medication

19 reasons for sleepless nights

25. May 2017 von Redaktion Leave a Comment

Our sleep need individually differs. Some do with just five hours, others need nine hours. For most people, sleeping about six to eight hours is perfect. But, not only sleep duration is important for our recreation. Especially healthy and restful sleep, a good sleeping quality, is decisive. But, many of us suffer under sleepless nights. Here are some reasons:

Too many sleepless nights?

Sleep is a basic need of us human beings. As long as we are sleeping well, we don’t give it a thought. Sleep is a matter of course. But, at latest when we don’t get enough sleep or sleep bad it becomes obvious how important sufficient and high-quality sleep is.

Our body and mind need sleep for regeneration, we gather new energy for the next day. Now, if we are having too few or bad sleep, we lack energy. We are feeling tired and run down instead of fit and rested. During daytime, we feel tired, lack concentration, have limited energy and are irritable.

But, what keeps us from sufficient and restful sleep?

Reasons for sleepless nights

Dehydration
Too much caffeine
Alcohol consumption
Nicotine
Too fatty and too much food
Back pain
Snoring and/or restless partner
Noise
Insufficiently darkened room
Bedroom too warm or too cold
Humidity too high or too low
Technical devices in the bedroom
Improper bed
Irregular sleep-wake-cycle
Stress
Nightmares
Medication
Illnesses/Injuries
Sorrows

Imagesource: @istock

How do nightmares arise?

3. June 2016 von Redaktion Leave a Comment

The cause of recurring nightmares is the interaction of personal disposition and acute triggers.

Genes

Since several years it is known that the disposition for nightmares is partly inherited. If one identical twin is suffering under nightmares the other twin is likely to do so as well. With fraternal twins it is less the case. This is an indication for the joint responsibility of genes in the emergence of nightmares.

Personality

Scientists assume that sensitive and creative persons are more likely at risk. Irritable, fearful or depressive personalities seem to be more prone to nightmares as well. Persons who suffer under an anxiety disorder or an addiction often have a worse sleep and more often have nightmares than mentally healthy people.

Medication

When taking medication always carefully read the package insert. Nightmares are a possible side effect of numerous drugs, like remedies against high blood pressure and Parkinson’s as well as several serotonin reuptake inhibitors (a wide spread form of antidepressants).

Stress

One of the most common causes of nightmares is stress. Stress at work, at school or in the family might be burdensome. And the daily events might become part of the nightly dreams.

Traumata

Traumatic experiences like war, accidents, rape or natural disasters often trigger post-traumatic stress-disorders (PTSD). One significant sign of PTSD are nightmares. People concerned react much more strongly on nightmares than healthy people. It might be possible that they startle with palpitations. They need a long time to go back to sleep again. In case traumatic experiences remain untreated, nightmares might become a constant, maybe life-long, burden.

An insidious danger – the fatal consequences of pain in the neck

9. February 2016 von Redaktion Leave a Comment

When our muscles are sore its a signal of our body that something is wrong. He is kind of forewarning before something more serious is going to happen and thereby gives us the possibility to react. The same thing applies for pain in the neck. When we fail to go to the doctor’s on time chronical head ache might arise – one, even pills often are not able to counteract. But: if you only treat the pain and not its cause (in our case tense neck muscles) it’s only going to be a temporary improvement and the more intense it is going to return. Furthermore, excessive consummation of pain-relieving medication may lead to kidney damages or head ache due to medication.

A further consequence of neck tensions on our body are disturbances in breathing and dysphonia. When your neck is tense, your airways, masticatory muscles and vocal cords knot. People who suffer under a painful neck often are only able to breath shallowly and pressed. This is an enormous impairment in a lot of everyday situations. Nighttime teeth grinding (bruxism) can be due to a tense neck. When the muscles in your neck start to soften again, your breathing as well as your teeth grinding start to improve.

When something is hurtful we avoid any movement that might worsen the pain. And this exactly is the problem: by avoiding any movement of the neck- and shoulder-area severe inflammations of the shoulder-joints might arise. This in turn leads to a susceptibility of calcium deposits in the tendons. A tense neck is not only harmful for head, neck and shoulders. Possibly, the pain in the neck might spread into the whole back. The tense muscles lead to an unnatural pressure on our vertebras. And this further leads to the fact that our intervertebral discs are not sufficiently supplied with nutrients and start to become thin and brittle.

Meanwhile, for most of us pain in the neck is unpleasant, yes, but still common. But it is very important to effectively do something against these tensions. Even if the pain is bearable in the beginning, they might lead to serious health risks and are harmful for our whole body, even up to things like blood pressure and heartbeat. Proper exercises, sufficient movement and the suitable pillow support the release of these tensions. Finally, you are able to say goodbye to your pain in the neck!