Monthly Archives: August 2014

Binge drinking, defined as drinking four or more alcoholic drinks on one occasion, is an activity that is usually associated with young people – college kids or twenty-somethings who are partying the night away. But it happens in all age groups, and a recent study has tied regular binge -drinking activities to a higher risk for suffering from symptoms of insomnia. Continue reading →

Anybody who has ever experienced a panic attack knows that they can leave you convinced that you are staring death in the face, but a daytime panic attack pales in comparison to the experience of a panic attack that awakens you from a deep sleep. Chest pain, the inability to take in air, dizziness, tingling fingers, all combined with an overwhelming anxiety would make anybody think that they were in the midst of a sudden heart attack.  The terror is not easily abated, even after the emergency room informs you that you are fine.  Continue reading →

Insomnia and sleep deprivation are an all-too common side effect of today’s busy schedules, and the need for society to place a higher priority on getting more sleep is being called for more frequently by sleep specialists and health advocates nationally and internationally. Though some choose their extended hours and purposely put off getting the rest that they need, others struggle every day with their inability to fall asleep easily, stay solidly asleep throughout the night, or the issue of awakening too early and then being unable to return to sleep. All of these problems fall under the umbrella of insomnia. Continue reading →

Alzheimer’s disease impacts millions of American adults. The degenerative disease is the most common form of dementia among the elderly, and has no known cure. It is estimated that ten percent of adults over the age over 65 and fifty percent of those over 85 have the disease, and that by the middle of the 21^st century there will be 14 million people in the United States suffering from the disease.  With seven out of ten Alzheimer’s patients living at home with family members and friends providing care, there is a very real need to find solutions to some of the disease’s most challenging symptoms and characteristics.

Alzheimer’s is characterized by a number of worrying symptoms, and one that is extremely difficult to handle outside of a care facility with lock-down capabilities is the fact that the patients often awaken in the middle of the night. The sleep disturbances of Alzheimer’s involve frequent awakenings, reduced REM sleep, and daytime napping, all of which make security and supervision difficult. The lack of quality sleep also undoubtedly contributes to the confusion that Alzheimer’s patients experience. Many Alzheimer’s patients end up suffering complete shifts in the normal sleep/wake cycle, , spending 40% of nighttime hours awake and many daytime hours asleep. Continue reading →

It’s happened to all of us. We’ve gone to bed with full optimism that we were going to get a full eight hours of sleep, only to find ourselves staring at the clock in the wee hours of the morning. Sometimes it’s that we never really got to sleep in the first place, and other times it is a matter of having woken up at an ungodly hour and then not being able to fall back to sleep. You’re left staring at the clock, wishing that you could count sheep instead of the minutes clicking by, focused intently on just how tired you are going to feel the next morning, how useless you will be at work or in a meeting, or worse yet on the test that you’re scheduled to take the next day. There is nothing quite like the torture of knowing how badly you need to get seven or eight solid hours of sleep and struggling with the knowledge that at best you’re only going to get four or five.  Continue reading →