DON’T LET SLEEP APNEA KEEP YOU UP AT NIGHT As many as half of older adults are at risk for sleep apnea. This is a sleep disorder in which the throat collapses during sleep, causing a person to repeatedly stop breathing for periods of 10 seconds or longer throughout the night. To provide you with more information on this common ailment, here are excerpts from the May 1, 2023 online article by Julie Corliss, Executive Editor of the Harvard Heart Letter, Should you be tested for sleep apnea? This sleep-disrupting disorder is common but often unrecognized—especially in people with heart...
CAN MELATONIN GIVE YOU BETTER SLEEP? Some folks swear by melatonin supplements. They say it works as good or better than over-the-counter sleep aids like Unisom for getting a good night’s sleep. But I’m reading reports that it doesn’t help much for curing insomnia, although it might be helpful for other sleep disorders. Actually, your body already makes the melatonin hormone. Your pineal gland communicates with receptors in the retina area of your eye letting it know when it’s light or dark. When it senses dark, it releases the melatonin to prepare you for sleep. And when it senses light,...
MORE ALZHEIMER’S PREVENTION ADVICE: SLEEP DEEPLY Once again I’m posting on Alzheimer’s disease. I think it’s one of the scarier things about aging. In fact, at least one third of us will have it after age 85. While there’s no cure for Alzheimer’s, and we don’t yet know exactly what causes it, researchers continue to get closer to providing some answers. Scientists have known for years that poor sleep promotes an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s. Yet, researchers haven’t been able to zoom in on exactly what causes this relationship. But now, new research suggests that deep sleep helps defend against...
IS SNORING AFFECTING YOUR SNOOZING? As I grow older, I seem to snore more. JoAnne nudges me at least a couple of times a week to turn over from sleeping on my back. Now, today, I came upon an online article that offers suggestions on how to stop ourselves from this noisy breathing during sleep. Here are excerpts from the Harvard Medical School Healthbeat article How to silence snoring: Snoring by itself is generally harmless, but it can be annoying, especially for your bed partner. Fortunately, you can take steps to alleviate the problem. Start by making lifestyle changes and...
SLEEP DEPRIVATION IS DOWNRIGHT DANGEROUS Last week I read a Washington Post online article warning that our general lack of sleep is escalating into a health emergency. I think we seniors need to especially pay attention to getting enough sleep, what with insomnia due to anxiety or restless legs or arthritis pain or needing to use the bathroom more frequently. Last June I wrote a post giving recommendations on how to get better sleep, Nothing Like a Good Night’s Sleep. However, the Washington Post piece was more on the dangers of not getting enough sleep. Here are excerpts from the...
NOTHING LIKE A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP Lately, I’ve had trouble getting a full night’s sleep. It seems that if I go right to sleep after lying down, I wake up at 2:30 am and lie there for an hour before finally dozing off again. If it takes me half an hour to fall asleep, maybe I can go to 3 am before waking. Anyway, it’s hard to get those 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night that I keep hearing I should have. So now I take over-the-counter sleep aids like Unisom Sleep Tabs (doxylamine succinate), which is an...
