We all require a great night’s sleep in order to function at optimum levels during the course of our increasingly stress filled days. Sleep helps to restore balance and mental acuity, as well as restore our bodies to tip top shape. A good night’s sleep allows us to dream and gives our minds time to make sense of the day’s events. However for many people a good night’s sleep continues to be a dream itself.

Stress has been identified as one of the most destructive forces when it comes to getting enough shut eye and it appears that more and more people are suffering from chronic insomnia.

For many people artificial, chemical based sleep aids are becoming popular, but these often come with a host of unpleasant side effects. An alternative is the practice of reflexology which is a natural way to relax. It is actually possible for people to enjoy the benefits of self-administered reflexology to aid in drifting off to sleep at night.

By stimulating reflex points on your feet, hands and face, reflexology can impact the entire body. A simple reflexology routine that involves just the feet can help you or another get to sleep naturally. There are about 15,000 nerves in your feet alone, one of many reasons that foot reflexology is so effective.

Reflexologists use a map of the feet where all the organs, glands, and corresponding parts of the body are mapped. The toes represent the head. The ridge beneath the toes on the top part of the ball of the foot is the shoulder or neck line. The ball of the foot reflects the chest. The arch mirrors the digestive organs, and the heel and ankles represent the reproductive system. The inside curve of each foot (where we find the spinal reflex) corresponds to the curves of the spine.

Below is a 15-minute routine in four practical steps that you can incorporate into your pre sleep routine.

1. Relax the feet

Deal with each foot one at a time. Using a simple relaxation technique: pressing and squeezing, lightly slapping or gently kneading — whatever length of time feels good. Finish by pressing and holding your thumb on the solar plexus point of each foot for up to 10 seconds each.

2. Bottom of the feet

“Walk” your thumb up from the base of the heel to each toe (imagine your thumb is a caterpillar inching its way up your foot), then press these reflex points with the outer edge of your thumb or tip of your forefinger.

Each part of the foot provides the following effects:

• Head/brain (top of each toe) promotes clarity and positive thinking.
• Pituitary or “master gland” (centre of big toe) stimulates/balances hormone secretions of all other glands.
• Pineal gland (outer side of big toe) secretes melatonin which controls our circadian rhythm/sleep cycle.
• Thyroid (base of big toe) balances metabolism.
• Neck/shoulders (ridge of toes) releases tension
• Chest/lungs (ball of foot) calms breathing.
• Solar plexus/diaphragm (under ball of foot in the centre) encourages profound relaxation and peacefulness.

Repeat these movements until you begin to feel more relaxed. At the end of your session finish with another thumb press on the solar plexus point on both feet.

3. ‘Breeze Strokes’

Close off with “breeze strokes” — lightly running your fingertips down the tops, bottoms and sides of each foot in a light motion, barely touching the skin. Repeat this several times. It is very soothing to the nervous system.

Reflexology is a way to encourage deep relaxation where you are open to internal, mental suggestions. This is a great time for a pre-sleep affirmation, for example “The world is a better place than it was yesterday and nurtures me towards a peaceful night’s sleep’.

This is also the ideal time to appreciate those around you and the small moments of joy during the day. Use positive thinking to set yourself up for a great new day

 

The post Enjoy More Sleep With DIY Reflexology first appeared on Healthy Gab.

The post Enjoy More Sleep With DIY Reflexology appeared first on Healthy Gab.

A recent Canadian study has indicated that more creative folk may suffer from nightmares more often than the average sleeper.

Your scary dreams might signal something seriously awesome

People who suffer more nightmares may be more creative than those who dream without terror, a recent Canadian study seems to suggest. The study was published by the Dream & Nightmare Laboratory, Center for Advanced Research in Sleep Medicine, Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal and the Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada.

The researchers asked nightmare sufferers and those who enjoyed pleasant dreams to react to emotionally charged words with the first response that came to mind.

The results were that nightmare-free sleepers responded with predictable words, like “joy” in response to “happy,” or “mad” in response to “angry.”

But those who experienced nightmares at least twice a week made more creative associations.

They responded to the word ‘angry’ with words like ‘red’ and ‘face,

says lead study author Michelle Carr, Ph.D.(c), of the Dream & Nightmare Laboratory at the Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal.

Their minds didn’t follow common patterns of thinking.

That seemingly shows their brains were able to come up with a logical response different from what would generally arise from a more conventional thought process—a potential sign of creativity.

The common link between creativity in waking life and nightmares during sleep might be heightened sensitivity, said Carr.

According to the study creative people tend to experience events on a much deeper level. They’re much more attuned to their emotions and senses, which may allow them to think and express feelings in a more creative manner.

So what’s the end result? When you’re asleep, that insight translates into vivid, intense, and imaginative dreams, she says.

Vivid dreams aren’t necessarily a bad thing

But if you’re stressed or anxious, they can take a negative turn, leading to what we perceive as nightmares instead – and if you’re a more creative type you tend you have much more vivid, and potentially frightening dreams.

The post Creative People Suffer from Nightmares More Often – New Study. first appeared on Healthy Gab.

The post Creative People Suffer from Nightmares More Often – New Study. appeared first on Healthy Gab.

The consensus is mixed. People who develop these problems have a wide range of personalities and lifestyle / psychological states – some are highly stressed, others are calm, collected and contented.

What about chronic ailments such as cancer and heart disease?

Some studies suggest that pessimists or introverts are at higher risk, others suggest that optimists or extroverts are just as likely to suffer from dread disease. Research into the relationship between personality traits and illness has been the subject of many studies over the years – and there seems to be a mixed bag of results.

It’s all a bit complicated. First, “personality types” are constructs by researchers and don’t necessarily correlate well with what is going on with people in the real world. What’s more, dozens of overlapping traits, in various permutations, have been studied. There are countless ways to measure them, plus many theories of personality that use different terms and concepts. Most people don’t fit neatly into one description and ‘personality types’ may change over time. Also, a link between a personality trait and a disease doesn’t mean that one is causing the other.

So what are the personality types?

There’s a long history in psychology of attempting to classify personality types. But only fairly recently have health-related personality types been developed.

The first was the Type A personality. The theory went that people with this personality, who were aggressive, competitive, tense, impatient and quite often hostile were at higher risk for heart disease. This was based on the results of studies on men. For years this was treated as absolutely correct, but the latest research does not confirm the initial findings, and including women casts even further doubt on the results.

Still, certain Type A traits such as chronic hostility/anger and cynicism/mistrust may well be linked to heart problems. There was a 2010 English review of studies which concluded that anger and hostility predict heart disease in healthy people and poor prognosis in cardiac patients.

People with Type B personality are the polar opposite of Type A. People who exhibit personality traits associated with Type B are calm, cheery, cooperative, patient, easy-going individuals.  These traits may make you a more pleasant person, but there’s no clear evidence it will keep you healthy.

It was once thought that the Type C personality which is usually passive and often exhibits feelings of helplessness, while attempting to help people all the time was at increased risk of cancer. That could conceivably be true if when presented with bad health news, such people passively accept their prognosis and don’t follow through with treatment or even check with their doctor. It’s tempting to think that these traits would not be conducive to good health, but again there’s no solid evidence one way or the other.

The newest characterisation is a Type D personality. D for distressed. These folk are irritable, anxious and worried, with a very negative view of the world. They tend to be socially inhibited, insecure and easily stressed. Several studies have implicated Type D in an array of cardiovascular risk factors and poor general health. But, of course, in a few years the concept of Type D may seem as outmoded.

The post How does your Personality Type Affect Your Health? first appeared on Healthy Gab.

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As sufferers know, depression is characterised in part by continuous negative thoughts and reminiscing about unhappy memories from the past. Researchers suspect that this thought pattern, known as ‘rumination’, may take place in two specific areas of the brain: the prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain that helps to regulate attention and focus, and the hippocampus, which is essential for learning and memory. Some research indicates that people with severe depression have a smaller hippocampus than people who are not suffering from depression.

Meditation and exercise have been found to affect those same portions of the brain, although in different ways. In brain scan studies, people who meditate regularly generally display different patterns of brain-cell communication in their prefrontal cortex during cognitive tests than people who don’t. Those differences are believed to indicate that those practicing meditation possess a more refined ability to focus and concentrate.

The effect of exercise is also apparent in animal studies where aerobic exercise has been shown to substantially increase the production of new brain cells in the hippocampus.

Both meditation and exercise also have proven to contribute favourably in the treatment of anxiety, depression and other mood disorders.

These findings about exercise and meditation interested researchers at Rutgers University in New

Brunswick, N.J., who theorised that since meditation and exercise on their own improve moods, combining the two might intensify the impacts of each.

So a new study, which was published last month in Translational Psychiatry was conducted. In this study the scientists enlisted 52 men and women, 22 of whom had been given diagnoses of depression. The researchers confirmed that diagnosis with a battery of their own tests and then asked all of the volunteers to complete a computerised evaluation of their ability to focus while sensors were used to gauge electrical signals in their brains.

The results showed that the depressed volunteers showed brainwave patterns in their prefrontal cortex that are often associated with poor concentration and focus issues.

Then the scientists had all the volunteers begin a closely supervised program of inactivity, followed by sweating.

In the first part of the study volunteers were instructed in a form of meditation known as ‘focused attention’. This is an entry level mindfulness meditation. It required that the volunteers sit quietly and control their breathing by counting their breaths up to 10 and then backward. This practice can be challenging at first.

If people found their thoughts wandering during the meditation, and especially if they began to dwell on unpleasant memories, they were instructed not to worry or become self-judgemental, but just to start counting again from one

said Brandon Alderman, a professor of exercise science at Rutgers who led the study.

The volunteers meditated in this way for 20 minutes, then stood and undertook 10 minutes of walking meditation, in which they focused on each footfall.

Then they used treadmills or stationary bicycles at the lab and jogged or pedalled at a moderate pace for 30 minutes (with five minutes of warming up and five minutes of cooling down).

The volunteers completed these sessions 2x a week for two months. Then the researchers retested their moods and their ability to focus and concentrate.

All volunteers demonstrated significant changes. The 22 volunteers with depression now had a 40 percent reduction in symptoms of the condition. They reported, in particular, much less inclination to revisit bad memories.

The members of the healthy control group also reported feeling happier than they had at the start of the study.

The volunteers’ results on the computerised tests (of their ability to focus and their brain activity) were also different. The group with depression now demonstrated brain activity in their prefrontal cortex that was almost the same as people not suffering from depression. They could focus much better and refine their methods of paying attention, both attributes that are believed to help reduce stubborn rumination.

Dr. Alderman and his colleagues theorise that the meditation and exercise may have produced synergistic effects on the brains of their volunteers.

Dr. Alderman believes that the exercise most likely increased the number of new brain cells in each volunteer’s hippocampus, while the meditation may have assisted in keeping more of those neurons alive and fully functional.

Meditation also may have made the exercise more pleasant, he said, since some studies indicate that being mindful of your breathing and your body during workouts increases people’s enjoyment of exercise.

While was a small study and the scientists did not continue to monitor their volunteers in the long term, it is not known if the mood improvements continue. The researchers also have no idea whether similar or even greater benefits might occur if someone were to run and then meditate or to practice both activities but on alternating days. Further studies are planned to add essential knowledge that will allow the approach to be refined.

The post Natural Way to Treat Depression first appeared on Healthy Gab.

The post Natural Way to Treat Depression appeared first on Healthy Gab.

However, maybe that’s about to change. A recent study published in Biological Psychiatry brings a scientific approach to mindfulness meditation – and the results are startling. Unlike a placebo, mindfulness meditation can change the brains of ordinary people and perhaps improve their health.
So what does this mindfulness meditation actually mean?  It demands ‘‘an open and receptive, non-judgmental awareness of your present-moment experience,’’ says J. David Creswell, professor of psychology and the director of the Health and Human Performance Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University. He led the study. One difficulty of investigating meditation has been the placebo problem. In rigorous studies, some participants receive treatment while others get a placebo: They believe they are getting the same treatment when they are not. However, people can usually tell if they are meditating. Dr. Creswell, working with scientists from a number of other universities, managed to fake mindfulness.

First they recruited 35 unemployed men and women who were seeking work and experiencing considerable stress. Blood was drawn and brain scans were given. Half the subjects were then taught formal mindfulness meditation at a residential retreat centre; the rest completed a kind of fake mindfulness meditation that was focused on relaxation and distracting oneself from worries and stress.

Dr. Creswell comments, ‘‘we had everyone do stretching exercises, as an example,’’. The mindfulness group paid close attention to bodily sensations, including disagreeable ones. The relaxation group was encouraged to chatter and ignore their bodies, while their leader joked with them.

At the end of three day period, the participants all informed the researchers that they felt refreshed and better able to withstand the stress of their current state of employment (most were unemployed). Strangely enough follow-up brain scans showed differences in only those who underwent mindfulness meditation.

There was more brain activity among those parts of their brains that process stress-related reactions and other parts related to focus and calm. Four months later, those who had practiced mindfulness showed much reduced levels in their blood of a marker of unhealthy inflammation than the relaxation group, even though few were still continuing with meditation activity.

Dr. Creswell and his partners believe that the changes in the brain were responsible for the subsequent reduction in inflammation, although how this occurs remains unknown. Also unclear is whether you need to engage in three uninterrupted days of contemplation to enjoy the benefits.
When it comes to how much mindfulness exercise is needed to improve health, Dr. Creswell says, ‘‘we still have no idea about the ideal dose.” It does however seem obvious that even some meditation is better than none at all.

The post How Meditation Affects Your Health first appeared on Healthy Gab.

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