Plenty of things exist today to help people maintain their health and happiness. There is literally hundreds of thousands of different health foods, herbs, and vitamins to this end. But when you get down to the basics, there are really only four. Food, air, water, and sleep.
Food is fairly well understood. The FDA food pyramid has long been taught in grade school, and outlines the basic food groups, and the best proportion to eat them in. Drinking pure, uncontaminated water, and breathing clean, uncontaminated air are so obvious that they won't even warrant discussion.
Sleep, on the other hand, is still not completely understood by medical science. There really isn't a clear and obvious reason why we sleep, and what kind of sleep is the most beneficial. It is common knowledge that we go through several phases of sleep during the night, with perhaps the most "talked about" being REM, or rapid eye movement sleep. This is of course when dreams happen, although why we dream is not completely understood.
One thing is for certain, and that is if you don't get enough sleep, you will suffer. Unfortunately, measuring the quality of sleep is much more difficult that measuring the quality of our air, water or food. Even if you are in bed for eight hours a night, you still may be not getting enough sleep.
Sleep apnea is a very common ailment that goes mostly undetected. This is one of the main causes today of poor sleep, and can lead to secondary health hazards such as high blood pressure and psychological problems. The main problem with determine sleep apnea it happens while we are sleeping, and even if you wake up during an event, you aren't likely to recall it the next day.
If you suspect you have sleep apnea, or apnea symptoms, than it's a good idea to collect some data before you go to your doctor. You can do this two different ways. The easiest is to record yourself while sleeping. That way you can play the recording back for your doctor, making it easy for him or her to make a proper diagnosis.
A great way that many people find is extremely helpful is to keep a sleep journal. This requires that you jot down anything you can think of as soon as you wake up in the morning. How long did you sleep, how often did you wake up, did you have any trouble falling asleep. The more you record, the easier it will be for your doctor.
Although sleep apnea is an often under diagnosed problem that can cause a host of health problems, once you uncover it, and present some valuable data to your doctor, it can be relatively easy to treat. Sometimes treating it is as simple as using an adhesive bandage on your nose to keep your nasal passages open during sleep. Other cures are a bit more complicated, some involving outpatient laser surgery.
Whatever the cause, and the resulting treatment, the sooner you start to address your possible condition, the sooner you can get the sleep that you need.
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