10 Sleep Technologies: How Much Snore for the Dollar?

Do you want better sleep? Of course you do. You know how bad it is to miss out on sleep, so it can feel like insult added to injury to read yet another newfound, devastating consequence of insufficient sleep: heart disease, heart attack, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, mental impairment, etc. And the list is expanding almost daily as researchers learn more. There are "easy" actions that may aid with sleep. Relaxation activities like meditation or chamomile tea are useful for some. Setting and sticking to a waking and sleeping schedule, creating a bedroom retreat, and making a list of worries before turning in can help too. But we live in the personal computing age; what has technology done for you in the bedroom lately? (We're keeping it G-rated here, folks.) Maybe not much good. Those darned researchers have been at it again, finding that the blue light emitted from screens has an effect on the brain that spurs wakefulness. Exposure to light at night can throw the body's biological clock off kilter. While any color of light can suppress melatonin production, blue light is most deleterious. Even more significantly, the content of those screens at bedtime: email, social media, calendars, Youtube cats, tweets from Kim, drafting your team, all get our brains humming at just the time they need to be slowing down. Fear not! The heroes of modern culture, the geeks (thus labeled because I count myself in that number), have come to the rescue with a host of new sleep te...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news