To be honest, it’s kinda annoying how much sleep affects almost every aspect of our bodies. Miss a couple hours of sleep and you’ll spend the day feeling lethargic, unfocused and even hungrier.  Poor sleep quality can be especially bad for your mental health. Irritation, increased stress, mood swings — all these are classic symptoms of sleep deprivation. Prolonged sleep deprivation can result in more severe and chronic mental health issues like depression.  How (and Why) Sleep Affects Your Mental Health  Most of our mental health happens in our brains. That's where neurons and other structures trigger and process emotions.  Sleep is extremely important for brain health. When you sleep, your brain gets time to recover and clear out waste...

Sleep and exercise have what researchers call a bidirectional relationship. That is, they affect each other. If one gets worse, the other also gets worse. If you improve one, the other also improves.   You’ve likely experienced this yourself. On days you work out, especially in the morning, you may have noticed that you sleep better and deeper that night and probably even the next couple of nights. On the other hand, on nights you don't get enough sleep, it’s hard to work up the energy to go to the gym.  How Exercise Affects Sleep Quality  Study after study has proven that working out helps you sleep better. Here are the biggest effects of sleep on exercise.   It Reduces Sleep Onset...

Take a moment and think about how you feel when you walk into your bedroom. Does it feel calm and relaxed? Does it make you look forward to getting into bed? Does it feel like getting into your own little sanctuary? It matters a big deal how your bedroom feels. A bedroom that feels good makes for better quality sleep. On the other hand, if you don't like how your bedroom looks or feels, then you might struggle with sleep issues.  One of the best ways to get better sleep is to turn your bedroom into a sleep sanctuary. Here are five easy ways to do it.  1. Pick Calming Colors Color sets the tone of a room. Your favorite...

Hot flashes occur in different forms. Some women describe partial discomfort on just some areas of their body like their face and chest while others get hot all over.  But one thing is true for most hot flashes — they are incredibly uncomfortable. I’ve seen people say it feels like someone has opened an oven right next to you or being trapped in a hot car.  Nighttime hot flashes (usually accompanied by night sweats) are particularly awful since they interrupt your sleep and can lead to sleep disorders like chronic insomnia. This introduces even more problems like fatigue, loss of focus, irritability and increased risk of various health issues like obesity and diabetes.  Here are some strategies for cooling down...

Sleep is one of the few things that everyone from infants to grandma, needs plenty of. Children need more of it than anyone else. Newborns need 12-16 hours of sleep while toddlers and older kids need between 9 and 14 hours of sleep.  Why the heck is sleep so important for kids and what can parents do to establish healthy sleeping habits in their children?  How Much Sleep Do Children Need? The exact number of hours of sleep will vary from child to child, but they should be within a certain range. Here’s how much sleep the Texas Children's Hospital recommends.  0-1 year old infants — 16 hours 1-2 year old toddlers — 11 to 14 hours 3-5 year old...

Oneirology. That’s the scientific study of dreams.  Despite having an entire branch of science dedicated to studying and understanding dreams, we still don’t know for sure the mechanism of dreaming or even why humans dream at all.  There’s lots of theories though. We explore the most interesting ones below.  What Happens When We Dream?  Most of our dreaming occurs in the REM (rapid eye movement) stage of sleep (we have a blog post all about sleep stages). When you close your eyes and drift off, you go through three stages of non-REM sleep before getting into the REM dream stage.  While the brain has some activity throughout all sleep stages, it becomes hyperactive in REM sleep. In fact, when measured,...

Shift work refers to any work that falls outside the usual daytime work hours. Shift workers typically work in the evening, at night or very early in the morning.  Because of the unusual work periods shift workers are at a higher risk of sleep problems like insomnia, sleepiness and reduced sleep quality. This can in turn cause fatigue, high stress levels, higher risk of various health problems and an overall lower quality of life.  Shift Work Sleep Disorder Sleep problems in shift workers can build up to a point of turning into a serious disorder. It’s called shift work sleep disorder or SWSD.  It occurs because of disruptions to the circadian rhythm. Your body clock knows that darkness means it’s...

People often describe jet lag as feeling very tired but you cannot sleep. Your body is telling you one thing (you need to sleep and rest) but your new environment dictates that you must stay awake.  Jet lag has no cure but there are things you can do to help your body adjust faster to a new time zone. There are also ways to reduce the impact of jet lag before and during your flight.  What Causes Jet Lag? Your body runs on a 24-hour clock that responds to daylight and darkness. This clock, often called the circadian rhythm, directs various processes in the body.  For example, your body releases melatonin at night to help you sleep. Sunlight triggers the...

College kids get sick a lot. They are usually not serious ailments. The most common ones include the flu, mono, stomach flu, and acne. Nevertheless, these health issues can seriously affect their studies and overall college life.  Below, we explain why college kids get sick so often, why even simple illnesses can be detrimental to their social and academic life, and what college parents (and the college kids themselves) can do about it.   Most Common Illnesses Among College Students Because of the dense social environment, the most common illnesses in college are those that easily spread from person to person. The flu tops the list of common college ailments followed by upper respiratory tract infections that cause coughing, sneezing, runny...

We often don’t talk about sleep and nutrition, but they are connected. Your diet can have a big influence on the quality of your sleep. Processed foods, especially simple carbs, can mess with your sleep quality.  On the other hand, foods like fish, nuts and certain herbal teas can help you sleep better. In this post, we look at some of the best foods (and drinks) for sleep. Add these to your diet to tackle insomnia and other sleep difficulties.  The Most Important Nutrients for Sleep We can’t include every food that’s good for sleep and even some of those we discuss may not be accessible to everyone. It’s more important to know what nutrients you need for sleep. You...