Wenatex Blog :: Healthy Sleep for a Better Life

Do you remember your dreams? Do you often have freaky dreams? Have you experienced a recurring dream?

The study of dreams is a fascinating area - researchers have discovered a lot in the last few years but there is much more to learn.

A really good article I read this morning gives a fascinating insight into the science behind dreams. If you are interested in the subject and wish to read the article, go to http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/features/freaky-dreams-what-do-they-mean.

Please share your thoughts and experiences.

To make the most of your dreams, you need to get a good night’s sleep. Wenatex conducts free seminars on the benefits of a healthy night’s sleep in local venues all around Australia and New Zealand. If you wish to find out more, please register your interest at http://www.wenatex.com.au/seminars_registration.asp.

More and more research is coming out linking memory with sleep. I read quite a good article this morning  that suggests that sleep assists “prospective memory” — things we intend to do — as opposed to “retrospective memory” — things that have happened in the past.

The example used in the article is:  Before sleeping you remembered you had a message to deliver to your colleague and you would see him in the conference room tomorrow, sleep enhances the likelihood that you will tell him in the conference room, but not in some other context, the office, elevator, the mail room, for example.

Read the full article at http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/07/01/memory-and-sleep-intertwined/15275.html

The human brain works in mysterious ways. Do you have an opinion? I would love to hear it.

Wenatex have free seminars all over Australia, New Zealand, and Toronto Canada educating people about the benefits of healthy sleep. If you are interested in coming along, you should register your interest at http://www.wenatex.com.au/seminars_registration.asp

Soccer fans are eagerly anticipating the start of the World Cup next weekend. However, because of the time difference between Australia and South Africa, the matches will be shown on television here in the middle of the night.

The World Cup goes for a month which is a long time to be continuously sleep deprived!

I read an article today that gives some good advice on how to deal with the stresses on the body as a result of staying up and watching late night and early morning games. The article comes from Korea but it is still relevant to us here in Australia as they face similar problems with time differences. Check it out at http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/art/2010/06/147_67158.html and soccer fans out there, please let me know how you plan to deal with sleep deprivation during the World Cup.

Go the Socceroos!!!

Do you sleep with a snorer… or more the point do you get any sleep with a snorer?

Do you battle with your partner each and every night over his (or her) snoring?

If you do, I am certain that you will relate to a story. It is partiularly interesting as it not only talks about her ongoing battle with her snoring husband but it also talks about the different kinds of snorers and what you can potentially do to prevent certain types of snoring.

If you are interested, read the article at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1282711/HE-sleeps-like-log–snores-like-foghorn-SHE-spends-night-lying-awake-seething-rage–Its-snore-wars.html?ito=feeds-newsxml and share your experience.

It seems that sleeping babies have a certain type of learning ability that is not apparent in sleeping adults. Recent research from the University of Florida has revealed that “newborns act as “data sponges”, absorbing info from their surrounding world non-stop.”

How did researchers test the babies to come up with this finding? They played a tune then blew gentle puffs of air on babies’ eyelids. After a few minutes the majority of the babies anticipated the puff and began squeezing their eyes shut.

It is both fantastic that researchers could think of such an ingenious way of testing newborn babies… and I can’t help but say it, sooooo cute!

You can find the article at http://www.geo.tv/5-20-2010/65259.htm. Do you find this topic as fascinating as I did? I would love to hear your thoughts.

One of the staff in our New Zealand office sent me the link to an interesting article today http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/7181065/lack-of-sleep-linked-to-early-death-study/. The article stated that researchers “aggregated decade-long studies from around the world involving more than 1.3 million people and found “unequivocal evidence of the direct link” between lack of sleep and premature death.”

Unequivocal evidence is hard to refute, don’t you think?

The study proves that, for optimum health, adults must get six to eight hours of sleep per night.

If you cannot achieve that, there are strategies out there to assist you improve the quantity (and the quality for that matter) of your sleep. Spend time to find out what they are and you will see a difference. Wenatex conducts free seminars on the subject of healthy sleep all over Australia and New Zealand. Go to http://www.wenatex.com.au/seminars_registration.asp to register your interest.

Nobody is quite sure of its origins… an article I read today suggests that “it might stem from shepherds of the olden days keeping track of their flocks before bedtime.” But when you can’t sleep, do you count sheep?

Does counting sheep work for you? This article claims that it doesn’t work. It argues that counting sheep is “so repetitive and boring that most people who try to do it don’t last long enough to see any success. The brain tires of the tedium and moves on to something more stimulating, which just wakes you up more.”

The article goes on to suggest some alternate strategies that it claims work better.

It is a really interesting article, check it out at http://www.divinecaroline.com/22189/97750-counting-sheep-counteracts-sleep–imagine and let me know your thoughts.

At Wenatex, we have been banging on for a long time about fatigue being a contributing factor in accidents.

Here is yet another case in point:  In an article I read today about the Shen Neng 1, the Magistrates Court found that the reason for the oil spill is that “the crew neglected to change course” which wasn’t helped by the fact that “the first mate had only slept for a little over two-and-a-half hours in the previous day-and-a-half”.

Another case that comes to mind is the Exxon Valdez oil spill off the coast of Alaska some years ago. It was shown that fatigue was a factor as it was reported that “the staff were not given their mandatory 6 hours off duty prior to the start of their 12-hour shift” during which time the incident occurred. 

I guess we will just have to keep banging on… 

If you would like to read the article I referred to about the Shen Neng 1 findings, it can be found at http://www.news.com.au/national/fatigue-a-factor-in-sheng-neng-1-incident-australian-transport-safety-bureau/story-e6frfkvr-1225854018414.

I read an article this afternoon that I found absolutely fascinating. It was about grinding one’s teeth during sleep. First of all, I didn’t know it was called Bruxism, did you? And secondly, I didn’t know it could cause problems with one’s sleep. From personal experience, I was a teeth grinder, and didn’t sleep very well, back in my teenage years… now I know one of the reasons why! Pity I didn’t know then what I know now!!!

You can read the article at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thomas-p-connelly-dds/mouth-heatlh-not-getting_b_455771.html.

“The sleeping brain is not stupid… it’s smart and it is making sophisticated decisions about which memories are important and should be held onto.” This article is an excellent one as it talks about the latest sleep research results in terms that even the most “non-tech” person like me can understand.

http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/634169.html

The subject of sleep is fascinating. Please share your thoughts.