The Star Online: Lifestyle: Health
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Health |
- Did you sleep well last night?
- Couch potatoes have lower sperm counts
- Device tracks your metabolism, detects if you're burning carbs or fat
| Did you sleep well last night? Posted: 06 Feb 2013 01:35 AM PST Sleep is essential for proper functioning of the body, and the lack of it can cause many problems. I HAVE been having sleeping problems lately. I wake up at 5am every morning and I can't get back to sleep again. How many hours of sleep should I be getting? Everyone needs different amounts of sleep. The amount of sleep you need depends on your age, your individuality and even your pregnancy status. For example, most adults need around seven to eight hours a night. But some people need only five to six hours a night, and others need even more, like nine hours a night. Babies usually require 16 hours of sleep a day. As they grow older, they sleep less. Teenagers usually need nine hours of sleep a night. Women who are in the first three months of their pregnancy usually need more sleep than what they normally require. Research has shown that adults who get fewer than seven hours of sleep at night have more difficulty concentrating and have more mood swings than people who sleep more than seven hours. How would I know how much sleep I require? If you feel refreshed the next morning after a certain amount of sleep, then that is the amount of sleep you need. But if you feel drowsy during your activities throughout the day, it means you haven't had enough sleep. The amount of sleep you need also increases if you have been deprived of sleep in the previous days. This is called "sleep debt". Your body needs that debt to be repaid. Unfortunately, most of us don't repay that debt, so the sleep debt accumulates. And as time goes on, our judgement, concentration, memory, focus, and everything else becomes impaired. Too little sleep may also weaken your immune system and increase your chances of getting illnesses like the common cold and flu. If you take alcohol when you are having sleep deprivation, this enhances the effects of alcohol on your body, and you become even more drowsy. What happens when I sleep? Our sleep can be divided into two types: REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep and non-REM sleep. Non-REM sleep has four stages of increasingly deep sleep from Stage 1 (lightest) to Stage 4 (deepest). If your sleep through any of these stages is interrupted, you won't be able to transit from one stage of sleep to another easily. So, you will go into sleep debt and feel tired and fatigued the next day. If I wake up early and cannot go back to sleep, does that constitute insomnia? Yes. Insomnia covers the gamut of problems like trouble getting to sleep, trouble sleeping throughout the night, waking up frequently at night, and waking up too early. Sometimes, you can't remember if you woke up during the night, but this can be manifested in tiredness, sleepiness and fatigue throughout the day. Insomnia can be caused by stress, anxiety, depression, poor sleep habits, taking certain types of medicine, taking too much alcohol or caffeine, and jet lag. Other than insomnia, are there any other types of sleep disorders? Yes. There are many. Sleep apnoea is a type of sleep disorder where your upper airways become obstructed, either partially or completely for short periods of time, waking you up. It can cause severe daytime drowsiness and impaired concentration, and more serious problems like high blood pressure, stroke and heart attack. There are also pregnancy associated sleep disorders. Pregnant women in their first three months often get woken up at night because of frequent urination, and wake up early because of morning sickness. In the second and third trimesters of pregnancy, you may experience vivid dreams and physical discomfort from your womb pressing down on other organs. There's a disorder called narcolepsy, where some patients suddenly get dramatic and uncontrolled "sleep attacks" where they suddenly fall asleep in the middle of what they are doing. But in reality, this is rare. Most narcolepsy patients do not have "sleep attacks", but experience constant sleepiness throughout the day. For people who have Restless Legs Syndrome, they feel an urge to move their legs during the evening and night to get some relief. Many have excessive, rhythmic or cyclic leg movements during sleep, which naturally cause a poor night's sleep. Why do some people have nightmares? Nightmares are frightening dreams that happen during the REM stage of your sleep. They can be caused by stress, anxiety and certain types of drugs, like some beta-blockers used in treating high blood pressure. But there is often no clear cause. > Dr YLM graduated as a medical doctor, and has been writing for many years on various subjects such as medicine, health advice, computers and entertainment. For further information, e-mail starhealth@thestar.com.my. The information contained in this column is for general educational purposes only. Neither The Star nor the author gives any warranty on accuracy, completeness, functionality, usefulness or other assurances as to such information. The Star and the author disclaim all responsibility for any losses, damage to property or personal injury suffered directly or indirectly from reliance on such information. |
| Couch potatoes have lower sperm counts Posted: 05 Feb 2013 09:16 PM PST Men who watch television for 20 hours per week have almost half the sperm count of those who watch very little television or none at all, according to a study published on Tuesday. US researchers recruited 189 young men aged between 18 to 22, questioned them about their exercise, diet and TV habits and asked them to provide a sperm sample. Men in the top quarter of TV-watchers -- those who watched for 20 hours or more -- had a 44-percent lower sperm count than those who watched least, meaning they said they watched "none or almost none." Another big factor was exercise, according to the study, published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Men who exercised for 15 or more hours weekly at a "moderate to vigorous" rate had a 73-percent higher sperm count than those who exercised less than five hours per week. None of the sperm levels was so low that the man would have been unable to father a child. Semen quality appears to have declined over several decades, according to studies conducted in several countries. It is unclear why this has happened but scientists suspect that sedentary lifestyles may warm the scrotum and affect semen concentrations. Physical inactivity has also been linked to increased levels of oxidative stress, in which rogue oxygen compounds degrade cells. Previous studies into physical activity and semen quality have focused on elite athletes, such as professional marathon runners and cyclists. "We were able to examine a range of physical activity that is more relevant to men in the general population," said Jorge Charravo, assistant professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health, Massachusetts. The study was limited by the relatively small number of volunteers and the fact that only a single sperm sample was provided, the authors acknowledged. -- Relaxnews |
| Device tracks your metabolism, detects if you're burning carbs or fat Posted: 05 Feb 2013 08:22 PM PST Fitness-conscious consumers have their pick of the lot when it comes to devices that measure calorie intake and exercise output. But now a new device claims to take it further: it measures your metabolism, letting you know how fast you're burning calories. Breezing, developed by scientists at Arizona State University in the UK, measures your metabolism by analyzing your rate of oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production. To get a reading, breathe into the device, which gauges your resting energy expenditure (REE), or how quickly you're burning calories at rest. What's more, it tracks your respiratory quotient, letting you know whether you're burning up carbohydrates, fats, or a combination of the two. Dieters can then use this information to gauge whether or not they should be eating more, or eating less. Data is transferred to your smartphone, where an app can analyse the data and provide exercise and diet programs tailored to the user and their fitness goals. The company is currently raising funds via crowd funding platform Indiegogo. A pledge of US$250 can get the Breezing into your hands. Shipping is expected to begin in May. While the company is promoting Breezing as the world's first portable indirection calorimeter, GizMag cites that there is another competitor: The BodyGem, which is geared toward fitness trainers to use with their clients -- Relaxnews |
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