A study recently concluded that individuals that suffer from undiagnosed sleep apnea were more apt to be in a vehicular accident after sleeping, than those with normal sleep patterns. This study utilized thirty eight patients who were known to have OSA (Obstructive Sleep Apnea) and twenty subjects with normal sleep cycles.

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Each subject had to complete 3 mid-afternoon driving tests on a simulator. The first driving test was completed after each of the individuals were well rested after a normal 8 hour sleep event. This test served as a baseline for measuring the subjects in the future sessions.

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On the second set of driving tests, each person was restricted to only 4 hours of sleep and was instructed to drive the simulated course. The simulator situation was designed to experience night driving on an isolated road and navigate normal turns about every 10 minutes or so. Each subject had to navigate the turns and adjust back to 2 lane driving during the ongoing test.

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On the third set of tests, both control groups were not only restricted to 4 hours of sleep, but were also provided the legal limit of alcohol that would normally be consumed within a 1 hour period. The study concluded the performance of the 38 OSA patients were significantly worse than the other test subjects.

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Driving while tired, is well known to affect the reflexes and mental alertness of drivers and the increase in accidents sleepiness may cause. What this test data suggests, is that individuals who are also suffering from sleep disorders like Obstructive Sleep Apnea, are more likely to be in an accident under the same conditions.

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Individuals who suspect that they may have a sleep disorder preventing them from long restful periods of sleep may need to pay more attention to the dangers of driving with minimal amounts of rest. In addition, these individuals need to be especially aware that mixing a small level of alcohol with restricted sleep conditions can be a deadly combination.

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In conclusion, if there are periods where you may feel that your mental alertness is in question after sleeping 6-8 hours, you may be a candidate for Obstructive Sleep Apnea or other sleep disorder. It may be prudent to seek medical assistance before getting behind the wheel at night after a late dinner. This decision could very well save your life as well as those around you.

A 2 Step Approach to Snoring Cures

Posted by admin in Prescription Sleep Medicine on June 04th, 2009

Many chronic snorers have complaint that most of the snoring products does not permanently cure their snoring. And this is not far from the truth. In essence, snoring devices relieve snoring, and not a permanent cure. But, do not be disheartened and concede defeat to snoring just yet, apply the 2 step approach might just help you stop snoring tonight.

What causes snoring?

Snoring is commonly caused by a blocked nasal breathing pathway, therefore what happened is you struggle with breathing through your nose, and thus automatically use your mouth instead. And by that, you involuntarily cause vibration to the soft palate at the back of your tongue and subsequently creating those annoying sound. What you really need to know about how to stop snoring is how to keep your nasal breathing pathway open when you sleep. On top of breathing pathway, there is also the problem that sometimes when you sleep, your mouth muscles relaxes too much to the point where your muscles fail to hold themselves in place, causing the tongue to drop into your throat and thus blocked your breathing pathway.

What is this 2 approach?

What you need to do is to first find a short term relieve to your snoring, only then you work on a long term cure. Short term relieves comes in the form of stop snoring devices such as nasal strips, snoring pillow, or even a mouth guard. A nasal strips will help keep open up your nasal pathway at night. A snoring pillow will elevate your head when you sleep, in this position you will usually get more airflow. Lastly a mouth guard will help keep all your mouth muscles in place, avoiding the tongue in throat situation altogether.

The second approach to stop snoring is to find a lasting cure. This is simple, only if you really want to cure your snoring for good. All you need is a positive life style change. Consumption of alcohol and cigarettes before you sleep have widely known to cause you to snore more prevalently and louder than usual. This is because those substance have elements and chemicals that help you relax more than usual. Thus increasing the chance of a tongue drop.

On top of cutting off these substances, you need to get rid of excess around your neck area. These excess usually hinders you from breathing normally at night, think of it as literally choking you! Have consistent exercise and healthy diet plan.

Lastly, learn the stop snoring exercise techniques. These techniques derived from singing methods used by professional singers before they perform on stage. It will help increase airflow and open up vocal cords. How does stop snoring exercise work is that it teaches you how to practice exercises that will strengthen your mouth muscles, so that they will stay in their natural healthy position even when you sleep! Stop snoring exercises also show you how to increases your air intake. Which is usually the main cause of snoring.

Remember, relief your snoring first to let you and your partner a better sleep at night, while you work on the positive life style change! Very soon you’ll notice a difference especially when you wake up from a long night slumber! Take charge of your life and get ready to change it for good!

Baby Sleep Pattern

Posted by admin in Prescription Sleep Medicine on June 04th, 2009

The newborn baby spends 75 percent of his time asleep. This is because a baby’s physiological sleep need is vastly different from that of an adult. Babies are also unique in that they spend 50 percent of their daily sleep in REM sleep. Just after birth, babies only seem to have two stages of sleep: REM sleep and non-REM sleep.

Unlike adults, babies often move during REM sleep and remain still during non-REM sleep. For this reason, REM sleep at this stage of life is sometimes called “active sleep,” and non-REM sleep is often called “quiet sleep.” Unfortunately, many parents have been led to believe that a baby can and should sleep like an adult. Still others have been told that they can “train” their baby to sleep like an adult.

Neither of these two ideas is correct. Babies are unique in their physiological needs and patterns. Babies are not adults, and there is nothing you can do to turn them into adults overnight. The transition from babyhood to adulthood takes eighteen or more years. Let your baby be a baby, and both you and your baby will be much happier.

As your baby grows, her sleep patterns evolve and become more like those of older children, but just because your baby reaches four months of age and some “expert” says that she no longer needs to awaken for a night feeding does not mean that your baby does not need you when she awakens in the middle of the night. A human baby has more needs than merely the need to be fed. He does not wake up simply to annoy you and deprive you of a good night’s sleep.

A baby’s physiology, vastly different from that of an adult or even an older child, means that he simply cannot adopt an adult’s sleeping schedule. A newborn baby, for instance, has an almost continuous need for feeding and holding. An adult, by contrast, has developed beyond the need for continuous feeding and can thrive on three regularly spaced meals a day and one eight-hour period of sleep at nighttimes.

Child Sleep Solution provide safe, easy and effective sleep enhancement for parent don’t wish to frequently feeding or rocking your children back to sleep during the every night. And this is frustrating to end the day with battles over your child’s bedtime.

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