Lack of sleep may be deadly

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Lack of sleep may be deadly, research shows

People who get too few Zzzz's twice as likely to die of heart disease

Updated: 3:52 p.m. PT Sept 24, 2007

LONDON - People who do not get enough sleep are more than twice as likely to die of heart disease, according to a large British study released on Monday.

Although the reasons are unclear, researchers said lack of sleep appeared to be linked to increased blood pressure, which is known to raise the risk of heart attacks and stroke.

A 17-year analysis of 10,000 government workers showed those who cut their sleeping from seven hours a night to five or less faced a 1.7-fold increased risk in mortality from all causes and more than double the risk of cardiovascular death.

The findings highlight a danger in busy modern lifestyles, Francesco Cappuccio, professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Warwick's medical school, told the annual conference of the British Sleep Society in Cambridge.

"A third of the population of the U.K. and over 40 percent in the U.S. regularly sleep less than five hours a night, so it is not a trivial problem," he said in a telephone interview.

"The current pressures in society to cut out sleep, in order to squeeze in more, may not be a good idea — particularly if you go below five hours."

Previous research has highlighted the potential health risks of shift work and disrupted sleep. But the study by Cappuccio and colleagues, which was supported by British government and U.S. funding, is the first to link duration of sleep and mortality rates.

The study looked at sleep patterns of participants aged 35-55 years at two points in their lives — 1985-88 and 1992-93 — and then tracked their mortality rates until 2004.

The results were adjusted to take account of other possible risk factors such as initial age, sex, smoking and alcohol consumption, body mass index, blood pressure and cholesterol.

The correlation with cardiovascular risk in those who slept less in the 1990s than in the 1980s was clear but, curiously, there was also a higher mortality rate in people who increased their sleeping to more than nine hours.

In this case, however, there was no cardiovascular link and Cappuccio said it was possible that longer sleeping could be related to other health problems such as depression or cancer-related fatigue.

"In terms of prevention, our findings indicate that consistently sleeping around seven hours per night is optimal for health," he said.

[Bent_Bladi]

eh shou bidna nsawwi khaito!? what are the students to do?

[amalgamate]

Men sleep best beside mate; women sleep worse
Rest was more fragmented for females in shared bed, study found

By Linda Carroll
MSNBC contributor
Updated: 4:10 a.m. PT Oct 3, 2007

Lori Taylor would love to sleep next to her husband — if his snoring and thrashing weren’t guaranteed to keep her awake all night.
Still, the 48-year-old New York City teacher has mixed feelings about choosing to sleep in separate beds.

“There’s something nice about the warmth of a human body next to you, even if you’re not sleeping as well,” says Taylor, who has slept apart from her husband off and on for the last five of her 11-year marriage. “When you’re in bed together you’re in a little private space on your own time. Cuddling up on the couch with the phone ringing isn’t the same.”

Taylor's trouble getting a good night's rest next to her husband isn't unusual. Women sleep less soundly when they share a bed with a romantic partner, a study published this month in Sleep and Biological Rhythms found.

Surprisingly, men actually sleep better when they sleep next to a woman.

There are a lot more couples sleeping separately than you might guess, says Mark Mahowald, director of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center in Minneapolis and a professor of neurology at the University of Minnesota Medical School. An estimated 23 percent of American couples sleep apart, according to a survey by the National Sleep Foundation. A Canadian study reported that 34 percent of couples hit the sack separately.

Women may have a tougher time sharing a bed because men are much more likely to be snorers, says Mahowald. And often, it’s the woman who has to move to a different bed — or room, in some cases — when the decibel level of her husband's snoring crescendos to an intolerable level.

But snoring may not be the only problem for women who’d like to spoon all through the night.

Device measured movements
For the study, Austrian researchers asked 10 committed couples, ages 21 to 31, to wear a small device called an actigraph on their wrists while they slept at home. An actigraph, which resembles a wristwatch, keeps track of a person’s movements during the night and chronicles their periods of sleep and wakefulness.

The actigraphs showed that the women’s sleep was more fragmented on nights when they shared a bed, than when they slept alone. The differences weren’t huge, but they were significant.

The researchers speculated that women's fretful sleep might be caused by brain wiring differences between men and women. Women tend to be lighter sleepers because they historically have been the ones caring for infants, the researchers suggested.

The actigraph's measurements would most likely have been even more distinct if the couples in the study had been older, says sleep expert Michael Perlis. That’s because snoring becomes more of an issue as men age, explains Perlis, director of the Sleep Research Lab and an associate professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Rochester in Rochester, N.Y.

Psychologist Wendy Troxel isn’t surprised to see that men do better when sleeping in a shared bed. Studies have shown that men are very dependent on close relationships — contrary to popular stereotypes, says Troxel, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh who has studied how the quality of a relationship affects overall health and sleep in men and women.

In general, men show much clearer benefits from committed relationships, Troxel says. “My research shows that married men are much happier and healthier than unmarried men," she adds. “The findings are much less consistent with women.”

Willing to sacrifice for a snuggle
Noting that a good night’s sleep is important to daytime functioning, the Austrian researchers suggested that couples might consider the possible deleterious effects of sleeping together and choose separate beds instead.
But Perlis and other sleep experts aren’t convinced that this is the best plan.

“At the end of the day, there’s something essentially comforting about this behavior — so much so that people are sometimes willing to sacrifice perfect sleep to get it,” Perlis says. “I’d be hard pressed to imagine recommending with a cheerful heart for people to sleep apart.”

Perlis and other experts suggest couples look for solutions to snoring and other sleep problems before turning to separate beds. “I’d recommend ear plugs, whatever it takes,” Perlis says. “That’s also partly a personal judgment.”

Ear plugs have helped Taylor and her husband sleep through the night on vacations when the couple needed to share a bed. But, she says, they don’t help enough to make a shared bed work at home.

“I’d like him to go get a sleep study,” she adds. “But so far he’s been unwilling to do that.”

[amalgamate]

eh shou bidna nsawwi khaito!? what are the students to do?

I'm getting to that...



observe,

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وَخَلَقْنَاكُمْ أَزْوَاجًا
And (have We not) created you in pairs, (78:8)

وَجَعَلْنَا نَوْمَكُمْ سُبَاتًا
And made your sleep for rest, (78:9)

Lavender and Insomnia
Lavender oil is a safe and effective remedy for insomia sufferers.

What to do: Place several drops of essential oil of lavender on a cloth and leave it on your nightstand. The fragrance must be diffused throughout the room. Grow your own lavender and keep a basket of flowers at your bedside…or make an herbal pillow filled with these leaves (fill with fresh leaves every 3 weeks).

Exercise vs. Insomnia
Exercise can help beat insomnia. Exercise well before bedtime. Later, as you cool down, you will begin to relax and be ready for sleep. Exercise too near bedtime is stimulating, causing increased alertness that can interfere with falling asleep.

Music Fights Insomnia
Patients who had trouble sleeping were given two cassette tapes- one of Baroque music, the other of New Age music. After listening to the tapes at bedtime, all but one of the patients sais they fell asleep faster and slept longer than usual.
Gail C Morenhinweg, PhD, Prof. of Nursing. Her 6-months study was published in Journal of Holistic Nursing

(Source: The World’s Greatest Treasury of Health Secrets, Newly Expanded 2006 ED. Bottom Line Publ.)



The Black Seed and Insomnia
"...black seed also relieves insomnia. For sleep disturbances, take one teaspoon of the oil and one teaspoon of honey in warm milk. Rub the temples with the oil and turn off the lights. " Black Seed: Seed of Blessing By Ken Babal, C.N.

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There are different remedies depending on the causes of sleep deprivation. Like depression for instance, some remedies include taking medication. There is a holistic approach Muslims are encouraged to practice.

"Meditation and contemplation are essential to be done on a daily basis. Allah (swt) praises those who practiced these qualities. In sura Al-Imran, Allah (swt) says the following:

الَّذِينَ يَذْكُرُونَ اللّهَ قِيَامًا وَقُعُودًا وَعَلَىَ جُنُوبِهِمْ وَيَتَفَكَّرُونَ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ رَبَّنَا مَا خَلَقْتَ هَذا بَاطِلاً سُبْحَانَكَ فَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ

3:191 Men who celebrate the praises of Allah, standing, sitting, and lying down on their sides, and contemplate the (wonders of) creation in the heavens and the earth, (With the thought): "Our Lord! not for naught Hast Thou created (all) this! Glory to Thee! Give us salvation from the penalty of the Fire.

Reciting the Quran and listening to the Quran are recommended to practice daily...especially in the morning.

Try to prolong your sujood (prostration) so as to get rid of depression.

Eat right foods: fresh fruits and vegetables

Exercise daily: Be moderate

Avoid Addiction: Drinking of alcohol, smoking, gambling, pornography, dancing etc.

Keep smiling

Keep in touch with Allah as much as you can.

وَنُنَزِّلُ مِنَ الْقُرْآنِ مَا هُوَ شِفَاء وَرَحْمَةٌ لِّلْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَلاَ يَزِيدُ الظَّالِمِينَ إَلاَّ خَسَارًا

17:82 We send down (stage by stage) in the Qur'an that which is a healing and a mercy to those who believe: to the unjust it causes nothing but loss after loss.

(Source: Book of Healing by Ahmad H. Sakr, PhD.)

[Bent_Bladi]

nice, nice, nice! i have that book - but i haven't read it yet. dude, the only things i read nowadays are math/chemistry related... wallah niyaal illi 3ando free time