Clinical Trials...free money?

It's been a funny ol' week, glued to my computer, tapping away, trying to meet several upcoming deadlines.

Inevitably, when you're a writer and a project involves research, you tend to subconsciously find ways to distract yourself. It's not because you're trying to sabotage your own life plans by failing to complete anything,  it just sort of happens. My decline into complete distraction starts with a vague strand of an idea that involves typing a random phrase into google. When the results appear, maybe one on the page of many will be relevant, but that doesn't mean I won't 'investigate' the other suggestions! I might miss something epic disguised as a video of a dog making a funny noise when it's tickled...and thus begins click after click of randomness on youtube.

The most ridiculously 'irrelevant, yet strangely linked to sleep' find of the week was the following article in the Telegraph presenting a wonderful opportunity for people who are able to sleep well.

I did let out an audible chuckle when I read this and wondered why I don't discover job adverts like these and how many other (legal) ways there are to make easy money. That's when several trains of thoughts all converged on the 'Clapham Junction station in my mind' and I set out to find just how many places in the UK will pay you to be part of medical research.

Before I reveal the details of my research, let state a few that it's never something I've taken seriously. Living in the USA, I was always bombarded with adverts requesting me to donate my eggs to hapless couples.  The whopping $12,000 remuneration was very tempting but my genetic circumstances were never right. There are many political and economic reasons which render a country like America the perfect place to 'harvest' clinical participants with its astronomical medical fees and lack of social welfare. Lest I delve into a long rambling dissection of the American healthcare system, here is a list of my most interesting finds.

Turns out, with a few simple clicks you can locate a number of hospitals and quite a few pharmaceutical companies looking for participants. You can choose to be a part of research on sleep disorders, Asthma, even the common cold, with most offering healthy pay packets and comfortable accommodations for longer stays. Let me add this...there are many preconceptions about medical research.

The first being that all clinical trials are invasive and/or involve taking copious concoctions of  as yet unapproved medication. (Even if you were to participate in pharmaceutical research, all drugs must go through a thorough screening process before they are allowed to be tested on humans. Which is why we have animal testing, as unethical as it can be perceived as).

Secondly, there are factors which need considering. For example, how will the trial/research affect you in the long-term future? Will your health be compromised? To combat any effects of the research will you be lumbered with hefty medical bills? (More a question for those not living in a welfare state). Will the company conducting the tests retain responsibility for any damages?

Egg donation is the perfect scenario where young females may feel as if they are contributing something positive to society and earning money at the same time. A win-win situation you may say. But what about the psychological effects of the donation, as well as the side-effects of the hormones injected to induce ovulation? Are those worth a quick buck?

But enough of the morose. Let me point you in the direction of some (seemingly) positive centres. On a serious note, these are places that I found interesting at face-value. By no means have I conducted any scientific research of my own or experienced their facilities. The aim of this post is to get your thought processes working so you can go out and find somewhere that's right for you (if you are considering participating in any such trial).

Flu Camp attracted my attention, only because it seems such a ludicrous name for something so steeped in scientific research.

The London Sleep Centre occasionally holds research projects which you can register interest in by emailing them.

Hammersmith Medicine Research facility  hold plenty of trials which you can apply to be a part of.

The majority of information available online appears to be located in London, which only adds to this country's North/South divide, with many complaining that England is completely London-centric. However, with a pay packet of up to £2,000, it's my thinking that it could be in anyone's interest to make the trip into the capital.

How do you make the decision whether participating in a trial is something you would like to commit to? I'm pretty sure, despite the financial gains and your health, ethics are something to consider, along with the possibility of taking time off work. I can't help but think I'm in the perfect position to take the plunge and experience something like this, with a distinct lack of monies in my account and a flexible schedule. I can just see it now...sitting in a starkly white room, faint smell of disinfectant in my nose, maybe a drip attached to my hand, hindering its ability to type my weekly blog post. Funny where the mind takes you!

Call it dedication to the cause, but as an inquisitive journalist, I may just go ahead and apply.

Whilst you are patiently awaiting this possibility, make sure you visit our sports blog to catch up on Phillipa's journey on the 30 Day Shred program.

Stick-on blinds and dry January = zzzz

Here we are, halfway through January 2012 already. Sometimes I'm astonished at how quickly life passes and how little we take notice of it. I only became aware of how it's lighter much later into the afternoon than it was only a month ago. Although a far cry from the unnervingly bright 10pm we have yet to come, it does mean that one can experience a crisp winter sunset at a somewhat reasonable time.

It is possible that because I'm sleeping better and therefore spend less time awake, trying to sleep, I'm less aware of the monotonous and exhausting cycle of day into night and into day again. Is that a hearty congratulations I hear you cheer? Why thank you. Yes, I am sleeping and much of it is down to following my own advice. I never consume coffee after 3pm, in fact I prefer to drink my daily allowance one cup after another (2 and a half cups max) between the hours of 8 and 11. I turned off the radiator in my room, choosing to wear warmer pyjamas and socks to bed instead, I regularly wear my Breathing Relief™ nasal dilator and I finally invested in some blinds.

For years I've attempted to sleep in an East facing bedroom with only sheer voile curtains, resulting in summer upon summer of fretful tossing and turning as soon as the sun rises. As 2012 dawned I thought no more and forced my father to help me with the cheap stick-on blinds I purchased when in New York 5 months ago. I've always been under the impression that blinds are an investment, and that installation requires precision, accuracy and a wad of cash, none of which I have. Thus, when I discovered blinds you simply trim and stick to your window I was sure I'd found the perfect product. Genius. Tacky genius. Please don't be thinking these are a viable alternative to the classy and chic wooden blinds you see advertised on TV..no. But for someone as financially challenged and sleep deprived as me, they'll do just fine.

I was led to believe that you couldn't purchase anything like this in the UK, however the marvel that is amazon.com has proved me wrong. I typed "stick on blind" into google and found this. Happy shopping!

In order to illustrate just how inelegant, yet practical the product is, I've taken a photo of my own window with  one side clipped up and other is released so it can fall the length of the window. Just to clarify, those are plain old plastic bull dog clips, provided in the box with the blinds. I have half a mind to spray paint mine purple, so they no longer resemble something I picked up in a discount stationery shop.

The main purpose of this week's blog was in fact to discuss a little tradition within my group of friends. Invariably, there's always one in any group, who sets out to do something wholly unachievable at the beginning of the year. In our circle, this ridiculousness was christened- Dry January. Some of the biggest drinkers I know were about to give up alcohol, for a whole month. I wasn't sure it would happen, 31 days is a substantial amount of time, but remarkably, not only was the challenge completed that year, but it's continued long enough to be granted official status as a tradition. Even the guys behind the bar at our local have come to learn of Dry January and readily hand out loyalty cards for tea and coffee to the main contenders on a night out!

Earlier this month I was watching Inside Out London (I'm not sure why, it's utterly banal) but was pleased to see two journalists offering to give up booze for a month to monitor the effects it would have on their health. I did smile a little when the female "guinea pig" offered the following (positive) side effect to her alcohol-free lifestyle: better and more refreshing sleep. I see you nodding your heads in agreement. We all know, alcohol ruins your sleeping pattern and never allows for a refreshed feeling in the morning, but do you know how much is a truly acceptable amount for your specific weight/height?

I'm always confused by drink-driving laws in different countries. How can you measure a safe amount of alcohol across a population of varying size, weight and tolerance? Take for example someone of my stature (four feet ten inches, weighing around eight stone) and contrast that to a six foot man of fifteen stone. Surely even a single unit consumed would affect our systems to different degrees and therefore one could be keeping to the required limit yet be feeling the effects of the drink far more severely, rendering them incapable of driving safely.

In several states in the USA the limit is one drink an hour as that is how long (on average) it takes an adult to process alcohol, so theoretically as long as you keep drinking steadily, allowing your body to flush out the booze, you're safe to drive...? These unspecific rules pose not only a threat to road users but also to the causal drinking public, for even though you're sticking to what the 'recommended' amount is, it may still be too  much for you, personally.

I wanted to point you in the direction of the episode but sadly it is no longer available on BBC iplayer. However, all of the information pertaining to the program can be found on the dedicated website. Take a look, educate yourself and keep those livers smiling!

Here's to a continued healthy 2012.

Goodbye Movember, hello sleep awareness

This week, in honour of Movember I watched a BBC documentary presented by the original moustache himself, professor Rob Winston. Yes, you know the one, chunky and wholesome tash, looks effortless but the results are astounding. How can you not take anything this man says as the absolute truth? He's just so personable!

For those of you who don't know...Movember is where men all over the world grow facial hair in order to promote awareness of men's health including prostate cancer.





Anyway, the BBC documentary can be seen here :http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/how-sleep-better/

and although it's a lengthy 90 minutes, it is certainly a light hearted way of learning more about some of the things I have been examining in previous posts. There are a couple of interactive quizzes where you are invited to answer questions and then score yourself. Those would have been way more fun at the time the documentary was originally aired as the handy red button on your digital remote allowed for personalised analysis of answers. Oh well. Youtube, a pen and pencil will have to suffice for you guys.

Early in the video we are introduced to the concept of 'executive skills', which are actually brain functions or cognitive skills hard-wired into every person (self-restraint, working memory, emotion control, focus, task initiation, planning/prioritisation, organisation, time management, defining and achieving goals, flexibility, observation and stress tolerance). Called executive skills because they help people execute tasks, these are the first things to suffer when one is under-rested or sleepy, leading to poor performance in day-to-day tasks such as driving and recognising faces. So it is scientifically proven that your basic functions are affected when you lose out on a good night's sleep.

A particular participant in the documentary was offered light therapy in order to combat his sleep issues and to ensure he was ready to hit the road as a milkman. Awaking at 2am we would assume that his sleepiness would dangerously impact his driving capabilities as these require a number of the executive skills.  Therefore, by getting up at an 'unnatural' time, i.e. in the dark he was endangering not only his own life but also that of any other road users. Light therapy was effective in this case as it tricked the body into thinking it was indeed time to get up and proceeded to kick the brain into gear, allowing the participant to feel more alert, despite having a schedule that worked against the body's natural circadian rhythm. Circadian rhythm is explained in the documentary as being an internal body clock that works, conveniently in 24 hour cycles and relies on the rising and setting of the sun to signify when it is time to sleep and wake up. This is why when we are not exposed to sunlight during British winters, or when we work night shifts, we tend to fall out of rhythm with nature.

Ah, how everything ties in together nicely. I'm feeling somewhat smug at the discovery of this piece of video and I'm hoping that readers will take some time out to watch it and to nod their heads in agreement at the right places thinking, "ooh, I knew that".

There were of course things I did not know, even I can't claim to be that informed. For example, there are 50 million snorers in the UK. How many?! And apparently of that 50 million, only 37% actually admit to snoring. Although, judging by some of the footage, I would never admit to a sound so ghastly for fear of being labelled a beast.

I was also surprised to learn the presence and effect of a chemical called Tyramine upon the sleep cycle. There is, what I presumed, an old wives' tale that if you eat cheese too close to bedtime you risk frighteningly realistic nightmares. I put this theory to the test once, spending a week in Lille with my French tutor's family eating only cheese and potatoes for dinner and then settling into what I presumed to be a cinematic version of my mind's worst concoctions. I was not disappointed, the cat in the room presumably had conspired with the hunk of cheese and my hosts in order to scare me senseless during the seven hours I tossed and turned, wrestling with my quilt, screaming indecipherable French phrases. I'm a sceptic and called this a coincidence, brought about by my loathing of felines compounded by barely understanding a word of what was going on around me, despite apparently speaking fluent colloquial french in my sleep.

Thus, imagine my panic when the good old Beeb lists Tyramine as a 'to avoid' before sleep time. Where can this delightful gathering of atoms be found? In aged food, especially cheese! More specifically anything dried, fermented, salted, smoked or pickled. Seeing as all of my omega3 and most of my protein comes from smoked fish, I was certainly a little perturbed. I also chuckled to myself realising that often, the most absurd rumours are the most true.

Tyramine is also responsible for migraines and should be considered carefully before ingestion. This all seems to make sense when I think about a friend of mine who can not consume cheese and chocolate on the same day as this gives her debilitating migraines. Quite often when lunching we will have to forgo pizza or dessert, depending on what her breakfast consisted of!

The moral of the story is as follows:

1. A man with a moustache must never be doubted
2. Cheese really does mess with your sleep
3. Watch the video, you will learn many things

December is fast approaching and with it the shortest day of the year. However, from then on, it will be the immense build up to spring. But for now, enjoy the beginnings of the festive period, stay away from the mini quiches at Christmas dinner parties and as always, sweet dreams!

S.A.D. about Winter?

Well hello fellow sleep enthusiasts, it's certainly been hectic in London recently. The weather is changing, (although isn't it always?) The seemingly eternal fog has settled and for a working gal it appears to be dark all day. Leaving the house before 7am is akin to stepping onto the set of a tacky horror movie; no one around, eery mist swilling around the flickering lamposts and I constantly have to look over my shoulder in fear that I may not see the bus arriving through the dense morning haze.

This week I've been thinking about the way my body perceives the concept of day time and night time. As the hours of natural light get shorter and shorter, I never see the sun, especially if it is hidden behind a thick November cloud. The only hope of catching a few uplifting rays is a slightly chilly walk around the block in my lunch hour with the hope that the perpetual greyness may have eased somewhat.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is now a common acronym amongst the British public and as we regretfully enter Winter we rue the day our ancestors decided that this was the land upon which they would settle. Yes, our pastures are green and our climate is temperate, but what is the price we pay for reduced hours of sunshine and temperatures which harbour bacteria, viruses and the common cold? Our (northern) North American counterparts, although most resting further South than our own fair isle, endure bitter winters with temperatures plummeting to well below freezing, factoring in wind chill, and several feet of snow. You may wonder where my jealousy stems from reading these facts as no one particularly looks forwards to wind burn, wet shoes and the constant need to shovel your driveway every morning. However, the thing that turns me green with envy is that despite needing to wear approximately seven layers of clothing, the American winters are sunny! On average, in New York city almost 50% of winter days in a month are bright compared to a total of just 50 hours of sunshine in a month in London. When you consider the statistics, it isn't very difficult to understand how SAD has taken hold of so many of us.

With reality TV focusing on overly bronzed oompa-loompa look-alikes and the health experts urging us to step away from the tanning beds, how can I be seen to be lusting after a supposedly harmful entity? It is a raging ball of gas after all...

There is evidence to support my fanaticism and to suggest that a little sunshine is in fact healthy. Hurrah! As your body processes sunshine it productes serotonin, which we can also call the happy hormone! Seratonin is produced when we work out or eat chocolate amongst other things and it promotes a good mental outlook and can help in the fight against Seasonal Affective Disorder. It also stimulates the pineal gland which produces melatonin. This is where it gets interesting, Melatonin is one of the chemicals that operates our bodies clocks and helps with sleep function. So you see, I finally got to my point. Sunshine assists sleep and frankly in this climate I don't get enough and thus, as usual, I'm able to blame external factors for my never ending sleep issues. Excellent.

Pseudo Dr. G has diagnosed the issue, now how do we solve it? The simple answer is get more melatonin, easy enough in theory, one could take supplements, but there are some serious side effects involved. Another beneficial nutrient the sun provides is vitamin D. Again, one could take supplements however, ninety percent of the required vitamin D comes from direct exposure to the sun. I understand now why the Spanish implement siestas, their body clocks full of rich melatonin and vitamin D from the Mediterranean sunshine are so regular, they have no option but to sleep periodically throughout the day. How my envy rises.

Before you begin your indulgence by throwing out the SPF and booking a weekend to Monaco, consider small ways in which you can give yourself more outdoors time. The human body can only store Vitamin D for sixty days, so a weekly routine of walking in the park will utimately be more worthwhile than getting all your sun hours in one blowout trip to Thailand. Plus, we all know the benefits of regular exercise not only on our general wellbeing, but on promoting restful sleeping patterns.

If all else fails, get yourself some Light Therapy, pricey but taking into consideration how much you should value a good night's sleep, it's a small investment.

I highly recommend you visit the following site for an official overview of the effects of sunshine, or lack of it on the human body and to find out more on light therapy: http://www.sad.org.uk/.

The Science of sleep

Well hello world.

This week I have mainly been thinking about coffee.  At my house we’re as anti instant grains as you can get. Having travelled around South America and sampled some of the most exquisite beans the world has to offer, I find it ludicrous that Nescafe and other such brands can even think about marketing their freeze-dried, processed dirt grains as coffee. I will let nothing other than fair trade, dark roasted Guatemalan beans, ground with green cardamom pass my lips (unless I’m out and then I’m stuck with whatever an independent coffee shop may have to offer).

The point to this rant was the fact that caffeine sits in your system for several hours, even though the effects on the brain only one. Therefore you could drink three cups in a day, only achieve three hours of productivity and have to battle to get to sleep much later. Since being advised against drinking coffee after 4pm, I’ve struggled against my slight addiction and taken to consuming pints of peppermint or green tea instead. As it took me a while to heed this advice, I have spent rather a large number of hours perusing the internet waiting for sleep to arrive.  This is how I discover these wonderful things with which to regale you with every week.

So, can I just say a big Hurrah for the BBC! They have everything on their website, including a whole series of articles on the science of sleep. Not only is there information, but also the opportunity to generate your own personal sleep profile. In addition to sensible stuff, there are some light-humoured games like the face memory test, designed to ask whether you're too tired to recognise faces!

I took the personal sleep profile test and scored 60% suggesting that I'm not really optimising the way I sleep. It's a bit of a given really seeing as my current employment situation requires me to be in the West End of London at my desk by 8am. Factoring in shower/make up/coffee/travel time I regularly have to force myself out of bed at 5:40am, which would be fine had I managed to allow myself a full 8 hours of sleep. Sadly this is never the case and I’m always groggy, cranky and completely unaware of my surroundings in the morning. 

If you can’t get enough sleep, could it make a difference if you took steps to ensure your body was in its deepest form of sleep throughout that short period? Scientists believe the age-old saying ‘quality over quantity’ can also be applied to sleep. Meaning, if you took steps to ensure your sleep time really was restful, it would maximise the effect and therefore allow you to awake feeling refreshed and alert.

Right, so we’ve ascertained that good sleep is powerful, what can we do to achieve the most out of our stolen 5 or 6 hours?

Relax prior to bed time?
Drink a milky drink?
Reduce light?


Anything other than the usual out there?

How about a spot of hypnotherapy? Um, yes, you read me right. Hypnotise yourself into a deeper sleep.

You must have guessed by now that I like the DIY fixes, so I opened up my Android mark and was amazed at the plethora of smart phone applications claiming to guide you through relaxation tracks and to gently lull you to sleep. Picking at random I ended up with “Sleep Soundly Hypnosis” (free of charge, of course).

I must say, I was pleasantly surprised by the calm and gentle manner in which the female (American) voice asked me to breathe deeply and repeatedly insinuated that I was comfortable. She then began to count down from 10 backwards to, I presume 1, but I don’t remember hearing anything after 5. There was a ‘wow’ moment around number 8 where the voice suggested my scalp may be tingling and I discovered that indeed it was. I got a little bit excited and then realised I shouldn’t really do and had to calm my breathing down again.

The million dollar question is how did I feel in the morning? I’d be lying if I said fit as a fiddle but there was an element of smugness embedded into my psyche that allowed me to waltz onto the train platform with a gentle spring in my step. Not quite enough pizzazz to relish being awake, but not quite as much hate for my fellow commuters as per usual.

Thus, I give this app a thumbs up. There’s nothing not to like about it (unless you despise an American accent) and even if there’s a psychological placebo effect at work it certainly alleviated the stress of knowing that I wasn’t going to get enough sleep. Anything for an easy life...isn’t that the modern moto?

Let me know what you think!

Find the BBC Sleep page here:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sleep/

Binaural beats....the sound of sleep?

If you will allow me to indulge myself a little, I would like to deviate from the original post I had planned for today. In my introduction I promised to spend my next set of ramblings discussing the invention and increased use of "sleep cycle alarm clocks", readily available on your smart phones. It is something that I have been passionately using, researching and promoting ever since discovering that such a sleeping aid existed.

However, it has been a tumultuous month at 'Casa Mir' and amidst much turmoil and a biking accident, my attention was diverted slightly onto another smart phone phenomenon. Yes, I'm fine, there's nothing broken, thank you for asking, just some severe bruising of bones and of course my fragile cyclist ego. But what I am grateful for is the series of events that led to my discovery of certain apps readily available on the android (and itunes) market.

World, I present to you: Binaural Beats (Tones). As with all legitimate scientific discoveries, you can read all about it on the dedicated Wikipedia article. Please note, the previous sentence was heavily laced with sarcasm. As much as I am an advocate for Internet discovery, some sources on Wikipedia cannot be taken as the gospel/torah/quran (delete where appropriate and apologies to those of non-monotheistic faith who I have probably just succeeded in completely alienating). 

Anyway, as I should have mentioned, this blog is purely my own thoughts and views and I do not endorse any products any further than being a simple technophile who enjoys the merging of modernity with ancient holistic practice. Products other than the Breathing Relief Dilator I hasten to add. 

Back to binaural tones. Read the wikipedia article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural_beats

In brief, it is my understanding that binaural tones or beats are a mixture of sounds and beats played directly into the listeners' ears by use of headphone. Both ears receive different sounds and mixed together they create a beat that supposedly affects the brain. As you will ascertain from the article it is possible to abuse this technology by creating beats which simulate Class A drugs and I was of course wary of anything able to manipulate your mind in such a way.

My choice download was Brainwave Tuner Lite, available on the android market for free, with a full version costing you £2.44. In the lite application you have 3 categories of beats:

1. Sleep and Healing
2. Meditation and Relaxation
3. Focus and Learning

Sleep and healing has the subcategories/tracks listed as Headache Therapy, Sleep Induction, Edge of Consciousness and the intriguingly titled Earth Peace Night. I'll admit I was a little disappointed that despite the label 'healing' the only track available was for headaches. I was hoping more for a proverbial bath in which to soak my brain cells in the attempt to relieve my smarting limbs. No such luck. I can attest though that despite not being catered for, I was surprised at the effectiveness of the track and very much enjoyed the mellow warmth I was left with after 15 minutes of listening.

Not quite ready to fling my cynicism out the window, I moved on to the meditation tracks. There are 4 available ranging from relaxation, meditation and self-hypnosis. Honestly, I'm terrible at meditating. My brain races at 100 miles an hour on a good day, so trying to focus on nothing the day after being hit by a car when you're replaying the scene over and over again, assuring yourself that it wasn't your fault probably didn't provide the perfect control scenario. I nestled into my duvet and gave it a go. I awoke 3 and a half hours later with the nagging feeling that I had forgotten something. I'm not entirely sure what this means. Does deep meditation lead to sleep? In any case, I shan't complain as when I awoke I felt refreshed and calm, finding it much easier to make peace with my situation.

So this left only the sleep induction track and of course it worked. I must add that I usually have no trouble getting to sleep; it’s the quality of sleep I have issues with. I often suffer from fretful nights involving fisticuffs with my pillows and resulting in waking up halfway down my bed, covers in disarray. The goal was to listen to the track and arise the next morning in the same position I fell asleep in, preferably feeling as if I had finally accomplished the art of a good night’s sleep. I remember waking up and being acutely aware of the fact that the weird shwooshing noises in my ear, very akin to the sound of the waves lapping at a beach had finished and then…it was morning!

To my amazement both the meditation and sleep induction beats allowed me to rest easy. I feel as though the stress was taken away from the concept of sleeping and instead of the perpetual cycle of fear regarding getting enough sleep, I went to work the next morning feeling a little smug. Maybe I had won the battle?

We all know it is never that simple and incorporating a healthy sleeping routine into your daily life is an endless war. I’m not about to put all my faith into one concept and resign myself to a lifetime of bombarding my brain with subliminal messages in order to feel some peace. That said, I’m certainly glad I found this app and I look forward to further adventures I may have on ‘the edge of consciousness’ or on those migraine days.

Interested in learning more about Binaural Tones? Google is your friend! There’s plenty of scientific data available as well as the usual subjective accounts written by other sleep deprived frenzied bloggers awaiting your perusal.

Sweet dreams people, until next week!

National Sleep Awareness Week

I haven't seen too much more than usual about promoting the need to assess our sleeping patters, despite this being National Sleep Awareness Week, so I thought I would contribute.

I find it quite annoying that my body insists on having at least 8 hours sleep when there are lots of other things I could be doing. I wonder whether it was because I was always made to go to bed at a decent time as a child and have my 8 hours. Maybe if I had secretly read books with a torch under the covers like my peers did I may be able to cope with less? Despite all the studies on how long one should sleep, we are all different and therefore need a different amount of sleep.

There are many theories about sleeping and how to have a good nights sleep. For me I can only sleep when the list below has been completed:

1. It is silent
2. I can breathe easily through my nose (breathing relief dilator helps)
3. I have had time to wind down (I've not just finished watching a thriller)
4. I am comfortable (loose clothing, comfy bed and bedding)
5. I have communicated with my other half
6. I have listed anything needed to be done the next day (so it doesn't circle in my head)

It is important that you minimise the stress when going to bed and leave time to wind down and write lists of anything you need to do the next day. It's commonly said and is very true for me - never go to bed on an argument if you want to sleep!

Sue Urda, author, the Connections Expert and Co-Founder & CEO of Powerful You expresses how gratitude can be used as a stress relief tool and better sleep technique. Perhaps there was a time when people prayed before bedtime and were thankful and this helped them to sleep better. Either way I have decided to add it to my nightly list:

7. Be thankful

I will let you know how I get on. Meanwhile if you have any sleep stories feel free to send them across!

www.breathingrelief.com

Frankenstein or Valentine?

For the umpteenth time you awake from barely being asleep. You’re cranky with sleep deprivation and every little thing bothers you. The love of your life is beginning to become the loathe of your life, having kept you up all with their incessant snoring.

How many relationships break down because of snoring? This has never been the focus of any major research but if your own experiences are anything to go by, then you know that others must be in the same boat. Soon the Brad to your Jen or Angelina (ahem), the Katie to your Alex or the Jack to your Jill is relegated to the spare room.

Ok so it might not be the sexiest piece of plastic you could get your partner this Valentine’s Day, but the Breathingrelief™ nasal dilator could just save your relationship. “How?”, you ask. Well this compact little piece of silicone inserts beautifully onto the septum, keeping the nostrils raised to allow for greater air intake thus preventing snoring and thus letting you get a full, undisturbed nights’ sleep... unless you wake up for a bit of “how’s your father”. So be a little imaginative this Valentine’s Day, buy the Breathingrelief™ nasal dilator as an alternative but thoughtful gift for your bed fellow.

Obviously if problems within your relationship are not caused by snoring, the Breathingrelief™ unfortunately can’t work any magic but it's worth a try nonetheless.

Drugs v Natural products

Would you rather fill yourself up with drugs and chemicals to stop snoring or find a more natural way? There are so many products on the market to stop snoring including nasal sprays and injections but what are the risks of these chemicals?

Taking any kind of medication holds risks so what is so different about using these anti-snoring products every night? Have the Pharmaceutical companies undertaken enough research to test their long term effects?

Sensitivities to food and allergens are often caused by repeat exposure to a product or food. Perhaps the long-term effects of these chemical products could be a sensitivity to them, which can set off many other types of physical issues such as tiredness, IBS, headaches and more…

Just think, what would you rather put in your body?


Breathingrelief™ is a drug-free, reusable nasal dilator– a more natural alternative to reduce snoring and aid breathing.

Life's greatest pleasure is a good night's sleep!

Click here to read a great article about the importance of sleep!

Breathingrelief, the latest invention for a better nights' sleep!

Visit Breathingrelief's website to find out more about this new fantastic product that could change the way you sleep and help reduce snoring levels!

http://www.breathingrelief.com/