Tired and Edgy? Sleep Deprivation Boosts Anticipatory Anxiety

Photo Credit: Health Freedom


'UC Berkeley researchers have found that a lack of sleep, which is common in anxiety disorders, may play a key role in ramping up the brain regions that contribute to excessive worrying.

Neuroscientists have found that sleep deprivation amplifies anticipatory anxiety by firing up the brain’s amygdala and insular cortex, regions associated with emotional processing. 

The resulting pattern mimics the abnormal neural activity seen in anxiety disorders. Furthermore, their research suggests that innate worriers — those who are naturally more anxious and therefore more likely to develop a full-blown anxiety disorder — are acutely vulnerable to the impact of insufficient sleep.' 


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Natural Allopathic Sleeping Protocol

Photo Credit: IMVA

'About 42 million sleeping pill prescriptions were filled in 2005, according to the research company IMS Health, up nearly 60 percent since 2000. According to the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), almost six out of ten Americans report having insomnia at least a few nights weekly. Insomnia is defined as an “inability to fall asleep or remain asleep long enough to feel rested, especially when the problem continues over time.”[1]

In September of 2010 the New York Times reported that, “People with chronic pain who took just a puff of marijuana three times a day got some mild pain relief and, with rare exceptions, did so without getting high, a Canadian study reports. (Yes, they inhaled.) The patients, who suffered from persistent nerve damage that did not respond to other pain drugs, also reported better sleep and less anxiety, the researchers said.”'

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The 5 Best and 5 Worst Foods For Sleep

Photo Credit: Caring.com

'For many, the secret to getting a good night's sleep comes down to two things--stress and diet. It's important to not overload your digestive system two or less hours before you sleep. Including one or two of these sleep promoting foods will help to relax tense muscles, quiet buzzing minds, and/or get calming, sleep-inducing hormones -- serotonin and melatonin -- flowing. On the flip side, there's five foods to stay away from.'

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The Importance of Paying Attention to Your Dreams

 

The Persistence of Memory Salvador Dali

'It’s interesting to realize that we spend approximately 6-8 hours of our daily life sleeping. When you add that up over a lifetime, that’s almost 1/3 of our lives! Along with all the benefits that sleep offers including rejuvenating the body, mind and spirit, there is another benefit that we sometimes don’t acknowledge, and that is dreaming. 

However, most people don’t pay much attention to their dreams because they don’t understand them. They show up as apparently random situations with oddities that we could hardly think of on our own even if we tried. The reason we don’t understand our dreams generally is because they come to us in symbolic form.'

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