Biofeedback

Biofeedback is a technique used in sleep clinics that trains people to control involuntary responses that occur in their bodies, to improve their overall health. This includes their sleep hygiene. There are different categories of biofeedback that measure and track different aspects like brain waves, heart rate, body temperature, the working of your sweat glands and muscle contraction. This is done by attaching electrodes to your skin and monitoring these involuntary responses on a bunch of machines.

A biofeedback therapist helps you practice relaxation exercises, which you fine-tune to control different body functions. For example, you might use a relaxation technique to turn down the brainwaves that activate when you have a headache.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/biofeedback/home/ovc-20169724

So basically, biofeedback makes you aware of the problem by making it real and tangible for you. A problem that is no longer abstract, a problem that you can see. Once you have identified and accepted the problem, professionals use techniques like:

• Deep breathing
• Progressive muscle relaxation – alternately tightening and then relaxing different muscle groups
• Guided imagery – concentrating on a specific image (such as the color and texture of an orange) to focus your mind and make you feel more relaxed
• Mindfulness meditation – focusing your thoughts and letting go of negative emotions.

Biofeedback devices have come up for personal use in your own space. These include interactive screen programs and games to help you control your everyday stress and anxiety, and wearable devices connected to apps that let you know when you start freaking out. I should probably get one of those. Sigh.

 

LInks: https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/biofeedback-therapy-uses-benefits#1

http://www.umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/treatment/biofeedback

My Brain Won’t Shut Up.

In the past few days, I have been talking to people about how they sleep. It doesn’t take a lot to get them to spill all of their sleep problems. It just gushes out with a mixture of agitation and frustration. Everybody has different problems, and I can’t claim to understand them all, but what connects our problems when it comes to sleep, is that OUR BRAINS REFUSE TO SHUT THE HELL UP. Yep. It starts with a song, or a person or an incident, that is all it takes. Next thing you know you are spiralling into a classic overthinking spree. What fancy people like to call Sleep Anxiety.

But if you chronically find yourself lying awake, worried or agitated—about specific problems (like money), or nothing in particular—it might be a sign of an anxiety disorder. By some estimates, fully half of all people with GAD experience sleep problems.

The reasons for our anxiety may be different, ranging from a job interview to post traumatic stress, but it leads us down the same path. And BLAAM now you have a sleep disorder and anxiety disorder. Perhaps the rise in levels of people suffering from sleep disorders has to do with the fast paced, stressful and cut throat environment that we live in today. Each person’s solution may be different. But seeing a therapist can’t hurt.

Anyone who lost a night to insomnia on account of troubling thoughts has been where many chronic anxiety sufferers find themselves all too frequently. According to UC Berkeley researchers, lack of sleep plays a role in ramping up brain regions that trigger excessive worry. Additionally, those who tend to worry too much are more vulnerable to sleep disorders.

Links: http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20646990,00.html#irrational-fears-0

https://www.tuck.com/anxiety-guide-sleep/

Parasomnias, AKA Sleep Quirks

Parasomnia is a category of disruptive sleep disorders that usually occur during arousal from REM or partial arousal from NREM sleep. There are a bunch of them and each one is crazier than the next. Here you go:

• Nightmares: We all have those. When you wake up because of a nightmare, you are alert and can describe is perfectly. These occur during REM sleep. They are caused because of anxiety, fear or a reaction to some medication.
• Night terrors: These lead to abrupt awakening in a confused and terrified state. Typically, you are unable to communicate for 15 minutes post an episode. These are genetic or caused by strong emotions and drug/alcohol abuse.
• Sleepwalking: Occurs during NREM, so early in the night or in REM early morning. These too, are genetic.
• Sleeptalking: Totally harmless, except if you blurt out something scandalous (LIKE MOI🙃). You will have no memory of your bungling in the morning, so be careful what you say. It occurs due to fear (WHAT AM I SCARED OF?, emotional stress (AM I EMOTIONALLY STRESSED?) or other sleep disorders (OHHH).
• Sleep Paralysis: This can be a bit scary for people experiencing it for the first time. Your REM muscle paralysis gets carried into waking up. So, for a fe minutes you can’t move your muscles. Fortunately, it ends with a sound or a touch. And of course, this one too, is genetic. THANKS A LOT ANCESTORS.
• Confusional Arousals: AKA Excessive Sleep inertia or Sleep Drunkenness (LOL). This happens when you wake up from deep sleep directly. You are slower than a sloth during one of these.

  

  Put yo’ hands up! Woo Woo!

• REM Sleep Behaviour Disorder: The muscleparalysis that generally takes place when you are dreaming in REM sleep, does not occur. So, you end up acting out your dreams. This is caused by degenerative neurological conditions, alcohol/drug withdrawal and antidepressants.
• Rhythmic Movement Disorder: AKA Head Banging Disorder. Only kids under the age of 1 suffer from this. They bang their heads against the pillow or move their knees rhythmically before falling asleep.
• Arrhythmia: Irregular heart rhythms, typically in Coronary Heart Disease patients.
• Nocturnal Leg Cramps: LOL. My dad has these. Literally leg cramps that last for between a few seconds to 10 minutes. Caused by dehydration, obesity, overexertion or structural defects.
• Nocturnal Paroxysmal Dystonia: They think it’s a form of epilepsy. Causes seizures.
• Sleep Enuresis AKA Bed Wetting: Characterised by inability to control your bladder. There are two types- Primary (You never had control over it) and Secondary (You had control, but lost it). Caused by Diabetes, UTIs, Sleep Apnea or psychiatric disorders.
• Sleep  Bruxism AKA Teeth Grinding: SO GODDAMN RANDOM. WHAT IS GOING ON? There is literally nothing to explain here.
• Impaired Sleep Related Erections: …….When men’s penile erection is not sufficiently rigid in REM sleep. May indicate Erectile dysfunction. What even?
• Sleep Related Painful Erections: Okay, seriously? It’s very rare. It’s painful. It causes you to wake up. Good to know, I guess?

The Plethora of Sleep Disorders

Some helpful sleep disorders

Okay, there are a lot of these. And none are helpful at all. What a shame. Let’s start with the best known and most common disorder:

 

• Insomnia: This disorder is defined by difficulty is falling or staying asleep. This also includes waking up in the night and having trouble falling back to sleep. There are 4 types of Insomnia: Primary, Secondary, Acute and Chronic.
• Sleep Apnea: Defined by difficulty in breathing while sleeping. There are 2 types: Obstructive and Central. These are mostly caused due to obesity.
• Periodic Limb Movement Disorder: Characterized by rhythmic movements of the limbs. They typically involve legs and last for anything between a few minutes to several hours. Geez. The cause of this one is unknown, though it has some links with Narcolepsy, Parkinson’s and the use of antidepressants.
• Hypersomnia: Excessive daytime sleepiness, or excessive time spent sleeping during the day. 40% people have this problem from time to time. It is caused due to Narcolepsy, obesity, sleep apnea, drug/alcohol abuse, head injuries or you inherit it.
• Narcolepsy: This is a neurological disorder. The symptoms include extreme sleepiness, hallucinations, sleep paralysis and cataplexy. Let me explain:                    1. Hallucinations: Abnormal, stressful and extremely vivid.                                            2.  Sleep Paralysis: loss of muscle control while you are awake, because of early           REM onset.
•  3. Cataplexy: Sudden muscle weakness caused by strong emotion. For example, head dropping or knees buckling. In severe conditions, you can even collapse. The disorder is marked by frequent blackouts or seizures.
• Parasomnia deserves it’s own blog post. So stay tuned.
• Click here to learn about Circadian disorders.

The Basics

“Sleep affects almost every type of tissue and system in the body – from the brain, heart, and lungs to metabolism, immune function, mood, and disease resistance.”

Why is Sleep important?

Okay, as you go through the day garbage keeps getting accumulated in your brain. When you sleep at night, it helps you clear it out, save want you want to by converting information into memory and chuck the rest of the nonsense, so your brain doesn’t become overloaded with unnecessary crap. This makes you lighter and more productive the next morning. It improves your physical health and mental wellbeing.

“Studies show that a good night’s sleep improves learning. Whether you’re learning math, how to play the piano, how to perfect your golf swing, or how to drive a car, sleep helps enhance your learning and problem-solving skills. Sleep also helps you pay attention, make decisions, and be creative.”

Basically sleep deprivation turns you into a crazed, obese risk taker trapped in loony hallucinations and more likely to kill yourself.

“Sleep is involved in healing and repair of your heart and blood vessels. Ongoing sleep deficiency is linked to an increased risk of heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and stroke.”

How many hours of sleep do you need?

What is Sleep Debt?

The cumulation of lack of sleep is called “Sleep Debt”. There are two kinds of sleep debts: partial and total sleep deprivation. Partial is when you have a disturbed sleep cycle for a long period of time and total is when you don’t sleep at all for atleast 24 hours or more at a stretch.

Those were the basics. Consider yourselves educated! Also, check out what “Micro Sleep” is here.

Is sleep deprivation hereditary?

Sleep cycles are genetic. Which means sleep deprivation due to disturbed cycles is too. So basically, if your mom is a sleepwalker, get ready for some midnight unconscious strolls in her company.

Body Clocks: Myth Or Reality?

Who would’ve thought? Body clocks are a real thing, not just something your mom made up to shut you up about night time binge watching. And not just that, an in-built sleep journal also exists in our bodies. These two mechanisms are affected by a ton of things and are easily disrupted; potentially taking an entire generation closer to cancer, heart disease and obesity.

The medical term for your body clock is “Circadian Rhythms“. I think that the people of science like to complicate life, with ludicrous names, purely for entertainment purposes.

These literally control all good things about life. This explains the KGB’s torture methods perfectly. Changing the temperature to extremes, constant bright light, reduced food portions, everything they could do to disrupt a person’s Circadian Rhythms. Genius. There are several types of disorders/syndromes that are caused by a disturbance in the force of these rhythms, they are called Circadian disorders.

1. ASPD: Advanced Sleep Phase Disorder– Chronic, Neurological. When people wake up and sleep earlier than  they intend to.
2. DSPS: Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome– Chronic, Neurological. When people wake up and sleep later than they want to.
3. Non 24 Hour Sleep Wake Disorder– Chronic, Neurological. When your Circadian Rhythms or body clock is set not set to a 24 hour day.
4. Irregular Sleep Wake disorder – Chronic, Neurological. When your sleeping patterns are completely insane.
5. Shift work disorder– Temporary, Caused by a change in the social or physical environment. Changing your schedule or something like a jet lag.

 

The medical term for the sleep journal that your body is keeping is called “Sleep-Wake Homeostasis“. This keeps a track or your need to sleep and helps you make up for lost sleep if need be.