Clean Teeth, Health Sleep?

Another interesting product on the market which aims to promote sleep, but this time in the form of toothpaste.

“Toothpaste is an exceptional delivery system because the tissues in the mouth absorb ingredients into the body instantly. The natural ingredients do not need to be treated or coated to withstand the digestive process as a pill would, so I can use the purest forms of the herbs and maintain a precise balance for greatest efficacy.”

says the suitably named ‘Dr. Z’

http://www.pearlydreams.net/

Featured Wikipedia Article – CRUSH

Cognitive bias is a funny thing – once you’ve started thinking about something, you’ll increasingly be aware of it popping up in the most unusual of places and at increased frequency. With insomnia – this can be a bad thing, as many sufferers worry about not being able to get to sleep, and lie awake in bed thinking about not being able to sleep, creating a vicious circle – one of the reasons the “15 minute rule” is so effective.

However, when you’re collecting articles around the topic of insomnia, this type of cognitive bias is quite handy – and this evening’s ‘spot’ is from the front page of wikipedia about the PSP game ‘Crush‘

The game’s protagonist is Danny, a teenager suffering from insomnia, who uses an experimental device to explore his mind and discover the cause for his sleeplessness. Each level of the game, representing events from Danny’s life and inspired by artists such as Tim Burton and M.C. Escher, requires the player to control Danny as he collects his “lost marbles” and other thoughts

Whilst I’m not sure we’d like to promote the idea of insomniacs having lost their marbles, its interesting to see where sleeplessness appears in modern gaming culture.

Texting causes Insomnia?

Whilst not exactly about Insomnia, an interesting recent study from Belgium suggests that text messaging is becoming a cause of poorer sleep quality in children.

In the group of 16 year old children, 20.8% wake up 1-3 times in a month, 10.8% wake up at least one time in a week, 8.9% wake up many times in a week and 2.9% wake up every night.

Children were asked how often they woke up during the night because of incoming text messages. There seems like a relatively simple answer to resolving this, but it is another example of environmental factors which can impact upon the quality of your night’s sleep.

See the full article at News-Reviews.org (via Textually.org)

Can the internet solve insomnia?

Good article in the BBC Magazine this week discussing the advances of internet based courses with the aim of curing insomnia:

“With online automated courses, therapy that is typically only available on an individual or small group basis can be multiplied to reach many more”

Have you had experiences with online insomnia tools? We’d love to hear your story. Post a comment.

Stepped care meets technology.

As you may know we’re big fans of using technology in smart ways to help people sleep, and so particularly liked this new paper advocating a ‘stepped’ approach to insomnia treatment.

We believe that there’s huge scope for providing affordable, accessible, evidence-based psychological treatments to insomniacs. At the moment the range of web-based and digital treatments is really limited but watch this space : we’ll be posting more news of exciting developments in the area as they happen.

We’d love to hear your experiences of insomnia treatment, and in particular any ideas for web-based therapies. And if any of you would like to be involved in developing such treatments, do let us know with a comment below or an email to hello [at] sleepio [dot] com

Sleep Partner resets your body’s clock using acupuncture

Here’s an interesting if not slightly odd approach to resolving body clock shift.

A watch is worn during the night to “stimulate the acupuncture points of the wrist associated with sleep” thereby helping to reduce stress, while helping to reset your body’s natural clock.

Possible quackery, although never forget the placebo effect in things like this.

Wake up to truth about sleep

ASK people whether they would like more sleep, and most will say yes. Does that mean they are not sleeping enough?

Jim Horne writes an interesting article in the New Scientist about the facts, and more importantly misunderstandings behind concerns over lack of sleep and how much society has to play in that.

Dream Captcha

I like this. A dreamcatcher is a native american device to help you remember your dreams. By placing one next to where you sleep, it is supposed to trap your dreams it its web, so the following morning they easily return to you. A captcha is a spam prevention device which asks you to enter a series of letters and numbers to prove you’re human. Mix the two together, and you have Dream Captcha, a new piece of work from artist Jeffrey Augustine Songco.

Anxiety and snoring cause insomnia

Interesting article in The Times back in March talking about how stress in the office is a major cause of sleeplessness. Ironically, this is when the markets were doing well. It would apply even more in the current climate! http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article3584098.ece

Eat a lettuce sandwich

What an odd suggestion, but one tip from the BBC’s piece on how to get to sleep faster, says that eating a lettuce sandwich half an hour before bedtime helps you drop off. Although apparantly there is method in the madness.

Food expert Anne McIntyre says the fresh-cut stem of lettuce is the basis of an old English recipe for curing insomnia.

Specifically, it’s the white latex from the plant’s stem — known as lettuce opium — that does the job, says McIntyre, author of “Simple Home Remedies for Common Ailments” (Gaia Books). She says the substance in the plant’s stem “looks and works the same way as the opium poppy.”

via [BBC] and [Third Age]