Jasmine Magazine茉莉杂志 - J Mental by Hiro Koo (July 2016 Issue) 失眠症

 

在我中心里，因失眠问题而求医的人不计其数。

许多人在练习了我教导的自我催眠法后，睡眠都得以改善。

承蒙茉莉杂志对心理健康的醒觉活动，我有这个机会跟大家分享一套简易的助眠秘籍。

现在就去临近书摊找出7月份的<Jasmine Magazine茉莉杂志>,

你就可以学到一个由我教导的简单易学自我催眠术来改善你的睡眠质感哦！

 

《健康时尚A Healthy Lifestyle Magazine》March 2016 - All about sleep apnea and snoring 睡眠窒息症与打鼾

转载自《健康时尚A Healthy Lifestyle Magazine》March 2016 - 生活专题：睡眠窒息症与打鼾
欢迎留言咨询更多治疗详情。

Natural Health Magazine (March 2016 Issue) "Snoring and Sleep Apnea, symptoms too loud to ignore" by Hiro Koo

Natural Health Magazine (March 2016 Issue)  

"Snoring and Sleep Apnea, symptoms too loud to ignore" by Hiro Koo

SLEEP MANAGEMENT MALAYSIA

How can someone measure his/her sleeping quality?

How important water is for our daily living, sleep is equally as important to rejuvenate our body. Imagine yourself not having a quality sleep can have an impact on your performance the next day at work, the reason is sleep deprivation which to large extent affects our prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is just like the cream on our cakes located front of the brain just behind the forehead, in charge of abstract thinking and thought analysis, it is also responsible for regulating behavior. This includes mediating conflicting thoughts, making choices between right and wrong, and predicting the probable outcomes of actions or events. It acts as a filter to prevent oneself from irrelevant information interfering the task on hand.

With years of experience in this field, I have analyzed quite a number of brain waves using EEG Bio feedback at SOL, in most cases clients with sleep issue often lack in focus and have higher tendency to become restless. E.g. even for young kids with excessive slow brain waves on the prefrontal cortex tend to suffer from attention deficit, hyperactive behavior which is not very surprising because at the end of the day I often check with the parents on their sleeping patterns and there it goes.

Sometimes craving for sweet or high carbohydrate diet such as rice, noodles can be result of insufficient sleep, this is due to sleep deprivation that disrupts your body function which is responsible for regulating your appetite and research have proven.

I would like to share my experience in helping a client, Juliet to manage her sleeping problems and issues caused by sleep deprivation.

Finding it difficult to stay focused and remain calm

“Juliet is a corporate executive, and recently she was bothered by some health concerns which worried her so much that she sought help from us. She was losing focus in her work and experiencing fatigue very frequently. She did not take these signs seriously until one day she passed out in her office. Initially, she thought she was having autonomic nervous system dysfunction as she experienced symptoms such as excessive fatigue, blood pressure fluctuations, rapid heart rate, dizziness and digestive problem.Autonomic nervous system dysfunction generally involves impairment of the sympathetic or parasympathetic components of our autonomic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system functions like a gas pedal in a car. It triggers the fight-or-flight response, giving the body a burst of energy to respond to perceived dangers. The parasympathetic nervous system acts like a brake. It arouses the “rest and digest” response that can calm the body down after the danger has passed. Just imagine that, if your brake and gas pedal is not working accordingly? You might experience symptoms similar to Juliet’s or even worst.

Juliet had undergone a health assessment in our centre and the result showed that the main issue in Juliet is not the autonomic nervous system dysfunction but related to her sleeping quality and quantity. To find out more about her concern, a brainwave assessment was conducted on her. According to the result, it showed that there are excessive slow brainwaves on her prefrontal cortex which would lead to impairment on her executive functioning. This is the major reason why she was having focus problem, poor mental stamina, short attention span and related issue. Scientific studies have shown that sleep deprivation would bring negative impacts on brain regions like memory and emotions causing development of anxiety related issue. Therefore, Juliet was having anxiety symptoms like indigestion, rapid heart rate and dizziness issue as well.

Solutions to end her daily-struggles

Issues related to Juliet’s sleep deprivation have affected her work performance and daily activities. To help her effectively improve her sleeping quality, Brain Trainer, the non-drug, evidence - based EEG Biofeedback therapy and Neuro-hypnotherapy are suggested to her. Sleeping pills are not recommended as sleeping pills may only improve the duration and quantity of sleep but not the quality of sleep in long run. Juliet was feeling better and her sleeping quality has improved remarkably after completing the program. Besides, a good sleep at night has brought down her anxiety level.

Apart from the cutting-edge therapies, some sleep hygiene tips were given to help her sleep better. For example, stop using her phone at least 30 minutes before bed and reduce her coffee intake or any beverage containing caffeine after 2pm. Moreover, Juliet needs to monitor herself that she needs at least 8 hours of sleep every day instead of 6 hours which previously she thought it is enough for her. Sometimes she is having insomnia, then she would need to practice self-hypnosis techniques tailored for her and shortly, she will be able to fall asleep easily. Juliet’s ability to focus has improved and interestingly, she lost about 5kgs in just 3-month time without any strict diet plan! The reason of her weight loss is simply because she has better sleep quality now.

What is neuro-hypnotherapy and EEG biofeedback therapy?

Researchers at Harvard University found that hypnotherapy actually promotes faster healing. Many insomniacs have tried this intervention with great success. Under hypnosis, you might work out any personal issues that are robbing you of sleep. A clinical hypnotherapist can also "program" you to sleep. Our neuro-hypnotherapy technique is first of its kind in Malaysia which is able to help you to improve your sleep quality. Personalized self-hypnosis method to fall asleep will be developed based on your brainwave response.

EEG biofeedback or brain trainer is based on the international standardized 10-20 electrode location system. It is essentially a way of teaching you how to self-regulate your own electrical activity in the brain and strengthen your sleep spindle activity indirectly. A powerful tool for helping people fall asleep and stay asleep. People who produce more frequent or greater amounts of sleep spindles than the average person require a higher decibel noise level to be roused out of a sound sleep. As we age, we produce fewer spindles and are more sensitive to noises around us. This can be one of the explanations why older people don't seem to sleep as well.

So are you getting at least 7 hours of sleep? Do you wake up feeling refreshed? If not, contact your healthcare provider as soon as possible.

Author:

Hiro Koo

What is insomnia?

What is insomnia? 

 

Often take more than 30 minutes to fall asleep for 3 or more nights a week?

 

Yes, individual who suffer for insomnia often have trouble staying asleep or falling asleep or both. Here’s what you might experience:

• Hard to fall asleep
• Wake up in the middle of the night
• Wake up in the early morning
• Feel drowsy and sleepy after a night's sleep
• Trouble staying awake during daytime
• Anger, depression or anxiety related issues
• Difficulty paying attention or focusing, such as when reading or listening to others
• Unable to think critically
• Trouble making decisions
• Migraine or headache
• Making careless mistakes
• Forgetful
• Indigestion related issues
• Worrying about sleep

 

What cause insomnia?

 

According to the research study done by Bonnet and Arand (2010), Individual suffer for insomnia related issues have increased high-frequency EEG brainwaves activation which known as hyper arousal. Hyper arousal is reflected in brainwaves and it can elevated sympathetic nervous system and heart rate during sleep time (Bonnet & Arand, 2010).  

 

In the field of EEG biofeedback (Brain Trainer), we can understand the hyper arousal state better by peek into the brainwave. "high beta" brainwave is associated with stress, tension, nervous or anxiety state. Work, school, health or family related stress can keep your brainwaves overactive at night and then lead to insomnia. Breathing difficulty, urination problem and chronic pain can cause insomnia as well.

Due to day time sleepiness, some people use stimulants such as caffeine, nicotine and alcohol to stay awake. It is not a long term solution because stimulants cannot overcome the effects of severe sleep deprivation.For example, alcohol helps induce to light sleep stages but it prevents deeper stages of sleep which can adversely affect the brain and cognitive function. If you always stay in the light sleep stages, it is more likely you will wake up in the middle of the night and wake up feeling tired.

Drug-free Insomnia Solution

Neuroscientists have identified specific brainwave patterns that relate to specific disorders. Individual who suffer for insomnia is more likely to experience hyper arousal state in the brain. Brain trainer can help correct this problem. Brain trainer (EEG biofeedback) which is a safe, non-invasive, drug free and no side effect technology has been shown to effectively address anxiety symptoms. Brain trainer training teaches you to balance your brain's arousal state. It helps teach you how to calm down your brain during stressful event and night.

Neuro-Hypnotherapy is based on EEG brainwave frequency monitoring. It is non-invasive, painless, and safe with no side effects. All of our mind activity can be measured scientifically by utilizing an EEG biofeedback tool. With the Neuro-Hypnotherapy technology, you can scientifically see yourself going into states of “Alpha", "Theta", and "Delta”, and these three levels can be considered states or depths of sleep. After your therapy session, you will learn how to self-regulate your own brainwave pattern and improving your sleep quality by practicing your personalized self-hypnosis technique.

Brain trainer and Neuro-hypnotherapy together help the individual who suffer for insomnia to calm hyper arousal brainwave activity, fine-tuning the central nervous system and reprogram your subconscious mind to achieve deep sleep and relaxation.

 

Contributor:

Hiro Koo

Licensed Clinical Hypnotherapist (AHPM & APA-Society of Psychological Hypnosis). BSocSc(Hons) in Psychology, Diploma in Clinical Hypnosis, Certified EEG biofeedback practitioner.

 

Reference:

Bonnet, M. H., & Arand, D. L. (2010). Hyperarousal and insomnia: State of the science. Sleep Medicine Reviews. doi:10.1016/j.smrv.2009.05.002

Improving sleep and cognition by clinical hypnotherapy in the elderly

Sleep quality markedly declines across the human lifespan. Particularly the amount of slow-wave sleep (SWS) decreases with age and this decrease is paralleled by a loss of cognitive functioning in the elderly. Here we show in healthy elderly females that the amount of SWS can be extended by a hypnotic suggestion "to sleep deeper" before sleep. In a placebo-controlled cross-over design, participants listened to hypnotic suggestions or a control tape before a midday nap while high density electroencephalography was recorded. After the hypnotic suggestion, we observed a 57% increase in SWS in females suggestible to hypnosis as compared to the control condition. 

Furthermore, left frontal slow-wave activity (SWA), characteristic for SWS, was significantly increased, followed by a significant improvement in prefrontal cognitive functioning after sleep. 

Our results suggest that hypnotic suggestions might be a successful alternative for widely-used sleep-enhancing medication to extend SWS and improve cognition in the elderly.


Source:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/25660206/

During sleep, the brain cleans itself

Every night since humans first evolved, we have made what might be considered a baffling, dangerous mistake. Despite the once-prevalent threat of being eaten by predators, and the loss of valuable time for gathering food, accumulating wealth, or having sex, we go to sleep. Scientists have long speculated and argued about why we devote roughly a third of our lives to sleep, but with little concrete data to support any particular theory. Now, new evidence has refreshed a long-held hypothesis: During sleep, the brain cleans itself.

Many neurological diseases—from Alzheimer's disease to stroke and dementia—are associated with sleep disturbances, Nedergaard notes. The study suggests that lack of sleep could have a causal role, by allowing the byproducts to build up and cause brain damage. "This could open a lot of debate for shift workers, who work during the nighttime,” Nedergaard predicts. "You probably develop damage if you don’t get your sleep."

Source: http://news.sciencemag.org/brain-behavior/2013/10/sleep-ultimate-brainwasher

10 medical reasons for feeling tired

Any serious illness, especially painful ones, can make you tired. But some quite minor illnesses can also leave you feeling washed out. Here are 10 health conditions that are known to cause fatigue.

1. Coeliac disease

This is a type of food intolerance, where your body reacts badly when you eat gluten – a substance found in bread, cakes and cereals. One in 100 people in the UK are affected, but research suggests that up to 90% of them don’t know they have the condition, according to patient group Coeliac UK. Other symptoms of coeliac disease, apart from tiredness, are diarrhoea, anaemia and weight loss. Your GP can check if you have coeliac disease through a blood test.

2. Anaemia

One of the most common medical reasons for feeling constantly run down is iron deficiency anaemia. It affects around one in 20 men and post-menopausal women, but may be even more common in women who are still having periods.

Typically, you’ll feel you can’t be bothered to do anything, your muscles will feel heavy and you’ll get tired very quickly. Women with heavy periods and pregnant women are especially prone to anaemia.

3. Chronic fatigue syndrome

Chronic fatigue syndrome (also called myalgic encephalomyelitis or ME) is a severe and disabling tiredness that goes on for at least six months. There are usually other symptoms, such as a sore throat, muscle or joint pain and headache.

4. Sleep apnea

Sleep apnea is a condition where your throat narrows or closes during sleep and repeatedly interrupts your breathing. This results in bad snoring and a drop in your blood's oxygen levels. The difficulty in breathing means that you wake up often in the night, and feel exhausted the next day.

It’s most common in overweight, middle-aged men. Drinking alcohol and smoking makes it worse.

5. Underactive thyroid

An underactive thyroid gland means that you have too little thyroid hormone (thyroxine) in your body. This makes you feel tired. You’re also likely to put on weight and have aching muscles. It’s most common in women, and it happens more often as you get older.

Your GP can diagnose an underactive thyroid by taking a blood test.

6. Diabetes

One of the main symptoms of diabetes, a long-term condition caused by too much sugar in the blood, is feeling very tired. The other key symptoms are feeling very thirsty, going to the toilet a lot and weight loss. Your GP can diagnose diabetes with a blood test.

7. Glandular fever

Glandular fever is a common viral infection that causes fatigue, along with fever, sore throat and swollen glands. Most cases happen in teenagers and young adults. Symptoms usually clear up within four to six weeks, but the fatigue can linger for several more months.

8. Depression

As well as making you feel very sad, depression can also make you feel drained of energy. It can stop you falling asleep or cause you to wake up early in the morning, which makes you feel more tired during the day.

9. Restless legs

This is when you get uncomfortable sensations in your legs, which keep you awake at night. You might have an overwhelming urge to keep moving your legs, a deep ache in your legs, or your legs might jerk spontaneously through the night. Whatever your symptoms, your sleep will be disrupted and of poor quality, so you’ll feel very tired throughout the day.

10. Anxiety

Feeling anxious is sometimes perfectly normal. However, some people have constant, uncontrollable feelings of anxiety, which are so strong they affect their daily life. Doctors call this generalised anxiety disorder (GAD). It affects around around one in 20 people in the UK. As well as feeling worried and irritable, people with GAD often feel tired.

Source；

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/tiredness-and-fatigue/Pages/medical-causes-of-tiredness.aspx

[Review] Insomnia - Pharmacist Miss T

For past few years, the lack of sleep was ruining my life!

Thus, I really hope that I can fall asleep easily by practicing personalized self hypnosis method. 

After finished 3 sessions of Neuro-hypnotherapy, I feel more stable and calm without medication involved. 

Now I am less worried about my sleep problem.

The environment is very comfortable and I feel happier after talking to Clinical Hypnotherapist Hiro Koo as he makes me feel more confident at work and daily life. 

The most significant change that I have noticed is I able to calm down myself, manage my mood state and reduce my stomach discomfort. Neuro-hypnotherapy does help me a lot. Overall I would say that everything is very good.

- Pharmacist Miss T

THERAPEUTIC OUTCOME

Miss T reports that she feels a sense of improvement after 25^th April 2015. She reports that she able to relax by practicing the personalized self-hypnosis and emotional freedom technique. Now she feels no more fear of losing control or worry about worst things will be happened on her. Also, she feels her stomach discomfort problem becomes less noticeable and it didn’t bother her much. The terrified, afraid and nervous feelings have also significantly reduced after first and second therapy sessions.

At work, she feels no more irritable and less restless than usual. Her energy level has increased and she found that her appetite is somewhat greater than usual. Now She feels that her concentration ability has improved.

Regarding her quality and patterns of sleep, she is usually gone to bed at 10pm. Although she still sleep around 6 hours every day, but she reports that her quality of sleep has improved. She able to fall asleep easier than usual. 

Remark: Our client's information will be kept strictly confidential all the time. All reviews have been acknowledged and provided by past and current clients of Spectrum of Life proactive healthcare centre (Clinical Hypnotherapist Hiro Koo) and all pictures displayed is for illustration purpose only. Clients names have been changed to protect their identity. 

睡眠障礙引頭痛 自律神經失調元凶

「一覺到天亮，一暝大一吋」，但是，如果有失眠入睡困難、半夜醒來不易再睡等情況，恐罹患睡眠障礙，根據台灣睡眠醫學會一項「國人睡眠大調查」結果發現，台灣15至59歲的人口中，平均每5人就有1人深受失眠之苦。尤其值得注意的是，睡眠障礙會會引發偏頭痛。要揪出睡眠障礙造成頭痛的元凶，醫師建議必需兼顧生理與心理健康，尤其是要調整自自律神經失調的困擾。

睡眠障礙元凶　自律神經失調惹禍

為什麼睡眠障礙會引起頭痛？精神科醫師楊聰財表示，其實睡眠障礙只是冰山一角，冰山下的狀況要特別關注，睡眠障礙要從生理因素與心理因素去解決。其中生理因素主要來自自律神經失調，一旦自律神經不穩定，交感神經與副交感神經不協調，交感神經會過盛，引起血壓升高、肌肉緊繃、呼吸心跳加快，在交互影響下，便容易引起頭痛。

至於心理因素引起睡眠障礙，則常見出現慢性焦慮、憂鬱，或慢性壓力感如怒氣。焦慮、憂鬱與怒氣此三種統稱為「情緒障礙」，容易造成頭痛不適。臨床發現，10個有睡眠障礙問題的民眾，約有7、8個與情緒障礙有關。

自律神經失調　女多於男

楊聰財醫師表示，門診曾經收治許多因為出現頭暈、頭重、頭痛的患者求診，主訴特別的是頭痛位置有移動情況，有時頭頂痛，有時單側痛，有時兩邊同時痛，甚至疼痛會往下發展，合併肌肉緊繃、眼睛乾澀、呼吸不順、腹痛等不適症狀，但是進行腦波、心電圖、X光等檢查，卻發現都正常，一時找不到病因，經過進一步診斷才發現是慢性自律神經失調。

自律神經失調該怎麼改善？建議要兼顧生理與心理，照顧身心四個大支柱：即「能睡、能笑、能動、能吃」：

【調整自律神經失調方法】：

1.「能睡」：是指每天最好晚上11點睡覺，早上6點起床，維持正常睡眠。

2.「能笑」：指常保笑容能使腦內啡分泌，有益健康避免頭痛。

3.「能動」：指每周維持333規律運動，每週運動至少3天、每次30分鐘、心跳達到130下。 

4.「能吃」：指睡覺前適度食用包括鮮奶、香蕉與深海魚油等食物，有助於自律神經安定。

此外，平時要養成「說唱做寫」紓壓好方法4要訣，例如每天做深呼吸吐氣、睡前寫快樂日記等。

【醫師小叮嚀】：

楊聰財醫師表示，自律神經失調調整好，睡眠障礙即可降低，但是如果出現睡眠障礙，例如一周中有3天以上睡眠時間不到6小時，或是有入睡困擾，且情況連續兩周以上，影響日常生活，就可能是與情緒障礙影響到睡眠有關，建議可至精神科就醫檢查。

若是明明睡眠超過9小時以上，卻怎麼睡都覺得睡不夠，上班仍容易打瞌睡、精神不濟，則可能與生理有關，例如有睡眠呼吸中止症、打鼾等呼吸道問題，建議到睡眠中心進行睡眠檢查。

资料来源：

https://tw.news.yahoo.com/睡眠障礙引頭痛　自律神經失調元凶

[Sleep Specialist Malaysia] Brain waves predict our risk for insomnia

There may not yet be a cure for insomnia, but Concordia University researchers are a step closer to predicting who is most likely to suffer from it—just in time for World Sleep Day on March 13.

In his study published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, Thien Thanh Dang-Vu, from Concordia's Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology and PERFORM Center, explores the impact of stress on sleep. Although researchers already know that stressful events can trigger insomnia, the experiment reveals that some people are more vulnerable than others to developing the condition.

To determine the role of stress, the study examined the sleep cycles of 12 Concordia students as they went through the nerve-racking experience of finals. Measuring students' brain waves at the beginning of the school semester, Dang-Vu and his team found that students showing a lower amount of a particular pattern of brain waves were more at risk for developing insomnia afterwards in response to the stress of the exams.

The brain—specifically the deep, inner parts of the brain called the thalamus and cortex—produces electromagnetic activity during sleep. When monitored by diagnostic tools, this activity appears as patterns of squiggly lines that scientists refer to as spindles.

In a previous experiment, Dang-Vu and his team discovered that greater spindle activity helps sleepers resist waking, despite noise. The new study aimed to test whether there would be a similar relationship between spindles and stress.

The hypothesis proved true. "We found that those who had the lowest spindle activity tended to develop more disturbances in response to stress, when comparing sleep quality at the beginning of the semester and the end of the school semester," Dang-Vu says.

"We are not all equally armed when facing stress, in terms of how we can manage our sleep. Some people are more vulnerable than others."

How to increase spindle?

The preliminary studies carried out for the FWF project showed the positive effects of EEG biofeedback training on healthy people. This method has therefore now been tested in a pilot study on patients aged between 19 and 50 who suffer from sleep disorders. "The brain oscillations are trained during waking to a frequency range of between 12 and 15 hertz, known as the sensorimotor rhythm. This frequency range is also prominent in light sleep and manifests itself as sleep spindles, particularly when a person is falling asleep", explains Schabus. The patients were able to observe and learn to control their own sensorimotor rhythm (measured using EEG electrodes) on the computer screen. They were tasked with moving a compass needle on the screen to a green dot using only the power of mental relaxation. They received positive visual feedback each time they reached this dot, i.e. to increase the band power between 12 and 15 hertz.

"Using the training, we managed to strengthen the sensorimotor rhythm in a waking state and the sleep spindles in 16 out of 24 patients with mild insomnia. Those who responded well to the training reported an improvement in the quality of their sleep. This was ascertained by self-monitoring methods like sleep diaries and importantly also verified in our sleep laboratory", says Schabus, outlining the process. Each of the participants visited the sleep laboratory a total of 21 times, which meant that the effects could be studied in great detail. The researchers were also able to establish positive effects on memory consolidation when word pairs were retested after sleep following earlier learning. Interestingly, the subjective sleep quality among patients who successfully completed this type of biofeedback training also showed improvement

What is sleep spindle?

A sleep spindle is a burst of oscillatory brain activity visible on an EEG that occurs during stage 2 sleep. It consists of 12–14 Hz waves that occur for at least 0.5 seconds. Sleep spindles are generated in the reticular nucleus of the thalamus.

How newmindcentre.com can help you? 

1) Neuro-Hypnotherapy:

Doctors at Harvard University found that hypnotherapy actually promotes faster healing. Get hypnotized. Many insomniacs have tried this with great success. Under hypnosis, you might work out any personal issues that are robbing you of sleep. A clinical hypnotherapist can also "program" you to sleep. Our neuro-hypnotherapy technique able to help you! Personalized self-hypnosis method to fall asleep will be developed based on your brainwave response.

2) EEG biofeedback therapy/Neurotherapy 

Our EEG biofeedback/Neurotherapy is based on the international standardized 10-20 electrode location system. it is essentially a way of teaching you how to self-regulate your own electrical activity in the brain. A powerful tool for helping people fall asleep and stay asleep. Over 3,000 licensed health professionals such as psychologists, therapists, and doctors now use this new technology daily with patients. As a group, they report significant and consistent improvements for client sleep problems.

Call to schedule an appointment to meet me.

Based on your condition, I can help you to find the cause and suggest appropriate treatment.

Contact me now for more information.

Source:

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-04-brain-medication-counter-insomnia.html

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-03-brain-insomnia.html#nRlv

EEG biofeedback therapy instead of medication to counter insomnia

The ability to finally enjoy a good night's sleep is something that can be learned. An Austrian Science Fund FWF project has investigated how this can best be learned and who responds best to such "brain training".

Dark circles around the eyes, tired limbs, absent-mindedness – most people have experienced the effects on the body of a short night. "Roughly one-third of the Austrian population as a whole suffers from recurrent insomnia", says Manuel Schabus from the University of Salzburg. For years now, the psychologist has been studying a diverse range of states of consciousness. In a project funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, Schabus and his team have now studied how the state of mind of people with sleep disorders can be improved without administering medication.

Training vs. chemistry

"People who suffer from sleeplessness, also known as insomnia, are often in a state of 'hyperarousal'. Resorting to tablets seems to be the obvious solution", explains the researcher. However, medication-based treatments are usually for short-term use only and confine themselves to fighting this state of arousal, resulting in undesirable side effects including dependence, morningness, drowsiness or amnesia. "Medication often just reduces nocturnal brain activities and thus also helpful functions such as 'memory consolidation', which is the nocturnal stabilisation of information so that recall is easier the next day", says Manuel Schabus. The neurofeedback training deployed within the framework of the FWF project, a type of biofeedback training for the brain, guides the affected persons into sleep. So-called "sleep spindles" are used in this process. These are patterns identified in EEG measurements which are characterised by "spindle-like" rapid rising and falling brain oscillations, and which occur especially during light sleep.

Crucial rhythm

The preliminary studies carried out for the FWF project showed the positive effects of neurofeedback training on healthy people. This method has therefore now been tested in a pilot study on patients aged between 19 and 50 who suffer from sleep disorders. "The brain oscillations are trained during waking to a frequency range of between 12 and 15 hertz, known as the sensorimotor rhythm. This frequency range is also prominent in light sleep and manifests itself as sleep spindles, particularly when a person is falling asleep", explains Schabus. The patients were able to observe and learn to control their own sensorimotor rhythm (measured using EEG electrodes) on the computer screen. They were tasked with moving a compass needle on the screen to a green dot using only the power of mental relaxation. They received positive visual feedback each time they reached this dot, i.e. to increase the band power between 12 and 15 hertz.

"Using the training, we managed to strengthen the sensorimotor rhythm in a waking state and the sleep spindles in 16 out of 24 patients with mild insomnia. Those who responded well to the training reported an improvement in the quality of their sleep. This was ascertained by self-monitoring methods like sleep diaries and importantly also verified in our sleep laboratory", says Schabus, outlining the process. Each of the participants visited the sleep laboratory a total of 21 times, which meant that the effects could be studied in great detail. The researchers were also able to establish positive effects on memory consolidation when word pairs were retested after sleep following earlier learning. Interestingly, the subjective sleep quality among patients who successfully completed this type of biofeedback training also showed improvement, but so did people in a pure placebo condition. In general, the researcher cautions against generalising the results: in an even more extensive follow-up protocol, people with more persistent or more pronounced insomnia did not respond to the brainwave training, nor did they exhibit any positive changes in sleep or memory.

Hippocampus fitness

"When you consider the amount of information encountered by the brain, especially the hippocampus, on a daily basis, and how sensitively it responds to stress, it is important to be mindful of treating our thinking-organ with care. Systematic training and sufficient 'sleep hygiene' not only promote well-being but also protect newly learned information from disruptive influences", says Schabus. The studies conducted as part of the FWF project play an important role in encouraging trainingof this vital human faculty and act as a reminder to adopt a more conscious approach to sleep.

More information: Schabus et.al: "Enhancing sleep quality and memory in insomnia using instrumental sensorimotor rhythm conditioning." Biological Psychology 95 (2014) 126 –134. 
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23548378

Provided by Austrian Science Fund (FWF)

Source:

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-04-brain-medication-counter-insomnia.html

[Light Sleeper Treatment Malaysia] What makes someone a light sleeper?

What makes someone a light sleeper? 

For some people, the slightest noise awakens them at night. For others, the wailing siren of a passing fire truck doesn’t disturb their slumber. Just why, though, remains a bit of a mystery. Although many people are self-proclaimed light sleepers or heavy sleepers, researchers have found that little is actually known about why people react differently to noises and other stimuli during sleep. Genetics, lifestyle choices, and undiagnosed sleep disorders may all play a role. In addition, some studies suggest that differences in brainwave activity during sleep may also make someone a light or heavy sleeper.

Light and Deep Sleep During sleep, you alternate between cycles of REM (rapid eye movement) and NREM (non-rapid eye movement) that repeat about every 90 minutes. You spend about 75 percent of the night in NREM sleep, which consists of four stages of increasing relaxation. 

Stage one, or the phase between being awake and asleep, is considered light sleep. 

Deeper sleep begins in stage two, as your breathing and heart rate become regular and your body temperature drops. 

Stages three and four are the deepest and most restorative stages of sleep, in which breathing slows, muscles relax, and tissue growth and repair occurs. 

Someone who gets eight hours of sleep a night may not experience as much slow-wave, deep sleep as the person who get six hours of sleep.

What Contributes to Light Sleep?

A small study, published in 2010 in Current Biology, suggests that differences in how sleeping people respond to noise may be related to levels of brain activity called sleep spindles. The researchers found that people whose brains produced the most of these high-frequency sleep spindles were more likely to sleep through loud noises. But more research is needed to confirm the results. Dr. Neubauer said that if someone is complaining of not feeling rested because of being a light sleeper, they should look at the factors that might be contributing to the inability to achieve a deep sleep.

Now, for the first time, sleep researchers at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, led by neurologist Dr. Jeffrey Ellenbogen, have isolated the brain-wave pattern that predicts where an individual's brain has struck a balance between those demands — a window into how likely noises are to wake people from deep sleep.

For the three-night study, Ellenbogen's group invited 12 volunteers who reported being deep and healthy sleepers into a sleep lab with a comfy queen-size bed outfitted with enormous speakers at the headboard. The researchers recorded the participants' brain waves as they slept normally the first night, and then on subsequent nights as they were bombarded with 14 different noises — from the din of car traffic and the roar of airplane engines to flushing toilets and slamming doors — which were played at progressively louder volumes.

Ellenbogen paid particular attention to the patterns generated by the thalamus, a region deep in the brain that processes incoming visual and auditory stimuli. He found that the number of pulses, known as sleep spindles, generated by this organ and measured by an electroencephalogram (EEG), which records electrical activity in the brain, varied among the sleepers. Those with the highest number of spindles were able to sleep through more sounds without waking than those whose brains showed fewer spindles. "We wanted to know, if we counted the spindles the first night, did that predict anything about their subsequent sleep?" says Ellenbogen. "And indeed it did. More spindles meant they were more likely to be protected from sleep disruption."

How newmindcentre.com can help you? 

1) Neuro-Hypnotherapy:

Doctors at Harvard University found that hypnotherapy actually promotes faster healing. Get hypnotized. Many insomniacs have tried this with great success. Under hypnosis, you might work out any personal issues that are robbing you of sleep. A clinical hypnotherapist can also "program" you to sleep. Our neuro-hypnotherapy technique able to help you! Personalized self-hypnosis method to fall asleep will be developed based on your brainwave response.

2) EEG biofeedback therapy/Neurotherapy 

EEG biofeedback/Neurotherapy is based on the international standardized 10-20 electrode location system. it is essentially a way of teaching you how to self-regulate your own electrical activity in the brain. A powerful tool for helping people fall asleep and stay asleep. Over 3,000 licensed health professionals such as psychologists, therapists, and doctors now use this new technology daily with patients. As a group, they report significant and consistent improvements for client sleep problems.

Call to schedule an appointment to meet me.

Based on your condition, I can help you to find the cause and suggest appropriate treatment.

Contact me now for more information.

Source:

http://www.ehow.com/how_7828707_cure-light-sleeping.html

http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2009401,00.html

http://www.clearmindofcolorado.com/research-on-sleep-disorders/