The best sleeping position for your health

signalmankenneth · Sep 11, 2016

I would also recommend sleeping on your side too, I do?

http://www.msn.com/en-us/health/wel...osition-for-your-health/ar-AAimy00?li=BBnb2gg

waltky · Oct 2, 2016

Sleep disorders can lead to more serious illnesses...

Sleep disorders can lead to more serious ailments
Mon, Oct 03, 2016 - SEEK TREATMENT: A Kaohsiung physician said that up to half of people with REM sleep behavior disorder are likely to develop degenerative illnesses like Parkisons

It is important to seek medical help for sleep-related health issues because such issues have been linked to illnesses down the line, a sleep specialist says. Kaohsiung Medical University Sleep Center doctor Hsu Chung-yao cited the case of a 60-year-old man who became violent during sleep, attacking his wife while dreaming. The man tore apart a wardrobe, bent a metal rod and stood as if he was ready to attack his wife, forcing his children to physically restrain him, Hsu said.

RBD

Tests showed the man suffers from rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (RBD), which could make him susceptible to various diseases, including Parkinsons disease, multiple system atrophy or other degenerative diseases in the coming years. About 40 to 50 percent of RBD sufferers will develop a degenerative disease within 10 years of the onset of RBD, Hsu said. RBD is a serious, yet still little-known illness that affects normal sleep, adding that research at foreign institutions has shown that up to 50 percent of RBD patients are likely to develop other degenerative mental illnesses. Hsu said the center is working with 250 RBD patients, two-thirds of which are male, and 40 percent of which have developed degenerative illnesses.

The condition appears in men over 50 and manifests during REM sleep (when dreams occur) and results in patients acting out the scenes in their dreams. Usually these are unpleasant dreams and will cause patients to yell, punch or kick those around them or fall, and when they wake up they are in a state of shock, Hsu said. Chang Yang-pei, a physician in the universitys Department of Neurology, said that RBD most likely develops due to pathological changes in the bridge that connects the brain to the brain stem. Conditions such as Parkinsons occur when deterioration in the bridge spreads further up into the midbrain, Chang said, adding that such developments can be stopped if treatment begins early. The best way to examine people who are experiencing sleep-related conditions is to examine them on numerous occasions, Chang said, including at least one overnight stay in the center.

The centers comprehensive testing involves recording heart rate, breathing difficulties, frequency of snoring, and brain activity throughout the night, Chang said. Hsu said patients are normally prescribed Rivotril and other medications. Medication is successful in controlling 90 percent of the issues related to RBD such as sleep quality and energy levels, adding that treatment helps reduce brain deterioration and physical harm from patients falling out of bed, he said. Although there is still no medication that can eradicate RBD, through regular hospital visits, good dietary habits, a sanitary sleeping environment and regular exercise, brain deterioration can be much reduced, Hsu said.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2016/10/03/2003656433
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Jonsa · Oct 3, 2016

I always have slept on my side, but a few years ago after having recurring back problems I started sleeping with a pillow between my legs. It really was effective and my back problems disappeared and haven't recurred.

Evmetro · Oct 3, 2016

Great article. I had all kinds of sleeping problems for a long time, but finally ended up switching my lifestyle from being obese and sedentary to being at a healthy BMI, eating a healthy diet, and getting lots of exercise. Not only did I get to abandon the half dozen prescriptions that kept me alive, but I finally get good quality sleep. I really enjoy health related articles like the one you posted, thanks.

ChrisL · Oct 3, 2016

I sleep on my belly most of the time. I try not to because it makes my back a little stiff in the morning, but when I fall asleep, I seem to naturally gravitate into that position.

WJV · Oct 4, 2016

I sleep on my back mostly. It is the Royal Position.

edit - It makes sense that us people with confidence sleep on our backs. We are not worried about something falling on our faces while we sleep. We sleep unprotected.

It is good to lay on your back when you are tired and go to sleep that way. Sleeping on your back is the strong way to sleep.

waltky · Jan 31, 2017

Granny gets crabby if she don't get her 8 hrs. o' `beauty rest'...

Sleep Deprivation Weakens Immune System
January 30, 2017 - Not getting enough sleep can make you sick, according to a new study.

Writing in the journal Sleep, researchers from the University of Washington say sleep deprivation depresses the bodys immune system. To reach their conclusions, the researchers studied 11 pairs of identical twins with differing sleep patterns and found that the twin who slept less had a depressed immune system. Researchers noted that genetics account for 31 and 55 percent of sleep duration, with behavior and environment making up the rest. What we show is that the immune system functions best when it gets enough sleep. Seven or more hours of sleep is recommended for optimal health, said lead author Dr. Nathaniel Watson, co-director of the UW Medicine Sleep Center at Harborview Medical Center.

A new study shows sleep deprivation can weaken the immunity system.

Researchers said existing data on limited sleep deprivation in a lab setting can increase inflammatory markers and activate immune cells, but that less is known about long-term sleep deprivation in natural conditions. This study used real world conditions, according to researchers, which showed for the first time that chronic short sleep shuts down programs involved in immune response of circulating white blood cells. The results are consistent with studies that show when sleep-deprived people are given a vaccine, there is a lower antibody response and if you expose sleep deprived people to a rhinovirus they are more likely to get the virus, Watson said. This study provides further evidence of sleep to overall health and well-being particularly to immune health.

Citing U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers said Americans are, on average, sleeping 1.5 to two hours less than the optimal amount, while one in three Americans sleeps less than six hours per night. Modern society, with its control of light, omnipresent technology and countless competing interests for time, along with the zeitgeist de-emphasizing sleeps importance, has resulted in the widespread deprioritization of sleep, researchers wrote in the study.

http://www.voanews.com/a/mht-sleep-deprivation-weakens-immunity-system/3698443.html
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waltky · Feb 3, 2017

Granny says, "Is prob'ly why Uncle Ferd sleeps so much...

Sleep Shrinks Synapses, Preps For New Learning
February 02, 2017 - Sleep, is an enduring mystery, and scientists continue to study its forms and its functions, and some new research shows sleep helps make us smarter.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin - Madison have found sleep helps improve brain function by shrinking synapses, the junctions between nerve cells. VOA spoke with researcher Chiara Cirelli who said the research team started with the hypothesis that we sleep so that our brain can restore and recharge itself. She said the idea seems simple, elegant and logical, but testing it and discovering how it works has been incredibly difficult. Cirelli and Giulio Tononi of the Wisconsin Center for Sleep and Consciousness have been trying to prove the "Synaptic Homeostasis Hypothesis" since they published a first version of it in 2003.

3D images of synapses that shrink during sleep.

Cirelli said they began by "literally, measuring the size of the synapses" in the brain. "There are 100 billion synapses in our brain," she says and we know that "that stronger synapses are also bigger." They knew that during sleep the brain "can sample all our synapses, and renormalize them in a smart way, comprehensive and balanced." So they decided to see if that renormalization has a physical component, that is, are they bigger after being awake all day, and smaller after a good night's sleep.

How to measure a synapse

Synapses are only about 20-40 nanometers wide, and the team looked for changes in these already tiny gaps between nerve cells. They had to wait until advances in electron microscopy made it possible to see these tiny changes. A university press release said it was "a massive undertaking, with many research specialists working for four years to photograph, reconstruct, and analyze two areas of cerebral cortex in the mouse brain. They were able to reconstruct 6,920 synapses and measure their size." Cirelli says it is an incredibly painstaking process because "all the actual measurements of the synapses (what we call the segmentation) has to be done manually." To make sure there was no bias, "the team deliberately did not know whether they were analyzing the brain cells of a well-rested mouse or one that had been awake."

The result proved the SHY hypothesis by finding a few hours of sleep led on average to an 18 percent decrease in the size of the synapses. "This shows," Cirelli says, "in unequivocal ultrastructural terms, the balance of synaptic size and strength is upset by wake and restored by sleep," "Sleep," the study concludes, "is the price we pay for brains that are plastic and able to keep learning new things." Cirelli says what "happens with sleep, is that salient and novel information is integrated within our body of knowledge, irrelevant details are forgotten, and new space is created for new memories to be formed the next day." She says our synapses shrink as our brain cleans house, and we wake up refreshed and ready to fill up those synapses with new information.

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The best sleeping position for your health

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