Mental Health Archives - Page 3 of 3

October 15, 2018

Should You Stop Naps to Boost Your Sleep at Night?

Sleep patterns in the young and the old vary. The young especially infants and toddlers sleep heavily during the day and night. Adults aren’t able to maintain this routine. Some adults prefer having naps during the day for relaxation. Naps help your body relax and take a break from the chores of the day. Unfortunately for some adults, this does not work. Such adults prefer not to have naps during the day to avoid interfering with their sleep patterns for the night.

Your daytime job is an important factor in determining whether you should have a nap. Doing manual jobs may not give you room to nap if you want to. Luckily for such workers, they are able to sleep very soundly during the night. Employees in white-collar jobs engage their brains more than their strength during work hours. Using your brain may not appear as tiresome as using your energy. On the contrary, employees in manual or white-collar jobs both feel exhausted at the end of the day.

For white-collar job employees, they could opt to have naps in form of bed rest in their offices. This offers a soothing and great relaxation to their bodies. That may not be the case at night as their desire to sleep could have reduced greatly. Employs in hard labor work the whole day but sleep heavily during the night. The bridge between these two sleeping patterns can only be determined by you. Get to know what sleep patterns suit your body. This will help you choose whether a nap is worst or best for you.

Health benefits of napping

Napping increases performance during the day. If you have numerous tasks to accomplish before the end of the day, a nap helps you to stay alert and functioning. Science has proven that a nap:

Sharpens your memory

Sleeping at night is known to boost and improve your retention of information. Studies on the subject have also found out that naps during the day can improve your associative memory. Associative memory is the ability to remember information about objects that are not related. Through this type of memory, you have the ability to remember the aroma of a given perfume.

A 90-minute study conducted by Neurobiology of Learning and Memory had interesting findings. The study conducted between two groups of healthy participants made one group to have a 90-minute nap. Before napping both groups were shown two sets of photograph pairs. Both sets had the same images but each image had been paired with a different face. The group that had a 90-minute nap was better at responding and retaining information they saw on the photos.

Improved Physical Stamina

A research conducted in 2007 and published in the Journal of Sports Science gives proof to the fact that naps help to improve physical strength as well as your mental health. Participants in the study were made to run before and after a 30-minute nap. Thy napped after having their lunch. Participants who napped and ran covered long track distances as compared to participants who did not nap. The research concluded that a nap after lunch has the ability to improve physical and mental alertness.

Faster learning of new skills

Faster learning of a new skill improves with the frequency of naps you have during the day. A test done proved the effect of habitual napping on reading and retaining information. Students who studied and had frequent naps showed better performance in retaining information. Conversely, the opposite is true for students who have less or no naps.

Improves night attentiveness/Alertness

Napping 30 minutes to 4 hours during the day has the profound effect of improving your attention during the day. Coupled with a drink of coffee, a 30 min to 4 hours’ nap greatly improved the performance of night shift workers. Further studies conducted between napping and caffeine drinking proved to nap as superior in keeping one alert at night as compared to caffeine.

Improves body immunity

Sleep is important for your overall health. Repeated lack of sleep makes your body to react by producing an excess of stress hormones such as cortisol. The body also produces cytokines, a type of inflammatory molecule. In a 2015 study, participants were restricted to a 2-hour night of sleep. The following day, urine and blood measured from their system showed an increase of cortisol, norepinephrine and cytokines. The participants were offered a one-and-a-half-hour nap. Their urine and blood samples showed a great reduction in stress hormones and cytokines.

Hormones play an important role in influencing sleep patterns. Apart from melatonin, the hormone responsible for inducing your sleep, the relation between adh and sleep cannot be understated. The antidiuretic hormone also helps control the water that the kidneys convert into urine. Without ADH many would have frequent sleep interruptions to go pass water. Your body should have the right levels of adh to support your body water retention and blood pressure.

Night Sleep vs naps

Sleep and a nap are both very important components of body rest. Neither can substitute the other as they both hold immense health benefits to the human body. Napping and sleeping are needful for the body and can only be harmful if they are misused. Some can nap during the day and still sleep heavily at night.

Final thoughts

Whether to opt for a nap or sleep solely relies on you. What works for another person may not work out for you. Ensure to take note of your sleep patterns both in the day and the night. If you struggle to sleep at night because of nap during the day, consider doing away with naps. However, if both patterns work for you, you can make the best use of them to your advantage. Given the benefits of a nap to your body, you could consider scheduling time for your body to rest during the day. This will work well for you if you can also sleep soundly at night.
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March 21, 2018

Arranging an Intervention for a Loved One

When a loved one is going through addiction, it can be difficult to witness. The chances are they won’t recognize they have a problem. Denial is part of the battle. As a family member who cares about that person, you can do nothing, or you can proactively seek assistance. With the help of an interventionist, addicts can finally make positive steps to regain control of their lives.

Addiction is an illness that needs to be treated, not kept under wraps. It can affect anyone, regardless of age and background. If you don’t want to stand by while your family is torn apart, it’s time to take action. With the knowledge of an expert, arranging an intervention will lead your loved one down a path to receiving immediate help. If you’re wondering how to kickstart things, here are some useful steps to guide you through the intervention process:

Is Intervention the Right Thing to Do?

It’s time for an intervention when your loved one constantly denies addiction being an issue in their life. An interventionist will use their leverage as a professional to step in and encourage someone to get help. Attendees of the intervention meeting include the addict you’re trying to help, family, and friends. You’ll all have a chance to explain how the situation is affecting your life. An outsider can help put things in perspective. When the affected individual sees how their behavior is affecting others, they’re more likely to act.

Get in Touch with an Interventionist

A professional can be of great help in facilitating this process. By being transparent about the situation when you speak with them, the interventionist help you can avoid common mistakes along the way. Otherwise, you’ll risk pushing your loved one away. A good interventionist will discourage you from letting emotional baggage interfere.

Devising a Plan

Your plan should involve about six to eight family members, if possible, especially those who can contribute valuable information. Those who care about the individual will show up, which, combined with the experience a professional brings, will assist with the logistics of the intervention. Knowing they have a large support network who cares makes a big difference. With a detailed plan in place, the interventionist will help family members remain calm and confident in the outcome.

Interventions are known to have a high success rate, as addicts often agree to treatment in the aftermath of a meeting. Interventionists work because they give people an opportunity to share their true feelings, free from bias, with an objective mediator present.

En Route to Recovery

Along the road to recovery, your loved one might overcome addiction using medical marijuana. It’s still somewhat controversial, but this is a natural alternative that can reduce opioid cravings and alleviate anxiety. Be certain to check the legal status of the drug and its extracts in your state. Your local legislation covers not only the details for the consumption and possession of cannabis, but also the requirements for vendors and dispensaries in the industry. There are even specialist law firms that focus specifically on creating business plans for medicinal marijuana dispensaries to ensure that their operations fit explicitly within the letter of the law.

March 21, 2018October 17, 2020

How Do You Feel About Sexual Harassment is it Toxic to Health

As more and more cases of sexual harassment in the workplace are coming to the surface, it is evident that this behavior has been considered “the norm” for decades. If the employer does not effectively address the case for sexual harassment within its own workplace, you may need to take action with someone like a Los Angeles sexual harassment lawyer, and they may need to get involved. It seems like there has been a lot of in-depth coverage on the harassers losing their jobs, but there has not been much media on how this behavior has left the victim emotionally, mentally, and physically. Sexual harassment in the workplace obviously puts a lot of emotional strain on a person at work, leaving him or her uncomfortable and distracted. These emotions can bleed into other parts of their life, having negative effects mentally and even physically. Sexual-harassment-in-the-workplace-are-coming-to-the-surface

Mental Effects of Sexual Harassment

Victims of sexual harassment can experience long-term mental effects. Extreme depression can loom and play a part in the person’s personal life, causing severe results such as inability to sleep at night and toxicity in relationships. Stress and anxiety associated with sexual harassment interferes with performance in work life, as well as personal life. Those at the center of sexual harassment experience feelings of self-doubt and self-blame that can promote further depression. There is also a huge link between sexual harassment and post-traumatic stress disorder, which can cause the victim to relapse and re-experience the trauma. These feelings leave him or her with the tendency to avoid other people and situations where they feel vulnerable, having a negative effect on his or her confidence and demeanor.

Physical Effects of Sexual Harassment

Anxiety and stress is not all mental. The anxiety and stress of sexual harassment can cause physical problems, such as raised blood pressure and physical pain. Physical aches and pains, such as headaches and strain on the neck and back are results of any traumatic experience. Sexual harassment can also affect a person’s eating habits and make them question their physical appearance. There are healthy ways to lose weight, but unhealthy habits like binge eating or not eating at all can harm the body. It is obvious that emotional stress plays a part in every aspect of the victims life.

Sexual harassment has unlimited negative effects on the victims health and it is important to talk about these effects with your loved ones and even seek medical support.

March 15, 2018

8 Ways to Improve Your Spirituality

We could all benefit from improved spirituality. While many associates the word “spirituality” with a religion, it’s often defined simply as “becoming a better you.” Spirituality is about getting in touch with yourself, realizing your inner energy, and becoming more aware of your interconnectedness. An enhanced spirituality will improve your self-love and your love for the world around you.

Spirituality can be improved in a number of ways, most of them simple. Each one can be practiced in everyday life, so without further ado, here’s a list of 8 ways to improve your spirituality.

Contemplation

One of the biggest aspects of spiritual life is taking time for meditation. Whether it’s prayer, yoga, meditating, or just sitting and savoring a good meal, we should all take time out every day to be alone with our thoughts. Rather than running from grief or frustration, we should accept our feelings as they are, and take time to experience them every day. Many people like to meditate first thing in the morning, sometimes focusing on a candle or a totem-like a Buddha statue. Others like to pray right before they go to bed. And others end the day with a reflection journal.

Community

Just as it’s important to take time to know yourself, it’s also important to know others. Having a community has been shown to greatly improve people’s overall well-being, so when it comes to spirituality, a community can improve your energy and your sense of interconnectedness.

Grace

We seldom extend forgiveness to ourselves. We may or may not be good at exercising compassion, but we’re almost certainly bad at extending compassion to ourselves. Rather than obsessing over failures and mistakes, we should give grace to ourselves and celebrate the wisdom that comes through failure.

Gratitude

Regular thankfulness helps improve a positive mindset. In order to go through life focusing less on the negative, try instead to express gratitude daily for things you’re authentically thankful for. That regular boost of positive thinking will grow and grow, until your cup of happiness is full.

Nature

Nature has a calming effect on all of us, and it can help remind us of our interconnectedness. Spend time regularly outdoors. Even just a few hours a week spent in nature can help improve your spirituality, so whether it’s watching the waves, sitting under a tree, or gardening, find a way to regularly interact with nature.

Giving

One of the best ways to improve your spirituality is through giving to others. Regularly serve those around you, taking unselfish actions. You can give materially, of course. The next time you need a gift for a friend, look for quality items that are produced ethically with a focus on social change and are handmade. Give artisan-made bohemian jewelry to your friend–now your friend has a unique piece of art with a story to tell. There are non-material ways to give, as well. You can give service by volunteering with a local group or cleaning a sick friend’s house. You can give compassion by lending a sympathetic ear to someone in need and letting others know you are thinking about them.

Knowledge

Besides practicing simple techniques for improved spirituality, you should enlarge your knowledge of spiritual practices. Try reading books on spirituality, or grow in the knowledge of your own religion. That enhanced knowledge will help grow you, even further, into the individual you want to be.

Self-Love

Spirituality is deeply linked to love, so there’s no better place to start than with yourself. If you take time to properly groom yourself, exercise, rest and think positive thoughts about your appearance, you’ll see your spirituality blossom.

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