Health Tips

Fun Facts About Sleep and Why You Really Need Those ZZZZs!

During the last century, we’ve experienced a great shift in the way we work and live. Up
through the early 1900s physical labor was predominant, and when the sun went down people gladly went to bed, exhausted from their workday. With the advent of desk jobs and electric lighting, however, we’ve pushed back our bedtimes and in the process become a sleepdeprived culture.
Before you stay up again for the late night news, consider this:
• How you feel on any given day is the result of your last four (or more) nights of sleep. Getting eight hours of sleep one night won’t provide much benefit if you’re only averaging five hours a night the rest of the week. It takes several nights of adequate rest before you feel your best.
• Sleep is when your body rejuvenates and repairs itself. Sleep deprivation affects
your immunity, your body’s ability to recover and rebuild after exercise, your glucose tolerance, carbohydrate metabolism, and endocrine function. Stress hormones are also elevated in individuals who are sleep deprived.
• Getting too little sleep can be just as detrimental as getting none! A study by
University of Pennsylvania researchers found that individuals who were limited to six or fewer hours of sleep per night scored the same on tests of memory, alertness and learning as individuals who had no sleep at all for two or more nights. Yet, those who had at least some sleep underestimated how impaired they really were. Most disturbing, according to the researchers, was their periodic inattentiveness to critical stimuli such as
sights and sounds. Australian and New Zealand researchers found that people who’d been awake 17 to 19 hours were as impaired while driving as people who have .05 percent blood alcohol levels (.08 to .1 percent is legally drunk in the U.S.) Think about that the next time you get behind the wheel.
• Sleep yourself skinny! Well, not quite, but lack of sleep does stimulate the release of hormones that affect fat storage and insulin release in ways that can promote weight gain. A University of Chicago study also found that sleep deprivation actually slows metabolism.
So, what can you do to improve your
sleep habits?
• Use your bed for sleep and sex only. Don’t read, watch television, pay bills, or
do anything that you subconsciously associate with wakefulness.
• Keep a sleep diary. It’s a great tool for revealing and correcting negative sleep
habits/patterns.
• Create a relaxing bedtime ritual that will trigger a sleep-ready response, such as
listening to soft music or taking a warm bath.
• Go to bed and get up at approximately the same times everyday – even on weekends.
• Avoid napping, even when you’re tired. Wait until your normal bedtime to sleep.
• Exercise. A University of Washington study found that people who exercised for 40 minutes three times per week got more satisfying sleep than their sedentary counterparts. More specifically, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that individuals who exercised for 30 minutes four times per week fell asleep 12 minutes faster and

Lowering Your Risk of Stroke
You may read more about heart disease and cancer, but strokes are the third leading cause of death in the United States and a major cause of disability. Every year about 4 million people worldwide die after a stroke, with millions of others experiencing their first stroke and surviving with various levels of impairment.
Strokes occur when a clot or fatty deposit blocks normal blood flow to an area of the brain. Depending on which area of the brain is damaged, disabilities can range from speech impairment to memory problems to paralysis on the right or left side of the body.
Quick response to stroke symptoms can make a tremendous difference in preventing permanent brain damage or even death. Individuals who seek medical treatment within three hours of experiencing symptoms have the best chance of recovering with limited or no disability within three months.
Stroke symptoms include: sudden numbness or weakness in the face, arm or leg, especially on one side, confusion, difficulty speaking or understanding speech, blurred vision especially in one eye, dizziness or trouble walking and loss of balance/coordination, severe headache with no known reason.
Knowing your risk factors is also important. They include:
— hypertension/high blood pressure
— Body Mass Index (BMI)/obesity
— heart disease
— diabetes
— high cholesterol
— smoking
— stress
As might be expected, the more risk factors you have the greater your risk of having a stroke. Transient ischemic attacks (TIA) are another predictor of stroke. TIA symptoms are virtually identical to stroke symptoms; however they often cease within an hour and leave no lasting impairments. Still, individuals who experience a TIA should seek medical assistance as soon as possible to determine an appropriate course of treatment. About one third of individuals who have a TIA will experience an acute stroke in the future.
Here are several things you can do to lower your risk of having a stroke. They include:
— control related conditions, such as diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease, hypertension and high blood pressure
— quit smoking
— eat fish; researchers involved in a 12-year study found that individuals who ate fish one to three times a month had a significantly lower risk of ischemic stroke than those who ate fish less than once per month. (Eating fish more often – five or more times per month – did not have added benefits.)
— exercise; a report in the October 2003 issue of the American Heart Association journal “Stroke” stated that highly active people had a 27 percent lower risk of stroke than their inactive counterparts. Similar results were found for people who were moderately active.
Exercise also can avert recurrent strokes, but if you’ve had a stroke, be sure to obtain your doctor’s approval before beginning an exercise program. If you’re not sure where to start or what’s best for you, start by pursuing activities you enjoy. If you like to dance, put on your favorite music, push the coffee table back and try the following step.
Stand with your feet hip width apart, and your knees and toes pointing forward. Pull your abdominal muscles in and relax your shoulders. Widen your stance by quickly stepping out first with your right foot then with your left, as you reach your arms up into a ‘V’ position overhead. Immediately step back in quickly, first with your right foot then with your left and bend into a slight crouch position. Pull your arms in to your waist. Reverse and step out and in leading with your left foot, and continue alternating sides until you feel like changing to another dance step. Your steps should have a quick, darting movement out and in. Keep your chest lifted and your head held high as you do this move; avoid bending forward from the waist or shoulders.

For more health tips visit the official Jazzercise site at http://www.jazzercise.com

If you have any questions please consult your physician.