The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that somewhere between 50 and 70 million adults in the United States have chronic sleep and wakefulness disorders.

 Not surprisingly, approximately one-third of adults are sleeping fewer than 7 hours each night – the National Sleep Foundation recommends 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night for most adults. 

According to the National Institutes of Health, sleep disorders account for approximately $16 billion in annual health care costs, and Cornell University psychologist and sleep expert James Maas estimates that sleep deprivation and sleep disorders cost the American economy at least $150 billion a year!

If these stats don’t worry you, maybe these CDC findings will. Sleep deprivation is not only costly, but dangerous too. After a review of national behavioral health data, the federal agency found:

• More than 1 in 3 adults (37.9%) said they unintentionally fell asleep during the day at least once in 30 days.
• Nearly 1 in 20 adults (4.7%) reported nodding off or falling asleep while driving at least once in 30 days.

Most recently, a study by researchers at Scripps Clinic Viterbi Family Sleep Centre in San Diego has linked hypnotic sleeping pills to a 4.6 percent greater risk of death and a 35 percent increased risk of cancer among regular pill users.

What many people do not realize is that getting a better night’s sleep may be as simple (and as safe) as changing their pillows. According to the Johns Hopkins Hospital Neck-Pain and Quality-of-Sleep Study published in the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, proper selection of a pillow can significantly reduce neck pain and improve quality of sleep. In this same study, the Mediflow Waterbase pillow was shown to improve the quality of sleep (and reduce neck pain) best, over all pillows tested.

The Johns Hopkins study examined four factors: (1) How quickly subjects fell asleep, (2) How few times subjects woke up, (3) Perceptions of sleep compared to normal, and (4) Overall quality of sleep. Mediflow’s water-based pillow ranked “Best” in all four categories when compared to the others tested. 

Before turning to pharmaceuticals or other more drastic measures, you should make sure to examine the factors that might be contributing to your sleep problems. The answer to your insomnia may be simpler than you think.

When I was a child, my older relatives attempted to deter me from staying up past my bedtime by warning me that I would get sick if I didn’t get enough sleep.

Of course, I never listened. Considering this expert health advice was coming from the same people who insisted I would drown unless I waited a full hour to swim after eating and that if I swallowed my chewing gum it would stay in my stomach for seven years, my lack of adherence was not unfounded.

But it turns out, my mom’s claims were not without medical merit.

A 2009 study challenged conventional theories of sleep evolution when it compared the sleep durations of numerous mammals to the species’ susceptibility to infection. The study found that sleep does influence immunity, as the species that slept the longest suffered substantially reduced levels of parasitic infection.

Studies in humans have proven that lack of sleep negatively affects your immune system. Lack of sleep increases the production of inflammatory cytokines in your body. Cytokines, which are infection-fighting proteins, interact with cells of the immune system in order to regulate the body's response to disease and infection. When your body overproduces these proteins, you will feel the effects of the sickness your body normally would be fighting.

Furthermore, sleep deprivation not only plays a role in whether we come down with illnesses; it also influences how we fight illnesses once we are sick.

So I guess I have to admit that my mom  was right on this one. As for that chewing gum, well, there might still be some inside of me somewhere – you never know.

Need help getting more sleep? Watch Mediflow’s Top Ten Sleep Tips video.

 

We’ve all read countless articles and studies about how physical factors can affect your sleep. Light, noise, temperature and even your diet can contribute to insomnia (this just in, washing down a pizza with a six pack of beer and passing out in your clothes with the music blaring does NOT contribute to restful slumber).

However, there is overwhelming evidence that emotional and mental factors can also affect sleep. And because colors have been shown to impact people’s mood, it makes sense that the colors you choose for your sheets, curtains and walls in your bedroom can influence your sleep.

Red, for example, appears to be the worst possible color to add to your bedroom. Red is often associated with intensity, blood and violence. Psychological testing has shown that when subjects are exposed to the color red, blood pressure rises and the heartbeat speeds up. These physiological changes can stimulate appetite (red is often used in restaurants) and further exacerbate nervousness and tension (which could affect your ability to perform in academic situations). Therefore, your red bedroom walls could potentially leave you tired, overweight and even less intelligent!

Blue, on the other hand, has been shown to lower blood pressure and stimulate the pituitary gland, which regulates and controls the release of adrenaline into our system. Psychologically, most people associate the color blue with the coolness and calm of night. Green has a similar effect, stimulating relaxing thoughts of nature and renewal. Thus, a bedroom with cool shades of blue and green has the most potential in terms of helping you sleep.

If you are one of millions of Americans struggling to sleep at night, before turning to pricey doctors and sleep aids, why not try giving your bedroom an inexpensive makeover? A fresh coat of paint, a new pair of sheets and of course, a soothing new . water pillow . to enable stress-free, uninterrupted sleep – and you might be surprised at how slightly altering you mental state helps improve your physical well-being.


Sources:
http://insomniacuredjs.com/how_colors_can_affect_your_sleep.php
http://thesleepsecretebook.com/blog/tag/pituitary-gland
http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2008/04/25/avoid-before-exams-can-a-color-make-you-dumber