The Somnus Sleep Shirt by Nyx Devices is the latest in high-tech devices designed to measure the quality of your sleep.  This clever shirt has sensors embedded into the fabric which enables it to measure and record your breathing patterns.

Normally if you if you wanted to know if you had a sleep disorder you would visit a clinic be wired to multiple sensors which would monitor your brain activity, eye movements, your muscle activity and your breathing not only is this expensive but also very inconvenient.

This new shirt would enable people to monitor their sleeping patterns and give them an indication as to not only how long they were sleeping for but also the quality of their sleep.

Although the idea of diagnosing sleep disorders by using breathing alone is still considered experimental this shirt could be the first stage in discovering whether you have a sleep problem without the usual inconvienience.  Many people with insomnia under estimate how much sleep they are actually getting during the night and the device like this could help determine the severity of this problem among others.

This device is currently being tested alongside traditional methods of determining sleep problems and it is believed that it might go on sale before the end of this year and its estimated its cost will be under $100 putting it within the reach of most people.

Being someone who likes gadgets at that price I may well buy one for myself.  It’s always interesting to determine how much sleep you actually get during the night and to be able to correlate it with things like drinking, eating late at night and other factors to see if they  effect the quality of my sleep.

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Posted by: Sleep And Snoring Aids

The Somnus Sleep Shirt – Monitors Your Sleep

It looks like Facebook can cause people to have sleeping problems.

Not only does looking out computer monitors late at night effect the quality of your sleep but it looks like people are being disturbed while sleeping.

Apparently people are being woken in the middle of the night by alerts on their mobile phone from Facebook.  It is well known that having your sleep interrupted can leave you tired and unrefreshed in the morning.

What I can’t get my head around is who and why would people allow themselves to be disturbed by messages on Facebook in the middle of the night?  What can be so important about their social life that it can’t wait until the morning?

For me this is very puzzling behaviour I know I’m a bit of a dinosaur at over 50 years old but I am technically savvy.  I’ve worked in Information Technology for over 25 years and I love my gadgets.  I have a Facebook account multiple Twitter accounts and I use social media as much as the next person.

But I draw the line to being disturbed while I sleep.  My mobile phone is switched off when I go to bed and it isn’t the first thing that I switch on in the morning.  Being social is obviously a good thing but when it starts to take over your life and affects your normal daily activities it’s something that needs to be looked at.

In my day if I wanted to socialise I got off my butt and would go out for a meal with my friends or go for a few drinks at my local bar.  It looks like the days of meeting people face-to-face have almost passed when many would prefer to sit in front of the computer and socialise than go out.

How sad is that?

Bottom line is turn off your computer a couple of hours before going to bed and remember to switch off your mobile phone nothing is so important that it won’t wait until the morning

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Posted by: Sleep And Snoring Aids

Facebook Causing Sleep Problems

Researching sleep and snoring uncovers some fantastic products that claim to help with these conditions and non is more unusual than the Halsa Mat.

The Halsa Mat is the modern equivalent of the old bed of nails and is a thin mat with over eight thousand tiny plastic spikes attached it looks like a medieval torture device! The theory is you lie on it and the tiny spikes stimulate the acupressure points on your back helping to promote relaxation and therefore helping you to sleep better.

As well as helping with sleep research has found it can also be used to reduce back and neck pain. These results were gained when people using the mat for 15 Min’s a day over a 3 week period. It was discovered that the backs temperature had increased leading to improved circulation.

If you want more spikes Halsa also do a pillow featuring the same spikes.

The mats come in at $39.95 and the pillows at $49.95 so they are relatively inexpensive and if you have a sleep problem trying one isn’t going to break the bank.

In this day of high tech gadgets we sometimes forget that the simplest solutions are usually the best. This type of product is non invasive, inexpensive and well worth a try. After all what have you got to lose?

As always I’m hacked off because I wouldn’t mind trying one but as usual I’ll have to wait until they become available in the United Kingdom.

If you live in the US you can buy a Halsa Mat from Amazon by clicking here

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Posted by: Sleep And Snoring Aids

A Halsa Mat Could Help You Sleep Better

Another reason that sleep deprivation isn’t good for you has been discovered by researchers into sleep and sleeping problems. Although most of us would shy away from gambling anyway it’s been discovered that gambling in the wee hours of the morning when we’re sleep deprived makes us think that we’re more likely to win.

The researchers aren’t entirely sure why that should happen but I have a theory I don’t suppose it could have anything to do with the amount of alcohol they’ve consumed do you? Never mind the sleep deprivation it’s the drinking people should be more concerned about.

That’s the problem with research there are so many variables to be taken into account that it’s easy to draw the wrong conclusions particularly when it comes to subjective things “Feeling Lucky”. How do you measure it?

I’m not saying the research is flawed it’s just that we need to be careful we don’t place to much credence in this type of discovery.

In other words if it looks like a duck, smells like a duck and swims like a duck it’s probably a duck not a cat

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Sleep Deprivation And Gambling Don’t Mix!

I knew some people were having trouble sleeping but the latest research in the UK shows that one in ten people take pills to help them sleep. It would appear that the UK is in the midst of an insomnia epidemic and with a good nights sleep essential to maintain good health it’s a worrying trend.

Lack of sleep can impair mental faculties as well as increased risk of obesity, heart disease and diabetes. The research points the finger at increased stress due to the recession and the increased fear and worry of losing our jobs.

Taking pills although on the face of it address the problem it doesn’t help with the underlying causes and is just a sticking plaster type of approach. If I can’t see the wound it must have gone away. The problem is pills are a quick and easy solution and are also inexpensive to prescribe. Because the immediate problem disappears the health service can then forget about them.

A better approach would be counseling and teaching people how to relax and reduce stress but sadly it’s an expensive approach that health professionals rarely prescribe. In the long run I believe it’s cheaper though as the true cost of not sleeping properly will eventually cost more in the long run.

If you don’t sleep very well I’d recommend you learn to relax and one of the best methods of doing this is with Hypnosis. A Hypnotherapist can easily teach you Self Hypnosis which will enable you to relax deeply and help with stress reduction.

No pills required

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Posted by: Sleep And Snoring Aids

One In Ten Require Pills To Get Sleep

Sleeping with someone who snores can be a nightmare. We all know it’s true. Everyone’s had that moment when we look across at our loved one as they sleep, and hear them start to snore! Of course, the fact that they’re fast asleep means that it can be virtually impossible to make them believe that there’s a problem!

Now, however, technology’s come out with a helpful solution. There’s a new Iphone App available from the Apple’s AppStore, which is designed for snorers or long-suffering partners. There are several features to the app, but the one which catches this writer’s eye is the fact that your Iphone can be set to listen out for someone’s snoring, and to play a pre-recorded sound to wake them up when it gets too loud. The option is there to use a number of preset tones, or to record a message of your choice. Whether or not this is a stream of abuse is entirely up to you!

This sounds good on the face of it, but the immediate problem I can see for long-suffering partners is that unless their partner’s sleeping with headphones in then this alarm isn’t going to get you any better sleep, at least in the short-term. Any alarm is going to wake the both of you! Of course, this may serve to give you some ammunition- after all, one can’t really argue that a machine is being unfair!

If winning arguments isn’t quite what you’re after,  then it can silently record sleeping patterns and snoring activity. This is one of the things a sleep lab would traditionally record, but now the processing power of handheld devices has improved to a level where it’s possible this to be done without all that expensive equipment. well, except the Iphone itself, but that’s a matter of opinion!

This information can be used for analysis and diagnosis purposes or, alternatively you can do the inevitable and post it to Facebook.  Now, personally, that’s just a little bit too much information for me, but once again this is all down to individual choice! Certainly, if it gives you a clean bill of snoring health, then that’s a very good way to stop a partner nagging you about your snoring!. It can also be a very good way to look objectively at whether or not you have an issue you need to address. If you look at the report and see patterns of high snoring activity develop, then you know you may have an issue to resolve.

Posted by: Sleep And Snoring Aids

Does Your Partner Snore In The Night?

In this day and age, it’s a sad fact that almost three in ten people are suffering from either a lack of sleep or a decrease in the quality and restfulness of the sleep they are getting. This has all sorts of associated health risks, which is significant at both the individual level, and for our society as a whole.

There are two ways this can happen to you- first off, a simple deficit of time spent at rest. Now, everyone is different, and at different times in our lives, we all need different amounts of sleep. Whilst six to eight hours is normally stated as the normal standard, it’s more true to say that everyone has different needs for sleep, and everyone should always be striving to get enough sleep to feel energised and alert the next day.

So quantity’s the first thing to go for. There’s no real substitute for getting the hours in. There is a second issue, however, which can cause almost as many problems as the first. It’s not just the quantity of sleep that matters; it’s also the quality.

If your sleeping environment is compromised or disturbed, that can make for a restless and unproductive night’s sleep. This can be to do with a number of factors. One of these is the number of distractions in your sleeping space. In this era of computers, TVs, mobile phones and goodness knows what else, we are often over-stimulated when we go to sleep. It’s a good idea to keep one’s bedroom as a place which is primarily for sleep. If we don’t then can become harder to get one’s self into a restful mindset.

Another problem is extraneous noise, as anyone who lives near a road or a flightpath will tell you. Some sounds are soothing, like rain in summer, or the sound of the sea. Others, well, not so much.

This is where a partner’s snoring can really drive you mad. It can be an insidious thing, but over time as you wake up tired, it can really begin to drag on you. It doesn’t even have to wake you up completely to make a difference to the quality of your sleep, and it can become an unspoken killer in your relationship. Sleeping together can be the most wonderful expression of closeness and intimacy. If one person isn’t getting the rest they need, however, that can turn bad pretty quickly, and this malaise can cause real damage to a relationship.

If your partner snores, or you snore yourself, it’s got to be worth doing something about it. A good night’s sleep sets you up for a good day, and a good life. Don’t let snoring undermine it.

Posted by: Sleep And Snoring Aids

A Few Good Tips For Getting A Good Night’s Sleep

Here’s another interesting yet contradictory thing thrown up by sleep research. Apparently, according to a recent US study, it’s possible to ‘bank’ sleep by sleeping more than the normal amount your body needs, in order to offset the effects of sleep deprivation later on. In other words, if you sleep nine hours a night for two days, you’ve got a spare two hours in the ‘bank,’ so to speak. If you then find yourself only sleeping six hours the next night, you shouldn’t suffer a net loss of hours, so to speak, and shouldn’t feel that tired.

Just how plausible, and how useful, is this?

Let’s have a look at how this conclusion was drawn. The study was carried out on two groups of volunteers, one of whom had extra sleep each night for a week, whilst the other just kept sleeping hours as normal. The following week, both groups were given three hours of sleep a night, and were then subjected to a batch of tests which measured their reaction times, decision-making, and other cognitive functions. The aim was to see how each group coped with the effects of sleep deprivation.

In all the tests, the ‘pre-sleepers’ were judged to have performed to a higher standard, suffering less impairment to concentration than those who did not bank sleep. This seems to suggest that they were in a better position to deal with sleep deprivation, because of this preparation.

The researchers were keen to point out how useful this could be in situations where high performance levels were needed over a long period of time, such as military operations, and it certainly does sound like it could help people in that situation, or in any job where people have to work intensely for prolonged periods of time, with opportunities for rest in between. I guess, too, that if you know your partner snores, and you’re going to lose some sleep because of it, you can plan ahead and get some extra Z’s in ahead of time.

A cautionary note, however- whilst this study did note improvement, it didn’t yet establish the reasons behind this. It’s also quite a short-term study. It’s widely known that if your sleep patterns are unstable, that can have long-term effects on your health. In other words, don’t rely on unbalanced patterns of sleep- it’s not healthy, and it will make going back to a standard sleeping pattern harder. This may be a useful trick for the times when late nights are unavoidable, but it’s still true that the best way to combat the effects of sleep deprivation, is to make sure you don’t get deprived of sleep.

Posted by: Sleep And Snoring Aids

‘Banking’ Sleep – Can It Help The Sleep-Deprived?

We’ve previously noted here that people can be driven to violence if they have to put up with another’s snoring. Here’s another example, this time from China, where a student has recently been convicted of murdering his roommate because of chronic snoring.

This tragedy happened in Changchun, the capital of China’s Jilin province. The victim was Zhao Lin, a 23 year-old student at the Jilin Agricultural University. He was murdered in November 2009 by his room-mate, 24 year-old Guo Liwei. Zhao was stabbed twice by his assailant, in the chest and the back, resulting in his subsequent death in hospital. In hearings conducted at the Changchun Intermediate People’s Court, it was established that the main cause of tension between the two roommates had been Zhao’s snoring.

Guo was known to have complained widely about this, online and elsewhere. He had also posted a surreptitiously recorded video of his room-mate asleep on a university web-site, which had caused increased tensions between the two of them. These continued to escalate, with Guo committing his crime several months later.

This is terrible tragedy, which may at some points in its build-up have appeared almost comical. I can imagine a lot of students looked at that video of Zhao snoring, who may be looking at it in a different light now.

Now, obviously there were a lot of things which led to the eventual crime, and I don’t for one moment want to suggest that the snorer was at fault. One thing we can take from this, however, is that if you or a partner of you snores, it’s really quite a good idea to try and deal with the situation before what can be seen as funny can escalate. Look into a snoring aid before it’s too late.

Posted by: Sleep And Snoring Aids

Snoring; A Pretty Good Way To Annoy Your Room-Mate

Sleep is vital. It’s the time we spend repairing and re-energising our bodies, it’s where our minds lay down our memories and subconsciously process the issues we deal with in our day-to-day lives. The quality of sleep we get can seriously effect everything from our physical health and energy levels, to our emotional well-being.

I’m guessing you knew that already. Did you also know that the way you sleep can tell a lot about your personality? Recent research has suggested that there are four typical sleeping positions, and depending upon which one you typically adopt, a lot can be revealed about your personality.

First up is the rather grandly named ‘Royal Position’ where the sleeper lies on their back with their arms spread out to their sides, wide-open as if inviting an embrace. This position is supposed to denote confidence, and a self-involved nature.

There is also the Prone position, which is where the sleeper lies face down with their arms out, crooked, sleeping on their stomach. This is supposed to denote stubbornness, and a compulsive nature. It also implies persistence.

The semi-foetal position, which is an optimal sleeping position in terms of comfort and ease, is apparently the most common. It’s meant to be the stance of someone willing to compromise, and be conciliatory in their nature.

Just a step away from this, however, is the full-foetal position, where the person sleeps curled up around themselves. Someone who sleeps in this way is supposedly emotional, highly sensitive, artistic, and prone to relationships which are more intense. In other words, high maintenance!

Now, I’m not a scientist, but I’d like to add another one- the long-sufferer. This sleeper is bent over, their head buried beneath pillows, which they clamp around their ears with one or both arms. They alternate this with pacing about their living room, glancing guiltily at the bedroom, wondering if they should wake their partner up and say something, or just sleep on the sofa. They are the partner of a snorer, and they are miserable, tired, and quick to anger.

If your snoring is currently making someone into that fifth type of sleeper, wouldn’t it be good if they could change that?

Posted by: Sleep And Snoring Aids

Sleeping Positions As Personality Indicators