Wenatex Blog :: Healthy Sleep for a Better Life

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.

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.

Astronauts at the International Space Station recently had to sleep in escape pods while a piece of potentially dangerous debris floated past. The space junk missed the station this time but it will become a more frequent occurrence as the volume of space junk floating around the Earth increases!

How do you think the astronauts slept that night? Were the escape pods comfortable? Were they up all night worried sick that there would only be half a space station left when they woke up?

Do you think sleeping problems go away in space? I am sure they don’t! Let me know what you think.

You can read the article I read this morning at http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/11/too-much-space-junk-makes-astronauts-sleep-in-escape-pods.php.

Investigations into Michael Jackson’s death are well under way and it has been made public that he was a severe insomniac. It is alleged that he was taking some fairly serious drugs to help him sleep which may have caused his death. The article I read can be found at http://www.examiner.com/x-4592-Birmingham-Family-Health-Examiner~y2009m7d28-Gluten-attacks-my-sleep-and-I-contemplate-Michael-Jacksons-sleeping-problems.

Insomnia is a serious problem, not only for MJ, but for the entire population. I read an article recently which stated that in a recent Australian study, as many as two-thirds of the people who took part reported that they had difficulty going to sleep. http://www.pfizer.com.au/Media/Sleep.aspx

The cause of insomnia is often worry. “Worry… combined with the long hours and stresses of our 24 hour society, is a recipe for leaving the majority of the population living in a constant state of fatigue. Not a healthy, or safe, way to live.” http://www.pfizer.com.au/Media/Sleep.aspx

So, the lesson from all of this is don’t take the drastic steps that MJ did to get a good night’s sleep… make changes to your life to minimise stress and worry.

As well as reducing stress, there are also some practical things you can do to help you get off to sleep. See the Sleep Tips page on the Wenatex website at http://www.wenatex.com.au/sleep_tips.asp.

During pregnancy I had terrible problems with memory, particularly with numbers. I remember going to the bank with two cheques and had to ask the teller to add them for me! I believe this is commonly referred to as “placenta brain”.

Well there was an article in the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday stating that Australian researchers have discovered that the “reason for the decline in auditory memory is suspected to be poor quality sleep”! I wish I had have known that during pregnancy!!!!

Read the article at http://www.smh.com.au/national/thanks-for-the-memory-loss-baby-20090328-9es3.html and let me know your “placenta brain” stories.

When your teenage son or daughter emerges from his/her bedroom at noon, do you accuse him/her of being lazy? Now you might have to think twice as researchers believe there could be a biological reason for why teenagers get up late. For more, read this very interesting article by the BBC in the UK.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7932950.stm

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Some days ago I had the opportunity to spend some minutes with an eminence in Ophthalmology in Brisbane, Dr. John Harrison.
During our conversation he mentioned how obstructive sleep apnea  may affect our eyes in different ways.

Doing some reading, I found some comments from Dr Waller an Ophthalmologist of the Mayo Clinic in the US who mentioned the following: “… our understanding of the mechanisms that link these disorders is minimal,”. “However, the recognition of these associations is important for primary care physicians, ophthalmologists, and sleep physicians. For patients with OSA, a routine eye examination to evaluate for early signs of glaucoma, particularly in the setting of visual loss or change, should be recommended. Patients with opthalmologic diseases known to be associated with sleep apnea should be screened clinically for sleep apnea and referred to a sleep center if signs or symptoms are present.”

Here we have it… it seems that we are always coming back to the concept that sleep is our “Master Healer.”

Are you sleeping enough and in the right way? A visit to a Wenatex Sleep Seminar may give you some great tips of how to let yourself nurture by your “Master Healer”.

How important the quality of a bed is has been demonstrated in a police incident in the town of Okaloosa, USA.

A couple having marital problems and contemplating divorce had a fight over who would sleep on the couch. The wife said her husband pushed her off the bed onto the floor, which started the fight over who should sleep on the couch. The husband had slept there the night before, but was refusing to sleep there a second time. After an investigation by the local Sheriff, the incident was closed.

This case illustrates the importance of a good night’s sleep and the influence of the mattress to achieve it.

Until next time

Be wise and have fun

Juan

For more information of how to improve the quality of your sleep please click here.

Following this newspaper article , a team from the Centre for Community Child Health at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne Australia studied almost 4500 children twice, the first time at age 4 – 5, then again at age 6 – 7. Their sleep behaviour was recorded and analysed.

About one-third of the children in the trial reported poor sleep habits.

Children suffering from poor sleep habits may suffer strong detrimental effects

on their health, behaviour, and learning ability.

A simple check on the ABS website showed that in 2002, there were 4 million children in Australia. This means that there are at least 1.3 million children with poor sleep habits…

Hello… is anybody listening!!!???

Until tomorrow be wise and have fun!

Information provided in this blog is to be used for educational purposes only. It should NOT be used as a substitute for seeking professional diagnosis or treatment of any disorder.

If you are anything like me you would have been shocked to hear the latest news that Australians are now THE fattest country amongst the world’s major economies, bulging past the Americans by 1%. More than one quarter of our population are now deemed to be obese, this is 4 million Australians! Add to this a further 5.4 million who are overweight. Therefore 62% of our population are now overweight or obese! This is one scary statistic!

There are so many contributing factors to our bulging bellies. We can blame it on cheaper prices of fast foods, the rising costs of healthy foods and gym memberships, our fast paced society leaving us with no time for exercise, or poor quality sleep. Whatever excuse you may use, the bottom line is that we are to blame and it is time that we get serious about our health and the huge impact this is having on our society as a whole.

What steps will you be taking to either reduce your waistline or ensure you don’t add to our ever growing overweight/obese population?

Information provided in this blog is to be used for educational purposes only. It should NOT be used as a substitute for seeking professional diagnosis or treatment of any disorder.