Reflexology is a healing technique that focuses on massage certain points on your feet (mostly) and linking those points to health. Reflexologists believe that most bodily functions can be stimulated and helped through the massage of specific points.

In this account, an insomniac goes to a reflexologist and experiences relief. Her reflexologist talks about a blockage in her nerves that is interfering with sleep. The end result? Better sleep.

Learn More About Reflexology



Reflexology: Suddenly I can sleep - Telegraph

Recent studies have shown that both long and short sleep are linked to increased risk in mortality and diabetes. It turns out that both short and long sleep are also linked to a 45% increase in a person's risk of metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is a condition of on health involving being overweight, unfit, high cholesterol and more.

Compared with people who slept seven to eight hours per night both short and long sleepers had an increased risk of metabolic syndrome including an elevated fasting glucose level and abdominal obesity. This research, combined with other recent studies showed that sleep is linked to cardiovascular and metabolic health.

More on Metabolic Syndrome

Sleeping in hospitals is a huge challenge. There is a constant array of noises and interruptions. This causes patients difficulty in getting the sleep they need for quick healing.

A hospital in Queensland gave quiet time a try. This involved lights being turned off, no visitors, and mandatory headphones on TVs and radios. Nursing staff only did the necessary treatment and tried to make sure all patients were comfortable. The level of noise reduced by half in people were twice as likely to fall asleep during this time.

How To Sleep in the Hospital

It's no surprise that people with chronic health conditions tend to nap longer during the day. This is likely because people with chronic illness have trouble sleeping well at night. What researchers did was to put the device on people's wrist that measured their motion. When they take naps the wrists are clearly still. This way researchers can monitor accurately how much a person is napping during the day.

People with diabetes nap 43% longer, people with pain conditions nap 27% shorter than people with no chronic health conditions. For every hour a person napped, they got 10% less sleep that night. The key for people with chronic health conditions is to do everything possible to get a good night's sleep and to keep naps short during the day.


More About Sleep and Diabetes

People who suffer from sleep apnea may have another thing to worry about. In a study of 400 women, researchers found that patients who were diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea had less sensitivity to insulin.insulin sensitivity is a factor in diabetes. The less sensitive someone is to insulin, the harder the more insulin they need to control blood sugar. When insulin sensitivity becomes too strong, a person can develop diabetes.

What is the link between sleep apnea and insulin sensitivity? We don't really know. The researchers just observed that when glucose solution was given to women, those with sleep apnea had a stronger increase in blood sugar and that their blood sugar stayed elevated longer.

What does this mean?

If you have sleep apnea is much more important to get treated. The fact that chronic illnesses such as diabetes can be linked to sleep apnea is just one more reason to see a doctor about your sleep problems. Of course the best reason is that if you treat sleep apnea, the just feel so much better and have more energy.

More about Sleep Apnea

Sleep trouble is a huge part of Alzheimer's disease. It is not only people suffering from Alzheimer's disease that have trouble sleeping, but their caregivers have trouble finding the time to get enough sleep for themselves. This leads to all the problems of insomnia and sleep deprivation for both Alzheimer's disease patient and caregiver.

A study of 44 adults with Alzheimer's disease and their caregivers examined the impact of different factors and sleep. Researchers collected information about the total minutes of sleep, percent of time spent asleep, total time awake at night, daytime sleep and other factors. What they found was that Alzheimer's patients generally went to sleep at the same time each day, but the amount of sleep each night varied greatly. For Alzheimer's caregivers the most unstable aspect of their sleep was the total time spent in bed. In general at least 25% of the time either the Alzheimer's patient or the caregiver had a poor night of sleep.

What can help?

Anything that can strengthen your sleep habits will help whether you are a caregiver or person with Alzheimer's. Developing good "sleep hygiene" edition marks and strong sleep habits will help keep you sleeping when you the chance, fall asleep faster, and improve the quality of your sleep.

More About Sleep Hygiene

There are a lot of treatments out there for insomnia, from medications to alternative therapies. But what are the risks of these treatments? That information can be challenging to find.

Our own About.com's Guide to Insomnia, Antigone Arthur, has put together an article on just that subject. Read through the risks and limits of various treatments for insomnia to find out what might be right for you.

Risks of Medical Treatments for Insomnia

Sleep deprivation refers to what happens to your body when you go a long time without adequate sleep. In laboratory rats, sleep deprivation eventually results in death. In humans, it can lead to hallucinations.

Find out more about sleep deprivation like whether chronic insomnia has some of the same effects or if sleep debt can add up over time. You can even take a test to see if you might have sleep deprivation problems.

More on Sleep Deprivation

Insomnia just seems to come on its own, but it tuns out there are risk factors that increase a person's likelihood of having insomnia. There risk factors include:

• stress
• alcohol abuse
• smoking
• being overweight

These are just a few of the things that may contribute to insomnia or poor sleep. Find out detailed information about each of them in Antigone Arthur's article on Insomnia Risk Factors.

This struck me as a bit weird: You can now go to the CDC website and send a sleep E Card (not really, click here). You can e-mail this card to anyone yo want and it will give them tips and steps to get healthy sleep.

It's good that the CDC is trying to be all modern and everything, but it just seems weird to e-mail cards about sleep habits to your friends and family. I guess it beats just sending a link. What do you think? Put your thoughts in the comments (use the link below).