Tag: Insomnia

5 Tale-Tale signs you should consult a Nutritionist

A nutritionist is a specialist who not only helps you to find out how food affects you, but also how you can find the best strategy that utilizes food to heal and nourish your body. The specialist discusses with you about your lifestyle and eating habits to get the necessary information that can help him/her to come up with the ideal meal plan for you. Such a program will include the strategies for preparing your food. However, many people do not know when they should visit a nutritionist. To help you, we’ll discuss five signs that suggest you need to see a nutritionist.

     1. When you are struggling with emotional eating

If you find yourself eating a lot of food or binging, know that it’s time to see a nutritionist.  It may be that you are eating the wrong balance of macronutrients. Binge-eating is a severe disorder which if not treated could result in obesity or unwanted weight gain. Such a condition could result in even more compulsive eating with the accompanying feeling of disgust and guilt. A nutritionist can help you create better habits around food. They also know when it’s time to refer you to other specialists like therapists, psychiatrists, or mental health practitioners.

     2. When you’ve been diagnosed with high cholesterol

Though you will be undergoing treatment for high cholesterol, a dietician will be vital since you can reduce your cholesterol through dietary change.  Nutritionists can help you to come up with a food strategy that removes saturated fats from your diet while adding high-fiber diet.

     3. When you plan to get pregnant

If you are planning or already pregnant, you need to work hand-in-hand with a nutritionist. A dietician will help you come up with the best food strategy so that you know what and how to eat before and during your pregnancy. Also, a dietician will be handy with food strategies to show you just how to lose weight after giving birth. Dieticians could also provide meaningful advice on fertility issues as well as balancing of hormones.

     4. Not getting sleep at night

The inability to get sleep at night is reason enough why you should see a nutritionist. Diet may impact on sleep. Diets with nutrients such as magnesium could lead to insomnia. On the other hand nutrients such as tryptophan help the body to produce melatonin, a sleep-inducing hormone. Hence, you had better visit a trained nutritionist to help with your lack of sleep.

     5. Periodic body tune-up

They say prevention is better than cure. And so it’s better to visit a nutritionist more so as you keep growing older. Other instances when you need to talk to a nutritionist would be when you start working on the night shift. The night workers are usually at high risk of being overweight, developing blood pressure as well as diabetes. 

The best way to maintain good health is to have a holistic health strategy. That includes not only being careful of what you eat but also knowing how to prepare food. Consulting a nutritionist Melbourne should be your first step in your endeavor to improve your health.

How to Survive Holiday Season Stress

Spending time with friends and family over the holidays is one of the nations most loved pastimes; however, for many people it can also be a season of mixed emotions that makes them feel anxious, stressed and worried. Not everybody has special fun memories that they want to reminisce over, and often, being in a family situation can trigger the childhood patterns that you thought you had put to bed.

To help you gain positives from this holiday season, here are 3 tips to survive the holiday season. 

     1. Have realistic expectations

The holiday season is always portrayed in the media as being perfect, and no social media feed provides you with the true picture of other people’s holiday. The reality is often very different. No family is perfect, and so try not to build great expectations of the celebrations into something that they are not likely to meet.

There’s a fine line between being optimistic and unrealistically hopeful. The chances are high that if Grandma always slates your career choice, she will again in the holidays. You may hope that she’ll stop discouraging you from pursuing your dreams, but realistically, she will dampen your spirits with negativity.

It’s how you react to the individual and situation that controls the impact that they have on your sense of wellbeing. Exposure to negativity can really dampen your spirits, so it’s important that your interactions with negative people are limited; you can’t avoid them completely!

The Gray Rock Method is a way of dealing with people with who you have a toxic or negative relationship. In short, it means that you don’t add fuel to their fire: respond to them without emotion with a simple and polite response. It takes practice, but once the person doesn’t succeed in baiting an emotional response from you, their attention will go elsewhere.

     2. Prepare

It can be easy to get caught up in the holiday excitement and make decisions that you may regret later once the festivities are over. If you leave everything until the last minute, you are more than likely to make bad decisions. Prepare for the holidays; this way, you keep in control of what you are going to do, and you won’t feel bullied into going somewhere or seeing someone you don’t want to. Things to prepare:

  • The diary

Know exactly where you are going to be and when. Again, be realistic about what you agree to do. Yes, it is the season of spending times with loved ones but show some self-love and give yourself some time off to rejuvenate and relax. Having an organized diary also means that should you receive an invite to somewhere you are not keen to go to, you can always say that you have previous plans.

  • The food

If you are catering for an army of friends and family, prepare as much of it as you can in advance; your freezer is your holiday season friend. You want to be able to relax without spending all day in the kitchen. Create a schedule that details the timings of when dishes need to go in the over so that you know exactly what to do and when.

  • The gifts

Yes, you will want to give loved ones gifts, but if you leave buying them until the last minute, you are more than likely going to panic buy. Set yourself a budget and stick to it. Post-holiday debt will impact your future financial stability, but if you do find that you have overspent, be proactive about clearing it as soon as you can. You can take out a loan to pay your debts and make manageable monthly installments instead, Bonsai Finance provides finance for this situation.

     3. Be moderate

The holiday season is not usually a period of moderation; however, excessive indulgence can seriously impact your physical and mental health. Overeating, drinking too much alcohol on top of a reduced sleep can make the side effects of the celebrations linger.

  • Drink

While it can be good fun to have a drink with friends and family, it can be the cause of arguments and misunderstandings. Moderate your drinking. You don’t have to abstain, just drink responsibly. Alternate between alcoholic drinks and sodas so that your consumption is halved. Alcohol and depression go hand in hand, and if you must face friends and family with a hangover, you often feel more vulnerable and anxious.

Remember to drink plenty of water to help your body process the toxins that your body has ingested. Your vital organs depend on it to function, and it can be easy to forget to drink enough.

  • Food

Holiday meals tend to be richer than everyday foods and eating too many calories can easily be done. Take time over your meal to properly chew your food – it takes 20 minutes for your brain to understand that your stomach is full! By having a more leisurely meal, you will eat the amount of food that is needed, and not feed to excess.

  • Sleep

Late nights and early starts can impact you both physically and emotionally, especially when combined with the excess of food and alcohol. Lack of sleep can affect your mood by making you more emotional and more likely to lose your temper, which can heighten feelings of anxiety and depression. A weakened immune system is one side effect of a lack of sleep, so you are more likely to catch colds and viruses as a result. Take extra vitamin supplements to keep your defenses up.

Holiday season can be a great time to spend with family, friends and loved ones, but often it is marred by family politics and relationships. Take time to step out and take a breather. You don’t have to engage fully with people who pull you down, you don’t have to explain why you are not having another glass of wine, enjoy the celebrations under your own terms and live for today.

6 Ways to Improve Sleep Naturally

Most people tend to get only six or fewer hours of sleep every night. This can lead to a lot of stress that can start affecting your heart, memory, and overall health. Here are a few tips that can help you get adequate amount of sleep in a natural way:

#1: Establish a sleep routine

It is important to go to bed at the same time every night and wake up at the same time every morning. It doesn’t matter whether it is a weekday, a weekend or a holiday. This way your biological clock will not get disrupted and you won’t be facing any sleep problems. It will also reduce the amount of tossing and turning you would need, to fall asleep.

#2: Exercise regularly

Being a couch potato does not help improve your sleep quality. In fact it might lead you towards depression, draining off your energy. What you need to do instead is to add some simple exercises to your routine. Keep yourself active throughout the day and avoid sleeping during the day. Also make sure your workout is all wrapped up several hours before you sleep. This way you won’t get too revved up.

#3: Stick to a healthy and balanced diet

It is important to eat healthy if you want to sleep healthy. Cut down on junk food and caffeine. If you can’t make sure you don’t have them after mid-afternoon. Your dinner has to be your lightest meal and you should ideally finish it a couple hours before you go to bed. Stay low on heavy or spicy foods that tend to keep you awake, giving you a heartburn or indigestion.

#4: Quit Smoking

As per research it is tough for smokers to feel rested even after a full night’s sleep. This is because of the stimulating effect nicotine can have. Also smoking can exacerbate sleep apnea as well as a number of breathing disorders that make it tough to enjoy restful sleep.

#5: Make it a habit to say no to nightcaps

Many have the habit of consuming alcohol before going to sleep. Although this might help you doze off initially, it doesn’t help in making you feel fresh in the morning. It in fact disrupts your brain waves and sleep patterns.

#6: Stay away from electronic gadgets before going to bed

Most people have the habit of watching TV, working on the computer, chatting on cell phone or playing a video game during the last hour of their day. They think this relaxes them; but it doesn’t. The light from these devices tends to stimulate the brain, making it harder to unwind. As far as possible, try and put away your electronic gadgets, an hour before you go to bed.

CBD gummies are said to induce better sleep at night. Most people who use this regularly claim that it makes them feel well rested and more alert and energetic during the day. As per research CBD helps in balancing and stabilizing the circadian rhythms.

Complete Sleep Cycle Guide: What are the Different Sleep Positions ?

Every night, our bodies experience this five-arrange cycle four to six times. Every one of the rest cycle stages assumes a critical part, which clarifies why you probably won’t feel your best when there are rest unsettling influences. When you comprehend the advantages of each phase of rest, you’ll see why it’s so imperative to keep a customary rest plan.

Here’s the beginner manual for the 5 phases of complete sleep cycle guide:

  • We’ve all been here: this is the point at which we start to gently float all through rest. Our eyes move gradually and muscle action backs off. In case you’re interested about attempting rest breathing systems, this is the phase to attempt them. Light sleep proceeds in this stage. Here, our eyes quit moving, our pulse starts to back off and our body temperature begins to drop. Indeed, even our cerebrum waves back off with sudden blasts of oscillatory movement called “sleep axles.” About portion of our everyday sleep is spent in this stage.
  • Here we begin entering profound rest, where ease back delta waves begin to show up mixed with shorter, speedier waves. This is where our body develops and repairs tissue, braces the resistant framework, fabricates bone and muscle. It’s likewise amid this phase a man may encounter practices referred to as parasomnias, for example, rest strolling or talking so anyone can hear.
  • Profound rest proceeds in this stage and the body keeps on recharging itself. Studies have demonstrated this is the place the well done like sparing your earlier day’s encounters to your memory and the arrival of state of mind and vitality managing hormones happens. Somebody woken up at this stage may feel tired and bewildered.
  • The REM part of a rest cycle is still somewhat of a secret. Now, your cerebrum begins sending signs to the mind’s cerebral cortex, the zone in charge of well-done like getting the hang of, considering and arranging data. In the meantime, different signs are sent to the spinal string to close down development—this is to keep you from doing things like kicking somebody in your rest supposing you’re kicking a ball.
  • Do you mull over your back, side, or belly? On the off chance that you are pregnant, sore, or have certain therapeutic conditions, you may need to rest in specific positions to be agreeable.

Now we will discuss what are the different sleep positions:

 Sleeping in the wrong way can lead to neck irritation or back torment. How you sleep may uncover parts of your identity. Read further to take best sleep position for you.

  • The Freefall Position: Around 7% of individuals consider their stomachs with their heads swung to the side. Individuals who rest along these lines have their arms folded over a pad or tucked under a pad.
  • Soldier Position: In this position, Sleepers are sleeping straight and their hands are down parallel to the stomach. About 8% people uses this position and the reports say these persons are of quiet and conservative personality.
  • Starfish Position: In this position people sleep keeping their hands over to the head and about 5% people uses this position. They are kind of shy people.
  • Fetal Position: This position is mostly opt by the woman side.

              In this position the hand is bend and carried towards their forehead.

This different sleep positions play a very crucial role for refreshment point of view.

Legs are curdled and squeezed nearby stomach. They are a bit tough by nature.

I hope this article helped you in answering your queries. Please add your comments if  needed.

Does stress affect sleep?

Not all kinds of insomnia has its roots in stress but stress could be called a major contributing factor to sleep-loss.

A Survey that was take throughout America to gain insight into sleep habits of adults found that at least 40% of adults report not getting enough sleep.

A majority of adults surveyed that is 3 out of 4 report getting less than 8 hours sleep. 1 in 4 adults sleep for less than 5 hours every night.

Such sleep habits can put them at serious risk of several illnesses, loss of productivity and many mishaps.

But if stress is a contributing factor, reducing the same would bring in much-needed relief.

Stress can trigger insomnia and stress induced insomnia affects our ability to fall asleep and stay that way. This could in turn trigger hyper arousal disturbing sleep patterns and upsetting those.

Discovering the root cause of sleep problems

You may feel that sleeplessness is triggered due to insomnia but there could be other factors at work here.

To understand if stress is the real culprit try to figure out when did your sleep problems begin?

If you always feel let down that could be due to several factors including depression, chronic mood disorder or low serotonin production. This may or may not contribute to sleep-loss and the underlying factors could be something else.

If you began taking a certain kind of medication, some of the understated effects include loss in sleep.

Was it a major assignment at work that kept you awake with many sleepless nights in between? Is the stress from such assignments regularly hampering your sleep?

If stress is the reason for sleep troubles you should try to relax as much as possible.

People tend to worry too much they’re not getting sleep. And that worry fuels further problems— resulting in no sleep at all.

If it’s chronic stress you’re suffering from understanding how it acts on your body and responses the body produces in turn is going to help resolve it.

How does chronic stress act on us?

When our brain perceives a threat it releases a wave of hormones that trigger specific bodily responses.

Release of adrenaline results in the fight or flight response. But since today’s social situations are way different than what we experienced as primitive men where such responses actually helped us survive, today these responses just result in unfulfilled trigger responses.

This causes stress to build up over time. And as the situations that stress us have no end in sight the stress keeps building.

How to solve sleep problems by solving stress?

A healthy bedtime routine can go a long way in stemming sleep problems. I don’t know if you know this- but our body is regulated by a biological clock called circadian rhythm.

  • You won’t be able to lengthen the time you get shut-eye with one night. Slowly working towards a longer sleep time by sleeping early and waking up earlier is the way to go. This gradual increase will lengthen your sleep time.
  • We don’t notice this but most times a really comfortable pillow can help us with our sleep problems. There are people who like sleeping on the side and others want support on the back and such specialized pillows can make sleep a pleasant experience, help you sleep longer.
  • When suffering from insomnia you need to allot a time before you sleep to winding down. During this period it’s better not to read or do anything taxing including watching television. The blue light from digital screens disrupts our sleep cycle and interferes with the night time. We need a space for the alerting mechanisms in our brain to shut down and allow the brain as a whole to hibernate and go to sleep mode. You can listen to some soulful music to accelerate the shutting down, especially ones that seem to have a calming effect on you.
  • When sleeping try to avoid uncomfortable positions that can cause neck pain.
  • There’s little doubt to the fact that insomnia is an experience no one wants in their life. Insomnia itself is a cause for anxiety. We have trouble falling asleep and we raise a lot of trouble worrying if we’d fall asleep.
  • Instead of twisting and turning all night you should take control of your sleep habits and the bedroom. Associate positive emotions and sentiments with the bedroom. So don’t partake in anything that spoils the positivity associated with that room. Consequently move arguments out of that room, don’t eat food in your bedroom, don’t take your job to the bedroom, talking on the phone and other such activities should be avoided.
  • An extremely popular actor who’s known all over the world with tons of ad projects and movies under his belt has a policy that once he enters the house, he won’t take any calls from anyone. The house is for family interactions.

How Chiropractic Care Can Reduce Migraines

Are you too suffering from Migraines? According to a study published by Migraine Research Foundation, one in every four American house has a migraine patient in it. A migraine is a very frustrating disease which, no matter what you do, never seems to be going away, ever. If you have already tried all the other alternatives like avoiding the triggers, following specific sleep patterns etc. it is about time you should seek chiropractic care.

Yes, it is right; many studies suggest that small misalignment or subluxation cause migraines in the spin.  As all know chiropractic care focuses on the spin area solely. So, know why chiropractic care is the third most popular reason behind Americans visiting a chiropractor.

Reduces the severity of headaches

Chiropractic care or adjustments are known to tame the severity as well as the frequency of migraine headache attacks. The chiropractic care adjustments can serve a person with common migraines miraculously. The chiropractic adjustments can also help you straighten your postural issues and muscle tensions which may trigger a migraine attack.

Instant relief

People suffering from severe common migraines, after seeking chiropractic help make claims that the adjustments helped in shutting calming down the intensity of headaches, as low as 90%. Most of the people who have never before tried a chiropractic adjustment may feel a bit tired after the first adjustment. The best way to compliment the adjustment is to rest a lot, drink plenty of water and to get an eight-hour sleep per day.

If you have more whats and hows related chiropractics in your mind, you can always a repudiated site like Echiro Practor for further, more detailed information on the subject.

Stretching not stuffing medicines

Everyone knows the side effects of western, modern day medication. People are rejecting the medication of the west more than ever. In such times chiropractic adjustments can step up as a real hero. The reason behind more and more people is choosing chiropractics over western medication are that it focuses on muscle relaxing and stretching of muscles. The prescription of western medication has very less to do in this case, hence, no bad after effects.

Home therapy

The best thing about chiropractic adjustments is that it works for a long time and you, yourself is very much involved in it. The patient is assigned specific follow-up tasks to do at home for the better results. These tasks usually include heat treatment and cold therapy, mild stretching exercises, massages, strengthening exercises etc.

Special diets

Just like any other medical practice, a patient is required to follow a strict diet during and after a few months of the healing process. Some foods are known for increasing various types of muscle tensions, so your chiropractor will assign you a particular diet which you must follow strictly for better results.

Ending words

Chiropractics have helped many people fight off the migraine monkey off their backs, in last many years. It is an utterly perfect natural and scientifically proven way of reducing pain, releasing tension from the human body. So, why suffer, when there is a cure? If you need more information on migraines and healthcare and taking care of yourself in general, visit http://cpoe.org/ to find out more details and get your health back in order.

Signs That You Need to See a Psychologist

Mental health is one aspect of our health that many people take for granted. There is a lot of stigma surrounding the issue of mental illness and that is why even people who know they need professional help would rather not admit they have a problem for fear of being mocked and ridiculed. This is only to the detriment of the individual as things could escalate and get out of hand.

If you started feeling a persistent pain in your back that is making it challenging or impossible for you carry out your day-to-day tasks, would you ignore it? My guess is you wouldn’t. The same should be the case with your mental health. Just because you are not actually feeling any pain and the signs do not manifest physically does not mean that your mental health issues are something you can ignore. Below are signs that you need to see a psychologist.

   1. You cannot stop thinking about a traumatic experience you went through

This could be something that happened 6 months ago or 15 years ago. If a significant amount of time has passed since you went through the traumatic experience yet you cannot stop thinking about it and it is affecting your quality of life because every time you are on a bus, your heart starts racing or the event replays in your head, then you definitely need professional help.

   2. You are unable to control your emotions

It is common to feel angry, disappointed, sad, excited, anxious… the whole range of the emotional spectrum. But if your emotions are overwhelming and they greatly affect your productivity, this may be a sign of a bigger problem and it might be a good idea to seek professional help.

   3. Unexplained illnesses

If you have recurrent stomach upsets and headaches and are constantly catching infections yet this cannot be pointed to any disease, you may be dealing with a mental problem. Our bodies usually tell us when something is not right and the physical manifestations may be your body’s way of letting you know that there is a problem and you need to see a psychologist Toowoomba.

   4. Loneliness and isolation

If you find yourself withdrawing from your friends and family and even avoiding activities that you used to enjoy, you probably need to see a psychologist. You may be withdrawing because you feel like you have an issue that no one will understand or that you do not want to share because you are afraid of being judged. Therapy will be of great help if you are in such a situation.

   5. Insomnia or sleeping too much

One of the symptoms of depression is disruption in sleeping patterns. If you are sleeping too much or are having trouble sleeping, this may be indicative of a bigger problem and you therefore need to see a psychologist.

   6. You need someone to talk to

You do not have to be mentally sick to see a psychologist. You can see one even if you just need someone to talk to.