulated administration of hypnotic medication. In case of DSPS, the diagnosis as well the treatment is more complicated. Investigators recently reported that over 10% of the self-diagnosed insomniacs in the US suffer from delayed sleep phase circadian disorder.  

What is the Relationship Between ADHD and Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder?

Over the years, experts have come to understand more about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and its relationship with sleep. People with ADHD are often tired throughout the day. They are most likely to wake up feeling tired and stressed.

Although ADHD and sleep disorders have shared a long-standing relationship, researchers have only recently been able to explore the facets of the same due to the late onset of sleep disorders in ADHD individuals. Adults with ADHD, struggle with the following;

• Falling asleep

• Waking up

• Staying asleep

Several adults with ADHD report feeling a burst of energy as the sun goes down. Most of them endure drained off energy throughout the day, but they are re-energized as soon as they hit the hay. The incidence of sleep onset disorders usually begins among the ADHD individuals after the onset of puberty.

Currently, over 70% of the adults with ADHD report sleeping issues on a regular basis. Since over 80% of these cases indicate staying awake till about 4 am, it is understandable why they find it extremely difficult to wake up at socially acceptable times. They can sleep through alarms and angry mothers with ease. Several of these individuals report feeling groggy until noon.

In most of these cases, the night owls do not face a problem with their schedule. It is their friends, families, schools or employers, who become the source of their problems. ADHD and DSPS are ancient lovers and separating them is not any easier without behavior therapy, chronotherapy, medication, and psychotherapy.

So, What exactly Causes Delayed Sleep-wake Disorder?

Research shows intricate relationships between ADHD, depression, dementia and genetic abnormalities that tend to be inheritable. If you are currently suffering from DSPS, you must have already noticed that your internal clock is at least 2 hours behind the external clock. Experts often label this as “social jetlag” since the bodies and minds believe its midnight when its morning and the affected individuals appear to be tired and worn during morning meetings and morning classes.

Internal clocks are not always set for 9-5 work hours. People have their response system to external light and dark cues, which depend on the functions and products of their biological clock genes. Experts have observed that in most cases of DSPS, there is a complex correlation of causes including both internal and external stimulus.

Currently, the researchers believe that people with DSPS are unable to reset their sleep-wake periods as per external stimuli like light, darkness and noise. It can be because their biological clocks are not as sensitive to environmental cues. While it can be due to an aberrant increase or decrease in melatonin levels, it can also be due to continuous exposure to bright light right before bedtime.

How Do Experts Diagnose DSPS?

Delayed sleep phase is not insomnia or the lack of proper quality sleep. It is a lesser than a typical sleeping pattern that occurs among teens, young adults and adults alike. Office workers often report feeling wide awake at night and sleepy in the early office hours. It can be due to lifestyle effects or due to internal mechanisms which can trigger DSPS.

The diagnosis of a complex disorder takes time and keen testing. Over the years, technology has advanced, and it has allowed the doctors to diagnose DSPS decisively among individuals.

Sleep Log. In multiple cases, doctors recommend the maintenance of a sleep log. It can be a diary or a journal where the patients keep a record of their daily sleep onset time (approximate time), waking up time and incidences of sleep disturbances if any. This diary should also include daytime naps, incidences of drowsiness, exact times of caffeine consumption and a food log. Keeping a sleep diary helps the experts understand the tendencies of the internal system of an individual and their responses to environmental stimuli. Including the regular medication also helps experts understand the way DSPS might find its way into an individual’s life.

Actigraphy. Actigraphy helps significantly in the diagnostic process. It is a non-invasive method of observing the sleep-wake cycles in a human subject. The actimetry sensor helps in monitoring the cycle in individuals. With the advancement of technology, the actigraphy has become a wearable gadget that resembles a watch. This small but mighty gadget can keep an eye on the sleep patterns and circadian rhythms of an individual.

Polysomnography. Polysomnography is the gold standard of sleep assessment in individuals. Experts recommend polysomnographs since it is a multi-parametric test that can monitor brainwaves, eye movements, muscle movements and several other related body functions. This test can also measure the rates of respiration and monitor the sleep stages accurately.

Melatonin levels. Biochemistry now allows the scientists to study the levels of melatonin at specific intervals in the system of an individual. The study of the increase and decrease in the melatonin levels can help the sleep experts understand precisely what your body needs to stimulate sound sleep at socially acceptable hours. There are real-time melatonin level assays available, but there are several constraints including the cost that limits their availability to ordinary people.  

The diagnosis of DSPS is not as simple as many of us would like it to be. Although the overlapping results from some diagnostic procedures increase the accuracy, multiple doctors still rule out environmental factors as potential causes of DSPS. It makes it extremely necessary to log the exact hours of waking, eating, napping and sleeping, along with daytime drowsiness, unexpected feelings of overwhelming confusion and even frequency of exposure to bright light in your sleep log.

What are the Treatment Options for Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome?

Sleep experts have been busy the last few years, trying to find a cure for delayed sleep onset in human beings. Several methods and medical compounds have failed to cure DSPS up until now, but the results have given experts further insight into the management of this circadian rhythm disorder.

Here are a few ways that have worked for several people in the past.

Sleeping habit modification. Since DSPS usually begins during adolescence; kids with such symptoms need to do everything in their control to get as much restorative sleep as possible. Parents need to be more understanding, yet at the same time, they must keep their children from consuming caffeinated products.

Maintaining a calm, quiet and non-blue light bedroom can be conducive to timely rest. Avoiding sleeping medication without professional advice, drinking alcohol and addiction to nicotine can disrupt quality sleep in all ages. Do not exercise for about 5-6 hours before bedtime. Finish heavy workouts before evening. Keep your bedroom for sleeping only. Leave your mobile phones and iPads outside or keep them switched off inside your bedroom.

If possible, take a long warm shower before bed, drink some chamomile tea and try to hit the hay at the same time every day. It will help you entrain your circadian rhythm into following a more desirable sleep-wake cycle. 

Chronotherapy. People undertaking chronotherapy often experience an advancement of their bedtimes and wake up times. Interestingly, it is quite impossible to shift people’s bedtimes earlier with chronotherapy, so the experts try to push their cycles further back till it entirely overlaps with the next day’s desired sleep-wake cycle. This method simple exploits the entrainable trait of our internal body clock. The process delays the bedtime of an individual by 3 hours at the maximum each day till they achieve desired sleep-wake cycle.

Chronotherapy allows youngsters and adults to adapt to socially acceptable resting schedules, without curtailing their sleep hours. The challenge comes with adhering to the new routine for an extended period as long as their social responsibility demands it. However, delaying the sleep onset time among DSPS patients can cause serious health issues. You should only try this under the care of a sleep expert or a doctor.

Bright light therapy. This involves a bright light box that can suppress melatonin secretion in the early hours of the morning. The increase in melatonin levels is responsible for sleep onset, and as we sleep, the levels of this neurohormone deplete in our system. Those who do not get to complete their sleep, have leftover melatonin from the previous night which makes them drowsy and muzzy next morning. This is what we see in people with DSPS most often.

Exposure to bright light in the mornings helps to lower the melatonin levels inside the body and reset the internal clock. The duration of exposure to the light needs to be between 30 minutes to 2.5 hours long, and the intensity should be around 10,000 lux. It is one way to tell the biological clocks that it is morning. You do not need to travel to a clinic every day for bright light therapy. You can now find several commercial and medically approved bright light boxes for regular use.

Dark therapy. This is the absolute opposite of bright light therapy. If the bright light in the mornings can stimulate awakeness, the avoidance of bright lights in the evenings can stimulate sleep. One can avoid bright lights in the evening by merely using blue light blocking goggles, checking their television time and cutting back their time on digital screens.

Children and adolescents of today are more likely to suffer from DSPS due to the frequent and constant use of digital screens that are the most prominent source of blue light in our day-to-day lives. You can experience an improvement in sleep onset time and sleep quality by avoiding the use of gadgets at least 3 to 4 hours before sleep. Several subjects have reported considerable improvement upon dark therapy.

When experts coupled dark therapy with light therapy, more than 75% of the times, the patients could conform to a 9 to 5 schedule for long periods of time without the recurrence of chronic delayed sleep phase.

Medications. Medications that can control DSPS are quite severe and can have significant side effects. Therefore, you should take somnolent only upon advice from an expert or a doctor. Melatonin and several other hypotonic compounds help in advancing the sleep onset time for people with DSPS. Medications usually work better with other forms of therapy like behavior or sleep habit improvement and chronotherapy.

Several methods can advance the sleep onset time for those with DSPS, but none of them can fully cure it unless the person has the motivation to stick to the new schedule. It is very common to find the individuals with DSPS to give up after a short while because it is too tiring or too demanding. You must remember that it is a property of your internal biological clocks, so you must keep at it to overcome the complications due to the DSPS you might be facing now.

What are the Most Common Comorbidities of Delayed Sleep-Wake Phase Disorder?

When a primary disease occurs with another or multiple others, then all the secondary diseases are comorbid disorders. For example, obesity often causes related heart problems and circulatory problems. Then the latter diseases are the comorbid disorders that occur along with or as a cause of obesity.

Contrary to what many people believe, comorbidity can occur as a result of the primary disease or independently with the primary disease. In several instances of adolescents and adults with delayed sleep phase syndrome, experts have noticed the concurrent symptoms of anxiety, depression and side effects of medication that delay sleep. It is still debatable whether ADHD causes DSPS or DSPS contributes to ADHD symptoms.

Researchers have often seen seasonal affective disorders (SAD) and delayed sleep phase disorder occur together. SAD occurs in people, who usually reside in places that experience prolonged periods of darkness during the winter months. The lack of natural light and increased exposure to artificial lighting often leads to abnormal levels of melatonin that disrupts their 24-hour circadian rhythms. Due to several constraints, researchers have not yet been able to explore the comorbidity of these disorders, but it is quite definite that they influence one another.

Obesity is another comorbid condition that occurs with DSPS. People with delayed sleep are more likely to resort to binge eating or indulge in midnight snacking. The untimely nature of increased carbohydrate intake sends a boost of energy to the system. Excess calories contribute to more adipocyte formation in human beings. It not only disrupts the natural sleep cycle, but it also affects the onset of sleep. It is a leading cause of health concern in the first world countries like the US, where over 30% of the adult population is obese.

What are the Defining Personality Traits of Individuals with DSPS?

The lack of proper sleep and delayed sleep onset can lead to some behaviour problems in adults and youngsters alike. The instances of DSPS induced personality disorders that are more common among the adolescents and young adults. It can be due to social changes, peer pressure or due to surmounting pressure in school.

• A new study showed that people with a significant delay in sleep period are often irritable due to lack of proper restorative sleep.

• Young adults with DSPS can become neurotic upon lack of treatment for an extended period.

• Children and adolescents exhibit slow response time, impaired cognitive processes and slow learning as a result of prolonged periods of sleep deprivation.

• Young adults with DSPD often score much less on extroversion as compared to individuals with regular sleeping patterns.

• Adolescents and adults with DSPS display lower ranges of conscientiousness than the control group.

• People with DSPS are more likely to have lower problem-solving abilities and weaker short-term memory as compared to those with regular sleep-wake cycles.

Several studies have also shown that DSPS affects children and adolescents more frequently than adults. Kids find it difficult to adjust with school routines as a result. They often face consternation for missing classes, being late or sleeping in since parents, teachers and even doctors deem them to be lazy. However, delayed sleep phase syndrome is a severe disorder that demands medical attention in all ages.

What Can you do to Lessen the Impact of DSPS in Your Life?

You must introduce several lifestyle changes to manage your delayed sleep-wake cycle.

• It is true that you might find it much easier to adjust to an early schedule with the help of melatonin supplements or sleeping pills, but those are not your long-term solution. Most sleeping medications have severe dependency issues, and they can also cause sleeping medication-induced depression. Melatonin can impact your liver and general health upon constant usage.

• Sometimes, breaking your monophasic sleep pattern into biphasic sleep can help you attain a better quality of sleep each time. You can opt for 6.5 hours of sleep at night and 1.5 hours of sleep in the afternoon, to make up for all the lost sleep. It will help you wake up early each morning without feeling worn out. However, this is only possible for those who work from home or have dedicated resting hours at the office. Some offices in Japan have nap time for their employees to ensure enhanced productivity from each employee.

• Biphasic sleep can also be of 4 hours in the afternoon and 4 hours at night. It helps you achieve a total of 8 hours sleep without worrying about missing the morning alarms or being late for office. Biphasic sleep is difficult to follow for the regular 9 to 5 office goers, which is why more number of people opts for sleeping aids.

• The external temperature can aid or delay sleep by modulating core temperature and melatonin release. Severely high external temperatures are not conducive to proper sleep. Unusually high temperatures and high levels of humidity impede adequate sleep quality and delay sleep onset. Your external room temperature needs to facilitate lowering of the core temperature of your body. Therefore, keep the room temperature low so your body can release heat quickly. It advances the sleep onset time and helps in attaining better sleep. The melatonin supplements successfully lower core body temperature in the patients and develops their sleep-wake cycle.

• You can try reducing your screen-time and introduce white noise in your natural environment. Invest in a good white noise machine or set up Alexa to play white noise for you about one hour before bedtime. Dim the lights down and surround yourself with pure white light (no blue light) LEDs. It might cost you a bit, but it will help you fall asleep much faster each day.

Modification of sleep patterns is quite severe, and you must only perform that upon the strict supervision of an expert or a specialist. During the time of change, you might experience daytime drowsiness, sudden periods of confusion and slow response to external stimuli. Sleep experts suggest their patients to avoid driving long distances and handling heavy machinery during this period.

Facts you Should Always Remember About Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome

• You must always remember that you are not alone. There are over 15% adolescents across the 50 states of the US, who suffer from this sleeping disorder in 2018. It is not as uncommon as it used to be and modern technology is abetting the frequent incidence of DSPS among adults and adolescents alike.

• DSPS might be incurable in most of the cases, but it is entirely manageable. The symptoms start during the early teen years when the body experiences a shift in the internal clocks due to upheavals of hormonal levels. Changes in diet and exercise also assist this shift.

• Even children can have DSPS. It is easier to treat adults with melatonin supplements and sleeping medication. Children often need behavioural therapy and chronotherapy for rescheduling their body clock. Opting for pharmacological solutions for their sleeping problems is not ideal due to their heightened sensitivity to neurohormones.

If you are late for school or work every day because you struggle with your alarms every morning, it is time to do a double check. Do you always go to bed late? Do you often find yourself stargazing into the late hours of the night? Is your tendency to fall asleep late older than 3 months? If the answer to these questions is a “yes,” then you need to consult a sleep expert or a medical professional. These are telltale signs of delayed sleep phase disorder. Due to the high instances of comorbidity, DSPS demands instant attention from experts.

Ever get the feeling you’re from a different planet because you’re just getting started when everyone else is hitting the hay? Do you always feel like you’re stuck in a state of jet lag without even stepping foot on a plane? Maybe you don’t really hit your stride and begin to fully engage with the day’s activities until the afternoon rolls around, spending your mornings battling the urge to nod off and relying heavily on caffeine boosts. Well, you can be reassured that you’re very much meant to be on this Earth; it’s just that your internal clock marches to the beat of a different drum compared to those around you. So, what more is there to mention, except to say that it all boils down to your chronotype?

Chronotype sounds like a fancy term, but it is a portmanteau of two simple words. It defines the internal calibration of your biological clock. If your internal clock runs 4 hours behind the external cues, it is no wonder you always feel drowsy, tired and out of whack. While coffee, Redbull, and caffeine pills won’t do much to reduce this jetlag; you can still reduce your tedium by following the intrinsic rhythm of your biological clock. It is much easier for people with home offices and flexible work hours. Millions of people around the globe often feel the pangs of having a “misplaced” chronotype since they have to adhere to a 9 to 5 routine forcefully.

What Determines Your Chronotype?

Your chronotype is hardly the result of habit or external stimulus. So contrary to what the older generation believes and says your social jetlag is not a result of laziness or the lack of a “morning habit.” It is a function of the PER3 gene. The longer the gene is the more are your chances of becoming an early riser. A longer gene also generally means you need about 7 hours of sleep to feel fresh in the early hours of the day.

A shorter PER3 gene often corresponds to shorter hours of sleep among late risers. A night owl is hardly a result of practice or needs. A conflicting social schedule often arises from shorter versions of the PER3 gene, and it’s unique protein products that dictate more late-night activity among the carrier individuals.

As of now, researchers know for sure that the different chronotypes are results of the functions of the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) which is a part of the hypothalamus. The PER3 and NR1D2 genes control the light response via signaling of the peripheral clocks.

Entraining the central clock with the help of external cues is possible. People often find it difficult to train their bodies to the external cues because they have multiple peripheral clocks that reside in the form of circadian signal receptors in almost all vital organs. Your pituitary gland, adrenaline glands, liver, skin, and even hair follicles contain several of these peripheral body clocks that control the responses to several environmental stimuli.

Therefore, the molecular oscillations at the peripheral clocks do not determine the direct measure of the central oscillator. They only act as a proxy, and they vary substantially between individuals. The areas of circadian clock-dependent behavior modifications and decision making are still not as clear as the genetic mechanisms of circadian rhythm.

How Does your Internal Clock Influence your Chronotype?

Your sleep-wake cycles and daily body rhythms are a result of the interactions between circadian rhythms and homeostatic drive. Each individual has an internal molecular pacemaker that dictates the states of sleep and arousal. Each person differs from the other considerably at a molecular level. The variation of these timings of the individual rhythms results in chronotypes.

Depending on the chronotype, a person’s response to a stimulus can vary significantly during different times of the day which is the reason why morning larks often perform cognitive tasks better early in the day and the night owls perform better at night. As per the homeostatic drive, the energy store of an individual gradually depletes over the duration of the day and the energy levels peak at varying hours of the day depending on the circadian drive. As a result, your awakeness and drowsiness is not just a result of your circadian rhythm. 

What are the Different Chronotypes that Exist Today?

In case you are looking for a reason for a chronotype rather than the cause of it, you are in luck. Recent research by the American Sleep Association shows that your circadian rhythm might be a result of years of evolutionary process. It is Mother Nature’s way of showing when your body needs rest.

In nature, there are several groups of people with a variety of wake-sleep cycles. It must have helped the survival of cohorts and communities in the early Stone Ages. While one group rested, the others could keep a watch, gather and prep food and take care of the children. Naturally, there are several groups predominant among the urban communities right now. It is a simple matter of heredity and adaptation.

• Lions.These are the individuals, who are most active during the daytime. They are not as active during the night. They hit the hay quite early at night.

• Wolves. These are the complete night owls. They wake up late, sleep late and work through the evening and night. They are most active during the evening when the morning birds are going to sleep.

• Bears. They have a natural energy cycle that is very much in tune with the external light cues. The energy levels of these individuals rise and fall with the sun.

• Dolphins. While the real cetaceans often sleep with one brain hemisphere on, the people belonging to this group usually sleep with one eye open. They are the lightest sleepers, and they always seem to wake up even when you tiptoe around them.

Although there are huge variations between the sleep-wake cycles of this chronotype, there is little diversity when it comes to working hours. If you have always felt that the 9 to 5 schedule was never suitable for you, you are right. Your internal circadian clock dictates the hours you are most likely to be awake, active and most alert.

Work Schedules Make it Difficult for Evening People to get Enough Rest

Listening to your internal clock can give you better rest. Almost 70 million Americans suffer from some kind of sleeping disorder, and millions more have not had a good night’s rest in the last few months. Good sleep does not just depend on the hours of falling asleep and waking up. It also depends on the quality of sleep. Sleeping soundly throughout the night and not waking up every couple of hours to the slightest sound or experiencing nightmares defines good sleep.

Research shows that one of the simplest ways to achieve good quality sleep is by following your chronotype. Your circadian rhythm can tell you exactly when you should be asleep and when your brain should be able to offer you a better sleep quality. Sometimes, that means not sticking to the conventional 24-hour cycles as the rest of the world does. However, there is no replacement for a good night’s rest, and that is exactly what modern-day studies on human biological clocks show.

In several industrialized societies people take up shift jobs. The current job scene is gradually obliterating the traditional working hours. Media companies, international relations companies, IT solution providers and online marketing agencies are providing round the clock services to their clients. People working in similar sectors often have rotating shifts and erratic working hours. It often leads to sleep-wake disturbances among them.

The rotation of work hours has been causing sleep disorders, irritable bowel syndrome and increasing susceptibility to several “lifestyle” diseases. Occurrences of diabetes, high levels of cholesterol, high blood pressure and obesity are increasing due to the lack of importance towards chronotype and circadian rhythms.

 

Are you Getting Enough Rest as per your Biological Sleep-Wake Cycle?

 

About 50% of the world’s population consists of Bears, and about only 15% are Lions. So why do almost all workplaces stick to work hours that are fit for Lions? Is there a way you can find out your actual internal circadian clock and improve your sleep quality? You will find several quizzes and studies that aim at helping people find their rhythm.

Here is a brief look at the sleep cycle you should be idealizing as per your chronotype.

• The average sleep cycle lasts for about 90 minutes for all types of sleepers.

• Lions and Bears get about 5 cycles each which translate to 5 cycles of 90 minutes each.

• Lions are the early risers and bears are often somewhere in the middle of the road.

• Lions are up, and active by 6 am, whereas the Bears are awake and working by 7 am.

• Since each of them needs about 470 minutes or about 8 hours of sleep, lions need to be in bed by 10:00 pm and bears need to be in bed by 11 pm.

• Dolphins and Wolves usually experience 4 cycles of 90 minutes each.

• Therefore, they need about 400 minutes to sleep (including 40 minutes to fall asleep).

• Dolphins and Wolves need to be in bed by 12:00 am, and 11:50 am for waking up at 7 am and 6:30 am respectively.

Investigations into sleep quality and pattern among the different types of sleepers show that Dolphins are more likely to stay up late. Most Dolphins are either insomniacs or self-diagnosed insomniacs. They can spend an hour or longer in bed worrying about past incidents, their upcoming day, plans and random things.

In case you identify with these tendencies, you can spend 30 minutes each evening writing in your “worry journal.” Rather than pushing the thoughts and anxieties at the back of your mind, you should haul them up front and be done with them once and for all.

Recent researches show that people who are more likely to work on their next day’s to-do list or a worry list right before bed are more likely to fall asleep earlier and experience better sleep than the ones who struggle every day to not think about similar matters. The release of information is all it takes to clear your mind and fall into a “dreamless” sleep that can refresh you next day.

Can Internal Circadian Clocks Dictate Sleep Disorders in Children and Adults?

While some people are morning larks and some are night owls, places of employment and education rarely give them the opportunity to accommodate a full 8-hours sleep.

A recent study claims that high school students lose about 70 minutes of sleep each night at an average due to school timings and extracurricular activities. The Lions and the Wolves are at the opposite ends of the pole. It is difficult for either one to conform to the biological rhythm of the other. As a result, several people fall under the spectrum of sleep disorders.

If you find it difficult to wake up every morning and your sleep schedule interferes with your daily routines, you might have a sleep disorder too. Circadian rhythm disorders are not as rare as we would like them to be. There are several common disorders that people often ignore as stress from work or laziness. Two of the most commonly occurring sleep disorders include;

• Advanced sleep phase syndrome (ASPS). This is where a person feels sleepy earlier than the socially accepted bedtime. A person can feel drowsy, lethargic and experienced cognitive impairment by as early as 7 pm every evening. To classify as a disorder, your early sleeping tendencies should recur for 3 months or more. These people are also extreme early risers. They are usually awake, and alert by 3 am to 4 am. They experience complete 8 hours of sound sleep as long as they go to bed as per the demands of their biological clock.

• Delayed sleep phase syndrome (DSPS). People with DSPS often self-diagnose themselves as insomniacs. Delayed sleep disorder causes people to lay awake at night until 12 am to 2 am. However, when they fall asleep, they are likely to experience good quality restorative sleep for 8 hours. It is only possible for most people to sleep on weekends. The natural wake-up time for people suffering from DSPS varies between 8 am to 10 am. People with more chronic cases of DSPD often find it difficult to fall asleep before 4 am and wake up before noon.  

Troubled sleep or bad quality sleep is not the problem for either DSPS or ASPS. The problem is the “improper” timing of sleep. People with ASPS often report feeling isolated or socially aloof due to their early bedtimes. Their impaired cognition in the early evenings also takes a significant toll on their social lives.

People suffering from DSPS are often irritable by the end of the day due to the lack of enough sleep in the mornings. Their school routines or workplace requirements usually cut their morning sleeping hours short by more than one hour on a regular basis. People suffering from either of these conditions often find themselves suffering from chronic sleep deprivation and chronic fatigue.  

When Does the Shift of Chronotype Usually Occur in Human Beings?

The body clock starts to shift noticeably during the adolescent years. It is a result of hormonal changes, social demands, and peer pressure. Increasing need for rest, variation in eating habits and levels of physical activities determine a considerable part of the sleep-wake schedule of the teens and the young adults. However, it is all about the individual’s genetic makeup.

In case, your teenage child likes to sleep in till late or does not fall asleep before 12 am, you can entirely blame it on their genes. They are not lazy, especially since their early school time clashes with their natural need for rest. Most adolescents are likely to be late risers due to the changes their bodies are going through. Forcing them into an irregular schedule can lead to behavior problems, learning problems and discipline issues.

You could say, a lot of adolescents “grow out” of this phase. After all, 50% of the people in the world have an 11 pm to 7 am sleep-wake cycle. Nonetheless, several offices, managers, and even schools are finally giving importance to the “sleep problems” that are ravaging productivity among their employees and students. It is a result of the wide-ranging investigations and studies on adolescents, young adults, and adults, who report feeling out of sync with their school hours and work hours.

Several organizations are helping people work with their internal wiring and not against it. One of the leading reasons is the increasing levels of productivity that comes with the re-adjustment of work schedules.

Can your Circadian Rhythm Determine your Physiological Health?

Finding your chronotype is critical for your health. Not recognizing the demands of your body can wreck your health. There is a strong correlation between sleep disorders and chronotypes in all ages. A recent study shows a healthy relationship between eveningness and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children belonging to several ethnic groups. Several investigations have highlighted the relationship between chronotypes and obesity. Apart from physical health, the lack of proper sleep due to unusual sleep-wake cycles can potentially affect mental health as well.

The natural cycle of your body determines the rise and fall of several hormone levels in your system. One of the most important hormones is melatonin that controls your sleep onset and wakefulness throughout the day. Higher melatonin levels at night help you fall asleep, and lower levels during the morning-day keep you alert. As a result, your sleep pattern can impact your general mood, increase or decrease instances of depression, increase your binge eating habits and impact your blood glucose levels. Chronotype mismatch increases your chances of getting Type 2 diabetes. It is an important factor in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and obesity.

A recent study involving over 400 normal weight participants belonging to several chronotype classes shows that the morning birds consumed most of their calories in the mornings with breakfast and some with lunch. The eveningness group usually consumes higher calories during dinner. In overweight individuals, the eating habits are more erratic. Overweight early birds typically consume more calories at night and overweight night owls usually consume more calories in the mornings.

The most exciting find was – food preferences varied according to the internal circadian clock. Morning people typically show higher intake of fruit and night owls preferred their proteins. Most overweight people are overweight because they deviate from their natural physiological rhythms. It might point towards the necessity of specific diets for people belonging to different chronotype since their daily energy needs usually vary significantly according to their intrinsic rhythms.

How can People with Eveningness Adjust to a Morning Schedule Efficiently?

Evening people show higher incidences of emotional eating and binge eating. Therefore, they are twice as likely to suffer from insulin resistance, joint inflammation problems, and liver problems. Their systems often withstand more oxidative damage and stress hormones. They are also more likely to become caffeine dependent and alcohol dependent. Therefore, it is no surprise that they often find it more difficult than usual to fall asleep at regular hours.

Problems of the circadian rhythm mismatches are one of the toughest to reckon with, but you can make it better for yourself, your family, friends, and colleagues, by trying a few things.

• Exercise. Exercise is the best way to stimulate your joints and improve your restorative mechanisms of the body. Exercising also helps you to enhance insulin sensitivity naturally and control hunger.

• Proper diet. Manage your calorie intake. A fascinating and somewhat viral study shows that as long as you watch how many calories you are eating per day, the rest of the factors can take care of themselves.

• The right fat. This might confuse you a little bit since dieticians often tell people to avoid fat. However, there is a right kind of fat that you need to consume. Focus on increasing your omega-3-fatty acid intake and reduce your omega-6-fatty acid consumption.

• Gut health. Pay attention to what you are eating, but also pay attention to what’s coming out. Your gut health will determine a lot, and it will dictate your hunger-fullness signals as well. Paying attention to your gut health will help you eat better, sleep better and stay healthier.

If you know by now that you are an evening person, you merely need to cut down the complex carbohydrates and reduce your intake of inflammatory food. Do not drink caffeine at least 3 hours before bedtime. Alcohol often impedes sleep and interferes with sleep quality, so try to refrain from drinking before heading to bed.

Several studies also elicit a complicated relationship between nicotine consumption and sleep quality. Smokers have higher chances of suffering from sleep apnea, interrupted sleep and poor sleep quality. People already suffering from sleep deprivation should try to cut down on alcohol consumption and smoking before starting any therapy or treatment for the improvement of sleep.

Can Therapy Help you Tackle odd Sleep-wake Hours and Sleep Disorders?

Chronotherapy often works wonders for most people suffering from weird daily routines. It includes drug-free rescheduling for insomnia, delayed sleep phase syndrome (DSPS) and advanced sleep phase syndrome (ASPS). It uses slow but steady advancement or delays in bedtimes, changes in daily routines and dietary modifications to help people achieve better quality sleep at socially acceptable hours.

Several cases report long-term relief from sleep disorders and insomnia from patients. Sometimes, chronotherapy includes bright light therapy. It is now a popular fact that intense blue light can reduce the levels of melatonin in an individual’s system. Therefore, exposure to extreme blue light can lead to alertness and sleep deprivation.

Modern studies show that exposure to LEDs, CFLs, and digital screens leads to chronic sleep deprivation in people. Scientists have utilized this fact to induce alertness in people suffering from delayed sleep phase syndrome or the night owls by exposing them to intense blue light box therapy in the mornings.  

Melatonin treatment has also proven useful in case of some individuals, who do not respond that well to drugless rescheduling therapy. Drug-based sleep cycle rescheduling is especially necessary for people who have been experiencing chronic sleep disorders for a long time. People with over 4 years of delayed sleep phase syndrome, insomnia, and sleep apnea can shift their bedtime from 4:50 am to 12:20 am upon drug-assisted chronotherapy. 

For many patients, melatonin therapy results in long-term relief from sleep disorders which a lesser common chronotype can bring. Doctors usually couple melatonin therapy with sleep medications that do not react with psychoactive agents. However, if you are on other medicines for depression or anxiety disorders, you must always disclose it to your physician before starting your melatonin treatment.  

Bright light therapy, sleep rescheduling, and melatonin therapy can work together. In fact, severe sleep disorders often need the help of all therapies and sleep treatments possible for long-term redressal. For undertaking melatonin treatment, it is crucial that you first consult a doctor or a sleep expert.

Self-administration or adjustment of melatonin dosage is highly risky since hormone therapies can have grievous side effects. Doctors usually refrain from giving melatonin supplements and caffeine supplements to growing children, but there have been several instances of teenagers benefiting from the same. Adults have lower risks of similar side effects from prolonged treatment.

Who Can Make the Best of their Sleep-Wake Cycles?

An uncommon chronotype is not a problem when you do not have to work with others. Lone wolves find it easier to adjust to their biological clocks.

Writers, painters, musicians, designers and online talents are commonly night owls or dolphins. Freelancing talents find it much easier to adhere to their intrinsic circadian rhythms. Working with a large team, harmonizing with multiple associates from all across the country and coordinated decision making become more challenging for those, who are suffering from sleep disorders. It is unfortunate that millions have to face the brunt of not being able to coordinate their peak energy times with their work hours even today.

The Lions usually do not face any problem due to their early rising habits, unless they have to live with a Wolf chronotype. Since a majority of the world’s population belongs to the Bear chronotype, they find it the easiest to adjust to work schedules, school routines, and social obligations without compromising their sleep duration or quality. Nonetheless, with improving technology, non-invasive therapy, and supplemental treatment, even the Wolves might find it comparatively easier to adjust to external cues.

What Does your Chronotype Say About You?

Chronotype is your sleep-wake cycle. It is true that the best way to get sound sleep is by listening to your internal clock, but that is rarely possible due to our daily routines. Even a biphasic sleep schedule can help you mitigate the impacts of sleep deprivation.

Several parents, teenagers and young adults believe that they can make up for the daily lack of sleep by oversleeping on the weekends. Sadly, that is ineffective as far as the restorative mechanisms are concerned. It is imperative that you stop being hard on yourself for having a less common or awkward chronotype. In fact, you must remember that you are not alone.

There are possibly millions of other people out there, who share your sleep-wake cycle. You might not know anyone with your bedtime and wake-up time in your vicinity right now, but that is not reason enough to beat yourself up about it. Your body clock says nothing about your productivity levels or your personality. It signifies your body’s natural central clock. If you have the opportunity to adjust your daily routine as per your circadian rhythm, you should, by all means, do so. Adhering to your chronotype is the only way to improve your health and say goodbye to chronic fatigue.  

Ever pondered buying a mattress online? Feels like everyone’s doing it, right? You could be next in line! Honestly, it’s a breeze and comes with loads of options to mull over. If you’re diving in for the first time, fret not. You’ve got all you need right here to nail that choice.

Just like buying other merchandise online, buying a mattress is as simple as reading the description and after confirming that everything is as you want it to be, you click the “Buy It” button. In most cases, the vendor allows you to confirm that your delivery is okay with an allowance for money back if something is not right.

There are some reasons why you need to purchase your mattress online. Some of these reasons include:

• The “buy mattress online” option helps you to make a collaborative decision

Let’s say you have just moved into your new home with your partner and want to start a new life. When it comes to furnishing your house, including buying a mattress, you would want to buy one that both of you would be comfortable lying on.

In the case where one of you is too busy at work to have time to visit the store, purchasing a mattress online would be the perfect solution. He or she can actively take part in the process of obtaining one after a day’s work or when you share product links and social tools.

• You Get to Experience Convenient Shopping

What is better than purchasing a product from the comfort of your home and having it delivered right to your doorstep? In the case where you have a tight schedule and you cannot afford to flex it to squeeze time to replace your old mattress, online shopping would be an excellent option for you.

Not only will you manage to go about your appointments and spend your leisure time adequately, but you will also be able to avoid burning your gasoline and getting trapped in congested traffic on your way to the store.

• Chances of you Getting Old Stuff are Minimal

Talking about old stuff, just because you want to purchase a mattress and use bed sheets on it doesn’t mean that the bed removal should be aged. Alright, you don’t sleep on it directly, but still, you want your mattress to look good. Online sellers do not have cushions with old bed removal because they rarely deal with such items.

• You Get to Enjoy Free Home Delivery

Who doesn’t love free stuff? When it comes to delivering goods or items to your door, it’s even better. Most online retailers offer free delivery services of mattresses right to the doorstep of their customers, hence saving them the trouble of transporting the item home. In case a doorstep delivery is not enough for you, you could still have your mattress in your preferred room. You do not have anything to lose.

• You Can Get a Good Discount

Many online retailers offer discounts on the products that they deal with, so if you want to score a significant discount on your mattress, you should consider purchasing it online. This is a great deal for you because you would be able to save some few dimes.

• Excellent Customer Services

Who doesn’t want to do business with a retailer who cares about his or her customers and whose priority is to offer the best of the best to them? Now, since you are also not left out, you should consider going for a service with excellent customer support. Apart from getting quick responses to your enquiries, you would be well attended to in case of a problem with your purchase. How convenient, right?

• Online Buyers are Well-Researched

Many are times we need assistance when it comes to purchasing a product from any store or shopping mall. As compared to other buyers, online buyers build an excellent measure of expertise when it comes to doing research. Because they tend to rely on themselves, they do their homework, conduct their thorough research and check out a mattress buying guide to get the best brands of products or services.

• There is no Pressure in Buying

So you go to this online store which the retailer hasn’t met his selling target for the day. What next? Pressure! You do not want to purchase a mattress because the retailer told you that it was the only one left or because he said you wouldn’t find any other comfortable mattress other than that particular one.  With this kind of pressure, you can get tones of surprises when you take the new item home.

• You Might Get a Different Satisfaction from a Store

Have you ever tried on a cloth, say stretchy jeans, that you lent a friend who has a body figure bigger than yours? How was the experience? Well, you know better. I bet the jeans didn’t fit perfectly like they used to before your friend wore them.

The case is the same with a mattress – you visit a shopping mattress store, and you love the feeling of one when you sit on it. Understand that it’s a showroom, meaning, many people have sat on it to get that feeling too. When you get one straight from the warehouse, chances are you would get a different feeling.

• The Satisfaction from Online and Offline Purchases Doesn’t Vary that Much

Research shows that purchasing a mattress online or getting one directly from a store has almost the same level of satisfaction, so even if you get one online, there are very minimal chances of dissatisfaction.

• You Have Better Chances to Compare Many Mattresses

With an online purchase, you would be able to compare different mattresses in terms of their pricing, design, sizes, make and other crucial mattress features. This would enable you to avoid any mishaps or surprises that come with purchasing a wrong item or an item that does not meet your targeted level of satisfaction.

You can’t even think of making rounds in the city from store to store to look for that particular mattress that you want. Aside from other expenses and drawbacks, the time that you would spend alone won’t even allow you talk about it.

Mattress Buying Guide: How to Buy the Right Mattress for You

So, you have gone through the reasons why you need to purchase your mattress online and have finally decided to get a fabulous one for yourself.  How would you go about it? Well, no hassle. You have to get familiar with a mattress buying guide that would help you to replace your old, lumpy mattress with another one that is more comfortable.

The experience of getting a mattress can be exciting, especially the thought of a fair price and you getting comfortable on your sofa and having your bed delivered to you right to your doorstep. Understand that you will be spending a great part of your life lying on it (well, depending on how long you sleep).

Many sites deal in mattresses in the online business world; there are a few tips that can come in handy when you decide to take the plunge to get one. Some of these tips are explained below:

Do Your Homework and Check out a Mattress Buying Guide as Well

Conducting your research is the first thing that you need to do before clicking your button to order a mattress. As you read earlier, there are some mattress websites in the industry today, so it is essential to identify one that is the best fit for your needs.

Good for you if you know the kind of mattress that you want, but in case you do not, you should consider visiting the store to get a clear sense of the type of bed that you want before purchasing it online. I guess you’ll have to get up from that comfortable couch!

Identify the Type of Mattress That you Need

There are many types of beds in the industry, so you have to identify one that best suits your needs and your budget. Select a mattress based on your needs and preferences – do you need a soft or a firm bed? What is your preferred sleeping position? How much support do you need? Answering such questions would enable you to identify the most suitable choice.

Just to get a glimpse of it, below are some of the mattress options from which you can choose in a mattress store:

• Open spring mattresses. These mattresses have a long piece of metal wire that is coiled to form several springs. These types of beds have machine-stitched ends, and their feature of being light makes it easy to turn them. Such options are suitable for instances where replacement has to be done as time goes by, such as children’s beds. They can be easily replaced as your kids continue to grow; so you won’t feel much of a pinch because it would be a necessity at that time.

• Latex mattresses. These types of beds have organic latex foam that is made from rubber trees. In case you are looking for a bed that has a bouncy effect and offers a rounded contour to your body, this is an excellent option for you. Their unique features also tend to make them one of the most expensive options in the industry.

• Airbeds. These kinds of mattresses have air chambers that feature foam comfort layers to provide support. With an airbed mattress, you can adjust the level of your firmness using an electric air pump to get yourself comfortable. Such mattresses last for a long time, but you will also have to part with a few more dimes.

• Innerspring mattresses. As the name suggests, these mattresses have a spring-like feeling when you lie to them because they use a support core that is steel-like. They are also the most popular type and are commonly used traditionally. As an added plus, they have a bouncy effect, which makes them ideal for conjugal activities. As much as these types of mattresses are good, they tend to sag when used for long and they do not contour the body as other beds do.

• Memory foam mattresses. Aside from the fact that these mattress options trap a lot of heat, they tend to last longer than the innerspring mattress and conform significantly to your body, giving you a ‘hugging’ effect.

• Hybrid mattresses. These mattresses have the same body contouring effect to that of memory foam mattresses, but they do not trap any heat.

Consider Checking out Mattress Review Sites

When purchasing any product, be it online or in the store, you do not want to be the first one to test and try it out. To be on the safe side, always consider checking out mattress review sites to see what other customers have to say about different mattresses before embarking on your purchase process.

In the case where you have already narrowed a particular mattress to your interest, see what other customers have to say about it. Ensure that you look at everything concerning the item, from the comfort, customer support services, and the level of satisfaction with the delivery process.

Consider your Budget

Your budget would always guide you when you want to purchase an item either online or in the store, or when you want particular services to be rendered to you. When finding a mattress that meets your needs, you should consider your budget.

Before making your purchase, come up with a suitable budget and stick to it. From there, you can begin looking to find several mattress models that are in your price range.

Avoid Middle Connections

It’s a good idea to buy a mattress from a company that manufactures them directly, other than buying one from an intermediary. As such, you will be able to identify an excellent value for your mattress. To get your mattress at a fair and affordable price, approach a company that makes beds themselves and transports them to their customers directly.

Check out if the Shopping Mattress Return Policy Works on Your Terms

Does the return policy of your purchase work on your terms? Do not wait to know the answer to this question after making your purchase. As a buyer, you should check the return policy of your mattress before making any investment. This would ensure that you get to return your mattress after purchasing in case of any problems.

Always Consider the Maintainability of Your Mattress

A good mattress should be one that can be easily maintained after purchase in terms of hygiene. Does the mattress have a removable cover that can be washed? Finding a mattress that has a zipper on one end of its cover would be more suitable.

You do not want to spoil your mattress by having to tear one end of your cover to wash it. As expensive as a mattress with a zipped cover may seem, it is a great option, especially if you often retire to bed with unwashed feet.

The Density of the Mattress

You do not want to lie on a mattress for a while and begin to feel the steel or board on the base of your bed. You can’t even sleep, can you? You will be tossing in your bed and turning all night long and wake up with a sore and paining body. You do not want that. For this reason, ensure that you check the density of the particular mattress that you would like to purchase for longevity purposes.

Find out How Well the Mattress Brand is Known and Trusted

Before purchasing a mattress online, ensure that the brand that you are seeking to go for is well known and trusted. That would guarantee you peace of mind and the comfort of knowing that you will be able to use your mattress for a long time without having to replace it soon. A trusted mattress company on a website that is well known would always guarantee the prospective customers a memorable and outstanding experience in purchasing their items.

To get the most out of your research in your quest to look for a suitable mattress, there are some aspects that you would need to watch out for to ensure that you get the most out of your research. Now, understand that a mattress is a big purchase, and very much so depending on the type of mattress that you go for and its quality. Not all online mattress websites are reputable. Thus, it is essential that you shop wisely with utmost care. As you do that, ensure that you pay attention to the following detail:

Certification Information of the Item

Certification proves that all products, including mattresses, have passed through several tests or are manufactured in a certain way to ensure the safety of the prospective consumers who will use it.  Certification companies put such measures in place to indicate that the products being delivered are of high quality and nothing less than that.

In a nutshell, ensure that before you purchase a mattress, you get the certification information from the online retailer to boost your confidence in shopping with the particular website.

Customer Education Information

Does the particular online company that you choose have any customer education information, including snapshots and videos that explain the features of their products? Approaching a company that uses digital technology to describe the characteristics of its mattresses would enable you to have a good understanding of what the beds feature before making an informed decision on which one to buy.

Depending on the information that you want to access, the company should provide precise details of it. As a customer, you are not left out regarding playing your role. You alone know what you need, so based on those concerns, you can watch videos of the educational info that would be most helpful in your case.

For instance, if you are not sure of how a bed with an adjustable spring works and you long to get one, you will need to visualize that by checking out a video of the same. In the case where you need to check out customer reviews and certification info, an article would do fine.

A Medium of Contact

So you have done your shopping mattress research and identified the type of mattress that you want to purchase. Better yet, that is still not enough. Ensure that the website offers a telephone number through which you can speak to someone.

Shopping online does not guarantee that you will get everything right and go ahead and make your purchase without a problem. Most likely, you will have a few questions that need to be answered.  Contacting someone would increase your chances of making a legit purchase.

A Showroom and Staff for Product Testing

A well-established company should have a well-managed office and team – in this case, a well-equipped showroom and management staff. Let us say you have identified a mattress online that is suitable for you and discovered that the company that deals with it is situated near your locality. Wouldn’t you want to test the mattress before making a final purchasing decision?  

Ensure that the company that you choose to buy from has a permanent showroom to enable you to take a look at and test the mattress that you want to purchase.

A Mattress Warranty Guide and Well Spelt out Terms and Conditions

You do not want any surprises, be it before or after purchasing your mattress. Before shopping online, ensure that the online company has well spelt out terms and conditions regarding trials and a mattress warranty guide with information on warranties or any discount rates. If you manage to get the terms and conditions jolted down in detail, it will be even better.

Since both parties have a role to play, both your responsibilities and those of the company, looking out for this aspect would eliminate any chances of being charged with hidden fees.

A Secured Mode of Payment

With the everyday advancing digital technology, cases of identity thefts have substantially gone up. You do not want to be a victim of the same. Hence, you should ensure that the online company processes payment using a secure encrypted method and that the particular company also accepts gateways such as PayPal and other visa cards for payment.

With these in place, the company would get access to your credit card details; hence, this gives you the comfort of using a legitimate and secure payment procedure.

A Platform for Viewing Products and Their Pricing

Can you buy any item from an online website which does not allow you to see the particular things or their pricing? Certainly not. That also goes for a mattress. When talking about viewing a product, it’s not only a matter of looking at one photo and making your final buying decision. You have to see the features of the mattress clearly and visualize them from all possible angles.

As much as the particular online mattress stores may offer their items at relatively lower prices, you might smile in the beginning and regret making your purchase when you open your door to find what you did not expect lying on your doorstep.

The Aspect of Product Descriptions, Deatures and Specifications

Checking out photos and videos of the mattress that has appealed to you is not enough.  Since convenience is the primary reason for your decision to opt for an online purchase, you should ensure that you examine the descriptions of different types of mattresses and compare them.

Following the fact that description is a summary of what the particular mattress features, it would help you save considerable time in getting a clear understanding of the item. An excellent product description should be able to give you a feel and picture of what the product entails.

Buying a mattress online has several advantages and drawbacks, just like shopping for any other item online. The limitations aside first, check out some of the reasons why you need to give online mattress shopping a try:

Pros of Purchasing A Mattress Online

• It is easy.

Buying a mattress online does not require much of a hassle. The whole procedure of doing so is simple and straightforward. You escape the sale pressure in stores by making your purchase from the comfort of your home.

• You will access full-service delivery at any time.

Many shopping stores do not offer delivery services when you purchase a mattress from their store. As such, you have to equip yourself with the necessary mode of transportation and at the same time ensure that your item gets home safe and sound. With online shopping, you can get your item delivered right to your doorstep.

• It is affordable.

Many online retailers offer high discount rates for their customers. Okay, you can still bargain and negotiate accordingly in a store, but the discount that you’ll get won’t be that much to smile about. Purchasing online can help you save about 15% cash.

• You get an item of high quality.

Purchasing a mattress online means that, you do not have to sit on it, which means that other customers have not sat or laid on it for testing and trial. This is a huge plus for you because the mattress that you will get will have great specifications and provide long-term comfort. It will also be durable.

• You experience low return fees.

As compared to store retailers, online retailers have low return fees. In a case where you have purchased a mattress and it doesn’t tend to meet your needs and concerns, you would still be able to return it at a lower cost. As for buying it at a store, you will part with more cash than you except or worse still, you might have to learn to get comfortable with your purchase when you buy from a store with a no-return policy.

• Good customer support.

On average, online retailers tend to have well-established and better customer services than mattress stores. This guarantees you of purchasing your item after getting helpful information that will guide your purchasing decision.

• You escape pushy salespeople.

Many salespeople in stores seek to achieve the target of their daily sales to up their commissions. For them to reach their targets, they become somewhat aggressive in trying to convince customers to get them to purchase their items.  

Certain levels of aggressiveness can be too much at times, whereby the salesperson may use statements such as, “This is the only one left.” Or “You won’t find it stocked anywhere else.” This kind of pressure is not good for you and for your buying decision as you might end up purchasing a mattress that does not suit your needs.

• It’s a better option if you feel uncomfortable testing your mattress.

When it comes to testing and trying the suitability and comfort of a bed, not everyone would be comfortable enough to do that in a mattress store.  Such stores are usually packed, especially in times when particular items are on offer, so if you are not the kind of person who likes every eye to be fixed on you, you won’t lie on that mattress for a test.

Cons of Purchasing Your Mattress Online

Just like any products available in the market, mattresses have their fair share of cons too. Check them out below!

• You can’t test or try your mattress before buying.

Unless you know the type of mattress that you want and the model, buying one online can be a terrible experience for you. This is because you cannot feel it, try it and see how it has been made.

• Lack of an immediate personal assistance.

With online shopping, you can post your inquiries but you might not get immediate responses. Many are times you would have to wait for at least 24 hours to get your questions answered.

• You may experience shipping costs and delays.

This would be a massive blow for you, especially if you need your mattress delivered to you with immediate effect. In the case where you pay for a bed that is not in stock at the moment, a refund would then be processed, which would take longer than usual.

Circadian rhythm disorders are notably common across individuals of all ages, professions, and health backgrounds in the United States. Presently, upwards of 70 million adults in the U.S. suffer from a form of circadian rhythm disorder, ranging from mild to severe. These disorders can interfere with almost all biological processes by disrupting the body’s natural sleep and wake cycles.

People with any circadian rhythm disorder suffer from lack of sleep, too much sleep or simply not enough sleep at the right time. Circadian rhythm disorders often cause bodies to only respond to their internal biological clocks. Unlike insomnia, the affected individuals experience a normal quality of sleep when they listen to their inner clocks.

What is a Circadian Rhythm Disorder?

Research shows that several sleeping disorders trouble people all across the globe. The kind of circadian rhythm disorder that might affect you does not depend on your age or your geographic location. It depends mainly on your clock genes, several hormones, and other intrinsic factors. Investigations on sleep disorders for over the last decade or more show that a complex network of neurobiological factors is responsible for the genesis of circadian rhythms in people and their subsequent disorders.

One could say that the circadian rhythms are the natural behavior pattern changes, mental and physical changes that a person goes through every day. The primary stimulus for this change is external light. The most common of all circadian rhythms is staying awake in the mornings and sleeping at night. If you think that only human beings experience this rhythm, you are wrong.

Every animal, plants and other tiny microbes experience circadian rhythms that depend on external light cues. The highly conserved structure of biological clocks among the animal and plant life are responsible for the regulation of these biological clocks. Although biological clocks and circadian rhythms are not synonymous, they are closely related to one another.

What are the Simplest Classifications of Circadian Rhythm in Animals?

You must have already seen the simplest breakdown of the 24-hour cycles depending on the maximum activity peak and sleep onset time of different species.

• Diurnal. Human beings tend to be grossly diurnal. We are active during the daytime, irrespective of the delays or the advances in our circadian clocks.

• Nocturnal. These are the animals that are active during the night. Nocturnal animals include hyena, fox, and possums.

• Crepuscular. Cats and some big cats (this explains why your cat always wants you to wake up and play with them at 4 am!) are crepuscular in nature. They are active during dawn and dusk when their target preys are more likely to forage or return home from foraging.

The peak activity hours and resting hours of any species depend on their habits as functions of evolution and adaptation. While circadian rhythms depend on endogenous regulations and exogenous signals, the biological clocks may as well depend upon multi-trophic (multiple feeding) systems.

Gene oscillations, lunar rhythms, tidal rhythms, and ultradian rhythms are also responsible for the control and modulation of the circadian clock. The inclusion of so many control factors opens up the possibility of a few things that may go wrong with the circadian rhythm of a complex organism, like a human being.

How to Distinguish Circadian Rhythm from Regular Repetitive Traits?

You might wonder how it is possible for a body to know when it is time to wake up, eat and sleep. It is possible due to the presence of a master clock in the brain of the animal. The case is different for plants since they do not have a defined neuron system or a central nervous system (CNS). In case of animals, the autonomous circadian activity at the cellular level can affect core temperature, hormone production, cell repair and brain wave activity.

The circadian rhythm is a result of several clock genes that remain unchanged throughout several species and genus. However, you must also understand that not all recurring behavior or changes are products of the circadian rhythm. To be a part of the circadian rhythm, your biological rhythm must fulfill the following requirements;

I. The biological rhythm has to be internal, self-dependent and close to 24 hours in duration.

The rhythm should withstand constant conditions with the approximate period of 24 hours. This period of free-running is tau, and it should persist in the absence of external cues. Generally, the Taus are longer than 24-hour periods for diurnal creatures and nocturnal animals, and the free-running period is usually shorter than 24 hours.  

II. The circadian rhythms should be entrainable.

Although the circadian rhythms are endogenous, they are not entirely recalcitrant to training. They should be entrainable by external cues. The simplest of all exemplification of this trait is when subject travels through several time zones. The person usually suffers from jetlag, and then they can train their internal circadian clocks to respond to local time

III. These rhythms should follow specific physiological temperature changes.

The biochemical reactions at the cellular level are highly sensitive to external temperatures. The temperature will affect the levels of kinetic energy at the molecular levels. Now, irrespective of these changes, the molecular clocks of most mammals can maintain a 24-hour periodicity. The increase or decrease in the rate of a reaction in the biological system in response to a variation of 10-degree centigrade is Q10 temperature coefficient. It is a measure of the compensating effect of the circadian rhythms.

What Are The Two Categories of Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorders?

The Circadian Rhythm Sleep has two main categories, namely;

Extrinsic Type Circadian Rhythm Disorder

While a deviation of the natural system from these circadian rhythms almost always leads to devastating physiological and mental changes, not all the causes of this deviation are intrinsic. Sometimes, some external cues cause circadian rhythms to deviate from the norm.

Shift Work Sleep Disorder

This is a typical example of an extrinsic type of circadian rhythm disorder. It is highly circumstantial. It mostly affects people working in night shifts or changing shifts. Doctors, nurses, call center workers, customer service agents, police officers, firefighters, and emergency responders often show signs of heightened fatigue due to different shift work sleep disorder.

The Intrinsic Type Circadian Sleep-wake Rhythm Disorder

A majority of the sleeping disorders have an internal or built-in cause.

Advanced sleeping phase disorders (ASPS). This is when people easily fall asleep during the early evenings and have wake-up times in the early hours of night or dawn. People with ASPS often fall asleep by 9 pm and wake up by 2 am or 3 am.

Delayed sleeping phase syndrome (DSPS). DSPS causes people to stay up till late. Adolescents and young adults often exhibit early symptoms of DSPS. They show later than usual sleep onset time and wake up much later too. They often experience peak alertness in the middle of the night.

Non-24-hour sleep-wake disorder. People, suffering from hypernychthemeral syndrome or a non-24-hour sleep-wake disorder can cause them to fall asleep much later each day. The sleep onset and offset times usually shift by an hour or more each day.

Irregular sleep-wake rhythm. While the total sleep time for a person tends to be regular or typical for the person’s age, people with irregular sleep-wake rhythms usually fall asleep more than once per day.

There are several types of circadian rhythms among people even though the hours can be very diverse. There are morning people, who like to wake up early and go to bed early. Then there are the evening people, who prefer to stay up until late and wake up late. Nonetheless, people with regular circadian rhythms find it easier to wake up at a fixed time each morning. They also find adjusting to new routines or a new time zone much easier than people with circadian rhythm disorders. We will learn more about the different types of CRDs in the next section.

What are the Different Circadian Rhythm Abnormalities?

Since there are various types of natural biological clocks, there are several types of circadian rhythm phase disorders that can affect a group of people.

People often find it difficult to understand what kind of a disorder they might be suffering from without the help of an expert. If you feel you are a victim of one such disorder, seek the help of a professional.

Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder 

Patients with delayed sleep phase disorder or syndrome (DSPD or DSPS), experience a standard quality of sleep when they are allowed to follow their biological clocks. Usually, they experience a delay of about 3 to 6 hours in sleep onset time. Understandably, their wake-up times also experience a delay to compensate for delayed sleep onset time. People with DSPS are not lazy or unmotivated. Their day starts at least 3 hours later than it does for the regular people.

They conform to a 24-hour schedule, but they are unable to fall asleep or wake up at socially acceptable hours. 10% of the people with chronic insomnia suffer from DSPS. Their sleep-wake cycle delays are independent of their age, sex, geographic location and profession. They find it impossible to sleep even when they are physically tired at the end of a day.

People with DSPS are likely to fall asleep and wake up at pre-set “usual” time as per their internal body clocks. They find it impossible to retrain their sleep-wake cycles. They often get lesser than necessary sleep per day, since they tend to wake up at fixed times irrespective of the amount or duration of sleep and as a result often complaint about day-time sleepiness.

Over 15% of the teens in the US currently suffer from delayed sleep phase syndrome. A lack of morning light exposure can also lead to DSPS in individuals, so it is a common occurrence in the Scandinavian countries that experience six months of light and six months of darkness. It is also common among those suffering from depression and anxiety disorders.

Advanced Sleep Phase Disorder 

Advanced sleep phase disorder (ASPD) is a classic circadian phase disorder. The patients experience an advancement of their sleep-wake cycle. Their sleep onset time can advance between 9 pm and 7 pm and their offset time can advance between 5 am, and 3 am.

Some people wake up as early as 2 am after completion of their five REM and five non-REM sleep cycles. Just like in case of DSPD, people with ASPD have no troubles with the quality of sleep. They fail to stay up after a point in time, and this often causes social isolation, family problems and other issues due to evening sleepiness.

A study shows that when researchers deprived a group of patients from getting early sleep, they still woke up at their regular hour in spite of not completing their sleep. Environmental cues do not impact individuals with ASPD as much as their genetic makeup. There is a strong genetic link with early sleep onset that these people can pass on to their next generation 50% of the times.

While some erroneously believe that people suffering from ASPD are merely early larks, you can get your polysomnography test from a reputed sleep clinic to find out if you have a circadian sleep disorder. This test notes the limb movements, breathing patterns, heart rate and brain activity of the patient to confirm whether the subject has ASPD or any other sleeping disorder. It is a standard test that can also unravel tendencies of sleep apnea and insomnia in the subjects.

Psychologists, psychiatrists, and ordinary people often correlate waking up unusually early with the precedence of depression. However, investigations characterize ASPS or ASPD as a genetic condition that might lead to depression due to increasing social alienation and lack of social interactions.

Non-24-hour Sleep-Wake Disorder 

The non-24-hour sleep-wake disorder or non-24 is a chronic non-24-hour biological rhythm pattern that qualifies as a circadian rhythm disorder. It affects the regular synchronization of the internal biological clock with the external stimuli. One of the most common types of the non- 24-hour sleep-wake disorder is the free running type or hypernychthemeral syndrome.

People with non-24 usually have body clocks that have a slightly longer than the usual 24-hour night-day cycle. It has steady graduation. For example – people with a 25-hour body clock will sleep one hour later the first day, 2 hours later on the second day and this will continue up until they complete their 24-hour cycle on the 24th day. It is a chronic and steady delay of their sleep onset time due to a slightly longer circadian clock.

People with this affliction often find it difficult to fall asleep at the correct time. About once or twice a month the person can experience a period of great sleep since their sleep-wake cycle realigns with the external 24-hour photoperiod. Nonetheless, this is a temporary relief since their cycles soon start shifting by an hour once they achieve a perfectly aligned sleep cycle. Since they have no way to entrain their circadian clocks with the help of external cues, their natural circadian rhythms are often off by a couple of minutes or even hours.

Sleep experts recommend biochemical circadian rhythm signal tests to ascertain the presence of non-24 hour among people. The levels of melatonin in the body over a period can help the experts understand whether the person has non- 24-hour sleep-wake disorder or some other circadian rhythm disorder.  

Irregular Sleep-Wake Rhythms 

Although rare, an irregular sleep-wake rhythm is a form of circadian rhythm disorder in human beings. Many still confuse this with polyphasic sleep patterns. The main difference between irregular sleep-wake rhythm and polyphasic sleep patterns is the lack of special hours of sleep during a 24-hour day.

There is no particular sleep-wake cycle or prolonged sleep phase at night. There is a sheer absence of regularity of sleep patterns. You can easily find yourself wondering if you suffer from irregular sleep-wake rhythm after a long flight to another part of the country or world. When broken sleep or disruptions in sleep follows a long trip, it is usually jet lag and not irregular sleep-wake rhythm.

In fact, the latter is quite rare and severe. Experts often refer to it as the invisible disability. ISWD has several causes that further weaken a weak circadian clock. It is essential for someone with ISWD to consult with a doctor and a sleep expert since they usually suffer from other neurobiological diseases or neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, dementia, mental retardations and brain damage.

The risk of ISWD increases with advancing age, mainly due to the sharp increase of co-morbid health conditions. The confirmed diagnosis usually needs polysomnography and actigraphy. The lack of proper quality sleep is one of the defining characters of this disorder, which makes it unique among other circadian sleep disorders. Restorative sleep with irregular sleep-wake rhythm is almost impossible without medication and prolonged treatment.

Shift Work Sleep Disorder 

Shift work sleep disorder (SWSD) used to be a defining trait of people working on continuous rotating shifts. It is a classic circadian rhythm disorder that consists of insomnia and work-time sleepiness. In a majority of the cases, the rotating work hours often coincide with the typical sleep period of the individual. Since the working shifts and their rotations are highly unpredictable, the defining characters of SWSD (barring a few) are highly variable.

There is a certain degree of sleep deprivation that always occurs with shift work sleep disorders. In many cases, nightshift workers are unable to get good quality sleep in the morning-noon due to familial and social responsibilities. In other cases, the internal biological clocks prevent these workers from getting restorative sleep. According to an International Agency for Research on Cancer study in 2007, shift-work increases the risks of cancer in people of almost all ages. The chances increase with increasing age.

Over the years, doctors, sleep researchers, and scientists have associated several medical co-morbidities with SWSD. Increasing sleepiness during work hours, slow response to external stimuli, non-natural hunger-satiation response, lack of restorative sleep and several other circadian misalignment symptoms often characterize the occurrence of shift-work disorders in people.  

What are the Leading Causes of Circadian Sleep rhythm Disorders?

Several times people mistake the cause of circadian rhythm disorders to be external. There are several doctors across the globe, who believes that disruption of the circadian rhythm in an individual is a result of the lifestyle problems or behavior problems only.

Sadly, the causes are not so simple and just taking away the external stimuli does not restore the intrinsic biological rhythm in people. There are myriads of causes to the simplest of the simple circadian rhythm disorders.

1. Sensitivity to zeitgebers. Zeitgebers directly translates to time givers in English. These include external time cues like light, temperature, and darkness. Disruption of sensitivity towards these time givers is one way to explain the most common circadian rhythm disorders in human beings. Several studies on blind subjects and their intrinsic circadian rhythms show why it might be challenging to entrain the internal biological clock to light cues in the absence of a complete visual system.

2. Environmental factors. This is the next most common cause of some sleep-wake disorders in human beings. High room temperature bright light and more noise are not conducive towards better sleep. These are important factors that affect the quality of sleep in night workers and shift workers.

3. Imperfect pacemaker function. Biological pacemakers maintain the balance of the clock gene products depending on the time. They are necessary for the internal coupling mechanisms of the body. Your sleep-wake cycle is inherently dependent on the temperature cycle and light cycle. The lack of a pacemaker function can potentially compromise the balance. 

4. Frequent travelling. Short distance trips, from one region of the state to another might not be as disruptive for an individual. However, moving from one country to another, crossing several time zones can be challenging to your internal body clock that is already set for a 24-hour period. When the night becomes day, your body often feels confused as the biological clock says its night, yet the external light cues state it’s day. It is our old friend, jetlag. The intensity of the effect depends on how far you are moving away from your time zone.

5. Neurobiological factors. We cannot overlook the possibility of a solely neurological or a neurobiological factor for the disruption of one’s circadian rhythms. Alzheimer’s is one of the few diseases that can always contribute to sleep-wake disorders. Researchers have often cited several neurobiological causes for sleep disorders like Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and sclerosis.

Lifestyle and social causes are of course the contributing factors, but they cannot act without the help of internal mechanisms to disrupt the sleep-wake cycle in people. Blue-light devices, high-intensity CFLs and LEDs, traffic noise and improper eating habits significantly disrupt circadian rhythms in adults, adolescents and children alike. More and more children are staying up late and going to school tired.

Mobile phones and tablets are the most significant reason for this. Children are spending more time with these blue light emitting devices. They are suppressing the secretion of melatonin and thus delaying sleep onset on a regular basis. As we have said before, it is possible to entrain your internal biological clock. Therefore, with prolonged exposure to bright blue light up until a certain period can entrain individuals to stay up till late and wake up late, by disrupting their natural biological clock.

Is there any Treatment for the Myriads of Circadian Sleep-Wake Rhythm Disorders?

There are several methods and combinations of techniques that doctors and therapists use to help people to overcome their sleeping disorders. Here are a few of those that might help you too –

• Behavior therapy. This is a broad term, experts often use to describe several steps of clinical psychotherapy to modulate circadian rhythms in people. Behavior analysts first assess the environmental stimuli, the behavior issues and the internal factors that can influence a person’s sleep-wake pattern. Then it is the responsibility of the behaviorists or the psychotherapists to apply their analyses in clinical therapy which often helps in entraining the internal biological clocks of individual subjects. Assessment of phobias, desensitization technique for anxiety and anger, psychotherapy for depression and other psychological disorders are often parts of the behavior therapy. In case of sleep disorder related behavior therapy, therapists often ask the subject to avoid naps and stimulants throughout the day.

• Bright light therapy. The lack of bright light in the mornings can prevent the reduction in the levels of melatonin which in turn can cause increased sleepiness throughout the day. On the other hand, exposure to bright lights in the evening or night can prevent proper sleep-wake cycles in the subject. Investigations highlight the importance of blue-light stimulus to increase the synthesis of melatonin in people. Scientists have carefully outlined several processes that can use the blue light and bright light therapy to manipulate the levels of melatonin in the human system. People with delayed sleep phase disorders benefit from exposure to bright light in the mornings and dark treatment in the evenings. Those suffering from ASPD often find it useful to opt for bright light treatment in the evenings to prevent early sleep onset.

• Dark therapy. This is complementary to bright light therapy. Under dark treatment, people have to use blue-light blocking goggles and surround themselves with non-blue LEDs. It blocks blue and green wavelengths from reaching the eyes and prevents untimely suppression/secretion of melatonin. Blocking blue-light wavelengths in the evening avert melatonin suppression and aids early sleep hours. It is especially helpful for people suffering from DSPD.

• Chronotherapy. Chronotherapy involves gradual but steady training of the internal biological clock to obey external cues. It means a continuous delay of bedtime by about 10 minutes to 30 minutes in an attempt to correct the sleep-wake cycle. People with DSPS should always try chronotherapy before moving onto hormone therapies and sleep medication. One of the most popular forms of sleep chronotherapy is the controlled sleep deprivation with phase advance or SDPA. According to this rather stringent therapy, people stay up for 24 hours and then go to bed 90 minutes in advance. This process continues till the person achieves the desired bedtime.

• Medicines. Melatonin, modafinil, and melatonin agonist compounds are particularly beneficial in the treatment of sleep disorders. Increasing levels of melatonin (a natural hormone) correspond with sleep onset. Medications are necessary for adults and sometimes, adolescents, who suffer from chronic circadian rhythm disorders. Taking short-term sleep aids in the combination of wake-promoting agents can help people achieve the necessary sleep-wake times.  

The effectiveness of any therapy depends on the person’s ability to entrain their biological clock, the persistence of comorbid conditions and the efficiency of their therapists. Just like any treatment for other medical conditions, different people may report different levels of benefits from the same therapy or medication. In short, not everyone will benefit equally from these treatments.  

Circadian rhythms are a product of evolution and adaptation for millions of years. The science of sleep includes the study of anatomy, comparative anatomy, molecular biology, genetics, and behavior. Epigenetics, evolution, and environment also play an essential role in chronobiology or the biology of time. The first instance of circadian rhythm as a function of inheritable factors is present in the works of Linnaeus in 1751. He designed flower clocks using flowering plants of selected species. In 2018, researchers and medical professionals are finally able to control the sleep-wake cycles on their human patients by utilizing genetic therapy, light therapy, and chronotherapy in coordination with each other.   

Circadian rhythm is a product of chronobiology in almost all higher creatures. Plants, invertebrates, vertebrates, and even some microbes’ exhibit functions of their internal biological clock. While human beings depend on their circadian clock for their sleep and wake times, plants depend on them for the opening of their stomata, oxygen synthesis, CO2 release, and glucose synthesis. Interestingly, the genes responsible for the organism’s circadian rhythm remain conserved throughout the different stages of evolution.

 

For many years, this question has circulated among diverse communities – including established pairs, new parents, people opting to stay single, young workers buried in their job tasks, and dedicated single careerists – “Do I really need a box spring for my bed?” If you’re tossing and turning, struggling to fall asleep, it’s unlikely that this question is the cause of your insomnia.

However, it is very likely that you need a box spring to be more comfortable in bed. Box springs add more comfort to your bed and give you a better night’s sleep. However, before you make the purchase, there are things you need to know.

What Is A Box Spring?

Modern mattresses come with complete support, and they do not necessarily need the help of a box spring to offer complete comfort. A box spring or a foundation is the base component that can provide optimum support to the mattress. This protects them from wear and tear for long periods of time. People sometimes manage to use the same mattress for more than a decade.

A survey shows that families who manage to preserve the integrity of their mattresses for extended periods of time usually opt for the right box spring while installing the mattress. Any good box spring provides a buffer zone between the bed frame and the mattress. Direct contact between the soft outer cover of a mattress and the wood or metal of the bed frame can increase the wear and tear over the next few years. The presence of a box spring structure can help spread out the impact and absorb the pressure evenly across the entire area.

How Does A Box Spring or Foundation Look and Function?

Any traditional box spring design usually includes a wooden frame and steel support rings. However, modern box springs rarely make use of the springs inside wooden frame designs for the same purpose. Several box springs use heavy gauge wire coils and added steel reinforcements within the wooden grid to improve the support. The top cover of the mattress is usually skid-resistant fabric that can act as a dust-proofing for the mattress and the foundation below. Au contraire, a semi-solid grid box spring consists of a wooden frame and a stiff metal grid that acts as the mattress support.

Many modern manufacturers no longer use real springs in the designs. Many modern designs hold a candle to the old engineering concepts that worked together with the mattress design to provide complete support. They consist of pre-bent birch or beech slats that join the opposite ends of the wooden frame with flexible rubber sockets or shoes. The number of slats dictates the support for the mattress. The closer they are, the more support they provide. These foundations are perfect for memory foam mattresses and latex mattresses. Experts usually refer to the modern box spring designs as foundations as they are more aptly the base of a mattress rather than the shock absorption grid system they used to be.

Why Do People Use Box Springs with Their Mattresses?

Most manufacturers can consider a warranty void if the buyer does not use their new mattress with a box spring. In many cases, the warranty papers and instructions for mattress maintenance does not come with explicit directives to use it with a box spring but coupling it with one always ensures that you get the best warranty services. It provides better support to a sleeping body, and at the same time, the presence of added springs can make a stiffer mattress seem softer.

Another huge advantage of using a box spring is the added height that the mattress receives with the box spring to boost it from below. This makes removing, cleaning and placing the mattress on the bed a much easier task. The biggest advantage of using a dedicated traditional box spring design is the extension of the mattress’ longevity. Buying a costly, ergonomic mattress becomes an investment rather than a recurring expense with the purchase of a traditional, shock absorbent box spring.

Which Mattresses Require Different Types of Bed Bases?

Many users believe that modern mattress designs do not need box springs to function. You should consider a box spring if you use a both-sided innerspring mattress. When the coils of the box spring move with the springs inside the mattress, it can effectively spread out the pressure on the mattress while a person sleeps.

As per expert opinion, a single-sided innerspring or no-flip coil mattress does not last as long as box springs on the bed. At the same time, they also state that if you were to use latex mattresses, you could directly use them on a box spring irrespective of your bed height and type. Nonetheless, latex mattresses are not popular for the preservation of their integrity, and your mattress could sag prematurely if you were to put them directly on box springs.

Both the mattress types we have mentioned here perform much better with a little help from foundations or platform beds. Platform beds do not require a box spring to support latex, memory foam gel or no-flip mattresses.

What Are The Ideal Dimensions of A Box Spring Bed-frame?

Currently, almost all mattress and box spring manufacturers address the personal need of their customers. They design box springs and foundations as per the individual necessities instead of mass producing them like in the past.

• High profile box springs: these are usually 23 cm in height and provide more flex.

• Medium profile box springs: they are between 15 cm to 21.5 cm in height.

• Low profile box springs: these are between 13 cm and 14 cm in height. They are stiffer.

As a result, they are always available in pairs for the best fit. Manufacturers always construct them as per mattress specifications. They usually have the same size as the mattress for optimal support. In case, you want to order or pre-order your box spring set, you should refer to your mattress manufacturer’s size chart.

Here is a general idea about the average size chart of box springs or foundations for your mattresses –

 

Size	Width (inches)	Length (inches)
King	76	80
California king	72	84
Queen	60	80
Full	54	75
Twin	38	75
Twin XL	38	80

A lot of customers are interested in split box springs for split mattresses for the king, California king or queen beds. Experts state that the general bedspring designs for King, California king, and queen beds are ideal for split-style mattresses as well as regular mattresses.

Why Should You Not Use Your Old Bed Base For Your New Mattress?

Those who are thinking about using their old box springs for new mattresses need to read the next part. Consumer services state that old box springs can contribute to substantial amounts of wear and tear to your new mattress. This usually happens due to uneven pressure on the old springs over the last few years. If you are ready to invest in a new mattress that will give you comfort and support, then you should also be ready to invest in a box spring fresh from the mint to protect your mattress. Nonetheless, it can help you save a lot of money on mattress maintenance and reconstruction.

The price of a bedspring will depend on the size of the mattress, the hardness of the mattress (the support it needs) and the manufacturer or brand value. While shopping for a box spring, it is, of course, wiser to find one from a reputable retailer. Experts and reliable consumer reports will tell you to choose a box spring from the mattress dealer you have been shopping from for years. The right box spring may set you back by a good couple of hundreds, but you will not have to worry about your mattress or your back for the coming decade!

Advantages of Using A Box Spring with Your Mattress

Box springs have been around since time immemorial. In the US, the UK, and other European countries, the design has been consistent with the eponymous wooden grid structure and steel springs since the mid-19th century.

Gradually, the use of coil spring mattresses coupled with bedsprings has spread to other countries in the east like China, Japan, India, and Singapore. Box springs offer significant benefits that have led to their widespread acceptance and popularity.  

• Extended lifespan. The even diffusion of pressure all across the inner layers of the mattress with the help of the box springs helps the maintenance of the inner structure of the mattress. Modern mattresses can cost a bomb in case you are looking for special ergonomic designs. The presence of an external support system for your mattress will extend its lifespan beyond the usual 3 to 4 year.

• Reduces sagging. Box springs are ideal for double-sided inner-spring mattresses, and the foundations are ideal for softer mattress varieties including latex, memory foam and single-sided innerspring mattresses. Closely placed wooden slats of a foundation provide optimal support for the softer mattress variants, and the box spring adds to the pressure distribution mechanism of double-sided innerspring mattresses to distribute weight evenly. This prevents sagging.

• Cost-effective. Box springs and foundations are cheaper than other base alternatives for modern mattresses. Even getting a box spring or foundation customized for your exclusive needs can be cheaper than most of the standard alternatives. They also maintain the mattress in proper health for longer, thereby reducing the costs of maintenance or replacement.

• Easier to maintain. It makes taking the mattress off for dusting and maintenance much easier. This is primarily due to the extra height it adds to the mattress

• Complete support. Research shows that spring mattresses on box springs are ideal for people suffering from backaches. If you find it difficult to get out of bed every morning due to muscle soreness or stiffness of the back, you might benefit from the use of a box spring for your double-sided innerspring mattress.

However, modern homeowners often prefer platform beds to box springs since the former comes with storage space. This is ideal for apartment living that understandably creates a dire need for storage. You can easily store containers or add drawers under your platform bed without any added adjustments. Additionally, they are also more aesthetically pleasing.

Most modern homes use memory foam mattresses since the provide complete body support and platform beds are quite ideal for these mattresses. Although they are difficult to move around, platform beds are quite suitable for beds with cheaper and softer mattress types.

Disadvantages of Using A Box Spring

Every rose has its thorn, and every box spring has its con. There might be several advantages of using box springs for your mattresses, but there are a few drawbacks you must consider before you go ahead and invest in one.

A good marketer will always tell you about the disadvantages of a traditional box spring as well as that of a platform or foundation before you can take your credit card out.

• Like everything good and long-lived, box springs need a little maintenance. They can lose their support and integrity over time. This can cause the mattress to sag in places.

• The springs of the grid can weaken over constant use for years. This can lead to the creation of weak spots under the mattress. This will mildly shift the support, but that mild shift can make a lot of difference to the health of the user.

• Box springs leave nearly no space under the bed for storage. If you have some containers and drawers full of backup bed sheets and pillows, you will have to find a new place to stow them away.

• Years of use can wear the frame and the springs down. Several homeowners come in complaining of a backache and leave with new frames or rails each year. Unless you are ready to maintain the box spring properly and turn them from time to time, you should reconsider your plan of investing your hard-earned money on a box spring for your double-sided inner-spring mattress.

However, platform beds have their share of cons too. They do not provide as much support to the vertebra and getting up from sleep each morning can be challenging for people with back problems and arthritis. In fact, the amount of support and comfort you get from your platform bed depends on the quality of the mattress you pick and not the platform at all! This is in sharp contrast to the box springs that provide the infrastructure of support to the entire bed.

Cost of Box Springs and Foundations Today

While buying a mattress, wonders about the necessity of the box spring at least once. Do people need to spend the extra cash? How much should the best box spring for your bed cost? Will that help you save more money in the long run?

In reality, most mattress companies consider their warranty void if you do not use a box spring along with it. In fact, you should think about investing in the box spring that comes with the mattress for the ideal protection of the warranty. If your mattress delivers less than optimum performance while within the warranty period, you can confidently walk up to the seller and challenge their USPs.

A new box spring can cost you between $150 and $200.  However, the lack of a box spring can revoke your right to ask for post-sales services or replacement in many cases. It is common belief that box springs protect the structure of a mattress and sellers uphold this belief.

Alternatives To Box Springs

Due to the lack of storage and aesthetics, a lot of homeowners and interior designers forego box springs altogether. They often settle for replacements and alternatives that can somewhat serve the same purpose as box springs.

Here are a few alternatives people have been using in place of box springs for years now.

• Platform beds. As we have already mentioned, these are more aesthetically pleasing, and they offer greater storage area. However, many platform bed designs take up a lot of space in the room. They come in lots of shapes, sizes and makes. You can choose from upholstered designs, metal and wood combinations, rustic pine finishes and simple navy button details. Platform beds eliminate the need for a box spring, and they have been a favorite of interior designers for a long time now.

• Foundations. They are the solid base for supporting most soft mattresses need to provide complete spinal care. They offer better durability as compared to box springs and adjustable frames. If you are annoyed with your mattress showing dents from continuous sleeping in, you need a foundation to take care of your mattress. Although they are a little more expensive than the platform bed designs, they come in a wide range of materials (including wood and metal). Therefore, you can pick one within your budget.

• Adjustable bed frames. These are the most expensive of all box spring alternatives. Adjustable bed frames are ideal for those suffering from chronic spondylosis, arthritis or lumbago. They are the favorites of all orthopedic specialists since they are capable of providing complete comfort and support to the occupant. They promote healthier postures, improve general blood circulation and reduce inflammation of joints in users. They do not hold impressions of the sleeper, and the adjustable bed frames are ideal for light sleepers, who shift sides to accommodate their weight frequently. These beds allow you to move the foot and the head of the mattress up or down independently. They heed all the pressure points and helps care for joint health.

• Metal bed frames. They are a superior alternative to box springs, although they are not a cost-effective alternative. The metal bed frames are compact and strong. The modern grid design with the ergonomic distribution of the support makes the metal bed frames a great choice for people in need of enhanced mattress support. They are usually sleeker than the common wooden platform beds. They can make rooms appear a lot bigger than they are and they provide added storage space too.

• Bunkie boards. This is one great box spring substitute that can change the way you sleep at night. A Bunkie board usually substitutes a low-profile box spring, where even the lower profile makes the bed too high. Just as the name suggests, they are ideal for use in bunk beds and lofts. In smaller apartments with lower roofs, you can forego box springs for Bunkie board designs that are much sleeker. They usually come in two variants, wood, and steel. Therefore, you can pick a 5-inch model in steel or a 1-inch thick model in wood. If you want to pick a Bunkie board that is slimmer than 1 inch, you should always ensure that it is on additional slats.

These alternatives and substitutes have been around for quite a few decades. They do not always serve the exact purpose as the box spring for your mattress, but they can fulfill the support necessities of your mattress to a certain degree. In case you want to go for any of the alternatives instead of a traditional box spring design, you should consult your mattress company about warranty requirements.  

How Do Box Springs Aid Warranty Considerations?

A mattress warranty usually covers all kinds of physical defects that include sagging. However, this does not mean you can take your mattress back to the seller after two whole years. It simply means that if your mattress sags while no one is on it immediately after buying it or unpacking it, that is a serious warranty issue. Several manufacturers offer a 0.75-inch margin for non-use sags, but the general threshold for mattress sagging is around 1.5 inches for most manufacturers. You will find the fine prints on the warranty papers that you must always double check before leaving the store.

You can measure the level of sagging in your mattress by using a string or a straight line across the surface. Measure the exact level of sag by measuring from the string to the bottom of the sag. You can use a standard ruler for this. Be careful to stick to either the metric system or the imperial system during measurement. This will help you make the correct comparison.

Many customers are not aware of this, but a mattress warranty also covers coils breaking, coils popping from the sides and bunching up of foam at the top. In fact, breaking the seams and other manufacturing defects are also inclusive of the mattress warranty. First, you need to contact your mattress merchant and convey your problem. In case, that does not work out; you need to go to the manufacturer.

How Do Customers Accidentally Void Warranties on Mattresses and Box Springs?

A warranty does not cover comfort issues you might be having with your mattress. That means in case your mattress “feels” lumpy or provides uneven support to your body; you might be out of luck. The level of warranty coverage can vary from one manufacturer to another. However, there are several other incidents can void a warranty.

• Staining your mattress. Eating or drinking in bed is a common practice among millennial homeowners. We love to munch on snacks and slurp our smoothies while watching an episode of our favorite TV series in bed. So, finding the odd stain here and there on the mattress is not very uncommon. However, stains on the mattress can void the warranty, even though it is certain that the stain did not cause the sag! This is primarily because stained mattresses are gross and unsanitary. No company usually wants to deal with a return product that has stains on it. One way to get out of this soup is investing in a waterproof cover for the mattress when you buy one. With kids in the house, there is no telling when something is going to spill on the bed. Waterproof covers do not sound or feel like plastic. They do not reduce the feeling of comfort, and they prevent all kinds of stains, including the sweat stains that collect on the mattress after years of use.

• Bad support. This obviously includes the lack of a box spring. You need proper support for the mattress you want to use for at least the next few years. So, whether you choose the costliest adjustable bed frame, the somewhat inexpensive box spring or the pocket-friendly platform bed, you should be able to comfortably ascertain that your new mattress has all the support it needs for the best performance. Mattress manufacturers usually do not offer warranty services if you do not use a box spring with certain mattress types. In case you do not want to go with a box spring for one reason or another, talk to your manufacturer and find out what their standing is on foundations and slats.

• Not keeping the law tag. This might sound silly, but you cannot remove the law tag at the back of the mattress. It usually says, “Do not remove, under penalty of law.” Removing that tag even by accident instantly voids the warranty. In reality, the law part pertains to the manufacturer or the seller, but when the end-user removes it, the selling party is no longer compelled to provide them after-sales services as the warranty promises. This is essential because that law tag is the only proof that shows that it is the same mattress as you ordered or purchased from the manufacturer. Without this tag, the manufacturer cannot give you the perks of a warranty, even if they wish to.

When you are shopping for a new mattress, you are looking forward to spending quite a pretty sum. You should always consider the warranty and the conditions of the same before you complete your purchase. Warranties can cover more than faulty manufacturing, defective parts and structural flaws for mattresses. For enjoying the full perks of the after-sale services from the manufacturers, always read the fine print of warranty conditions very carefully before paying.

Conclusion: So, Do you Need a Box Spring for Your New Mattress?

Your mattress needs support either in the form of a box spring or an alternative. Either way, you need to research into the advantages and disadvantages of all the prospective support designs you choose before you make the purchase. As we have seen by now, you need a suitable base for your mattress to keep the mattress warranty valid. A perfect box spring can serve you and your bed for decades to come, that’s precisely why you should not think of buying one as an added expense.

Picking the right kind of support for your mattress might seem daunting irrespective of your experience in housekeeping. It is a big expense and a formidable responsibility since it can determine your health and the health of your loved ones too. Now, to find out if your current model of the mattress or your new mattress needs a box spring, you need to ask yourself a few questions.

1. How old is your existing box spring? Is it as old as your old mattress?
2. Does the current mattress feel very saggy? Are there lumps inside? Does your current box spring provide optimum support to your current/old mattress?
3. Why are you changing your old mattress? Is your old mattress support somehow responsible for the damage?
4. What do the warranty conditions on your new mattress state? Is it mandatory for users to opt for box springs?
5. What is your budget? Can you afford a new box spring or a platform bed or a foundation?
6. What is the space available in your bedroom? Do you need extra storage space?

Answering these simple questions with “yes” and “no” can help you understand if your new mattress at all needs a new box spring or a foundation or a new platform bed.

Is it possible that early risers possess health insights unbeknownst to them? Could it be that these morning people are silently dealing with a chronic sleep condition? Or, are we exaggerating completely common sleeping behaviors by reading too much into them? Interestingly enough, studies have found a connection between our genetic makeup and our preference for going to bed early.

When the bedtime advances several hours to sometime between 6 pm and 9 pm, the person is bound to wake up by 4 am or 5 am. People suffering from this kind of a disorder often wake up rejuvenated in the early hours of the morning. Therefore, scientists have rightly monikered this as the advanced sleep phase syndrome.

Why Is Learning About Advanced Sleep Phase Syndrome Necessary for Everyone?

We have seen our grandmothers; great grand uncles and several other elderly members of the family doze off on their armchairs during evening family time or doze at the dinner table. They have been the subject of several harmless family pranks and jokes.

Surprisingly, they were also the most active around the house by the time the first rooster cawed, and that has always intrigued the other younger members of the family. People have always wanted to know how the elderly members of the family suddenly became early risers with age. Some attributed this shift in sleep time to age-related insomnia, and some have blamed their diet on the sudden change.

What Are The Leading Causes of Advanced Sleep Cycle Syndrome In Adults?

Recent research shows a telltale link between the circadian genes in human subjects and their sleep patterns. The circadian genes control the 24-hour body clock in every mammal. This is what controls our responses to daylight and nighttime. Any alteration in the circadian genes or the body clock genes can cause changes inside the body by altering chemical signals. These signals are usually hormones that the body releases in response to daylight or the absence of it. Changes to the circadian clock cause changes in the circadian rhythm and this can lead to several sleep abnormalities like the advanced sleep phase syndrome.

Several studies involving multiple families exhibiting advanced sleep onset showed that this trait passes down from one generation to another in a dominant fashion. Your sleep-wake cycle depends on clock genes. Current research has zeroed in on two such genes that are responsible for controlling the sleep cycles and phases in people. Interestingly, two independent research groups have isolated two similar genes with completely different properties that affect circadian rhythm in human beings. This further underlines the heterogeneous nature of this disorder and explains why it took scientists and doctors so long to recognize advanced sleep phase disorder-like syndromes as clinical disorders.

A study from the Archive of Neurology involving 32 members of a single family with advanced sleep phase syndrome helped in the accurate measurement of the sleep duration in each subject, their melatonin levels, and the sleep onset-offset times. The study used the Horne-Ostberg questionnaire to characterize the extent of the syndrome in each member cum subject. As per observation and interviews, the members reported the average onset time as 9 pm and the average offset time as 5 am. The unaffected family members usually started feeling sleepy at around 12 am and woke up at around 8:30 am. Further studies revealed that the affected members experienced melatonin onset about 3.5 hours earlier than the unaffected members.

Do You Suffer From Advanced Sleep Onset As Well?

However, just because you have been hitting the hay early for a couple of days does not mean you suffer from advanced sleep phase syndrome. Sometimes, increase in fatigue level causes people to fall asleep earlier than usual for a few days. Those who suffer from ASPS do not experience bad quality sleep. The sleep is normal, but the sleep cycles simply occur at early stages. As a result, the body temperature curve also advances in these subjects. Sleep regulates normal human body temperature.

The rise and fall of hormone levels during nighttime sleep can decrease the core temperature of a human being. Since human beings can regulate their body temperatures without external help, the hypothalamus ensures that the body reaches the lowest temperature at around 5 am. A drop in the core (area containing the vital organs like the stomach, lungs, heart, and brain) temperature starts to drop and facilitates sleep.

Research shows that a higher core temperature induces more alertness in human beings. The core temperature usually fluctuates between 96.8o Fahrenheit and 100.4o Fahrenheit in a 24-hour circadian cycle. Further digging into the matter has revealed that early birds experience an early drop in core temperature. They might experience the lowest temperature dip at around 12 am to 2 am, instead of the more common 5 am or 6 am. They are most alerts at around 5 am or 6 am, when their core temperature reaches its peak.

What Is The Worst Effect of Advanced Sleep Phase Disorder?

People suffering from advanced sleep syndrome often report feeling aloof and forlorn. While a lot of doctors used to think there were disjointed cases of depression, modern research shows that the lack of time to socialize in the evenings, the lack of family dinners and hobnobs with friends, may be responsible for these feelings.

Advanced sleep-wake phase is not a conventional effect of depression in human adults. However, the lack of time to socialize due to early sleep onset is a major dampener of adult social life. As a result, people with advanced sleep phase syndrome often report the lack of socialization, participation in family activities, the avoidance of community activities and a serious dearth of social relationships. The lack of a proper evening’s time is one of the major drawbacks of having ASPS.

For the lucky ones, getting a good night’s sleep is regular, and they do not need their lucky stars to align to fall asleep “on time” each night after they get home. Some people close their eyes and fall asleep within 10 minutes of getting into bed. The unlucky ones often have to pray to stay awake beyond 7 pm or stay in bed after 4 am. The problem is much lesser for adults, who live alone. Married couples, especially couples with kids often find it difficult to adjust to aberrant sleep schedules like the ones ASPS causes.

ASPS can not only disrupt social life, but it can also cause a lot of problems within a family. Sleep and sleep schedules often so erratic in families where one or multiple members suffer from ASPS that leaving home, making dinner plans or involving all members in family activities becomes an ordeal. The problem becomes worse due to the lack of awareness about advanced sleep phase syndromes and other related sleep disorders that do not involve the lack of sleep, but the unpredictable hours of sleep.

Is there any hope for those falling asleep incredibly early regularly?

Modern science and medicine have opened new doors that facilitate the treatment of different kinds of sleep disorders. For years, people did not deem advanced sleeping phase syndrome as a sleeping disorder, but right now researchers categorize it as one since it disrupts the normal flow of life for many. They have been exploiting the factors that control circadian rhythm to control and correct aberrant sleep patterns in human subjects potentially.

The circadian pacemaker is present in the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN) of the human brain. This center responds to both bright light and melatonin levels in the system. Therefore, these two factors provide the best pathways of treatment for advanced sleep phase syndrome in adults.

Train Your Brain To Tell The Time: Delay The Onset of Your Advanced Sleep Cycle

A rather popular technique that can potentially treat sleep disorders including ASPS is chronotherapy. You could say that chronotherapy is a way to reschedule sleep. This process worked in case of advanced sleep phase disorders and delayed sleep phase disorders. Unlike insomnia or sleep apnea, cases of sleep phase disorders do not involve the lack of sleep or the lack of good quality sleep.

The people suffering from these disorders only experience the onset of sleep at socially unacceptable hours. Therefore, any method that can reset their circadian rhythm can potentially be beneficial for their treatment and cure. In fact, several cases of ASPS report an improvement of their sleep onset and offset timing after accepting chronotherapy. This can be because, contrary to popular belief, children also suffer from ASPS. In most cases, these children inherit the disorder from one or both of their parents who suffer from it.

Doctors often shy away from subjecting children to melatonin therapy or sleeping medication, but results have proved practices of chronotherapy that do not involve the use of hormones or somnolent to be quite effective and devoid of side effects.

You can train your system to adopt a good sleep schedule. A proper schedule for sleep is the only way you can prevent insomnia and keep ASPS at bay. Time training your circadian clock is a proven way of keeping all kinds of existing advanced sleep phase syndrome away for a long time. People who have undergone sleep scheduling chronotherapy have reported long-term improvement in their sleep disorders without any dependency on sleeping medication.

Here is a very simple method even you can try to re-train your biological clock to perform on schedule.

1. Find a Sleep Pattern

Most people would find it bizarre to pick a sleep pattern that does not involve at least 6 hours of continuous sleep. This is the conventional sleep pattern for most people in the US. This monophasic sleep pattern involves falling asleep by 11 pm and waking up by 7 am for most.

If you find it difficult to stay asleep for continuous hours, you can pick a biphasic pattern. This is common among a lot of people, who have been suffering from advanced or delayed sleep syndromes for long periods of time. A biphasic sleep pattern involves a night sleep of 5 to 7 hours and a siesta of 30 minutes to one hour in the afternoon. Older people or stay-at-home adults will find it easier to practice a biphasic sleep pattern.

Polyphasic sleep patterns also exist among the mammalian kingdom, but the human circadian clock is not ideal for adapting one of the polyphasic sleep patterns. Especially since you are possible here looking for a solution to advanced sleep phase syndrome, adopting a polyphasic sleep pattern may prove to be counterintuitive to your cause.

2. Choose Your Sleep and Wake Times

This is easier said than done! You need to find a time that works for your body and everyone else in the house. You cannot fall asleep at 9 pm because it is easier for you if you are sure that you will have leftover office work every day till 10 pm! You need to find a schedule that accommodates your sleep pattern comfortably. It often helps to do a reverse set up.

First, find out what time you need to be awake each morning. If you need to wake up by 7 am, your bedtime should be 11 pm. No matter what your peers try to tell you, it is normal for an adult body to seek a complete 8 hours rest at night. The lack of proper rest each night can result in compromised cognitive abilities, slower response to stimulus and worsened decision-making abilities. To be alert and productive throughout the day, you need to plan your sleep and wake times carefully.

3. Move to the New Schedule

This is going to be by far the most challenging thing you have done to date. Abandoning a sleep schedule, you have followed for months or even years, and shifting to a new one may seem impossible. Honestly, it will be impossible, if you do not plan it out well enough.

Always remember that the trick is to shift your body clock by 1 hour each day. If you are falling asleep by 7 pm or 8 pm each day, you need to (without the help of caffeine) stay awake one added hour each day. It helps to stay in bed for an added hour each morning either. It sends a message to your body that it is the time to rest and relax, and that the day has not begun yet.

If you have the habit of taking a shower before going to bed or brushing your teeth right before, you should push these activities an hour back to tell your body and mind that it is not yet sleepy-time. It is very normal to feel zombie-ish every day for at least 3 to 4 weeks till you feel settled in the new schedule. You will feel the urge to fall asleep early once a week or so, just for old time’s sake, but you need to overcome this urge. Giving in one day will bring you back to square one, and you will have to reset your sleep schedule all over again.

Calibrating your body clock will help your body make sense of the new timings. You cannot go through life forcing sleep times and wake times on your body. Sleep disorders are a result of myriads of different factors working on the circadian genes and receptors. This means that there is a chance that your body is “misinterpreting” the signs that command the sleep-wake cycle in the human system. Feeling the urge to ask for professional help is completely understandable in a case of sleep training or rescheduling.

Modern sciences have provided several recovery techniques for people suffering from a plethora of sleep disorders. The two most popular ways to adjust sleep schedules or aid chronotherapy are natural light therapy and melatonin therapy.

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Think Bright: External Light Sources Can Modulate Advance Sleep Phase Syndrome

Several cases of ASPS have shown that light therapy often works better in combination with strategic avoidance of light, scheduled physical exercises, sleep preventing medication at the right time and sleep-promoting medication before bed.

A thorough study by Auger et al. in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine in 2015 showed that light stimulation in the evening and the final core body temperature delays lead to phase advances. The increase in light intensity directly corresponds to an increase in these phase shifts.

Scientists have known for a few years that an increase in light intensity can lead to the suppression of melatonin levels in the body. Chronotherapy in combination with phototherapy yields the best results for all patients.

How Can External Light Make Changes Inside The Body?

The human body clock depends greatly on the external light stimulus. Our brains do not exactly have a 24-hour body clock set since our birth. Just like a lot of other factors, the brain “teaches” itself to process the light and darkness cues. That is the reason why almost everyone experiences jetlag while traveling from one-time zone to another or people shifting to areas of the midnight sun often experience problem sleeping.

The body clock resets itself according to the light from the sun (or any other bright source of light as research shows). Thus, when you expose your body to the sun or any bright source of light at an hour before expectation, it resets an hour early. If you delay the exposure to light by an hour, this delays the sleep response by almost an hour. However, the human body and its circadian rhythm are not as simple. It involves quite some factors including at least two gene products to complete the response.

As a result, scientists now often use light to control the melatonin responses in the human body. Melatonin secretion is responsible for the onset of sleep time, and the stimulation of the SCN with bright light can suppress the production of melatonin for long hours.

The doctors studying the patients suffering from sleep disorders (ASPS) for over three months found it more useful to treat them to a lack of bright light in the early hours of the day. The pretreatment phase coupled with bright light therapy in the evening often yielded better results in patients. Further research shows that the strategic avoidance of light can help delay the onset of sleep with the help of bright light therapy. However, studies fail to recognize an optimal dose of melatonin that the patients should receive in coordination with their bright light therapy for improvement of their ASPS.

How Do Doctors Administer Phototherapy for ASPS?

Seasonal depression has always been a reality and research showed that people who opted for bright white light therapy experienced relief from their symptoms, including the lack of sleep. This began in 1982 when science was taking baby-steps into the domain of biological clocks in plants and mammals. The basics of wavelength selection for light therapy has changed over the years, and scientists have fine-tuned their therapy procedures over the last few years, but the name “bright list therapy” has stuck.

Modern research shows that light from the visible region of the green spectrum is the most effective in stimulating the circadian systems in human beings. A lot of incredulous sources highlight the effectiveness of blue light for the treatment of ASPS, but research teams from Harvard have recently elucidated the harmful effects of high energy blue light on the retina.

A Stanford Health Care study shows that a light source of 10,000 lux can easily stimulate melatonin suppression in subjects after exposure of about 30 minutes to 90 minutes. Bright light therapy in the evenings (between 7 pm and 9 pm) can delay the circadian rhythm, induce better sleep at night and maintain proper sleep quality. In fact, for people suffering from insomnia like symptoms due to chronic disruption of their sleep-wake cycle can also benefit from the regular exposure to bright light therapy.

It is very necessary for the patients to seek the help of a specialist to push their sleep cycle back to stay awake longer. Some people prefer to continue their phototherapy sessions for life, while others gradually wean themselves off the therapy over a year or so. People have found exposing themselves to phases of bright light for about 15 minutes or so to be helpful in overcoming advanced sleep phase syndrome.

A Little Help From Your Friends: Melatonin Administration Therapy Can Boost Recovery From Advanced Sleep Phase Syndrome

All kinds of phototherapy and chronotherapy work best when melatonin treatment accompanies them. As we already know, melatonin boosts the sleep onset time in individuals. The concentration of melatonin in the system varies daily between sleep hours and the daytime. During wakefulness, people experience the lowest levels of melatonin. This keeps us awake, aware and responsive to stimuli.  

The careful administration of melatonin can advance people’s sleep onset, but this hormone has found its way into the treatment of advanced sleep phase syndrome. As per the study by Emens and Eastman in 2015, melatonin stimulation can result in higher levels of the biological compound in the system for hours. This can both stimulate the advancement and the delay of melatonin in the system. Introducing phase delay through the administration of melatonin has been a part of sleep cycle resetting for quite a few years.

How Can A Sleep-inducing Agent Delay The Onset of ASPS?

This can be a bit confusing for a lot of people. It is after all the same molecule that is introducing both delays and advancement in the phase cycles. How is that possible? It is possible because melatonin cannot act alone. It needs external stimulus in the form of light to act.

Further research into the matter reveals that controlled introduction of melatonin along with exposure to bright light in the evening (4 to 6 hours) before ideal bedtime results in a significant delay of sleep onset. While starting melatonin treatment, you should be very careful to consult a sleep specialist and your general physician.

Melatonin is a natural component of the body, and aberrant dosages can result in some physiological and psychological challenges. Any patient about to undergo melatonin and bright light therapy should take the process and doses very seriously.

Does Melatonin Treatment for Advanced Sleep Onset Have Side Effects?

Melatonin administration can have side effects like feeling hung-over or drowsy the next morning, sudden onset of sleepiness during the afternoon and feeling of confusion or the lack of orientation the following day. Some people often react in strange ways to melatonin, and they experience vivid dreams and nightmares during the melatonin administration. These are all serious side effects, so the patient has to be very careful while remaining in therapy.

In case you believe your dose to be insufficient for some reason; you should never increase the quantity of intake. You should immediately contact your doctor for an immediate check of the melatonin level in your body. The same goes for people who are experiencing increasing side effects of melatonin therapy. Several countries do not support melatonin therapy. The doctors usually recommend the use of standardized melatonin agonists that look and behave like melatonin for the treatment procedure.  

Why Is The Treatment for Advanced Sleep Phase Disorder So Diverse?

Any advanced sleep-wake phase disorder treatment aims to align the biological clock with the external clock. Advanced sleep-wake phase is usually common among older men and women. This disorder shows no gender bias, and it can occur equally in both men and women. Modern day research shows that adolescents and children may also exhibit cases of advanced sleep onset, but in most cases, physicians or parents dismiss them as results of increasing fatigue.

Several genes are responsible for controlling the sleep-wake cycle in mammals, and research shows that mutation of these genes or the inheritance of mutations in these genes from parents can lead to sleeping disorders in the next generation. Since ASPS occurs mostly in the older population, it is much easier to treat them to phototherapy, monitored scheduling and melatonin treatments.

The causes of ASPS can vary from person to person. There is no fixed age for the onset of this syndrome. As a result, it is difficult for doctors to diagnose the problem within a short span of time decisively. More often than not, adults do not seek medical help as their sleep onset time advances through the evening. The simply rely on coffee, tea, and other caffeinated products to stay alert till it is time for bed.

In most cases, old people in the modern society either live alone or in homes for the aged. As a result, it is very common for a majority of the residents to fall asleep early. It does not strike as odd or a disorder to the other inhabitants, caregivers or resident nurses. We have a hard-set belief that children and the elderly should always go to bed early. So, when grandma dozes off on the couch or grandpa falls asleep at the dinner table, it is no more than a funny incident. Years of not looking at something so common as a syndrome has led to a delay in research and treatment of advanced sleep cycle syndrome in adults.

Finally, with the help of light therapy, melatonin therapy, physical exercises, sleep rescheduling and resetting of sleep routines people with advanced sleep cycle disorders are finding relief from their premature sleep onset. There is again the hope of having a social life for thousands of people out there, who could not manage to stay awake beyond 7 pm at a time. The correct therapy from an experienced medical expert can finally help you become the amiable host, life of the party and the entertaining companion you once were.