Archive for the ‘Cheap Beds’ Category

Bruxism

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

Bruxism, also known as tooth grinding is a sleep disorder which affects about 10% of adults although it’s thought everyone exhibits symptoms occasionally. Many of those with bruxism will not be aware they have it; usually it comes to people’s attention when those sleeping nearby mention the loud grinding noise. When it is severe people can wake up with headaches, earaches and jaw pain as well as seriously damaging their teeth over time.

Tooth grinding is the action of clenching the upper and lower teeth together, especially at the back of the mouth and sleep bruxism is a subconscious reflex. It can also include circular movements or those similar to chewing. Over time this wears down the tooth enamel despite it being one of the hardest wearing materials. Teeth can be ground down considerably and fillings and other dental work can be disturbed. The tensing of muscles while clenching teeth is thought to be the cause of the headaches and even arthritis of some bruxism sufferers.

The causes of bruxism aren’t known although there are links to stress, smoking and other sleep disorders. Treating the symptoms can be difficult as well since there is no one size fits all solution. The most common treatment is a mouth guard which protects the teeth and may reduce the grinding. These can be designed individually by dentists to suit the person’s teeth and minimise further damage.

Many of those with bruxism find alternative therapies such as acupuncture help lessen the grinding, and if stress is a factor then massage or aromatherapy might be relaxing enough to ease it. Behavioural therapy has also proved effective for some people. This involves wearing a sensor which lets you know when you are grinding your teeth at night by making a sound in an earphone or releasing an unpleasant taste into your mouth. In theory this helps the body learn to stop the action.

For the best cheap beds online and some amazing discounts check out the bedstar catalogue. We’ve got everything you need to get a great night’s sleep from chic bedroom furniture to orthapedic mattresses and much more.

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Polyphasic Sleep

Monday, April 21st, 2008

We understand that everyone sleeps differently. That’s why bedstar has an entire knowledgebase dedicated to different sleep types and problems as well as a massive catalogue of the cheapest beds online, so you can find the bed that really suits your needs.

Polyphasic sleep involves sleeping several times in 24 hours, as opposed to monophasic which is the usual 8 hour block of sleep and 16 hours of waking. It aims to reduce the total sleep time from 8 hours down to fewer than 3, allowing more time awake for other activities. Polyphasic sleep is used by people in extreme situations such as in the military and is common in long distance boat racers and astronauts. But other people choose to use this pattern long term in their regular lives.

A typical polyphasic sleep schedule might involve having 6 naps at 2, 6 and 10 am and 2, 6 and 10 pm for just 20 – 30 minutes at a time. So you end up with a total of 2 or 3 hours sleep but theoretically still functioning well. It is reported to take about a week or two to adapt if you really stick to the schedule, and then the hardest part is working out how to fill all the extra time - of which you have around 40 hours a week!

In order to make the transition to polyphasic sleep you need to be disciplined, making sure you don’t miss naps and setting alarms to prevent oversleeping. It also requires quite a flexible timetable - in many jobs taking 30 minute naps at 10 am and 2 pm just won’t work. Support from family and friends plays a key role in the adaptation too as they have to be understanding when you run off for your scheduled naps.

Normal 90 minute sleep cycles involve 65 minutes of non-REM, 20 minutes REM and 5 minutes non-REM. So whilst the polyphasic pattern sounds like dangerous sleep deprivation, the theory behind it says that the body will learn to enter REM sleep much earlier than usual, so you can still go through all the vital stages of sleep, just much faster.

People who have tried this have had mixed success with some stopping after a couple of days and others continuing long term. A primary reason for changing back to monophasic sleep is the social aspect – you are awake when everyone else is sleeping and then have to fit in naps every 4 hours when others are awake.

In general experts think that the long term effects of this sleeping pattern will be detrimental to physical and mental health. But as yet no one has evidence of its success or failure over periods greater than a couple of years.

Whether you’re thinking of trying polyphasic sleep or not it’s important to have a sleep environment that helps you drop off quickly. So to help you get the best possible rest, day or night, bedstar have a massive range of the cheapest beds online. We stock all the major bed brands at very competitive prices so check out our catalogue to find your bargain bed.

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Sleep and Depression

Friday, February 22nd, 2008

Depression can affect your sleep more than most people realise, so read on for the latest installment in our Knowledgebase series. If you are looking to buy a new bed, you can browse through our online catalogue full of the cheapest beds online.

Sleep and depression are inextricably linked in a cause and effect relationship that can make both worse. Sleep disturbance is a core symptom of clinical depression and there is also a lot of evidence that people with insomnia can go on to develop depression.
Sleep and depression form a vicious circle which is hard to get out of: you are worried so you can’t sleep, you get tired and worry about not sleeping makes it worse, the more tired you get the harder it is to handle the rest of your life.

How depression can lead to sleep problems
When you are depressed, sleeping can be harder due to worried thoughts going round in your head, frequent night awakenings, and not relaxing enough in bed to drop back off again. 80% of people with depression have some sort of problem with their sleep
In about 15% of people with depression, oversleeping can occur. This is especially common amongst young adults and those with manic depression. Sometimes those with depression want to escape from how they feel and all the things that worry them, so staying in bed is a way to stay separate.

Depression also affects people’s appetites, often making them stop eating and lose weight but sometimes ‘comfort eating’ and gaining weight. Changes in weight affect your health in general, with repercussions on your sleep.

How sleep problems can cause depression
We all know that having a couple of bad night’s sleep affects our performance and mood, and a sleep disorder can be long running and sap much of your energy. As your mood deteriorates it can make getting on with your life harder and take the enjoyment out of things - potentially leading to depression.

Insomnia suffers are more likely to develop depressive disorders and those who have been depressed in the past can relapse if their sleep becomes disrupted. Very severe sleep problems in people with depression have been linked with increased suicide risk, on the other hand improving sleep quality can also help people’s moods.

Treatments
Exercise is increasingly considered to have anti depressant properties, and it’s proven to help people sleep better. So doing some exercise during the day could help both problems as well as provide a good distraction from other things you might be dwelling on. Try not to exercise within a few hours of going to bed though as this makes sleeping harder.

It’s often a good idea to try to handle sleep disorders and depression through behavioural changes before trying medication but the symptoms are diverse, so everyone will need treating differently. Antidepressants sometimes have sedative side effects so can treat both insomnia and depression; there is a huge range of options to treat different types of depression and sleep disorders. Consult your GP if you think you may be suffering from any of the above.

Bedstar not only bring you up to date information on sleep related topics, we’ve also got the biggest selection of cheap beds online. You can find discounted mattresses in all shapes and sizes to help you get a great night’s sleep.

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A Guide to Lucid Dreaming

Thursday, January 17th, 2008

Bedstar not only have cheap beds, mattresses and bedroom furniture from all the main brands, we also know about sleep. Here in the bedstar knowledgebase we have articles on all the aspects of sleep and hints on how to sleep well. So before you browse our selection of bargain beds online here’s a guide to one of sleep’s interesting phenomena – lucid dreaming.

Lucid dreaming is simply being aware that you are dreaming whilst dreaming. There are different degrees of lucidity from just thinking to yourself ‘this is a dream’ to being able to fully control the dream world. You can learn to have lucid dreams and with practice gain control over them and we’ve got a few suggestions how to do it.

A lucid dream can be very exciting, you can try things that you could never do normally like flying, conjuring up the people you want to see and thinking through problems that are occurring in real life. It is also a great technique for regular sufferers of nightmares since once you are in control you can stop things happening, control you fear and alter the situation to make it better.

Before you try lucid dreaming it’s important to work on remembering your dreams, try to write them down as soon as you wake up so gradually you will remember some dreams most nights. Lucid dreaming mostly occurs when the deepest dreaming occurs during REM sleep which is just before waking, so don’t jump straight out of bed but try to stay still and remember what just happened!

The most common technique to achieve lucid dreaming is by performing reality checks regularly which establish whether you are dreaming or not. In dreams strange things happen but don’t seem unusual and you just accept such as breathing underwater, the grass being bright red or all your teeth falling out.

If you get into the habit of reality checks during your waking time then you will start doing them in dreams, triggering awareness of the dream. Simple reality checks are looking at a clock or piece of text to see if it stays constant or pinching yourself to see if it hurts. The more often you can train yourself to do these the more likely you’ll spot a dream sign.

Once you have established you’re dreaming it just takes practice (and a bit of creativity) to learn to control what happens. It’s easy to get distracted and lose your lucidity, or become excited and wake up, but dream spinning can help keep you there. This simply involves spinning in circles in your dream, like children do, and when you stop your dream will likely have regained clarity.

Since lucid dreaming requires a deep sleep combined with high awareness, the last thing you want is to be woken up by an annoying spring sticking into your back. So take a look at bedstar’s massive online catalogue of bargain beds and cheap mattresses to find a bed that will help you to relax and focus on your dreams.

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Your Sleep Personality

Friday, December 21st, 2007

We’ve all heard theories on how your body language affects your interactions with people and reflects your true feelings and intentions, but did you ever think that this theory applies to how you sleep? Bedstar are here to give you an insight into how the way you sleep reveals your personality, and since your subconscious is in control there’s no chance of hiding your true self.

There have been 6 common sleeping positions identified by sleep experts and people studied were asked to describe their personalities and which way they sleep. Interestingly the positions do match up with certain character traits:

The 6 positions:

Fetal Position – sleeping on your side with your legs curled in a crouch is by far the most common sleeping position in the UK, especially amongst women. Typically this position suggests the person will be shy or harsh at first but become more sensitive on closer acquaintance.

The Soldier – the position is lying on your back with the arms straight by your sides. The characteristic personality of this sleep position is someone who is quiet and possibly introverted but expects a lot from themselves and others.

The Freefall – sleeping on your front with your hands up around your head seems to be common in people with extrovert traits on the outside but who are insecure or nervous on the inside.

The Yearner – falling asleep on your side with both arms out in front. The yearner position implies an open person who has a tendency to be stubborn and cynical.

The Starfish – this is sleeping on your back with both arms up around the pillow. It’s suggested that people who sleep in the starfish are good listeners who may prefer to be on the outside of a group but make great friends.

The Log – sleeping on your side with your legs straight and arms by your body means you are likely to be an easygoing and sociable person, generally very trusting and sometimes too much so.

Naturally not everyone sleeps in one of the above positions; some people change their sleep posture regularly or sleep in a less common position. If tossing and turning all night makes it impossible to tell how you sleep however, that could be a sign that your sleep is disturbed. For some of the most common sleep problems bedstar knowledgebase has explanations and ideas to help.

Of course if your bed isn’t big or comfortable enough then you may not be able to show your true sleeping position. But don’t worry, you can find the biggest selection of cheap beds online from futons to king size beds right here.

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