If we focus primarily on our health, sleeping must be a close second when it comes to prioritizing what we need to do to live healthy. Sleeping every night should come before consuming huge amounts of fruits and veggies, taking some good nutritional supplements, getting adequate exercise, and not being subjected to too much stress.

It is no secret that being in a financial crisis has made people lose more sleep because they’re taking on new jobs on top of the old ones, but the thing is that we need to get our fill of sleep to stay healthy. The long term effects of sleep deprivation are staggering. You know you owe yourself the sleep you badly need if your body starts showing signs of hypertension, diabetes and heart ailments. Some say that adding 3 or 4 hours in a week to your normal sleeping patterns could greatly reduce the occurrence of these diseases.

So, how much sleep do we need, exactly? A child who is 6-12 years old should get 10 to 12 hours of sleep daily. A teenager will require less sleep, but still should rest for 9 hours at least every night. An adult can settle for 7 hours of sleep every night.

How about daytime snoozing? It’s a lot better to rest during the night time because your body can restore the melatonin levels naturally. These pigments are what causes your circadian rhythm to be the way it is. If you habitually sleep during the day, your body won’t be able to replenish its melatonin supply fast enough. The result is you won’t be able to sleep normally during the night time, and become an insomniac. The hours of 10 P.M. and 6 A.M. are ideal for sleeping.

Melatonin is a natural hormone generated by your body’s pineal gland. The hormone is secreted during night-time to make you sleepy. This is the body’s natural way of doing a “re-boot”. You see, your body craves sleep and even if you’d rather spend most of your time being busy with something else, your body cannot deny itself the sleep it needs. Thus melatonin is secreted to make sleep come naturally. If you insist on not sleeping however, your melatonin supply is depleted.

Besides being a sleep synchronizer, melatonin is more famous for being an antioxidant. That the body produces it naturally during the night time should tell you something. The body protects itself and uses sleep as the best time to produce copious amounts of the body’s antioxidant.

If only you can sleep at night. No need to stress about your night time problems. It’s not like you’re the only one with the same problem. People have been battling with insomnia and end up taking high doses of sedatives, endangering themselves by self medicating. Here’s what you do… don’t self-medicate without knowing exactly what’s going on.

What you need to do is find out what’s keeping you awake. I don’t mean psychiatrist, I mean real tests that tell you a lot about the physiology of your sleeping problems. Sleep disorders involve any difficulties related to sleeping, including difficulty falling or staying asleep, falling asleep at inappropriate times, excessive total sleep time, or abnormal behaviors associated with sleep. The hundreds of various disorders of sleeping and waking can be grouped as follows: difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying awake, difficulty adhering to a regular sleep schedule and sleep disruptive behavior.

Some diagnostic sleep studies provided by physicians are easy enough to understand. The most common are the ones that watch what happens to the body during sleep. The most common sleep studies or diagnostic procedures include the Polysomnogram, Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT) and Multiple Wake Test (MWT).

You may be requested to take polysomnograms to investigate your sleep patterns. You may have to do this in the sleep laboratory. During this time, you will be told not to drink or eat anything that could disrupt your test, such as naps, coffee and alcohol. This test is significant because it records several body functions during sleep.

When you’re inside a sleeping room, some monitoring devices will be hooked on you. This is merely a way to collect information. The sensors all over your body will tell the doctors about your brain waves (EEG activity), heart rate (EKG), eye movements, leg muscle activity, and chest and stomach movement during sleep. The way air flows out from your nose and mouth will also be monitored. Most of all, your blood oxygen level will be monitored using sensors that are clipped on to your finger.

For special cases, other factors may be monitored. A series of wavefront tracings will be the output of the test and your doctor can consult with you to tell you about the score for your test. This diagnostic process could just save your life in the long run. Fortunately it ends around six o’clock in the morning and you can return to your usual daytime routine.

There are other tests you can take such as the MSLT test, which measures how long it takes for a person to fall asleep during naps taken over the course of a day; and the multiple wake test, which measures the ability to stay awake for a duration and is given during the day;

Snoring can be a risk factor of sleep apnea. It’s not just something that disturbs others or makes you self-conscious when someone tells you the next morning how loudly you snored. You may be at risk of breathing problems during sleep, and that could be dangerous.

Sleep apnea happens if you have trouble breathing at night for 10 seconds or more. If this happens more than once during the night, you will find yourself lethargic and sluggish the next morning. Some research say that being overweight is a risk factor of sleep apnea.

Sleep apnea happens because your brain goes into panic mode if your breathing becomes irregular. Your brain receives signals from various places on your body because you’re lacking oxygen. Some people who experience sleep apnea find themselves gasping for breath right after they wake up in the middle of the night. Sometimes, the experience is so rattling that sleep may not come anymore for the rest of the night.

If you show some of these symptoms, you have to confirm with a doctor whether you’re suffering from sleep apnea. Your health care provider can recommend a few tips on how to deal with sleep apnea and finally get the good night sleep you need.

You may think that sleep apnea is something temporary, but there are some long term repercussions. For instance, your lack of sleep may lead to memory loss, inability to focus and constant fatigue. These problems become the cause of stress, not to mention heartache if you mess up at your job. Over time, excessive snoring could also lead to complications in your circulation, especially if your body doesn’t regularly get the supply of oxygen it needs. The scary thing is that children are not spared from sleep apnea, which is commonly caused by tonsillar hypertrophy.

Treatment of Sleep Apnea may range from oral appliances to surgery (Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty). There may even be some behavioural treatments involved. The objective of any sleep apnea treatment is to keep the airway open and prevent breathing blocks that may be caused by positioning on the bed, chemical depressants or anything else. Sufferers are often told never to drink alcohol or take CNS depressants close to bedtime. Even if your body is in autopilot mode during sleep, you still need all your systems functioning well so that you can avoid complications.

Weight reduction and sleep posture modification are also some long-term solutions for sleep apnea. Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) is an effective treatment that is non-invasive. This has been proven to eliminate snoring and prevent sleep apnea. You will be using a machine to gently blow pressurized air through the nasal passage at a pressure high enough to prevent collapsing of the throat during sleep.

Some devices may also be used to keep the lower jaw and the tongue slack enough to allow air to flow in and out freely during sleep. Most of these devices function to prevent the tongue from falling back over the airway while you’re resting. A new innovation for curing sleep apnea is radiofrequency ablation (RFA). In this treatment radiofrequency energy is used to remove tissue from the Uvula, soft palate and tongue thereby helping treat Sleep Apnea. Enlarged tonsils or adenoids is one of the most widely done procedures to rid an individual of sleep apnea.

Back pain is not just another thing you can ignore, especially if your job during the day demands your full attention. Feeling the effects of stiff muscles after a long night will make you cranky, and will put you in a foul mood. Feeling relaxed at night shouldn’t be difficult, but the problem is that you won’t be able to control your sleeping position, especially if you move around a lot.

It could also be your bed and your pillows. Most of the time, people don’t blame their sleeping furniture for their body pain, but now we know that the height, the material and even the texture of some pillows could contribute to lack of sleep. If the pillow or the bed covers are too rough, too soft, too stiff and even too plump, you will keep on readjusting your head and shoulders all through the night; unconsciously tiring yourself out.

That’s why technology made it possible for people to use pillows and even mattresses designed for people who are having sleeplessness problems. The innovation is called memory foam, which is designed to help you sleep better.

You may have heard of this and thought your regular pillows are much better (not to mention cheaper), but the thing is, this product was created because so many people don’t know what’s causing fatigue during the night when they should be resting and replenishing their system with much-needed sleep. Here’s a brief account of what a memory foam is for you to understand how this can spell the difference between sleeping soundly and not being able to sleep at all.

Memory foam is made of polyurethane and other components designed to increase the level of viscosity. This kind of foam is denser than regular mattresses and is highly elastic. The concept for this kind of sleeping implement came from NASA, amazingly enough. This kind of foam was originally conceptualized to protect astronauts from the G-force of ascending to space. It’s such a shame the foam was never used by the space program.

After several tests, the concept of the memory foam was launched in another field, the medical field. The memory foam now helps patients suffering from pressure sores due to being bed-ridden. Because this type of merchandise is specialized, the price tag on it was not acceptable to the public at first. But like any high-end commodity that works well for those who can afford it, it became a must-have for those who have a problem that must be solved. As soon as people understood how much better they could be living using the new innovation, they understand the need for the expense.

Fortunately, memory foam’s price has dropped low enough for customers to afford. People need memory foam for back support systems, but other people just like the features for better sleep, cure for ordinary back pain, muscle fatigue, and posture support.

Over 90 percent of snorers may have breathing disorders during sleep. This may be the cause of listlessness during the day. Grogginess during the day and a cranky attitude may be the direct result of sleep apnea. More often than not, being sleep-deprived can also cause lower productivity at work, bad mood and poor driving skills. If you have this condition, you will be constantly moving around in your sleep because you just cannot find a good position for sleeping.

Another cause may be obstructive apnea, or sleep disordered breathing cue to blockage of the breathing passage by tonsils and adenoids. Waking yourself up in the middle of the night due to your strong snores is the least of your worries if you are afflicted with this condition. If your sleep apnea starts, blood oxygen level especially that in the brain declines due to the lack of breath. You may find yourself gasping for air in your sleep.

People with sleep apnea often feel fatigued during the day. Normally, they have blood-shot eyes and they cannot take power naps. Light sleepers may or may not have sleep apnea, but if they do, they should check it once and for all.

Falling in and out of a very light sleep several times during the night means you had trouble breathing during the time, and your body has to wake up so you can force air inside your lungs by gasping or coughing. It’s like having a cold all the time.

Sleep apnea can happen to most people, but it is said that people who are overweight are more prone to developing sleep apnea than others. Men are also more prone to sleep apnea than women. Snoring is not a sure sign of sleep apnea although almost all people who have sleep apnea snore at least once throughout the night.

You know you have sleep apnea if you feel sleepy during the day and you feel mild to severe chest pain when you wake up in the morning. Other symptoms include: restless tossing and turning during sleep, choking in the middle of the night and trouble memorizing simple things. Some people experience extreme anxiety and even undergo personality changes because of sleeplessness. They are also prone to morning headaches, heartburn and leg swelling.

Sleep apnea may put you at risk for hypertension, heart attack or stroke, not to mention work or driving related accidents. If sleep apnea is successfully treated, you will soon start sleeping better. You will also feel this huge burden lifted from you. You will calmly deal with problems and will become more positive in your outlook.

What you must watch out for is the clogging of pores. Environmental pollutants like toxins and free radicals are always around to harm your skin. These chemicals clog the pores, making it difficult for your skin to excrete normally. Sweat and oils come out of pores often, but that’s normal. What isn’t normal is the way sweat and oils try to come out of your skin but cannot because of the clogged pores. Clogged or dirty skin pores are the primary reasons of deterioration of the skin cells.

There are many other factors that may contribute to poor skin conditions. I’m mentioning some of them here so you can avoid them.

Alcohol will always be bad for the skin, especially if taken regularly. Alcohol will dry out your skin, making the pores a little tighter and the texture more rough. When you get drunk, your skin becomes deprived of water and nutrients because you’re excreting too much in copious amounts. Alcohol may also lead to decrease in immunity against diseases that cause digestive tract disorders. Poor diet, or faulty digestion restricts the absorption of nutrients that are important to skin’s health.

Moreover, alcohol consumption can cause liver disease. The liver is the main food processing center of the body, and it’s the one responsible for turning the nutrients from food into minerals that your skin can use. A sluggish liver cannot store skin-nourishing vitamins such as Vitamin A.

Having a better looking skin may mean you need to transform your lifestyle. Besides regular cleaning and a wholesome lifestyle, you may also need to use skin products that are especially made for your skin type. You can use moisturizers or skin products with a lot of moisturizers to cure your dry and flaky skin.

Direct sun exposure can damage your skin. Moreover, it can cause skin cancer. To avoid direct exposure to the sun, use a sun block with SPF 15 at least even on overcast days. The ultraviolet rays of the sun are always present, even if the sun isn’t shining as brightly. We cannot control the way the environment is getting denuded directly, but we can at least do this to prevent the effects of the damaged environment from reaching our skin.

Allergens. To be safe, always apply a dab of a new skin care product on the inside of your elbow and wait for 24 hours before using the product on your whole body. This is to make sure you’re not inadvertently using a skin care product that you’re allergic to.

Be very careful when choosing your moisturizing soap, lotion, cream, and other skin care products. There is such a thing as over-pampering, which could lead to allergies. Use gentle skin care products or those endorsed by health professionals. Sometimes, the development of pimples is the result of using harsh ingredients, comedogenic substances (those that cause pimples) and products that contain too much chemicals and scents.

Winter doesn’t give much respite either. The cold and frost will dry your skin as fast as sunlight, and so you still need to use moisturizers even during the winter season. Begin by getting a good anti-aging skin care regimen. Develop one yourself, and don’t use the excuse that salons are expensive to opt out of better skin care processes. When we do these things to care for our skin, our inner radiance will be evident in the way our skin glows.

Cleansing the skin is the first step to taking care of it. Cleansing doesn’t just mean giving your skin a thorough scrubbing. It also means choosing which bar of soap will work best for your skin. Some soaps can clean but not moisturize. If you can find a skin care product that does both, go for it. You can also use some natural elements to cleanse your skin. Fruits when macerated and crushed can become great skin care products. Whatever you do, make sure you’re pampering your skin more.

Mild cleansers are great for the face. The skin on your face is a lot more sensitive than that on your hand or legs. I’ve tried Aveeno, Olay, and Biore and they all work great. The best thing is that they are gentle. A skin care product is gentle if your skin does not feel tight right after you use it. Moreover, your skin shouldn’t itch at all after you use the product. Some skin care products are perfect for certain skin types, but to be safe, try the gentlest ones first to test if your skin is more sensitive than others.

Adopt a twice-daily cleaning routine. This means you use your brand of skin care product before you go to work and before you go to bed. In between, you can use a soft sponge to hydrate or clean your skin, but the beautifying should be done twice a day to avoid scrubbing the skin on your face more than necessary.

For your hands, use mild, soap that has antibacterial properties. It’s great if you can find a hand sanitizer that doesn’t contain too much alcohol. Rubbing alcohol can kill bacteria but it can dry your skin.

Exfoliation is a great way to get rid of dead skin cells and make room for new ones. This should be a regular part of your routine. If you don’t have the time to exfoliate daily, do this twice on the weekend to keep your body’s skin supple and smooth. Everyday exfoliation is also possible using loofa sponge or a soft scrubber that will slough off the skin cells that are dried out or dying. This is a secret to that healthy glow. The healthy skins in the pink of health are always replenished because of proper cleansing procedures.

Living in a cooler, northern climate doesn’t keep us safe from skin cancer. The summers can be humid, and even when the sun is not always visible during winter season, the UV rays are constantly around us so we have to use sunscreen.

You may not think skin cancer is such a big deal but the truth is, as long as you are living in a world that has thinning protection against the sun’s harmful rays, you are at risk of developing skin cancer.

There are also myths associated with skin cancer that makes us complacent. Here they are.

Myth: Tanning Beds are Safe

People who use tanning beds instead of direct sun exposure to get that golden glow they want are still exposed to UV rays. Tanning beds use UVA rays rather than UVB rays, but 20 minutes of exposure in a tanning bed is roughly equivalent to four hours in the sun. This is because UVA gets inside the skin cells more deeply than UVB. The more tan you get, the more deeply the UVA rays have penetrated your skin. You’re in danger of getting immune-compromised if you keep this up, but that’s the least of your worries. What really need to worry about is getting skin cancer.

Myth: Not Going to the Beach Means You’re Less Exposed

Even on cloudy days, you are exposed to the sun. The beach, although the haven for sun worshippers and beach-ready bodies, is not the only place to get exposed to the sun. You get exposed to the same amount of UV rays that beach goers get just by doing menial chores without sufficient sun protection. You’re at risk of getting skin cancer even if you just leave the home to go to your car, walk the dog or let your children out to play at any time of year.

This is the reason why most people use lightweight clothing that covers their arms even when they’re not at the beach. Sunscreen must be applied every two hours or after getting soaked in water.

Myth: Being Darker Means You’re less Likely to Develop Skin cancer

This is a common myth. It seems that dark skinned individuals think they are less likely to develop cancer, but the risk is the same. If you’re artificially dark, or you have been tanning for a long time, the risk is double. Tanned skin is really skin that has been damaged. Repeated tanning means more skin injures, and this leads to greater risk.

So how do you protect yourself and your family from cancer? Limit sun exposure, especially for babies. Regularly examine your skin for early signs of damage. And most of all, use a sunscreen of SPF 15 or higher and apply it at least 30 minutes before exposure, and every two hours after initial application.

The type of cancer that infects the skin is called skin cancer. Detection of this cancer is usually done by looking for melanoma, a pigment that develops in skin. Signs of skin cancer also include a sudden variation in the texture, the sudden presence of wounds and sores that take too long to heal. These signs indicate that the skin’s normal processes are going awry and that there is something wrong.
In fact, even without the presence of melanoma, you may develop skin cancer if you have asquamous cells and carcinoma. These two are also called non-melanoma skin cancer. There is an estimated 1,000,000 new cases of non-melanoma cancer in the USA during this year alone.

UV Light (Ultra Violet) from the sun damages the skin’s DNA. DNA is the genetic core of any cell in the body. Any cell with altered DNA becomes mutated. The mutated version of these skin cells are aggressive, could grow in number and could turn into cancers.

Some of the main causes of skin cancer are extreme exposure to ultraviolet rays from the sun and air pollution. Although sunlight is extremely vital to daily life because it keeps us warm and allows the production of vitamin D, extreme denudation of the environment has eroded the protective layer in the atmosphere that keeps harmful UV rays out. Now, the UV light that reaches the earth through sunlight damages the DNA in skin, causing the mutation of skin cells. Melanoma is a common skin cancer type in men and women between the ages of 15 to 44 years old. Melanoma the cancer of melanocytes. These skin pigments are telltale signs of cancer. These are usually dark brown, black or blue-black.

If you spend a lot of time outdoors, and even if you simply walk across the parking lot to your office building, you are at risk of UV exposure. Not all skin types can tolerate this level of exposure for long. The risk is double for people who engage in activities such as mountaineering, rock climbing, hiking, working in the farm, or fishing. You are also predisposed to skin cancer if you have never tried or done anything to protect yourself from the sun.

Even those who are fond of sunbathing may inevitably develop skin cancer if no means of protection is used. Generally skin cancer can be stalled by surgery. Surgery is applicable for those whose skin cancer has not reached terminal status. Advanced cases are usually treated using chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy.

Another reason to eat breakfast is your metabolism. Not having breakfast after a night of sleeping soundly will make your body feel that it needs to slow down because food might not come along soon. You end up feeling tired because your body is on survival mode. If you eat just enough during breakfast, your body will resume its normal metabolism. Moreover, you can even jump start your metabolism so that it’s faster than regular. Breakfast is definitely an inexpensive way to boost your metabolism without relying on expensive pills.

So have breakfast, even if it’s just a smoothie made up of one or two fruits with no sugar. You will also notice that this practice of eating breakfast daily will improve your performance at work. You will also have more energy to keep from feeling fatigued too early in the day.

Sometimes it’s not just about the calorie intake. You also need to consider where you’re getting your nutrients. Although you can get a lot of nutrients from instant sources, nothing can substitute fresh food. Don’t just depend on nutrient bars. Have a carrot or a piece of fruit handy just in case you want to eat something during a busy day,

Fruits and vegetables are great for snacking on because the phytochemicals such as carotene and other vitamins will help you improve your daily habit. Make it a habit to buy fruit and vegetables in the local market. Learn how to identify the best fruits in the lot. Look for organic products or those that have not been sprayed with synthetic pesticides. Usually, these are kept in special packaging that has the 100% organic logo.

Besides the local fruit street vendor, you can visit the baker before you get your coffee. Fruits and whole grain bread work great as breakfast food. Stay away from sugary items on the shop display window. If you have to eat something sweet, try a blueberry or a strawberry. The fructose in these fruits will curb that sugar craving fast. Eating less is not always the option. Most of the time, it’s changing the quality of the food you eat that matters. Start developing your low calorie diet now so that you can lose weight faster.

One key to mixing things up so that you don’t feel like you’re punishing yourself for eating is to integrating small changes gradually. Humans develop routines easily so if you change your diet bit by bit every week, your diet routine will stick.