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#and it feels like my biological clock is ALIGNED for the first time in YEARS
battle-of-alberta · 3 years
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celestialily replied to your post “To anyone: what happens if you're away from your...”
it’s 1am and exam week is over and this is TOO existential for me rn ok ok i saved all these pics to my phone for when they make sense. i cannot stop thinking about looking at familiar birds or ed hitching a ride back home. my whole life has been in these cities and i can barely fathom being away from them… fucking sweet penthouse details tho, u worked hard on those
Happy end of exam week and I'm Sorry For Giving You An Existential Crisis instead of a celebration.
It actually didn't occur to me that there would be people reading this who never leave home and it gave ME an existential crisis and I realized that every thing i write about these guys is undercut with homesickness. Like, I moved away from Edmonton age 9 across the continent to a foreign country right at the start of the War on Terror and I'm starting to accept that it /was/ traumatic for me and it /did/ inform a huge part of my perspective on things and has put me in this semi-permanent state of homesickness for "the life I was supposed to live where I didn't move away".
I started this blog while I was studying in Toronto and living with family in Victoria these past three years, I've been back in Edmonton for four months and I STILL have this sort of pandemic-induced homesickness that is a combination of "things have changed because time moved on without me, AGAIN" and "i can't do many of the things I used to do either because I'm no longer a student or because of restrictions" and its uh. Something that I've been dealing with my whole life and I guess these comics are a way to process... all... that.. stuff.
(also when i was growing up in Edmonton there's always going to be one friend who ends up moving to Calgary which when you're small sounds like they might as well be going to the ends of the earth and you'll never see them again. But also growing up in the public school system in a major city it feels like your friends coming from China and Kenya and all these places were like a day trip so IDK MAN TRAVEL IS WEIRD) (and also I think these guys feel bits and pieces of that immigrant diaspora as well as bits and pieces of urban indigeneity but it's not really my place to really analyze what that means in depth because I'm neither a new immigrant nor indigenous)
But yeah I am a uh very nostalgic person who is always trying to recapture those feelings of coming home, i get misty eyed on a plane in and I feel an extreme sense of satisfaction from setting on the path home and turning those familiar corners and I figure... if that's what gives me energy that's what must give them energy too. So I inject a lot of my childhood memories as well as new memories i've constructed as an adult with the knowledge I've gained about "what's different/special" from going away. Yeah :')
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kittyklo · 3 years
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🌟 Why Can't I Sleep? 🌟
Dear Ascending Family,
One important factor of kundalini activations during the spiritual ascension process is that no one informed me about what was going to happen to my sleep and that I would feel tired all the time. Actually getting some sleep at night and waking up and feeling somewhat rested became something that happened less and less over time. Maybe this is more of an issue in the western culture, as there is not much energetic space given to people to just rest and explore their spirituality. I find that my body doesn’t turn off until nearly the time the sun is coming up. I’m on watch for the night shift and there is no sensation of deep sleep to be had.
Currently, I can barely remember what a restful night of sleep used to feel like, and like many things, the process of laying down to go to sleep has changed and feels surreal. I know I’m not the only one, many of us are feeling this way. Why can’t we get some good sleep anymore? What does being awake and being asleep actually mean in these days? Before the kundalini rising I do remember the days of going to sleep at reasonable hours and actually feeling relatively rested in the morning. It appears those days are long over for me, and it may be something you’re going through too as an ascension symptom and bodily change. Many of us are working hard in other dimensional planes during the night, or when we shift our brain waves into the theta state while still upright and supposedly awake while in the matrix. Higher spiritual embodiment and communing with cosmic frequencies really does a number on the physical self’s metabolic processes and bio-rhythms. As I’ve gone further and further out there, there has been more responsibilities from the Guardian teams, and as a result the state of sleep and sensation of rest has been drastically altered.
In the earlier stages of my awakening, I was under the impression that communing with higher frequencies and undergoing initiation into embodying my higher spiritual layers would give me plenty of life force energy to feel exceptionally light and energetic. I’d be able to power through all my to-do lists and workload in a single bound! This was a false assumption, and since my early and naïve years of awakening, I have since been radically corrected. I have learned that there is vast difference between vital force energies that animate within the lower body, that give rise to the sensation of feeling energized, versus the focused direction of higher spiritual current in the body that actually requires these same vital forces to help you embody. Down here on earth, it’s all about embodiment, getting as much of the higher spiritual intelligence down here into matter and into our physical body, as possible. The more I embodied, the more tired I was feeling! How could this be? Apparently because remote viewing and consciousness projection actually require a proportionate amount of my vital forces in order to operate simultaneously on multiple realms.
And as a result of the constant siphoning we are exposed to on the earth that is designed to prevent us in accumulating more abundant consciousness energy, I’ve found that I have to radically conserve my bodily energy in order to get my higher consciousness work done. In some ways I feel like a bear that goes into hibernation for a time, or my nervous system turns off into stasis for a temporary phase in order to generate some more energy that I require for consciousness work. When I’m enduring this stasis state, it’s like walking in a null zone, all I can do is basic 3D body functions that do not require high energy output. High mental focus or consciousness energy is being conserved, and any sessions or projects that I had been working on previously, come to a standstill. In this stasis state I feel flattened out, exhausted. This is how it has been since December, when planet earth’s structural changes for the bifurcation were at their pinnacle shift in the field. Many of you may be laying on the couch or in bed wondering why you cannot get up, and even though you slept, you cannot seem to get anything else really accomplished but laying there. For many of us we may appear like couch potatoes, but this is not actually what is really happening behind the scenes, we’re gathering all our energy for embodying!
Over time I learned that if I expended too much physical energy in this realm, or I gave too much energy in places that were not aligned, my work in other realms suffer! All the spinning plates would crash to the floor. So achieving energetic balance in multiple realms has been the important spiritual lesson, how to sustain the body and consciousness with the limited resources we have available in this moment. Whomever said in the New Age that we have unlimited access to energy in this realm doesn’t know the reality of the NAA parasites, must exist in a completely different bio-neurology, or has not spiritually embodied yet! The embodied state refers to self-sourcing, being internally directed and not taking energy from other people. We’ve got to embody our own source light within and direct that light source, as the energy source that maximizes our spiritual purpose in the world. I’ve found energy and time management in this material world as a spiritually ascending person is not exactly easy, as the 3D people that are parasitic tend to have a lot more vital force to use to direct their manifestations that serve the asleep world. It’s actually quite a complex process managing usable energy in this realm. It means that to accomplish this mission, I’m in a permanent cycle of energy conservation, gathering inner sustenance and then directing it in purposeful ways in order to meet my responsibilities.
I asked the Guardian teams over the years for a weigh in on this topic, because I wanted to let them know how darn exhausted we are down here. They don’t deal with this density and it’s a very different reality for them. Here’s a few tidbits that were interesting about the sleep state changes and the reasons why we’re so tired on an ascending planet.
Oscillation to Vibration Incompatibilities
Apparently when the fundamental matter vibration is being exposed to higher oscillations of higher spectrums of frequency, the stages of absorption of the light into the cells surfaces the density (miasma) recorded in the cells, and when the accretion into the lightbody and cells is occurring, this can feel like the body is carrying weights and we feel tired like we’re lumbering around while knee deep in mud.
The combination of both the pattern of Vibration (contraction) and Oscillation (expansion) speed is what determines the frequency rate of all energy and all things. As our personal, collective and planetary consciousness rises in frequency, the matter world becomes less dense. Our physical bodies also become less dense as our frequency increases. However in the world of matter, as we drop density we can feel that our body is experiencing energy loss and we feel really tired. Sometimes, our Blueprint is holding a much higher frequency and energetic download, which is accreting and not yet absorbed, and this can make the body feel extremely dense. It is important to know this is a common Ascension symptom when the physical body is acclimating to embody higher frequency.
When we have Ascension Flu and exhaustion symptoms, from acclimating to new energies, this is not an entropic process. This is actually helping the body to acclimate to embody more light in the cells, and generating more ATP. At stages of lightbody accretion, the body will experience oscillation to vibration incompatibilities, through the exposure to higher frequency rates in the blueprint versus the body. When this occurs, it is possible for the person to experience sensations of heavy density, shadow clearing, and as the body senses the gravitational pull, this creates pressure. The energetic pressure can feel as if it is bearing down on the body from the crown of the head. Tension and stiffness from the influx of new energy will apply pressure for the body to circulate and distribute these energies. This is first commonly felt in the head, neck and shoulders. Sensations of pressure, moving down with thermal energies circulating in other areas of the body comes later. During the body's absorption phase, the lightbody is more unstable. Before the new frequency is fully integrated, while in this phase, you will feel tired and need more sleep.
Changing Position in Time Field in Incremental Degrees
When we change position in the time field, as we are doing now as a result of the bifurcation, our location on the grid shifts in incremental degrees. In our lightbody structure we have a clock shield template that adjusts the difference between the biological time record and the space-time we inhabit. This internal lightbody structure is constantly shifting now to slowly accommodate the shift to the next harmonic, and the location we are interfacing with horizontally and vertically within the planetary architecture. Essentially during this phase we are time travelers skipping to the future timeline, and our body is not used to traveling through time in this way so rapidly, so the body is acclimating to this change and needs to conserve energy to adjust. Dormant functions in the lightbody are coming online as we get pulled away from artificial technology and frequency fences that were suppressing and constricting the lightbody in the 3D timelines.
Additionally, over the last year, I found myself observing dimensional areas in the planetary body that were flipping in 45 degree angles and one large section of the planet’s dimensional plane that did a full 180 degree flip. Day was night and night was day, it was the correction of many reversals that were used in the lower matter realms. These were new areas being prepared for moving the grounding location in the bifurcation of time that were not running reversal current. This flip in the field changed the bio-rhythm for sleep, and is why currently I’m awake all night and sleep at daylight. We’re getting used to living in the matter world without Ai time loops and the reversals used to feed the alien machinery.
DNA Activation
We are building new information into the cells of the body in so that we can reprogram our own DNA, this requires energy and we’re tired. The cells have been coded for this time in history, prior to the time of human birth. Many people are finding that they are drawn to a certain information, people, places or events in history. They are finding that being in that environment, whether with that person or in that physical place, is creating a type of trigger, a trigger in the cellular memory. This is creating the firing or triggering of new information in the body. There is a type of overlapping and a blending of many processes taking place as these triggers are being activated. Then the new information is activated and brought into the mind.
This activation of cellular memory is taking place on a multitude of levels within the body. The more we are in alignment with our body wisdom, the more there is a movement consciously towards that which will trigger that cellular memory and activate the transformation within the DNA.
A fundamental renovation is occurring in our spiritual house, which is our physical body while we are living in it.
Using the analogy of remodeling our home, the workmen strip off the old roof, tear up the old floor, disconnect your old plumbing and turn off your electricity to re-wire the home. This all occurs while we are trying to live there and function in our day to day life. In the same manner, our body is undergoing the same remodeling as we are trying to keep ahead of the changes and piles stacking up, while feeling extremely disoriented and inconvenienced as this occurs. The changes in our physical body-spiritual house are occurring because our DNA is being restructured. The most concise repository of information in our personal blueprint is found in the original cellular DNA of our bodies. Our human DNA will evolve from two helixes to twelve helixes or more. The Diamond Sun twelve strand DNA was originally in human bodies about 300,000+ years ago.
Recalibration and Etheric Upgrades
Apparently, during the night is the most active time for most of us to receive recalibrations and etheric upgrades to our lightbody, so many of us are being worked on heavily during the night. To receive these lightbody upgrades we must be passive or stationary for best results, and if we’re running around in the physical it is not the opportune time. This is another reason why it’s suggested we meditate more so we can open the space for more higher exchanges to occur, hopefully that we can more consciously participate with the process by making contact with our higher self or star families.
When we are getting recalibrations and upgrades in our nervous system it can feel like tingling, needles and flushing in hot or cold temperatures in the meridians. Our bodies are being shifted in thermodynamic ways and with so much light entering the fields of the body, some of the symptoms we experience are actually preventing our physical vehicles from bursting with the intensity of light. During upgrades we may experience a waking up every few hours to see a clock flashing different master numbers, sometimes all night long. This triggers cellular memory. How many of us have looked at the clock to see a series of number codes, like 1:11, 2:22, 3:33, 4:44 and 5:55 all in one night! When we are supposed to be somewhere like work in the morning, it’s not a happy event getting out of bed.
Bear in mind that all who are on the planet at this time, all forms of life are and will continue to be effected by an increase in intensity of light that comes directly into and around the field of the planet. So even those who appear totally unconscious of the changes happening, they are definitely being effected and will continue to be impacted. Why are they experiencing greater agitation, why are they experiencing many parts of their life are no longer working? Why are they experiencing less control over the mental body than they are used to? Ego dismantling is a world wide epidemic!
There is a great deal of confusion among the masses because there has not been a large enough body of clear information made available to support comprehension of the planetary shift, and we know the reasons why. These times are unprecedented and there is nothing from our past that can compare to what is currently happening and what will continue to accelerate in order to meet the disclosure timeline. Fasten your seat belts, as we’re in the planetary plasma activation and consciousness rebirth cycle that is preparing us to meet the next level of embodiment we are due for by March 2022 and beyond!
With Love and In Service,
Lisa
https://energeticsynthesis.com/resource-tools/blog-timeline-shift/3720-why-can-t-i-get-to-sleep-2
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What Sleep is Like at Every Age: 20s, 30s, and 40s
The blog post What Sleep is Like at Every Age: 20s, 30s, and 40s was initially published to https://midlifewithavengeance.com
From our first days as newborns all the way to our old age, sleep changes throughout our lifetimes. Sleep is a dynamic process, one that affects (and is affected by) every other aspect of our lives and our biology. Bio rhythms shift, sleep architecture changes, hormone production rises and falls, all of which deeply affect how, whenand how wellwe rest. Throughout it all, the demands of daily life affect the amount—and the quality—of our nightly sleep.
There are some challenges to sleep that are perennial: inconsistent sleep routines, overconsumption of stimulants such as caffeine, over-exposure to artificial light—especially blue light. (I just wrote about blue light blocking glasses, how important they are and how to pick the right ones for you.)
But some important aspects of sleep change as we grow older—and those changes need to be met with new and different attention to sleeping well.
Wondering what sleep looks like at your age? Read on to find out the most common sleep challenges we face throughout every stage of life, and how to navigate them.
What sleep is like in your . . . 20s
Think back to your 20s, how the decade started and how it ended. A lot of us spent our early 20s up for almost anything, no matter what the hour—in fact, the later the better. (Party starts at 10 or 11? Great!) By late 20s, things probably felt different. For many of us, by the time we got close to 30, leaving a party before midnight suddenly seemed like a pretty decent idea.
We have a major bio rhythm change to thank for that. The most common sleep-related change that occurs during our first full decade of adulthood is this: a shift away from a strong preference for evenings over mornings.In adolescence, changes to bio time make nearly every one of us into Wolves—up and alert at night, struggling to function in the morning. That bio time shift happens with the onset of puberty and lasts until sometime in our mid-20s. When it does, those changing bio rhythms shift many people into another bio type—one you’ll likely have for most, if not all, of the rest of your adult life. Some people become early-rising Lions. Many settle in to the middle-of-the-road Bear bio type. Some smaller number of people will shift into a short-sleeping Dolphin bio type, that’s characterized more by their insomnia-like sleep habits than a distinct preference for mornings or evenings. And some of us (including me) will stay Wolves—continuing to prefer evenings to mornings, in perhaps slightly less pronounced ways.
Don’t know your bio type yet? Take my quiz: http://www.thepowerofwhenquiz.com/
These late nights are one big reason that sleep deprivation catches young adults in their 20s unprepared. Social jet lag—the difference between the social schedule you’re pressured to keep and both the amountand timing of your body’s sleep needs—is a big issue for young adults. Feeling healthy, resilient, and full of energy, it can be tempting to think you can skimp on sleep without consequences. It’s true that a typical 20-something has a lot of sleep-related biological advantages going for them. Hormones that enable healthy sleep—including estrogen, testosterone, and human growth hormone, among others—are naturally high. While deep sleep amounts are lower than during childhood and adolescence, they’re also still running high, compared to where they’ll be in a few decades. But there really is no free ride when it comes to the impact of sleep loss. An abundant and ever-growing body of research shows how deeply the effects sleep deprivation—including on cognitive function,mood and emotional regulation, appetite, metabolismand weight gain—affect children and young adults, with consequences that can extend long into adulthood.
In their 20s and throughout their pre-menopausal lives, women regularly experience sleep problems that directly relate to their menstrual cycle. Fluctuations of the hormones estrogen and progesterone shortly before and during menstruation cause difficulty sleeping, as well as headaches, cramping, anxiety, and low mood—all symptoms that can compound sleep problems. I see patients in their 20s experience insomnia and other sleep troubles linked to menstruation. Recent research from the Centers for Disease Control indicates that about a third of pre-menopausal women sleep an average of less than 7 hours a night, and roughly 17% have routine trouble falling sleep.
What to watch for:Irregular sleep routines, and not making enough time for sleep. Most people in their 20s have the discretionary time and freedom to get the sleep they need, but their social schedules don’t allow for it.   
What sleep is like in your . . . 30s to mid-40s
So many life changes take place during these years—and all of them have a major impact on sleep and sleep cycles. New and more demanding jobs, marriages, buying homes and having children. Our bodies in our 30s and early 40s remain naturally poised to sleep well—but the demands of work and family often make that difficult.
At a biological level, there are a number of important things happening during these years. By the 30s, you’ve settled in to the adult bio type that you’re likely to keep for decades—and maybe for the rest of your life. That makes this period an ideal time to identify the sleep routine and sleep amounts that meet your individual needs—and to start doing all you can to set daily routines that allow you to meet those needs.
(If you’ve taken my quiz to determine your bio type, now use my bedtime calculatorto find your ideal sleep schedule.)
Some bio types have an easier time than others in meeting sleep needs in the real world. Lions (early to rise, early to bed) and Bears (who fall right in the middle of a morning-evening preference scale) are more naturally aligned with society’s daily clock than night-wired Wolves and restless-sleeping Dolphins. Social jet lag continues to be a big issue for most sleepers—and by our 30s and early 40s, some bio types are feeling its impact more than others.
To learn about how bio type affects sleep and nearly every part of your waking life, check out my book, The Power of When.
Changes to sleep architecture also continue, and it’s during these years people may begin to notice. As we age, our sleep cycles contain less deep, slow-wave sleep. We spend more time in the lighter stages of non-REM sleep. This is a gradual shift—research indicates that we lose deep sleep at a rate of about 2% a decade, up to age 60. In our 30s and early 40s, people often begin to experience restlessness in their sleep, find themselves waking more easily and often at night, and feel less refreshed in the morning. It’s a good time to take a look at the natural supplements that promote sound sleep—many of which also help reduce stress and sharpen cognitive performance during the day. Here are 10 of the most effective natural sleep aids.
In addition to the ongoing sleep challenges that come with menstruation, women who go through pregnancy are likely face sleep problems that include significant sleeplessness—even if they’ve been sound sleepers in their pre-pregnant lives. Nearly 4 in 5 pregnant women report experiencing new problems with sleep. Changes to the body and intensely shifting hormone levels lead to many pregnant women feeling sleepy during the day, and restless and uncomfortably awake throughout the night. Pregnant women are at significantly higher risk for developing sleep disorders, including obstructive sleep apnea, insomnia, and restless leg syndrome.
Men who might think they can skate through these years on too little sleep without consequences: think again. Men’s risks for sleep disorders, including sleep apnea, are higher than women’s risks at this age. And shortchanging sleep can directly hurt male fertility. There’s a growing body of research showing that poor sleep reduces sperm healthand makes it harder to conceive. For example, this 2017 study found that both too little sleep and too much sleep—as well as late bedtimes—were linked to reduced sperm counts and diminished sperm motility, as well as an increase of production of an antibody that targets and destroys healthy sperm.
What to watch for:De-prioritizing your sleep. Suddenly, demands from your time are coming from everywhere—kids, spouses, work, community. It’s common for both men and women to flag their own sleep needs as low importance. Think of your sleep for what it is: an investment in the health, success, and happiness of all you’re working to build.
Next week, I’ll talk about the changes that happen for sleep as we head into middle age and beyond.
Sweet Dreams,
Michael J. Breus, PhD, DABSM
The Sleep Doctor
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  The post What Sleep is Like at Every Age: 20s, 30s, and 40s appeared first on Your Guide to Better Sleep.
from Blog | Your Guide to Better Sleep http://thesleepdoctor.com/2019/07/30/what-sleep-is-like-at-every-age-20s-30s-and-40s/
from https://midlifewithavengeance.com/what-sleep-is-like-at-every-age-20s-30s-and-40s/
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ellymackay · 5 years
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5 Key Connections Between Sleep And Cancer
5 Key Connections Between Sleep And Cancer is republished from The Elly Mackay Blog
In the first part of my series on sleep and cancer, I talked broadly about the risks that poor quality and disrupted sleep can have on our risk for the disease. Here, I’ll dig in a little deeper, to look at some of the different pathways and mechanisms by which sleep might affect our risk for developing cancer. Some of these may surprise you. For example, a lot of my patients are startled to learn that melatonin, a hormone that’s so strongly aligned with sleep, has an impact on how cancer cells grow.
Cancer remains one of the most frightening and difficult diseases of our time. Sleep can play a powerful and protective role in helping us manage and even reduce our cancer risk. It’s my hope that the more you understand about the different the ways sleep may affect cancer, the more attention you’ll give to your sleep every day.
Let’s jump in and explore the connections between sleep and some of the major underlying factors that drive cancer development. 
Circadian rhythms
How circadian rhythms relate to sleep: Sleep is one of the many physiological functions that’s regulated by circadian rhythms, the 24-hour daily bio rhythms that govern so many of our physiological processes. When people experience trouble with sleep—in particular, when sleep disruptions are chronic—often, circadian rhythm disruption in an underlying cause. Our circadian rhythms and the clocks that regulate them are sensitive and finely tuned. Our bio clocks are affected most significantly by exposure to light (and to its absence, darkness). But circadian rhythms are also affected by our eating patterns, and as research suggests, by the makeup and activity of our gut microbiome. Other factors that affect circadian rhythms include stress and environmental factors such as toxins and pollutants.
When we sleep on irregular schedules—going to bed and waking up at drastically different times from one day or one week to the next, it can contribute to strain and disruption on our circadian clocks. Light exposure at the “wrong” times, particularly in the evening and overnight hours when we’d naturally be immersed in darkness, also pushes circadian rhythms out of sync. When we’re active at times when the body is biologically programmed to sleep—such as overnights, evenings, and early mornings—that also disrupts circadian function. Disrupted circadian rhythms don’t only make sleep harder to get and less refreshing. They affect a whole range of biological functions.
How circadian rhythms relates to cancer: Circadian rhythms are governed by a master circadian clock that’s located in the brain, which in turn coordinates the timing of “peripheral” circadian clocks throughout the body, including in every one of our cells. Among the responsibilities of our circadian system is to regulate cellular function, including cell repair, growth, and division. Several genes—including the PER 1, 2, and 3 genes and CRY 1 and 2 genes—work to regulate the synchronicity and activity our circadian rhythms and of cell behavior itself. Among other factors, sleep deprivation has been shown to alter the activity of circadian clock genes.
Research strongly indicates that disruptions to circadian rhythms cause abnormal behavior in cells that can lead to the development of cancer, and to more aggressive growth in cancer cells. Dysfunction in the behavior of key circadian genes appears to be one possible root cause of this abnormal cellular behavior, driving abnormal cellular activity that can lead to cancerous cell proliferation. Changes to the activity of circadian genes has been linked to breast, prostate, brain, leukemia and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, as well as other forms of cancer. Circadian rhythm disruptions are thought to be one reason why shift workers are at greater risk for cancer, and why shift work has been identified as a likely carcinogen by the World Health Association.
Circadian rhythm dysfunction may affect cancer risk through a number of mechanisms. Our bio rhythms govern immune function, metabolism, hormone activity and other key biological processes that affect cell function and potential development of cancer. There’s a tremendous amount still to learn about the relationship between circadian function and cancer, but we may discover it is a fundamental
Melatonin
How melatonin relates to sleep: Melatonin is often referred to as “the sleep hormone” or “the darkness hormone,” and is probably best known as a natural promoter of sleep. (Many people use supplemental melatonin to help sleep; I’ve written about melatonin, and its effectiveness as a supplement, here.) Like many of the body’s hormones, melatonin follows a daily circadian rhythm, adhering to a 24-hour cycle of rising and falling production. Melatonin doesn’t only follow circadian rhythms—its daily rise and fall also help to keep circadian clocks in sync. Melatonin delivers important cues to circadian clocks that keep them functioning properly. This sleep- and circadian-rhythm-regulating hormone is naturally suppressed by light and triggered by darkness. Melatonin production naturally increases in the evenings and levels typically hit a peak around 3-4 a.m., before falling to their daily lows around midmorning. The evening rise in melatonin makes us feel less alert, more relaxed, and more inclined for sleep.
Healthy sleep habits and routines include practices that keep melatonin production in sync and on schedule, and avoid outside influences that throw natural melatonin’s daily cycles off course. Avoiding light exposure in the evenings is the biggest step we can take to prevent suppression of melatonin, and disruptions to sleep and circadian rhythms.
How melatonin relates to cancer: Though best known as a sleep promoter, melatonin has many functions in the body beyond facilitating sleep.  And many of these functions have implications for cancer. Melatonin keeps circadian rhythms functioning well. It helps to regulate the immune system. Melatonin acts as an antioxidant. It helps to control and to inhibit cell division. It also inhibits the growth of new blood vessels (including in cancer cells). Melatonin is now recognized as having significant protective effects against cancer. Research indicates that melatonin is an inhibitor of cancer cell growth. Studies show that low levels of melatonin are associated with increased risk for several different types of the disease, including prostate and breast, endometrial, and ovarian cancers. One recent study found men with low melatonin levels had a four times greater risk of prostate cancer. Melatonin has anti-estrogenic effects—it is involved in lowering estrogen levels and reducing estrogen-related activity in the body. Estrogen is involved in the development of some forms of breast cancer, as well as ovarian and endometrial cancers.
Melatonin is being investigated and used in the treatment of several forms of cancer. I’ll talk more about how melatonin is being used as a cancer fighter in an upcoming article.
Immune health and inflammation
How sleep relates to immune health and inflammation: Sleep and circadian rhythms have a tremendous impact on our immune health and function. Sleep strengthens the natural defenses of the immune system, reinvigorating its ability to adapt and respond to different potential threats to health. Sleep is a rejuvenating time for the immune system—and it’s also a time when our natural immune activity increases, as our internal defense system goes to work to fight illness and disease. Immune activity follows circadian rhythms. When sleep and circadian rhythms are disrupted, immune activity is altered, compromised and suppressed. Our immune system becomes less effective at regulating itself and at defending against threats to health. Both acute and chronic lack of sleep reduce the effectiveness of immune function.
Chronic sleep loss in particular leads to a damaging, disease-producing change in immune response: increased, systemic inflammation. I wrote recently about the relationship between sleep and inflammation. Not getting enough sleep, sleeping poorly, sleeping too much—all can contribute to heightened inflammation. Inflammation, like sleep itself, is regulated by circadian rhythms. Dysfunction in the timing of circadian rhythms creates problems with immune function that include excessive, chronic inflammation.
How inflammation relates to cancer: Our immune system’s inflammatory response sends white blood cells and other chemicals to repair cells, ward off infection, and fight disease. We need inflammation to help us heal. But when inflammation is chronic—existing in the body all the time, even when there’s no pathogen to fight—it causes damage to cells and mutations to DNA. That cellular damage and those DNA mutations can lead to the development of cancer cells. Too much inflammation also feeds the growth of cancer, contributing to faster-growing, more aggressive cancers. We’ve learned a lot in recent years about the specific inflammatory pathways that may cause cancer growth. As many as 1 in 5 cancers develop at least in part from chronic inflammation, according to scientific estimates. We can’t control all the factors that cause unhealthful, systemic inflammation. For example, our individual genetics play a role in how vulnerable we each may be. But many lifestyle factors contribute to inflammation, and those are in our control, including diet, maintaining a healthy weight, and exercise. Sleep is another factor – a sometimes-overlooked one—that we can adjust to lower our inflammation risk.
Psychological stress
How stress relates to sleep: The connection between stress and sleep has been extensively studied and well documented. (That’s not to say there isn’t more to discover—with sleep, there always is!) Stress presents both mental and physical obstacles to sleep: increasing heart rate, creating physical tension and pain in the body, elevating alertness-producing hormones including cortisol and adrenaline, triggering agitated, uncomfortable thoughts and emotions. When under stress, it’s much more difficult to fall asleep and to sleep soundly throughout the entire night. Psychological stress is a major contributor to insomnia.
The relationship between stress and sleep is also bi-directional. When we don’t get enough restful sleep, we’re more prone to the effects of stress. New research shows that a night of sleep deprivation triggers a big jump in next-day anxiety. In that study, brain scans revealed heightened activity in regions of the brain that produce fear (and the stress-induced “fight-or-flight” response). Less active after a night of no sleep? The areas of the brain that help us calm ourselves and keep negative emotions in check.
How stress relates to cancer: There is a lot of interest in the relationship between psychological stress and cancer development. Research establishing a direct link between emotional distress and cancer is mixed, with some studies demonstrating a connection, and others not. There are significant indications that stress can play a role in the development of cancer and in the progression of the disease. Psychological stress contributes to chronic inflammation, which is a risk factor for cancer. Chronic stress has negative effects on immune function more broadly, impairing its ability to effectively repair cells and DNA, and suppressing its ability to kill cancer cells. Research indicates stress contributes to more aggressive cancer growth and metastasis. And psychological stress can exacerbate other behaviors, including excessive drinking, smoking, and unhealthful eating habits, that in turn increase cancer risk.
Obesity and other metabolic problems  
How obesity relates to sleep: I’ve written extensively about the connections among sleep, weight, and metabolic health, including in my books, The Power of When, The Sleep Doctor’s Diet Plan and Good Night. Poor sleep and disrupted circadian rhythms are a contributor to weight gain and increase risk of obesity. How? Changes to the timing and production of hormones that affect appetite and metabolism, changes to energy expenditure, and changes to eating habits (including what we eat, how much we eat, and when we eat) all make weight easy to gain and hard to lose. Sleep and circadian rhythm disruption are also significant risk factors in the development of prediabetes and type 2 diabetes. Poor sleep and out-of-sync circadian rhythms interfere with the production of insulin and insulin’s effectiveness in regulating blood sugar.
How obesity and diabetes relate to cancer: There’s a complex relationship among obesity, metabolic health and cancer that scientists are still working to understand. However, there’s much that we already know about the links between obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cancer. Obesity is a well-documented risk factor for several types of cancer, including breast, colorectal, kidney, pancreatic, gallbladder, and endometrial cancers. A 2015 study estimated that in a single year in the U.S., roughly 3.5 percent of new cancer cases in men and 9.5 percent of new cancer cases in women were attributable to obesity. How may obesity contribute to cancer? Being obese is often accompanied by chronic inflammation, which can cause cell and DNA damage that leads to cancer cell growth. Having higher amounts of fat tissue leads to a greater production of estrogen and other hormones, which can elevate risks for breast, endometrial, ovarian, and other forms of cancer. Fat cells also alter the production of hormones and proteins that are involved in regulating cell growth, making us more vulnerable to cell proliferation that leads to cancer cells.
Studies show that people with type 2 diabetes are at significantly higher risk for developing cancer, and of dying from the disease. Insulin resistance and high blood sugar—the factors that lead to prediabetes and type 2 diabetes—have been shown to affect cancer growth and development. High levels of insulin and of a protein called insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) have been connected to several types of cancer, including colorectal, kidney, prostate and endometrial cancers.
Ready for some good news about sleep and cancer? In the next installment of this series, I’ll tell you about the cutting-edge ways scientists and physicians are using the power of sleep and circadian rhythms in cancer therapy.
Sweet Dreams,
Michael J. Breus, PhD, DABSM
The Sleep Doctor
www.thesleepdoctor.com
from Your Guide to Better Sleep https://thesleepdoctor.com/2019/01/22/5-key-connections-between-sleep-and-cancer/
from Elly Mackay - Feed https://www.ellymackay.com/2019/01/22/5-key-connections-between-sleep-and-cancer/
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thomasalwyndavis · 6 years
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4 Helpful Ways You Can Guide Your College Kid To Better Sleep
4 Helpful Ways You Can Guide Your College Kid To Better Sleep is courtesy of https://thomasalwyndavis.com
Here’s how to help them sleep better on their own
My son is 16, and he’s starting to think a lot about college. It’s hard for me to believe that in a couple of years he’ll be headed off to school, living in a dorm, and responsible for himself on a daily basis.
Excited as we are for them, it’s not easy to let our kids go off on their own. We worry about how they’ll take care of themselves, and about the choices they’ll make without us right by their sides. Sleep for teenagers isn’t easy—I talked about some of those teen sleep challenges recently. And sleep can get even more complicated when kids go away to school. For the first time, they’re truly in charge of managing their own sleep schedules.
Here are some tips for helping your college-bound child handle this new responsibility for their sleep:
Send them with the right sleep gear
I like to say: sleep is a performance activity. To do it well, we need the right equipment. That’s just as true for your college kid in his dorm as it is for your family at home. It’s important to give kids at college every advantage in sleeping well. That starts with high-quality sleep equipment.
MATTRESS: If your child is living in a dorm, it’s likely you won’t be able to select a mattress; it will be provided. There’s also a decent chance it won’t be an especially good mattress. I’d love to see colleges and universities invest in high-quality mattresses—and maybe some do. But you can’t count on it.
Still, there are things you can do to help ensure your child’s mattress at school is more comfortable, healthful, and sleep-promoting.
Get a mattress cover. This is a must-do for hygiene—good for your child’s overall health and sleep. Dust, dirt, and the micro-critters that live in mattresses can trigger allergies, which can interfere with sleep (not to mention their ability to concentrate on that bio exam). Most dorm beds are size twin XL, but check with the college staff before you buy.
Pick a mattress topper. Mattress toppers can add both comfort and support to any mattress, including those maybe-less-than-stellar dorm beds. They come in different types, including latex, memory foam, and down, each with a different feel and firmness. The right type depends on your child’s individual needs for comfort and support. (If you need a refresher on the difference between comfort and support, read my how-to on picking the right mattress.)
There’s a very good chance you won’t know the condition and characteristics of your college-bound child’s mattress at school before move-in day. In a perfect world, you’d have your kid test out their school mattress beforehand. For most dorm-dwellers, that’s probably not realistic. Get some information from them about their sleep comfort and preferences beforehand—do they like a soft bed (down) or a firmer one (latex)? Are they already using memory foam at home?
If your college kid is living off campus, you’ll most likely get to choose their mattress (because you’ll be buying it for their apartment). Using my pick-a-mattress guide, invest in the best-quality mattress for your budget. Most healthy teenagers and young adults are resilient sleepers with bodies that haven’t yet weathered the wear and tear that makes a high-quality mattress so essential for older adults. I’m not suggesting you must buy a top-of-the-line mattress for your college kid (do that for yourself, if you can). But automatically opting for the cheapest option isn’t the best move, if you can afford to do otherwise.
Remember, you’re investing in your child’s sleep in one of the most critical developmental periods of their lives. And higher-quality mattresses will last longer than low quality ones. A well-made mattress purchased during their college years will last up to 7 or 8 years. That’s enough mattress mileage to take them well into their twenties, sleeping on a great bed.
PILLOW: If you’re not selecting the mattress your college kid is sleeping on, her pillow is the most important piece of sleep gear you’ll choose. The right one will make a huge difference to how comfortably and well she sleeps. A good pillow helps your child maintain healthy sleep posture, keeping the body aligned and avoiding physical discomfort and the restless sleep that comes from the wrong pillow.
Use my How to Pick a Pillow guide with your college-bound kid to identify the best pillow for their individual needs. Don’t just grab the least expensive pillow you spot in the aisle of that big-box store where you’re loading up on college gear. Resist the temptation to grab an old pillow off your guest bed and send it along to college. It’s absolutely worth investing in the highest-quality pillow for your budget. Remember, pillows typically need replacing every 18 months or so. (Memory foam pillows are the exception; they’ll last about 3 years.) The pillow your child starts with as a first-year is not going to see them through graduation. Be prepared to replace your collegian’s pillow at least once during a four-year college stint.
SHEETS and BEDDING: Your college-age child is likely to want to have some input on these selections, largely on style grounds. That’s great! Just make sure you don’t compromise on quality. Sleeping on natural fabrics—cotton, flannel, wool—makes for a more comfortable, restful night’s sleep. These breathable fabrics do a superior job of enabling the body to regulate its temperature effectively while sleeping. The role of temperature in sleep is important, and sometimes overlooked. Especially in dorm rooms and apartments where students may not be able to control the temperature of their bedrooms, the right bedding can make a big difference. And make sure they have at least two complete sets of sheets, to make it easy for them wash their bedding more often.
Help them control their sleep environment
Let’s face it, college dorms aren’t exactly conducive to healthy sleep. Your college-bound kid will be living in close quarters with a roommate, in a building and a campus filled with young adults up at all hours of the night, studying, partying, being loud and goofy, and blowing off steam.
It’s going to take more than a good pillow to help your kid sleep well while away at school. A few additional tools tucked into their suitcase can help them manage their sleep environment better, despite all the things they can’t control.
Eye mask: For when his roommate is up late studying, and your kid wants to sleep. A simple, essential tool that’s a big help in getting your child the darkness their body needs to make the sleep hormone melatonin.
Ear plugs: Wouldn’t you want a supply of these if you were living in a dorm? I would. Be aware, anyone who suffers from tinnitus or who is susceptible to ear infections shouldn’t sleep with earplugs.
Portable bedside sleep therapy: I’m a big proponent of engaging all the senses to help with sleep. That’s why I’m such a fan of the iHome Zenergy Sleep System, which has lights, sounds, and scents that all promote sleep. (Full disclosure, I consult with iHome as a sleep expert.) It has a smartphone app your kids can use to customize their sleep experience, and a gradual wake alarm to help them make that midmorning class. Thinking of getting your college kid a regular, old-fashioned alarm clock for their bedside? Skip it and do this instead.
Sleep tracker. I don’t consider a sleep tracking device essential for every kid going off to college. Some college-age kids just won’t remember to use it. But if your child is the type who will get into tracking their sleep (and plenty will), then a sleep tracker is a great way to keep them attentive to their nightly rest and supply them with actionable information about their sleep. My favorite tracker is the SleepScore Max, which is far and away the most accurate tracker I’ve seen. It delivers personalized information to your college sleeper, and helps them set goals. I can vouch for the sleep tips it offers, since I helped to create them!
Prepare them to manage screen time away from you
You’ve probably got a screen time policy in your house. I know we do in ours. Having raised a teenager in the age of smartphones and social media, you also know that these policies can be tough to enforce.
I bought my teenage kids each a pair of Swanwick Glasses, with blue-light blocking technology. (I use them too, when I’m looking at screens at night.) These glasses block the melatonin-suppressing, alertness-promoting blue light that our smartphone and tablet screens have in high concentrations.
These glasses are a great idea for a college-bound kid, who’s apt to be staring at screens pretty late in the evening—but might not mind wearing these retro-looking specs for their nighttime screen use.
Talking to your college student about sleep
So, we’ve covered the gear and the gadgets. Now let’s look at what we want our kids to know, and how we want them to think about sleep as they venture out on their own for the first time.
First, it’s important for parents (and grandparents) to remember a couple of important points.
College kids are almost exclusively evening chronotypes (In my book, The Power of When, I call this chronotype Wolves, to describe the late-night favoring people who are alert at midnight and dragging before 10 a.m.). The biological changes that cause this preference for evenings over mornings kick in at the start of adolescence, and don’t even begin a shift back toward a preference for earlier times until around age 20. That shift back is gradual, and can take years. Moreover, some young adults stay Wolves throughout their adult lives (I’m one.) Of course, there’s the occasional Lion (early-morning preference) in the college-age mix, but it’s a rarity.
It’s unrealistic to expect even the most disciplined, motivated college-age student to function with the sleep-wake habits and patterns of an adult. When talking with your college kids about sleep, keep the reality of their biology, and their emotional maturity, in mind. When working with young adults to set goals for sleep, don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
Remind them, don’t only think about sleep at bedtime. Encourage your college-bound teen to think about sleep as an interrelated part of their whole day. Too often, many of us fall into thinking about sleep as a compartmentalized part of life—or worse, a blank slate where nothing happens. The reality is, sleep affects every aspect of our lives—our health, our mental, emotional, and intellectual abilities, our relationships. And how we live throughout the day affects how we sleep. The sooner our young adults can start thinking about sleep this way, the better off they’ll be.
For example, just-released research suggests that teenagers who follow a Mediterranean diet may get better grades because of the positive influence a Mediterranean diet has on sleep quality.
Remind your college student that eating well, exercising, being moderate with alcohol, limiting caffeine and sugar, aren’t just good practices in their own right—each one also will help protect and improve sleep. And that better sleep will help your college student feel and perform better in every aspect of their lives, from academics to social relationships to sports.
Encourage them to set realistic schedules. Talk with your kids about their sleep biology, and describe what it means to be a Wolf living in world that’s overwhelmingly set up for Bears (the middle-of-the-road chronotype that applies to a majority of adults). College usually means a big improvement from high school in class start times. But it’s still a good idea for college students to plan their morning schedules thoughtfully and realistically, taking into account their individual preferences for bedtime and wake times. Signing up for an 8 a.m. class that they attend less-than perfectly is a likely to be a lot less valuable than a 10 a.m. class they can make on a regular basis. Especially in their first year or two, a realistic, sleep-friendly schedule can help college students adapt to managing their routines on their own, without setting the bar too high, too fast.
Motivate them to better sleep, using their own interests. Collage is an amazing time for young people to discover and deepen their passions. You know a lot about what motivates and interests your college-age child. Since sleep is so connected to every part of life, you can make a strong case for how sleep matters to whatever it is they care about most.
Got an athlete? Focus on how sleep improves physical and competitive athletic performance, including speed, power, and reaction time.
Is your kid contemplating pre-med? Let them know how sleep affects memory, learning, and analytical skills.
Parent to a budding playwright or musician? Fill them in on how sleep enhances creativity.
Whatever your college student does, they’ll do it better, more happily and with less stress, when they get enough high-quality sleep.
I wish your kid the best of luck at college, with plenty of fun, plenty of awesome learning and discovery, and yep—plenty of sleep.
Sweet Dreams,
Michael J. Breus, PhD, DABSM
The Sleep Doctor
www.thesleepdoctor.com
The post 4 Helpful Ways You Can Guide Your College Kid To Better Sleep appeared first on Your Guide to Better Sleep.
from Blog | Your Guide to Better Sleep https://www.thesleepdoctor.com/2018/07/30/4-helpful-ways-you-can-guide-your-college-kid-to-better-sleep/
from Thomas Alwyn Davis - Feed https://thomasalwyndavis.com/4-helpful-ways-you-can-guide-your-college-kid-to-better-sleep/
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jeannesutton · 6 years
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What I liked reading this year
via GIPHY
I have a lot of thoughts about the books I didn’t like reading this year. But I'm not bothered committing them here.
There's an opening scene in an episode of Fraiser with he and Niles come home from a restaurant and Daphne, I think, asks them how the meal was and one of the men says perfect except for one thing. She then says something along the lines of that being exactly the way they like it, and sure enough, they extrapolate. I think I watched that scene anyway. 
However, saying some books I read were perfect except for one thing is very generous. Too generous. So, instead, here are a few things I’ve read the past eleven or so months I really enjoyed or thought about long after. 
The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy 
I was talking about miscarriage with a friend earlier this year as I was writing a feature about pregnancy loss. It was eye-opening and the phone interviews I conducted were… I can’t say fierce emotional tennis as it implies I experienced a fraction of the trauma the women who kindly gave up their time and privacy did. It was tough, and if you are an editor who commissions article with an intent to horrify and shock, try and facilitate some talk therapy for your writers. 
I was telling my friend some of the stories I was putting in the article and we talked about how men aren’t really clued into a lot of what women are expected to go through. I said, flippantly, “The only miscarriage guys we know know about is Ariel Levy’s.” 
It wasn’t a nice thing to say, because Ariel Levy is a human being, and the article she wrote a few years ago for The New Yorker about losing a wanted pregnancy on assignment in Mongolia is earth-shattering. But I was trying to get at my assumption that certain men need to have issues communicated to them by publications of grand record before they give a shit. “We need a New Yorker abortion or New Yorker pay gap,” we joked. 
This memoir was a pick for my book club, and I gulped it in days. Which isn’t a usual habit of Book Club Jean. The book expands on the New Yorker essay, which comes late enough in the text, and looks at Levy’s keening marriage, biological clocks, and forgiveness. From the opening chapters, where Levy recounts how your twenties and thirties becomes a biological battleground, I was there. I’m witnessing a lot of change and shifting among the women I know. Scrolling Instagram after a bank holiday gives me a heart murmur. I imagine it only gets worse. 
This, from the preface, got the highlight: “Until recently, I lived in a world where lost things could always be replaced. But it has been made overwhelmingly clear to me now that anything you think is yours by right can vanish, and what you can do about that is nothing at all.” 
You can make plans, but the idea of perfect alignment is the shakiest ground.
Dirty Duet by Laurelin Paige 
Paige’s romance novels could be described as taboo, so if you need smelling salts after a Starz show maybe don’t. I think her writing is amazing and her female characterisation- flawed, fucked up, self-aware, grown-up – is in a league of its own. 
The plot starts out love triangle-ish, there’s a lot of focus on the heroine’s career – my catnip, and it’s super dramatic. Trigger warning, this one deals with rape fantasy as a way to overcome trauma. Sabrina Lind is a college freshman with a thing for a fellow student, a very wealthy good-time guy. His older best friend is her TA. Something criminal happens. Then something unethical. Years later they all end up working together in a massive advertising firm and it’s very clear no one has gone to therapy. 
The first book is called Dirty Filthy Rich Men, which might give you a bit of a pause if you’re new to this sort of genre. But we’re living in a country where there is an athlete’s memoir on bookshelves around the country called Gooch. I think that should be a national conversation. 
Oh My God, What a Complete Aisling! by Emer McLysaght, Sarah Breen 
I cried in a hotel room and on an Aircoach reading this book. It’s so kind, so lovely. 
Scribble Scribble by Nora Ephron 
Being a fan of Nora Ephron isn’t a character trait, although the way some people go on you’d swear I’d have to give you first dibs on bone marrow if we’ve read the same books. Late last year I got around to watching the HBO documentary about her, Everything is Copy, and went back to her writing. This time I read beyond the personal essays and looked at her articles on media and the machine – the Scribble Scribble part. It sort of changed my life, philosophy, perception. She really didn’t give a shit. We talk a lot about she used pain and made great films, but I enjoyed exploring the critiquing claws. To be honest, letting all her writings permeate, I’d say if we met she’d have hated me.
I don’t think we have her sort in Ireland. We have people who report on media, social media users make healthy and necessary critiques of the Irish Times opinion article choices. But we don’t have Nora. Which is a pity, as during freefalls there are some great stories. But then, you could argue, are we too small a country for such behaviour? Can you get away with true honesty?
Here is some of her scathing typing on People magazine back in the day:
"I have nothing against short articles, and no desire to read more than 1500 words or so on most of the personalities People profiles. In fact, in the case of a number of those personalities—and here the name of Telly Savalas springs instantly to mind—a caption would suffice. I have no quarrel with the writing in the magazine, which is slick and perfectly competent. I wouldn’t mind if People were just a picture magazine, if I could at least see the pictures; there is an indefinable something in its art direction that makes the magazine look remarkably like the centerfold of the Daily News. And I wouldn’t even mind if it were a fan magazine for grownups—if it delivered the goods. But the real problem is that when I finish reading People, I always feel that I have just spent four days in Los Angeles. Women’s Wear Daily at least makes me feel dirty; People makes me feel that I haven’t read or learned or seen anything at all. I don’t think this is what Richard Stolley means when he says he wants to leave his readers wanting more: I tend to be left feeling that I haven’t gotten anything in the first place. And even this feeling is hard to pinpoint; I am looking at a recent issue of People, with Hugh Hefner on the cover, and I can’t really say I didn’t learn anything in it: On page 6 it says that Hefner told his unauthorized biographer that he once had a homosexual experience. I didn’t actually know that before reading People, but somehow it doesn’t surprise me.”
Those thoughts, they echo what I hear people say about certain internet personalites at the moment. You could tailor the above about a lot of them, just minor edits, and it could nail so much. Some might find it skin crawling that I equate social media accounts with magazine, but I would do that IRL. They have advertising, they are publishing, they have an audience. Some boxes are ticked.
Nothing they say surprises me. 
You’ll find Scribble Scribble in an anthology of Ephron’s writing, Crazy Salad & Scribble Scribble.
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ellymackay · 6 years
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Your Fall Sleep Survival Guide
The blog article Your Fall Sleep Survival Guide See more on: https://www.ellymackay.com/
Here’s how to sleep well as the season shifts
Sure, there are a few more weeks of summer, according to the calendar. But this week after Labor Day is when we all mentally make the move into fall mode.
The kids are back to school—or soon to be. Summer Fridays at work are over. We’re thinking less about trips to the beach or the mountains, and more about getting the full bounty out of our vegetable gardens while they last.
The air is cooling (at least a little, for most of us) and the days are getting noticeably shorter. Even if it’s been decades since you entered a classroom, most of us experience at least a hint of that “back to school” excitement (or dread) when fall arrives. It’s a beautiful, interesting time of year—and with a few strategies in your pocket, fall can be one of the most restful and refreshing times of year for sleep.
Get your family on the right sleep schedules
Summer tends to affect everyone’s sleep routine. Kids don’t have to get up for school. You’re probably traveling more, heading out for vacations and visits with extended family. The days are at their longest, with sun stretching well into the evening hours. Summer, for all its relaxing pleasures, can be challenging for sleep!
Now is the time to hit the reset button on sleep schedules for everyone in your household, to ensure everyone gets the sleep they need. I just wrote about how to guide your school-age kids back to a school-friendly sleep schedule. I also talked about the best sleep tips to share with your college-age children.
But it’s not just kids in the house who are likely to need an adjustment to their sleep schedule. Many of us loosen up the rules and routines of sleep during the summer. Fall is the time to pull those routines back into focus, to ensure we’re getting enough high-quality sleep to feel and function at our best. The patterns of daylight are changing, with sunrise happening later in the morning. Depending on your sleep needs and individual schedule, you may welcome this additional darkness to get the daily sleep amounts right for you. Just make sure changes to your bed times and wake times are intentional, and in keeping with a sleep routine that
Just-released research delivers a potent reminder that making ample time for sleep isn’t a luxury, but a necessity for long-term health and well being. Swedish scientists have found middle-aged men who sleep no more than 5 hours a night have double the risk of developing cardiovascular disease as men in middle age who sleep 7-8 hours.
If you’re an adult who carries a sleep debt from one season to the next, take a moment to learn about my How To Sleep Better course, here.
If you need to reacquaint yourself with your ideal bedtime, use my Bedtime Calculator, here.
Re-connect with your chronotype
Summer often brings with it a sense of freedom that affects how we live and sleep. But at the end of the day (and I mean that both literally and figuratively) we’re all biologically hard-wired to sleep and be awake according to our individual circadian timing.
Summer can see typically early-to-bed Lions staying up past 9:30, and middle-of-the road Bears popping out of bed earlier in the morning, and with more gusto. Late-night-preferring Wolves may enjoy the company of having more people to hang out with the evening hours, but that’s only likely to keep them up and active even later into the night than is already typical for them.
You’re going to sleep better, feel more yourself, be healthier and perform at your best when you’re living more closely in sync with your individual chronotype. Everything from digestion to metabolism, mood and sex drive, decision making and creativity, are influenced the daily bio rhythms that determine our chronotype. (Chronotypes are so important, I wrote a book about them, and the best times to do everything from eat lunch to ask for a raise: The Power of When.)
The first step in aligning your sleep schedule with your chronotype is to identify what your chronotype is. You can get that information quickly by taking my quiz at www.thepowerofwhenquiz.com.
Re-commit to your exercise routine
You’ve heard me talk about the benefits that exercise delivers to sleep. Exercising regularly improves sleep quality and sleep quantity, enables us to spend more time in deep sleep, and lowers stress. It can improve symptoms of insomnia and reduce the severity of obstructive sleep apnea.
If summer has you off your regular exercise routine, now is the time to get back on. You’ll feel better throughout your waking day, and you’ll sleep better at night.
I try to exercise regularly, so I know firsthand it can be a struggle sometimes to stick with it. But I do my best. I run, I take spin classes, I work out regularly with a trainer. My favorite exercise—and the one I recommend to even my most exercise-adverse patients—is yoga. It’s great for your outlook at mood, as well as for your sleep.
We’re learning more all the time about the powerful benefits of mind-body exercise for sleep. Recent research found that mind-body exercises including yoga and tai chi have the ability to change how our genes function, in ways that reduce stress and depression. Those improvements, in turn, can make a huge difference for sleep.
Be pro-active with your diet
Did burgers make a regular appearance on your dinnerplate this summer? Did you take evening walks to get ice cream? Chow down on a few lobster rolls? Say yes every time someone brought pie to the table for dessert? My summer indulgences included all of the above. It was great. And now it’s time to get back to basics with my diet.
You also might have fallen into a habit of eating later. Now is a good time to dial the clock back on dinnertime. This is especially important for Wolves. New research suggests their tendency to eat late and stay up late is linked to higher body mass index, or BMI, in people with prediabetes.
How we eat affects how we sleep. And in turn, how we sleep affects what, when, and how much we eat. A 2016 study found that after one night of short sleep, people ate an average 385 additional calories the next day. That’s practically an additional meal! Short on sleep, people at more fat, and less protein, than their better-sleeping counterparts.
As winter approaches, with the days getting shorter and nights getting longer, many of us lean toward a winter diet, and crave more calorie-dense, carbohydrate-rich “comfort” foods. Use this fall to set some sleep-friendly eating habits so they’ll be ingrained by the time those winter cravings roll around.
Load up on sunlight
Early fall is a great time to give your mind and body the benefits of plentiful exposure to natural sunlight. The oppressive temperatures of summer are receding, but we’re not yet in the very short days of winter. Soaking up natural sunlight has a host of benefits for sleep and health. Sunlight exposure early in the day strengthens biological sleep-wake rhythms, help you fall asleep more easily and wake more alert and refreshed. Sunlight also boosts the body’s production of serotonin, which elevates and protects mood, and contributes to feelings of calm. Serotonin is also an essential precursor for the sleep hormone melatonin. And sunlight is an important source of Vitamin D. Vitamin D can affect both how much sleep we get, and how well we sleep.
Natural light exposure is helpful for most people. It can be especially important for people who experience seasonal affective disorder in the winter months. (More on seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, soon…)
Prepare for daylight savings to end
On November 4, we’ll turn the clocks back. Most people look forward to this “extra” hour of sleep that comes with the end of Daylight Savings Time. It’s true that the onset of Daylight Savings is associated with more significant disruptions to sleep, and a spike in health and safety issues, including heart attacks, stroke, workplace and driving accidents and injuries.
But it’s worth remembering that a change of an hour in any direction is a significant adjustment for our highly sensitive bio clocks. Many of us can expect to feel a little off when the clocks go back, even if we relish an extra bit of time on Sunday morning. The suggestions I’ve made above—watching your diet, exercising regularly, getting plenty of sunlight—can help you minimize the disruption to how you feel, and to your sleep-wake routine.
You can also take the additional step of making small, incremental adjustments to your bedtime ahead of the time change. If you push your bedtime and wake time later by 5-10 minutes  a day over a few days before the change, you’ll lessen its impact. Just make sure not to lose out on any sleep when you’re tinkering with your sleep schedule.
Watch for new stress
Fall is a real get-down-to-business time of year. We revisit goals and deadlines ahead of the end of the calendar year. Schedules—both our own and our children’s—suddenly feel pressed for time again. And the holidays are upon us. There are plenty of seasonal stress triggers lurking in this lovely time of year. Be attentive to your mood and stress levels. Be aware that un-checked stress can have a significant negative impact on your sleep. And know that in turn, when you sleep poorly or don’t get enough sleep, you’re much more vulnerable to stress and anxiety.
Here are 5 of my favorite relaxation techniques to reduce stress and improve sleep.
We’re entering a season that’s full of transition and change in the natural world, and in our social patterns. All these changes affect how we sleep, and how we feel and function. Stay attentive to how you respond to the season’s changes, and you can sleep well as we head toward winter.
Sweet Dreams,
Michael J. Breus, PhD, DABSM
The Sleep Doctor
www.thesleepdoctor.com
The post Your Fall Sleep Survival Guide appeared first on Your Guide to Better Sleep.
from Your Guide to Better Sleep https://www.thesleepdoctor.com/2018/09/04/your-fall-sleep-survival-guide/
from Elly Mackay - Feed https://www.ellymackay.com/2018/09/04/your-fall-sleep-survival-guide/
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ellymackay · 6 years
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4 Helpful Ways You Can Guide Your College Kid To Better Sleep
The blog post 4 Helpful Ways You Can Guide Your College Kid To Better Sleep is republished from https://www.ellymackay.com/
Here’s how to help them sleep better on their own
My son is 16, and he’s starting to think a lot about college. It’s hard for me to believe that in a couple of years he’ll be headed off to school, living in a dorm, and responsible for himself on a daily basis.
Excited as we are for them, it’s not easy to let our kids go off on their own. We worry about how they’ll take care of themselves, and about the choices they’ll make without us right by their sides. Sleep for teenagers isn’t easy—I talked about some of those teen sleep challenges recently. And sleep can get even more complicated when kids go away to school. For the first time, they’re truly in charge of managing their own sleep schedules.
Here are some tips for helping your college-bound child handle this new responsibility for their sleep:
Send them with the right sleep gear
I like to say: sleep is a performance activity. To do it well, we need the right equipment. That’s just as true for your college kid in his dorm as it is for your family at home. It’s important to give kids at college every advantage in sleeping well. That starts with high-quality sleep equipment.
MATTRESS: If your child is living in a dorm, it’s likely you won’t be able to select a mattress; it will be provided. There’s also a decent chance it won’t be an especially good mattress. I’d love to see colleges and universities invest in high-quality mattresses—and maybe some do. But you can’t count on it.
Still, there are things you can do to help ensure your child’s mattress at school is more comfortable, healthful, and sleep-promoting.
Get a mattress cover. This is a must-do for hygiene—good for your child’s overall health and sleep. Dust, dirt, and the micro-critters that live in mattresses can trigger allergies, which can interfere with sleep (not to mention their ability to concentrate on that bio exam). Most dorm beds are size twin XL, but check with the college staff before you buy.
Pick a mattress topper. Mattress toppers can add both comfort and support to any mattress, including those maybe-less-than-stellar dorm beds. They come in different types, including latex, memory foam, and down, each with a different feel and firmness. The right type depends on your child’s individual needs for comfort and support. (If you need a refresher on the difference between comfort and support, read my how-to on picking the right mattress.)
There’s a very good chance you won’t know the condition and characteristics of your college-bound child’s mattress at school before move-in day. In a perfect world, you’d have your kid test out their school mattress beforehand. For most dorm-dwellers, that’s probably not realistic. Get some information from them about their sleep comfort and preferences beforehand—do they like a soft bed (down) or a firmer one (latex)? Are they already using memory foam at home?
If your college kid is living off campus, you’ll most likely get to choose their mattress (because you’ll be buying it for their apartment). Using my pick-a-mattress guide, invest in the best-quality mattress for your budget. Most healthy teenagers and young adults are resilient sleepers with bodies that haven’t yet weathered the wear and tear that makes a high-quality mattress so essential for older adults. I’m not suggesting you must buy a top-of-the-line mattress for your college kid (do that for yourself, if you can). But automatically opting for the cheapest option isn’t the best move, if you can afford to do otherwise.
Remember, you’re investing in your child’s sleep in one of the most critical developmental periods of their lives. And higher-quality mattresses will last longer than low quality ones. A well-made mattress purchased during their college years will last up to 7 or 8 years. That’s enough mattress mileage to take them well into their twenties, sleeping on a great bed.
PILLOW: If you’re not selecting the mattress your college kid is sleeping on, her pillow is the most important piece of sleep gear you’ll choose. The right one will make a huge difference to how comfortably and well she sleeps. A good pillow helps your child maintain healthy sleep posture, keeping the body aligned and avoiding physical discomfort and the restless sleep that comes from the wrong pillow.
Use my How to Pick a Pillow guide with your college-bound kid to identify the best pillow for their individual needs. Don’t just grab the least expensive pillow you spot in the aisle of that big-box store where you’re loading up on college gear. Resist the temptation to grab an old pillow off your guest bed and send it along to college. It’s absolutely worth investing in the highest-quality pillow for your budget. Remember, pillows typically need replacing every 18 months or so. (Memory foam pillows are the exception; they’ll last about 3 years.) The pillow your child starts with as a first-year is not going to see them through graduation. Be prepared to replace your collegian’s pillow at least once during a four-year college stint.
SHEETS and BEDDING: Your college-age child is likely to want to have some input on these selections, largely on style grounds. That’s great! Just make sure you don’t compromise on quality. Sleeping on natural fabrics—cotton, flannel, wool—makes for a more comfortable, restful night’s sleep. These breathable fabrics do a superior job of enabling the body to regulate its temperature effectively while sleeping. The role of temperature in sleep is important, and sometimes overlooked. Especially in dorm rooms and apartments where students may not be able to control the temperature of their bedrooms, the right bedding can make a big difference. And make sure they have at least two complete sets of sheets, to make it easy for them wash their bedding more often.
Help them control their sleep environment
Let’s face it, college dorms aren’t exactly conducive to healthy sleep. Your college-bound kid will be living in close quarters with a roommate, in a building and a campus filled with young adults up at all hours of the night, studying, partying, being loud and goofy, and blowing off steam.
It’s going to take more than a good pillow to help your kid sleep well while away at school. A few additional tools tucked into their suitcase can help them manage their sleep environment better, despite all the things they can’t control.
Eye mask: For when his roommate is up late studying, and your kid wants to sleep. A simple, essential tool that’s a big help in getting your child the darkness their body needs to make the sleep hormone melatonin.
Ear plugs: Wouldn’t you want a supply of these if you were living in a dorm? I would. Be aware, anyone who suffers from tinnitus or who is susceptible to ear infections shouldn’t sleep with earplugs.
Portable bedside sleep therapy: I’m a big proponent of engaging all the senses to help with sleep. That’s why I’m such a fan of the iHome Zenergy Sleep System, which has lights, sounds, and scents that all promote sleep. (Full disclosure, I consult with iHome as a sleep expert.) It has a smartphone app your kids can use to customize their sleep experience, and a gradual wake alarm to help them make that midmorning class. Thinking of getting your college kid a regular, old-fashioned alarm clock for their bedside? Skip it and do this instead.
Sleep tracker. I don’t consider a sleep tracking device essential for every kid going off to college. Some college-age kids just won’t remember to use it. But if your child is the type who will get into tracking their sleep (and plenty will), then a sleep tracker is a great way to keep them attentive to their nightly rest and supply them with actionable information about their sleep. My favorite tracker is the SleepScore Max, which is far and away the most accurate tracker I’ve seen. It delivers personalized information to your college sleeper, and helps them set goals. I can vouch for the sleep tips it offers, since I helped to create them!
Prepare them to manage screen time away from you
You’ve probably got a screen time policy in your house. I know we do in ours. Having raised a teenager in the age of smartphones and social media, you also know that these policies can be tough to enforce.
I bought my teenage kids each a pair of Swanwick Glasses, with blue-light blocking technology. (I use them too, when I’m looking at screens at night.) These glasses block the melatonin-suppressing, alertness-promoting blue light that our smartphone and tablet screens have in high concentrations.
These glasses are a great idea for a college-bound kid, who’s apt to be staring at screens pretty late in the evening—but might not mind wearing these retro-looking specs for their nighttime screen use.
Talking to your college student about sleep
So, we’ve covered the gear and the gadgets. Now let’s look at what we want our kids to know, and how we want them to think about sleep as they venture out on their own for the first time.
First, it’s important for parents (and grandparents) to remember a couple of important points.
College kids are almost exclusively evening chronotypes (In my book, The Power of When, I call this chronotype Wolves, to describe the late-night favoring people who are alert at midnight and dragging before 10 a.m.). The biological changes that cause this preference for evenings over mornings kick in at the start of adolescence, and don’t even begin a shift back toward a preference for earlier times until around age 20. That shift back is gradual, and can take years. Moreover, some young adults stay Wolves throughout their adult lives (I’m one.) Of course, there’s the occasional Lion (early-morning preference) in the college-age mix, but it’s a rarity.
It’s unrealistic to expect even the most disciplined, motivated college-age student to function with the sleep-wake habits and patterns of an adult. When talking with your college kids about sleep, keep the reality of their biology, and their emotional maturity, in mind. When working with young adults to set goals for sleep, don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
Remind them, don’t only think about sleep at bedtime. Encourage your college-bound teen to think about sleep as an interrelated part of their whole day. Too often, many of us fall into thinking about sleep as a compartmentalized part of life—or worse, a blank slate where nothing happens. The reality is, sleep affects every aspect of our lives—our health, our mental, emotional, and intellectual abilities, our relationships. And how we live throughout the day affects how we sleep. The sooner our young adults can start thinking about sleep this way, the better off they’ll be.
For example, just-released research suggests that teenagers who follow a Mediterranean diet may get better grades because of the positive influence a Mediterranean diet has on sleep quality.
Remind your college student that eating well, exercising, being moderate with alcohol, limiting caffeine and sugar, aren’t just good practices in their own right—each one also will help protect and improve sleep. And that better sleep will help your college student feel and perform better in every aspect of their lives, from academics to social relationships to sports.
Encourage them to set realistic schedules. Talk with your kids about their sleep biology, and describe what it means to be a Wolf living in world that’s overwhelmingly set up for Bears (the middle-of-the-road chronotype that applies to a majority of adults). College usually means a big improvement from high school in class start times. But it’s still a good idea for college students to plan their morning schedules thoughtfully and realistically, taking into account their individual preferences for bedtime and wake times. Signing up for an 8 a.m. class that they attend less-than perfectly is a likely to be a lot less valuable than a 10 a.m. class they can make on a regular basis. Especially in their first year or two, a realistic, sleep-friendly schedule can help college students adapt to managing their routines on their own, without setting the bar too high, too fast.
Motivate them to better sleep, using their own interests. Collage is an amazing time for young people to discover and deepen their passions. You know a lot about what motivates and interests your college-age child. Since sleep is so connected to every part of life, you can make a strong case for how sleep matters to whatever it is they care about most.
Got an athlete? Focus on how sleep improves physical and competitive athletic performance, including speed, power, and reaction time.
Is your kid contemplating pre-med? Let them know how sleep affects memory, learning, and analytical skills.
Parent to a budding playwright or musician? Fill them in on how sleep enhances creativity.
Whatever your college student does, they’ll do it better, more happily and with less stress, when they get enough high-quality sleep.
I wish your kid the best of luck at college, with plenty of fun, plenty of awesome learning and discovery, and yep—plenty of sleep.
Sweet Dreams,
Michael J. Breus, PhD, DABSM
The Sleep Doctor
www.thesleepdoctor.com
The post 4 Helpful Ways You Can Guide Your College Kid To Better Sleep appeared first on Your Guide to Better Sleep.
from Your Guide to Better Sleep https://www.thesleepdoctor.com/2018/07/30/4-helpful-ways-you-can-guide-your-college-kid-to-better-sleep/
from Elly Mackay - Feed https://www.ellymackay.com/2018/07/30/4-helpful-ways-you-can-guide-your-college-kid-to-better-sleep/
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