Sleep Bytes & Blog

Top 3 Tips to Help Prioritize Sleep During the Holidays Hey, sleep warriors. Are you ready for the holidays? If you're like me, keeping sleep as a priority during this time of year can be extra difficult, but like most hard things, it's worth it because when you get adequate sleep, everything about the holidays is better. So, if all the healthy practices that you can invest in at this time of year, perhaps the most important is sleep. Sleep is essential for a balanced mood, weight control, good decisions, and reduced stress, among a number of other health benefits, like warding off sickness. So, what can you do if holiday parties, family gatherings, shopping, and more are taking away from your precious sleep? I'm gonna give you my top three tips on how to prioritize healthy sleep during this festive time of year. Preserve your normal sleep routines, including a set bedtime and wake time. Even though staying up until 2:00 AM to finish that puzzle is tempting at the time, the resulting sleep deprivation will impact your mood the following day, something no family member needs. So, realistically, try to limit staying up or sleeping in to only one hour later than your usual bedtime or wake time. Expose yourself to sunlight or daylight (if living in Oregon) every single day, preferably with a walk or other outdoor exercise. The light and activity will help set your circadian rhythm, and the fresh air, well, it just does the body good. Avoid napping, even if you had a short night. Daytime sleep can make it more difficult to fall asleep at your regular bedtime at night. So, if you are fighting the afternoon slug, it may just be a good time for that afternoon walk. So, I hope that you can get some rest this holiday season. And speaking of risk, there will be no sleep byte next week as I will be getting some rest of my own. See you in the new year.

Give the gift of sleep Hi there, In this video, I'll be demonstrating how to insert and clean the SomnoSeal. First, without the optional mouth tape. And second, with the optional tape.You'll insert the SomnoSeal by holding onto the center tab, making sure that the small arrow is pointing up. After getting ready for bed and before you put on your CPAP, gently insert the SomnoSeal behind the lips and in front of the teeth. Adjust it as needed for comfort. Put on your CPAP, and you are ready for sleep. Use the optional mouth tape if you have trouble keeping the SomnoSeal in your mouth overnight. First, insert the SomnoSeal. Then, place one piece of tape vertically over your lips under your nose. Put on your CPAP, and you are good to go. In the morning, remove your CPAP mask and any tape. Then, head to the sink. Remove the SomnoSeal and rinse with water or mild soap. Allow it to air dry on the stand provided in your starter kit and keep it where you'll see it the next night. That's it. CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR SOMNOSEAL STARTER KIT TODAY

The SomnoSeal is launching today! Hey, sleep warriors, I have some really big news today. Just in time for the holidays, I am launching my innovative patent-pending device, the SomnoSeal. The SomnoSeal will make an excellent holiday gift for yourself or any CPAP user in your life. It's a soft mouthpiece that sits just inside your lips to prevent airflow from leaking out of your mouth during sleep. It helps eliminate irritating dry mouth and enables your CPAP to function more efficiently because air doesn't have to travel over your tongue to get to where it needs to go. Think of the SomnoSeal as an alternative to a chin strap or mouth tape. It's flexible and comfortable, and it's compatible with facial hair. So finally, there is a new option for CPAP users who want to use smaller nasal only or nasal pillow-style masks but struggle with mouth breathing. When you order the starter kit of the SomnoSeal, you will get two SomnoSeal sizes: small and medium. You can just use the one that fits the best.  You'll also receive a package of mouth tape, which is optional and can be used if you have a hard time keeping the SomnoSeal in your mouth at night. And you'll get a stand. You can keep this by your sink to hold your SomnoSeal, while it dries in the morning after you rinse it. Additional information about the SomnoSeal and videos are available on the SomnoSeal page of this website, or you're welcome to email us at sleep@somnoseal.com I hope you'll try it. Thanks for being here. I'll see you next week. CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR SOMNOSEAL STARTER KIT TODAY 

Are you a mouth breather at night? Hey, Sleep Warriors, If you find yourself frantically reaching for a glass of water first thing in the morning, or perhaps even during the night, then you are likely opening your mouth during sleep. If so, you aren't alone. Half of all beds in the US are supporting a mouth breather. Now, mouth breathing during sleep generally happens when people can't breathe well through their noses. And mouth breathing can lead to a number of different problems, such as dry mouth, drooling, bad breath, dental cavities, snoring, even high blood pressure, and daytime fatigue. It's no wonder lots of attention is being paid to the problems associated with mouth breathing over the past couple of years. And this may be in part due to James Nestor's book, Breath, where he participated in a research study at Stanford University, where he plugged his nose and started noticing problems after just ten days. So what do you do if you're one of that 50% of people who mouth breathe during sleep? Here are my top three tips for decreasing nighttime mouth breathing. Troubleshoot why you aren't breathing well through your nose. Do you have allergies, a deviated septum, or sinus problems? Try a nasal saline rinse before bed and see if that helps, or talk to your doctor about an antihistamine for allergies. Try sleeping at a slight incline. For some people, they breathe fine through their nose during the day, but they plug up at night. If this is you, gravity may be working against you, and you can raise the head of your bed a little bit, and that may help. If you do breathe well through your nose, but just have a habit of mouth breathing, consider using a physical product to help keep your mouth shut at night or block the airflow, such as a chin strap, mouth tape, or a newer, better option, the Somnoseal, which is available on my website. Mouth breathing can negatively impact daily life in many ways. If you're interested in learning more, I recommend you check out James Nesser's book Breath, where he shares about what happened to him when he plugged his nose for several weeks. Thanks for being here. I'll see you next week. Bye.

Can Weighted Blankets Help Insomnia? Hey, sleep warriors. Are you looking forward to cozying up by the fire this winter in a warm blanket? Should that blanket be a weighted one? Weighted blankets work by providing a deep pressure touch, which delivers greater relaxation. Then light touch alone. Think of it as a big bear hug compared to a friendly pat on the back. This pressure stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, or the rest and digest part of our body, and it delivers a calming effect similar to a deep breath. Using weight to calm the nervous system has long been known to help anxiety, especially in kids. But now, adults and people with insomnia... they're seeing the benefits too. A 2020 Swedish study looked at the effects of a weighted blanket on insomnia and daytime functioning. After four weeks, 60% of patients using a weighted blanket noted improved sleep and less daytime sleepiness, and after a year, 78% of participants using the weighted blanket reported near the resolution of their insomnia altogether. Now, we need more studies that confirm these kinds of outcomes, but I'm impressed with these early results. Now, a weighted blanket may not be for everyone. For example, people with neuromuscular conditions or weakness of the chest wall or even untreated severe sleep apnea probably shouldn't use a weighted blanket. And some trauma victims may even experience a worsening of their anxiety when weighted down by a blanket. But how much weight is enough? Well, a general rule of thumb is to take your weight in pounds and divide it by ten. For example, a 150-pound person may look for a 15-pound blanket, whereas a 200-pound person would look for a 20-pound blanket, and so on. So overall, weighted blankets are generally safe and offer a medication-free option to improve sleep quality. If nothing else, they can decrease anxiety, which is something we can all benefit, given the past couple of years. Thanks for being here. I'll see you next week.

Break out the stew and bread  Hey, sleep warriors. Are you looking forward to breaking out the stew and bread and getting cozy as the end of daylight savings time begins? As a sleep specialist, it's a lot more fun to talk about falling back than it is about springing forward. But did you know that there's been a lot of controversy around moving the clocks in recent years? In fact, Congress has recommended keeping daylight savings time all year, while most sleep specialists recommend sticking to standard time 365. Now, while I do miss the long days of summer, I love that people are getting an extra hour of sleep. At least I thought they were. So let's hear from some others about how they spent that precious extra hour: "I did an extra project." "I went to my parents' house, and we watched another movie." "I forgot about the change and got up too early." "I spent my extra hour doing homework for school." "Well, sadly enough, I was just cleaning and taking care of my dogs." "I also forgot about it entirely.""I slept." "I organized my sock drawer." Interesting. Thanks for joining me. I'll see you next week.

Exploding Head Syndrome Hey, sleep warriors. Exploding Head Syndrome is a type of sleep disorder in which you hear a loud noise or an explosive crashing sound in your head as you're trying to fall asleep. The sound isn't heard by anyone else, and it typically lasts less than a second. Fortunately, it isn't dangerous, but it certainly can be alarming. The episode typically happens suddenly, either when you're beginning to fall asleep at night or when you're falling back to sleep after awakening during the night. Now, it isn't clear what causes this abrupt sound, but it has been associated with sleep deprivation, stress, and some substances, such as too much alcohol. Here are my top three tips for dealing with an exploding head. Number one, be sure that you're getting enough sleep at night. This is an average of 7 hours for most adults. Number two, put away electronics and engage in relaxing activities before bed. This could be gentle stretching, deep breathing, or reading under a dim light. Number three, if you do experience a regular exploding head, keep a calendar of when the events occur. This will allow you to identify any triggers, and you can share it with your doctor to better quantify the frequency. Fortunately, an exploding head is not dangerous, and it typically doesn't require any specific tests or treatments. That's your spooky sleep bite for this week. I'll see you next time.

Meet My Special Guest This Week! Hey, sleep warriors. Kimberly MD here, and I have a very, very special guest this week. I am introducing you to my mom, Gloria, who is one of my favorite CPAP sleep apnea patients. So today, I'm just going to ask her a couple of questions since I'm here visiting. And I want you, Mom, Gloria, to tell everybody out there what made you want to get tested for sleep apnea in the first place. Well, I didn't really want to, but one of my daughters insisted that I snored, and I didn't think so. But then what did you find out with the sleep study? I found out that I was gasping for breath 25 times per hour. Wow. So that's moderate sleep apnea. And so, fortunately, after a few weeks, we got Gloria on a CPAP machine, and that was about ten to fifteen years ago now. And so what sort of things have improved in your life? Or what do you notice that might be better now that you've treated your sleep apnea? I definitely sleep much better without waking and gasping for breath or gasping and waking. How do you feel when you wake up in the morning? I don't want to get out of bed. So maybe treating your sleep apnea doesn't get rid of all of your symptoms. You still need to be sure that you're getting enough hours of sleep at night. But this is a perfect example of how even though you think that you may not have sleep apnea, or if someone out there is just telling you that you snore, there is a chance that you may. And once you get it treated, then you would have the opportunity to actually sleep more soundly. If you had to give any advice to people out there that were thinking about maybe getting tested for sleep apnea, what would you tell them? I would say, do it. You've got nothing to lose, so why not? There you have it, friends, thanks for being here this week. Join us, we're hopefully in a future week sleep bite. I'll have my mom on again. Bye.