Good sleep habits can help you get a excellent night’s sleep. With correct sleep habits, it is easier to fall asleep and stay asleep. Several good sleep habits include avoiding caffeine and other stimulants late in the day, getting regular exercise, and going to sleep at the same time each night.

Below is a list of things that typically help people sleep better:

1.Bedtime routines are helpful for good sleep. Keep routines on your normal schedule. A cup of herbal tea an hour before bed can begin a routine.

2. Exercise Regularly. Another way to develop better sleep habits is to exercise regularly. Your body uses sleep to recover and repair so exercise promotes your body’s need to rest.

3. No napping. Some people can take a short afternoon nap and still sleep well at night. However, if you are having trouble sleeping at night, try to eliminate napping. If you must nap, do it in the early afternoon, and sleep no longer than about thirty minutes.

4. Eat Moderately, No Caffeine, No Smoking . Caffeine and nicotine are stimulants and can keep you from falling asleep. Alcohol can cause you to wake in the night. It also interferes with sleep quality. Read The Full Story…

The power-nap is a short sleep which terminates before the occurrence of deep sleep or slow-wave sleep intended to quickly revitalize the subject. (wikipedia)

“A power nap is a short nap, normally between 10 and 30 minutes long, taken in the middle of the day in order to reinvigorate and refresh you for the next part of the day.” Power naps are not similar to normal sleep, so you will not be groggy after taking one. While you might have “dreams”, power naps are more similar to meditation, where thoughts are allowed to move from the sub-conscious mind to the conscious mind and back again without you concentrating on them. Research says that taking a nap of 30 minutes a day is better than sleeping 30 minutes later in the morning.

10 Healthy benefits of the power nap:

1. boost in productivity and energy at work

2. increased motivation

3. improved ability to concentrate,

4. better mood

5. improved hand-eye coordination

6. improve emotional state

7. increased learning

8. maintain peak brain activity during the course of the day

9. protect yourself from sleepiness

10. decrease and eliminate stress Read The Full Story…

Fibromyalgia syndrome causes symptoms of extreme pain in the muscles throughout the body. Fibromyalgia produces widespread pain, disturbed sleep, and exhaustion from head to toe. Fibromyalgia means pain in the muscles, ligaments, and tendons—the soft fibrous tissues of the body. Although the muscles hurt everywhere, they are not the only cause of the pain. Instead, the diffuse, body-wide symptoms are greatly magnified by malfunctions in the way the nervous system processes pain.

Sufferers with a fibromyalgia sleep disorder do not obtain enough deep sleep, and their body is not adequately refreshed. Sleep lab tests may not be necessary to determine if the sufferer has experienced disturbed SLEEP with FIBROMYALGIA. If the sufferer wakes up feeling as though they have just been run over by a mack truck - what physicians refer to as an unrefreshing sleep - it is reasonable for the physician to predict that the patient has an interrupted fibromyalgia sleep disorder.

Many FMS patients have been found to have other sleep disorders in addition to the alpha-delta EEG, such as sleep apnea, sleep myoclonus night-time jerking of the arms and legs), and restless legs syndrome. Also, a newly discovered sleep disorder, upper-airway resistance syndrome is also being evaluated for its association with disordered sleep in FMS. Disturbed sleep often aggravates the other prevalent FMS symptoms.

Treatments of fibromyalgia syndrome:

Medications

Medications can help reduce the pain of fibromyalgia and improve sleep. Common choices include:

- Analgesics. Acetaminophen (Tylenol, others) may ease the pain and stiffness caused by fibromyalgia. However, its effectiveness varies. Tramadol (Ultram) is a prescription pain reliever that may be taken with or without acetaminophen. Your doctor may recommend nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) — such as aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin, others) or naproxen sodium (Aleve, others) — in conjunction with other medications. NSAIDs haven’t proved to be as effective in managing the pain in fibromyalgia when taken by themselves.

- Antidepressants. Your doctor may prescribe amitriptyline to help promote sleep. Fluoxetine (Prozac) in combination with amitriptyline is effective in some people. Duloxetine (Cymbalta) may help ease the pain and fatigue associated with fibromyalgia. And milnacipran (Savella) was recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of fibromyalgia symptoms.

- Anti-seizure drugs. Medications designed to treat epilepsy are often useful in reducing certain types of pain. Gabapentin (Neurontin) is sometimes helpful in reducing fibromyalgia symptoms, while pregabalin (Lyrica) is the first drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat fibromyalgia.

Therapy

- Physical therapy. Specific exercises can help restore muscle balance and may reduce pain. Stretching techniques and the application of hot or cold also may help.

- Counseling. Cognitive behavioral therapy seeks to strengthen your belief in your abilities and teaches you methods for dealing with stressful situations. Therapy is provided through individual counseling, classes, and with tapes, CDs or DVDs, and may help you manage your fibromyalgia.

Sleep hygiene refers to the habits, environmental factors, and practices that may influence the length and quality of one’s sleep. These include bedtime, nighttime rituals, and disruptions to one’s sleep. These are typically represented by simple guidelines meant to effectively promote a good night’s rest.

The following is a list of sleep hygiene rules which can be used to improve sleep:

1. Establish a Regular Routine: go to bed at the same time each night and rise at the same time
   

   good sleep room

   each morning.

2. Get an enough quantity of sleep every night. Determine the amount of sleep you need by keeping track of how long you sleep without using an alarm clock for a week. Maintain this “personal” sleep requirement.
3. Good environment: Make sure your bed is comfortable and use it only for sleeping and not for other activities, such as reading, watching TV, or listening to music. Remove all TVs, computers, and other “gadgets” from the bedroom.
4. Avoid naps. If you have to take a nap, try to keep it to less than one hour and avoid taking a nap after 3 pm. Read The Full Story…