Monthly Archives: June 2014

We’ve all heard about the problems that sleep partners experience as a result of snoring, or more importantly about the numerous times that a sleep partner (usually a wife) ends up saving her husband’s life by insisting on a sleep study after hearing them gasp for breath in the middle of the night. But what happens when your sleep partner problems are less a matter of life and death than an issue of night owl versus early bird. When opposites attract comes down to having different sleeping styles, it can mean real problems for a relationship. Fortunately, there are a number of ways that these differences can be resolved. Whether your issue is that one of you likes the bedroom warm and the other cool or that one of you likes to stay up late reading while the other gets us at the crack of dawn (or before) to go out for a run, here are some tips to make your bed a more harmonious place.  Continue reading →

One of the main reasons people give for why they aren’t buying a new mattress (despite knowing that it’s time to buy one) is that they are concerned about the high prices. But a recent survey by the International Sleep Products Association (ISPA) shows that the average price for a mattress was just $286.29 in 2013, up from 3.1 percent the year before. The ISPA is a trade organization that releases statistical data on the industry. The information may seem surprising, but that may be because the pricey beds that are on the market are the ones that are getting the most attention, but more conservatively priced beds are still the most popular.  Continue reading →

Though hypnosis has long had its doubters, it has long been offered up as an alternative for those who were suffering from insomnia. There are an enormous number of sleep hypnosis tapes and videos available online, and a burgeoning “sleep whisperer” industry that may not exactly entail hypnosis but offers a type of relaxation therapy that has its adherents and loyal followers. Despite anecdotal information and feedback about the success that insomniacs may have experienced from listening to these hypnosis tapes, a new scientific study is opening many eyes, as it has shown that hypnosis has real, measurable benefits for those suffering from sleep issues, and specifically for people whose slow wave sleep cycles are too short. Continue reading →

While most physicians, sleep researchers and other health advocates are setting themselves the goal of helping people to improve the quality of their sleep with the intention of simply improving health, mental acuity over quality of life, some are aiming higher and aspiring to sleep-related goals that smack of the stuff of science fiction. Some innovators are going far beyond simply helping us to get the seven to nine hours that so many of us hope to get and are instead working on innovative ways to manipulate the relationship between mind and body and to make sleep more productive and more controllable. Here are some of the more interesting notions that scientists are working on. Continue reading →

It’s well known that if you are sleeping with a person who snores loudly every night, it can put your relationship in jeopardy – and may be a sign that their health is in jeopardy too. But what else can we learn about the health of our relationships from what happens when we’re asleep? Turns out that there is a lot to be learned from what goes on between the sheets – and we’re not talking about sex…. We’re talking about the position that the two of you sleep in. Continue reading →