Sleeping Well in London

I am now staying at home in London. When I get into bed, I fall into sleep within a few seconds. I feel that I have good quality sleeping here because I wake up fully refreshed and energized in the morning. I sleep so deeply that I am even not awaken by a full bladder caused by a drink right before bedtime. In my impression, that's certainly a difference between sleeping in London and Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a busy city lacking of natural plants. My London home is sited in a natural environment. Air is comfortably fresh. Next to our rear garden, there is a river named New River Path. The New River is neither new nor a river. It is an aqueduct built from 1609 to 1613 from near Ware to Islington to bring freshwater from Hertfortshire springs to the Cty of London. Today Thames Water still uses the New River as a source for London's drinking water.

It takes me 25 minutes to walk from home to a local library and shopping center. This provides me with a chance for adequate exercises. I evidence that both physical exercises and natural environment help improving sleep quality. If people suffer from insomnia, I would suggest that they take a distance walk in the area where they could see lots of trees and plants. Natural areas make people feel relaxed.

Whenever I travel from the East to the West, I sleep very well in the following nights. The late afternoon in London is equvialent to the time at midnight in Hong Kong. Therefore, I always feel very sleepy in the early evening at London upon arrival on the first few days.

Decaffeinated Tea

As far as I don't drink tea or Coca-Cola, I won't have any problems in sleeping. However, the intolerance of tea has affected my social life. I feel embarrassed to refuse tea after dinner particularly before new friends. Since I don't like soft drinks and I am not tolerated to tea, there are not any options for me to drink. For such reason, I just drink plain water all the time. Decaffeinated tea is great. I love it because it doesn't cause me any problems. I always drink it in the evening. However, it is unfortunately not provided in any restaurant. If people don't like getting decaffeinated tea from supermakets, they can make it themselves. Please refer to the video shown below.

There will be no tea for my lunch too. The Chinese tea always gives me a very long-lasting impact on my sleeping quality. English tea is much better. Perhaps, it is due to the fact that the caffeine absorption is lessen after a mixture of milk. I enjoy my big mug of English tea in the morning. If I drink a very small cup of tea with milk in the early afternoon, that is still fine with me.

Tea and coffee are the most common drinks in social activities. This implies that the majority people won't have any problems with caffeine. I seldom mention my sleeping problems to friends because they won't understand the impact of caffeine to some minority people. If I told them that I couldn't get into sleep the night before, they would suspect that I felt nervous, anxious, etc.... Anxiety is only one of the many reasons leading to insomnia. Whenever people suffer from insomnia, friends and doctors always ask questions on anxiety. This make sufferers feel bad.

Hidden Caffeine in Foods and Drugs

Caffeine may reduce sleep quantity and quality. People suffering from caffeine-induced insomnia should also check for caffeine contents in foods and drinks. In addition to coffee and tea, caffeine could be found in soft drinks such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Higher levels of caffeine are commonly found in energy and sport drinks such as Red Bull and Lucozade. The caffeine level in Red Bull is rather high. There are 32mg of caffeine in every 100ml of Red Bull. The caffeine level in classical Lucozade is moderate (12.1mg per 100ml). I checked from the local supermarket in London but failed to find out the caffeine amount on the ingredient label of Coca-Cola. The label does admit that there are caffeine contents. According to the EngergyFriend.com, there are 9.7mg of caffeine in every 100ml of Coca-Cola Classic. To many people, this level is acceptable. However, it will keep me awake throughout the night if I drink it in or after early afternoon. Children love Coke and Pepsi. If there are any negative effects on their sleep quality, they may not be aware of the problem and thus will not make any report to parents.

Caffeine levels vary widely from one type of tea or coffee to another. There are as high as 45mg caffeine in every 100ml of brewed coffee, while in general the are about 20mg caffeine per 100ml of brewed tea. Although caffeine contents in greeen tea is not high (10mg/100ml), I can't tolerate it. The tolerance of caffeine varies among individuals.

As caffeine offers people a feeling of well-being with refreshing mental performance, caffeine is widely used in over-the-counter medications. Other than pure caffeine tablets, caffeine can be found in weight loss pills, cold and cough medications, pain relief capsules, or even vitamin tablets.

Effect of Caffeine on Sleeping

One of the common reasons for insomnia is associated with caffeine intakes. Caffeine is a chemical compound existed in certain plants such as tea leaves, coffee and cocoa beans. The attached is a photograph of the Taiwan Oolong tea bushes. Being a central nervous system stimulant, caffeine makes people stay awake because it inhibits the action of adenosine which in the end product promotes sleepiness naturally.

How long will caffeine stay in human bodies after ingestion? That depends upon the biological half-life of caffeine which varies among individuals with depending factors such as age, and liver enzyme level for caffeine metabolism. A half-life is the time for a body to excrete half of the total amount of the drug. The half-life of caffeine ranges between 1.5 and 9.5 hours. In other words, the time for total caffeine elimination can be as short as 3 hours, or as long as 19 hours. Smoking shortens the half-life of caffeine. Older people, however, take longer time for caffeine excretion. Study results show that caffeine clearance delays in women taking contraceptives or during pregnancy. The half-life of caffeine largely prolongs in people with severe liver diseases.

Caffeine has a long-lasting effect on me in regard to sleep disruption. Similar to me, my mother and my two sisters are extraordinarily sensitive to caffeine too. Up to my knowledge, studies on genetic factors regarding the impact of caffeine have not been published in the literature. Indeed, not many people are aware of the effect of caffeine. One of my friends has been taking sleeping tablets for years. Not until a talk with me, she didn't realize that her difficulty sleeping was in link with her tea habit.

References

Parsons WD, Pelletier JG. Delayed elimination of caffeine by women in the last 2 weeks of pregnancy. Canadian Medical Association Journal. 1982;127(5):377-380.

Patwardhan RV, Desmond PV, Johnson RF, Schenker S, Impaired elimination of caffeine by oral contraceptive steroids. Journal of Laboratory and Clinical Medicine. 1980;95(4):603-608.

Somani SM, Gupta P. Caffeine: a new look at an old-age drug. International Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, Therapy, and Toxicology. 1988;26(11):521-533.

Statland BE, Demas TJ, Serum caffeine half-lives. Healthy subjects vs. patients having alcoholic hepatic disease. American Journal of Clinical Pathology. 1980;73(3):390-393.

Insomnia

I had suffered from insomnia since I was very young. Sometimes, I woke up in the middle of the night and was not able to get back to sleep. Sometimes, I didn’t know whether I had slept through the night or not. Difficulty in initiating sleep was most often a problem to me. The room was dark and quiet. The temperature was just right. After lying on bed for an hour, I still couldn’t get into sleep. I slept on my back and rolled over on my stomach. I turned this side and that side. I was tired but just couldn’t fall into sleep. Each hour passed and I was anxious about my work in the day. I couldn’t empty my mind. After a few hours had gone, I took off the blanket because it seemed that hot flashes went through my body. Getting out of bed in the early morning, my head was heavy and my heart felt tight. I even felt nauseated. To cope with insomnia, I had tried many methods but in vain. I counted the number of stars from one to thousands. I drank hot milk before bedtime. Nothing worked on me.

For long, I didn’t know the cause leading to my trouble sleeping. Perhaps, it was because I worked shift, I thought. But there was nothing that I could help myself because there was no way to change job. After many years, I eventually found out that my trouble sleeping was due to the effect of caffeine. Whenever I drank tea or coke, I had trouble sleeping at night. I had never tried coffee. I am very sensitive to caffeine. The caffeine effect lasts long in my body. I could only tolerate caffeine drinks before 10 o’clock in the morning.

Mouth Breathing during Sleep in Children

People with severe nasal allergy often suffer from sleep deprivations. Stuffy nose will turn bad during sleep. When the nose is blocked, the individual needs to breathe through his/ her mouth and the mouth becomes dry and uncomfortable. The quality of sleep is therefore affected. Children may not be able to express the problem. Poor sleep in children may not be noticed by parents.

Many parents do not consider mouth breathing as a problem. In fact, long-term mouth breathing could lead to serious problems such as facial and dental development in young children. Other than nasal allergy, mouth breathing during sleep could also be resulted from various problems such as sinusitis, deviated nasal septum, or enlarged tonsils. Therefore, when mouth breathing happens very often, medical advice should be sought. In many cases, mouth breathing improves after treatment. Nasal allergy and sinusitis could be treated by medicines. Deviated nasal septums need to be straightened by means of operation. Enlarged tonsils need to be removed by surgery.

Why does Bob rub his nose during sleep?

Alison was wondering why her 5-year-old son, Bob, sometimes rubbed his nose during sleep. She said, “In the middle of the night, Bob suddenly sat up in bed and rubbed his nose vigorously for a few seconds. He then quickly went back to sleep again”. Do you know what’s happening to Bob?

Further inquiries revealed that Bob also suffered from frequent early morning sneezing. Stuffy nose sometimes occurred during the night. All these symptoms suggest that Bob most likely had got nasal allergy. It is better to get a doctor to check it out. When figuring out why a child gets itchiness allergy symptom in sleep, we should firstly look at environmental factors. Nasal symptoms could be exaggerated by allergic exposures such as house dust mites, animal furs, molds, or pollens. Dust mite is the most common allergen that exists all year round in households including beds and pillows. Bob’s sleep is interrupted by the itchiness and stuffiness of nose. Our concern is rather on the quality of sleep which plays a fundamental role in physical and intellectual development. An adult who is lack of sleep will feel tired and lose concentration during the day. A child with sleep deprivation may behave differently. He or she may become irritable or hyperactive with decreased attention span. A good night’s sleep is certainly essential for the promotion of health and wellness. Allergen avoidance is a strategy to reduce allergy symptoms. Please visit www.HealthySleepPillow.com to find out the ways to minimize dust mites in bedding and pillows.

Today is the World Sleep Day, 19 March 2010

Today is the World Sleep Day. The day is being celebrated since 2008. The initiative for the celebration of the day was taken by the World Association of Sleep Medicine with an intention to call to act on important issues related to sleep including medicine, education, social aspects and driving. The promotion of the event aims to raise public awareness of sleep disorders which refers to any difficulties related to sleeping including difficulty falling or staying asleep, falling asleep at inappropriate times, excessive total sleep time, or abnormal behaviors during sleep. According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, there are more than 80 forms of sleep disorders. Insomnia is the most common type that characterizes by having difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep, or persistently unrefreshing sleep. Sleep apnea is also common and often underestimated. People with sleep apnea have repeated episodes of pauses in breathing while sleeping.

It is estimated that approximately 40 millions of Americans suffer from sleep disorders. What’s worse is that some of the disorders increase the risk of various medical conditions such as high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, diabetes, mood disorders, or even death. In addition, sleep-related motor vehicle accidents are occasionally reported. Untreated sleep disorders could lead to indirect financial loss. In fact, many of the sleep disorders can be prevented and treated. However, problems are often ignored or overlooked by general populations. This could probably be due to the fact that many of the sleep-disordered symptoms such as snoring and daytime sleepiness are not regarded as abnormal issues. Dr Ignatius Mark, a Singaporean ENT Surgeon, pointed out, “It is a misconception that lack of sleep or not having good sleep quality is acceptable and a normal part of aging. As a matter of fact, good sleep is a very important for good health and the lack of awareness may cause sleep disorders to remain unrecognized and undiagnosed.” There are many factors affecting quality sleep. For comfortable sleep, please visit www.HealthySleepPillow.com for details.

Let us “Sleep Well, Stay Healthy” – the slogan of the World Sleep Day in the current year.