March 29, 2010
Breathing Easy
Seasonal Allergies and Your Sleep
Spring is here, so let us start out with this: Gesundheit!
If you suffer from frequent bouts of sniffles and sneezes, fending off your next attack and feeling normal again can really start to feel like a lost cause after a while.
It’s surely evident that bearing the symptoms – constant achoos, runny nose, stuffy head – without spot-on treatment has affected your mood and concentration at some point. If you’re still in search of the best remedy, your condition is also likely affecting your sleep, too.
Experts say that allergies can fragment sleep, and a 2006 French study even found that those with allergic rhinitis from hay fever are more than twice as likely to have a sleep disorder. So, your yawn-filled days may have less to do with your Letterman watching than your breathing difficulties and discomfort.
Stop “dealing” and see your doctor. Many experience substantial relief when the best treatment regimen is finally settled on, which may take some trial and error. Depending on the severity and longevity of your symptoms, your doctor may explore:
- Over-the-counter allergy medications or nasal sprays
- Prescriptions allergy medications, nasal sprays and/or inhalers
- Immunotherapy (allergy shots)
But it’s important to remember that you need to take special steps in your day-to-day to tame your allergies, too. (Sorry – these guys are a bit too tricky to be tamed by a little pill!)
Take these tips to heart, speak to your physician, and get some spring back in your step (and rest back in your nights) this allergy season.
- Be diligent about cleaning, especially your bedroom. Vacuum and dust regularly.
- Consider hypoallergenic bedding and/or mattress and pillow covers.
- Wash bedding in hot water to remove allergens.
- Dry bedding in the dryer instead of hanging it on a clothes line, where pollen and other allergens can settle.
- Keep windows closed to reduce the risk of outdoor allergens coming in.
- If pet dander is an issue, keep your critters out of your bedroom.
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March 10, 2010
Where’s the Off Button?
When Racing Thoughts Affect Your Sleep
Make Amy’s school play costume. Call the plumber. Return that ugly sweat from Aunt Margie. Did I ever send that e-mail to my coworker? Did I lock the front door?
After running around all day, you’d think that it would take mere seconds for our minds to revel in the quiet of the evening hours, nestled in our beds like bugs in a rug. Instead of unplugging and letting you rest, though, your brain keeps chugging along like it’s time to take the SATs.
With our overbooked and overextended lives these days, it’s getting harder and harder to keep our sleep time the sacred part of the day that it deserves to be. We don’t take the time to separate our days from our nights, instead expecting turbo-speed thinking to come to a screeching halt when we decide to hit the pillow.
While lack of quality sleep can have a host of health effects, as we regularly discuss on this site, let’s face it – the most obvious effect it can have is leaving us feeling like Oscar the Grouch on a lunchtime line at the DMV.
The difficult part of all of this is that lying in bed with thoughts-a-flowing can only breed frustration that you can’t fall asleep, perpetuating a cycle of alertness.
You can try warm milk, or even counting sheep. But if you’d like to give more research-backed tactics for getting your brain to wind down a go, try these techniques:
Guided Imagery
Set aside 15 minutes before bedtime for this relaxation method, which demands that you switch your thoughts over to imaging yourself in a soothing environment – sites, sounds, feeling. You can even do this from bed.
How to Practice Guided Imagery
Deep Breathing
Learning how to breathe sounds pretty funny. We’re all pretty much experts in that. But deep breathing involves some specific steps – ones that calm you, body and mind.
Three Breathing Exercises (from renowned expert, Dr. Andrew Weil, MD)
Instead of staring at the clock ticking closer and closer to 2 in the morning, do your best to truly make getting a good night’s rest mind over matter.
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