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Ways to a restful sleep

19. November 2015 von Redaktion Leave a Comment

Sufficient and restful sleep is the groundwork for our health and our well-being. Even the World Health Organization (WHO) has recognized this: besides exercise and nutrition, the WHO has taken sleep to the three most important pillars of health. Of course, there is an interaction between these three factors of our health, but sleep is considered to have the highest influence.

The well-known sleep researcher Prof. Dr. William C., Dement, Stanford University, has summed up the findings of his 40 years of activity with the following statement: “I have not found any other factor that has a bigger influence on our health and our well-being than our sleep. 90 % of our health depend on sleep!”.

Preconditions
An unbalanced work-life-balance, artificial light-sources, noise and electro-magnetic disturbance factors, wrong diet and too less exercise –- these preconditions are anything else but positive for restful sleep.

Following find simple but effective measurements that support you on your way to restful sleep:

Check your sleep surroundings, your sleeping place, your sleeping underlay:
• Light inhibits production of the sleeping hormone melatonin, noise hinders relaxation and recovery, when the temperatures in the bedroom are too high, our body is not able to cool down the needed 34° F -– factors, that disturb falling asleep and sleeping through. Out of this reason, care for a dark, quiet bedroom at a pleasant temperature, ideally between 61° F and 64° F.

• In the year 1993, the Max-Planck-Institute, Germany, found out, that technically induced radiation is causing stress. Out of this reason, it is important that the sleeping place has an undisturbed earth’s magnetic field. The specially designed earthing-overlay Lokosana® is supporting you here.

• Your sleeping underlay has the most direct influence on your sleep. It is important, that it is made of natural materials and that it offers your body the necessary support for being able to relax. Only a nature-conform bed that consequently meets the requirements of orthopaedics, sleep-biology, bedding-climate and electro-biology will effectively support you!

Observe your daily habits
• Regularly take breaks during your daily routine. Our body underlies many rhythms like the changing of day and night and thereby waking and sleeping, the change of season, etc. Equally, during the day our body has a biologic basic-rhythm of about 90-100 minutes between activity and recovery. Therefore, frequently indulge your body and mind in short breathers. This not only supports stress reduction but also the sleep-wake-cycle, which is necessary for healthy and effective sleep.

• Care for natural, living food and avoid a dinner too late and too extensive.

• Regular movement and sports, ideally in fresh air, are good for body, mind and soul. Ensure, that intense sports activities are not carried out too late in the evening. Your circulatory needs time to calm down and this might make it difficult to fall asleep.

Thanks to bio-active sheep-wool you will sleep healthier

18. November 2015 von Schlafexperte Prof. Dr. med. h.c. Günther W. Amann-Jennson Leave a Comment

At first it’s cold, you are freezing and consequently you are covering yourself with a thick cover and then –- warm, even hot, you are sweating. This leads to a humid-cold bedding climate. The risk of colds and rheumatism arises.

With the proper bedding content this danger decreases. Bio-active sheep wool is the word. Because, organic sheep wool not only absorbs the humidity, it has a lot more advantages: it is balancing temperature, it has a smell binding and self-cleaning effect, neutralizes bacteria and toxins in and around the bed, is breathable and muscle relaxing, improves circulation, just to name some.

The good characteristics of sheep wool have long been known. But, they especially apply for bio-active, chemically untreated fibers. All times, pure natural fibers protected from wind, weather and cold and even have a temperature-balancing effect in heat.

Thus, sheep wool gained in early summer, shortly before the sheep are shedding their winter coat, is the perfect filling for underlays, pillows and covers.

Due to the scalelike structure of the single wool-hair bio-sheep-wool is able to absorb humidity, like for example sweat, up to 35 % of its own weight. The wool binds the humidity without feeling moist and releases it to the air again. But, also unwanted odors and smells get absorbed by the natural protein fiber of bio-sheep-wool.

Say good bye to dust mites
The proper bedding content is especially important for allergy sufferers. Because, unlike usual covers, especially bio-sheep-wool cares for a dry-warm bedding-climate. Since dust mites are only able to perfectly develop in moist-warm climate, bio-sheep-wool deprives these micro-forms from their basis of life. Furthermore, due to its structure, bio-active sheep-wool is able to absorb, bind and release into the air the main food of the mites –- skin flakes. Therewith, dust mites don’t stand a chance and allergy sufferers may enjoy a relaxed sleep.

Less pollutants thanks to bio-sheep-wool
Something, that a lot of people do not know: from furnitures made of press boards to cosmetics -– they often contain indoor toxins like formaldehyde. Especially during sleep, these toxins may have a harmful effect on our health. Untreated bio-sheep-wool neutralizes these pollutants. Within a couple of hours, even a large formaldehyde-content is lowered by 80 % by binding the toxin and chemically changing it into completely harmless substances.

Sleeping without rheumatism
Take a look around at your friends and your acquaintances: most people do have traditional eiderdowns at home. But actually, these don’t really belong into the bed, because they prevent the nightly skin-breathing. Because, our skin is a huge healing- and regeneration-organ. Especially during sleeping, new vital energy is gained through the skin. But, under eiderdowns you inevitably sweat and this important regeneration-process is hindered. Equally unfavorably are these covers when suffering under rheumatism, which even get increased by the eiderdowns. Whereas covers filled with bio-sheep-wool effectively counteract the pains.

Sleeping problems of children

17. November 2015 von Redaktion Leave a Comment

Sleeping problems of children and babies often occur and are completely normal. Nevertheless, after a certain amount of time it is becoming a burden for the parents. Every night, the child is sleeping in the parental bed because it won’t fall asleep otherwise, a slept through night nearly never happens, and sometimes the nights only consist of crying. That not only wears out the parent’s nerves but a lot of them are not sure, how much sleep their offspring actually would need.

Sleep- and children-psychologists have calculated a recommendation:
– Newborns need about 16 to 18 hours of sleep.
– A one-year old between 12 and 15 hours.
– From four years on about 12 hours.

But, this is only a calculation of the average. Like with grown-ups, the sleep-need of babies and small children is very individual. There is absolutely no reason for being insecure should the amount of sleep of the own children be below these.

The question, why the little ones are not sleeping through often arises. This is because they simply just have not learned yet to soothe themselves when waking up at night and to fall asleep again. Almost all small children and babies are suffering under this sleeping through problems from time to time.

In some few cases, health aspects might play a role. A respiratory disease might be the reason if a child breathes very loud during the night. Often, digestion problems are also keeping the baby awake at night. Should the sleep disturbances be prolonged it is advisable to seek medical advice.

So, what can you do to support your child in getting the amount of sleep it needs?
Same rituals every evening like brushing the teeth together, a bedtime story or a cup of warm milk signalize the brain of the little ones that it is time to become tired. It is also important that the time to go to bed stays within a fixed frame. This helps the sleep-wake-cycle to get to the right rhythm. A lot of activity during the day is making tired. And, what might sound unbelievable but still is true: already small children are beginning to brood in bed and therefore are not able to fall asleep. Out of this reason, it is important to never send children to bed after a fight, but that going to bed is harmonious.

Should this not help, a psychological strain might be the reason. Especially when the sleep disturbances last longer than early childhood, you should consult a child psychologist. But is very important, that you don’t panic and to take a quiet approach, because this in turn soothes your child. Sleeping problems are something very normal. But this also applies to children: not the symptoms but the causes have to be treated.

Pain in the neck and tensions in the morning?

16. November 2015 von Redaktion Leave a Comment

Why the choice of the proper pillow is the key to relaxed sleep

Every human being sleeps different. Some sleep on the side, some on the back, some on the stomach. Some lie spread-eagled, other ones rolled-up. But, when using the wrong pillow, they all might suffer under the same complaints.

Tensions and pain in the neck in the morning are wide spread problems. Inappropriate head positioning may lead to as well overstretching as sagging of the spine out of which pain in the neck and in the shoulder region may arise. There is a proper pillow for every kind of sleeper. To prevent from pain in the neck after getting up, there are certain characteristics that have to be considered.

Mainly, the pillow is for supporting the head and for stabilizing the cervical spine. Depending on how you sleep, you need the kind of pillow that prevents the bend in the neck for your sleeping position. If the pillow is too hard, it may not adapt to the sleeping person and tensions arise, since nerves and blood vessels might be squeezed off.

The neck is a part of the body that sweats strongly. Therefore, our pillow should be able to deal with that. Unlike water-repellent eiderdowns, sheep wool is able to absorb humidity up to 35 % of its own weight.

When all initial expectations on the ideal pillow are fulfilled, you might take a further step. There are three main-sleeping-types and each needs a different underlay for optimal support of the cervical spine and for protection of the neck. The pillows for the most frequent sleeping type, the side-sleeper, should not be too soft, so that the neck-area can be filled in. The support of the spine has to have highest priority. Back sleepers should take care that their pillow is as flat as possible, so that the area between back of the head and neck is filled in with the pillow. So, the neck gets relieved and lying is comfortable. Especially stomach sleepers often suffer under tensions, since this position is the most unnatural one and it may affect relaxed breathing. Furthermore, the spine gets unnecessarily strained which leads to a restless sleep. Stomach sleepers need a pillow as flat as possible so that the spine is not overstretched and the sleep stays restful.

There is a proper pillow for every one! SAMINA offers a wide range of pillows, and is able to individually respond to the needs with variations. So that the pillow is offering support and contributes to healthy, restful sleep.

Sleep disturber alcohol

13. November 2015 von Redaktion Leave a Comment

Dr. Ch. Nicholas, University of Melbourne, Australia and his team discovered a further aspect, why alcohol is a sleep disturber and no sleep supporter.

With 24 male and female College students the effects of alcohol consumption as well as of no alcohol consumption were tested in comparison directly before sleeping. The evaluation of data revealed a huge difference: In EEG it got evident that alcohol was not only strengthening the expected signs of deep sleep in early sleeping stages. At the same time, in the frontal area of the brain increased alpha-waves were discovered. This can be described as relaxed wakefulness resp. the transitional stage from alertness into sleeping. So, by no way deep sleep and according to Nicholas a sign for sleep disturbances. Similar changes of the alpha-wave-activities were noticeable with consciously used sleep disrupting stimuli.

The team draws the conclusion that, even if it seems, that you better relax and fall asleep with alcohol, it still is no good sleeping aid. The two different brain activities shown in the EEG indicate that recreational sleep with alcohol is impossible and negative effects on the activities of the following day likely.

For successful people sleeping is a waste of time

12. November 2015 von Redaktion Leave a Comment

In our performance-oriented-society sleep often has a bad reputation. Some politicians and top-managers even proclaim that they only need from 4 to 5 hours sleep. A misjudgment, because during sleep important groundwork is laid — not only for our health but also for thinking ability and judgment. Neurologists even go so far that constant lack of sleep is able to damage our brain on long term.

So, is sleeping really a waste of time for successful people? Let’s take a look on the consequences of sufficient healthy and recreational sleep resp. of lack of sleep.

First of all: How much is sufficient sleep? In fact, that variates: but, on an average grown-ups need 7 to 8 hours of high quality sleep to stay healthy and efficient. Body, mind and soul need sleep for recreation, detoxification, for processing the daily impressions, solidification of learned things, amongst others. When we are having too less sleep, we are weakening our immune system, science even suggests that diseases like diabetes, cancer and Alheimer’s are staying in direct connection with lack of sleep. Especially during the deep sleep phases which are important for the physical recreation the whole organism recreates, tissue damages are repaired, healing processes activate, sick cells get replaced with new, healthy ones and are fueled.

By the way, beauty sleep really exists: during sleep the moisture depots under the skin get filled up again, so, sufficient and recreational sleep cares for a glowing complexion whereas lack of sleep lets us look tired and old.

Since processing of learned and new stuff is happening in the night during sleeping, sleep is important for our brain capacity. It’s amazing, in spite our apparent inactivity our energy consumption during night is insignificantly lower than during daytime. But still, we do not need any food. Reason for that is, that during sleep the appetite inhibiting hormone leptin is released. As soon as the sleep is disrupted the natural opponent of leptin -– ghrelin -– becomes prevalent and hunger arises. Facts that led some researchers to this statement: “to less sleep makes stupid and fat”.

Further it is proven that people with a lack of sleep have the same reactivity like people with an alcohol level of 100 milliliters. A poor base for conducting endless-meetings, making important decisions or driving to work with the car.

For successful people sleep is a waste of time? Anything else but that! Especially people who want to be successful and who have to make important decisions should attach utmost importance to sufficient and recreational sleep!