Check out this independent study that was done by NBC News on Speed Sleep. They hook up a person to an electroencephalogram (EEG) which measures and records the electrical activity of your brain.

What is amazing from the study is that they show how in just 17 minutes the person had reached stage 2 which is ideal for a power nap. This was with a person who is listening to Speed Sleep for the very first time with wires hooked to their head!

Speed Sleep is designed to take you down quicker and deeper with repeated uses. So the results shown will only improve. Also they used the “Nap Track” which is intended to awaken you to an alert and motivated state (which you see happen in the study). There is a “Nightly Sleep Track” on the cd which they did not use that allows you to continue deeper to sleep and awaken naturally in the morning.

A great study showing that speed sleep works!

According to new research in the June 30 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, during the initial stages of sleep, energy levels increase dramatically in brain regions found to be active during waking hours,These results suggest that a surge of cellular energy may replenish brain processes needed to function normally while awake.

A good night’s rest has clear restorative benefits, but evidence of the actual biological processes that occur during sleep has been elusive.  Studies now show that brain energy levels are key to nightly restoration.

The findings support in biology the basic understanding of the function of sleep. It is somewhat surprising that until now there have been no modern-era studies of brain energy using todays most sensitive measurements.

The studies conclude that sleep is necessary for this energy surge, as keeping awake prevented the surge. The energy increase may then power restorative processes absent during wakefulness, because brain cells consume large amounts of energy just performing daily waking functions.

“This research provides intriguing evidence that a sleep-dependent energy surge is needed to facilitate the restorative biosynthetic processes,” said Robert Greene, MD, PhD, of the University of Texas Southwestern, a sleep expert who was unaffiliated with the study.

This research is aligned with theresults seen from the use of Speed Sleep.  Speed Sleep was specifically designed to deepen sleep and allow access to this research proven restorative process.

When it comes to both remembering and executing items on tomorrow’s to-do list, it’s best to think it over, then “sleep on it,” say research psychologists at Washington University in St. Louis.

People who sleep after processing and storing a memory carry out their intentions much better than people who try to execute their plan before getting to sleep. The key finding is that researchers have shown how sleep enhances our ability to remember to do something in the future, a skill known as prospective memory.

Researchers that are studying the relationship between memory and sleep say that our ability to carry out our intentions is not so much a function of how firmly that intention has been embedded in our memories. Rather, the trigger that helps carry out our intentions is usually a place, situation or circumstance - some context encountered the next day - that sparks the recall of an intended action.

Prospective memory includes such things as remembering to take a medication, buying a Mother’s Day card or bringing home the ice cream for a birthday party. While the vast majority of sleep literature in psychology is devoted to retrospective memory, this study is the first foray into the relationship between sleep and prospective memory, the kind of memory we put to work every day. The findings, researchers say, offer important contributions to the understanding of the role sleep plays in cognition as well as memory.

Let’s say that you intend to give a friend a message tomorrow, McDaniel explains. Seeing the friend the next day will be a strong cue for remembering to give the message. But, during the time your brain encoded the intention, you’re also vaguely thinking of a place the two of you will meet the next afternoon. The context of the place is weakly associated with your intention to give the message even though you haven’t really thought explicitly about associating the place with the message.

“We found that sleep benefits prospective memory by strengthening the weak associations in the brain, and that hasn’t been shown before,” Scullin says.

“One of the more provocative findings we have is that sleep didn’t strengthen the link between the explicit cue, which is the person, and the intention, rather it strengthened the weak association and the intention,” McDaniel says.

The researchers believe that the prospective memory process occurs during slow wave sleep - an early pattern in the sleep cycle - involving communication between the hippocampus and cortical regions. The hippocampus is very important in memory formation and reactivation and the cortical regions are keys to storing memories.

“We think that during slow wave sleep the hippocampus is reactivating these recently learned memories, taking them up and placing them in long-term storage regions in the brain,” Scullin says. “The physiology of slow wave sleep seems very conducive to this kind of memory strengthening.”

Source:
Gerry Everding
Washington University in St. Louis

Having diabetes means having your pancreas affected by Type 2 diabetes. Our blood stream contains glucose, which is converted sugar from what we eat. As soon as it’s in our blood cells, the insulin secreted by the pancreas makes it a sort-of fuel which our body utilizes. If you have Type 2 diabetes, it will be difficult for you to produce and use this insulin. Your body’s cells have a hard time looking for this glucose even if it’s all over your body.

An organization known as the American Diabetes Association is tasked with gathering information about this critical medical condition. America, with its 23.6 million people suffering from diabetes, is a very unhealthy country. Around ninety percent of all its diabetics have the Type 2 condition. A lot of diabetics are overweight, and it is not surprising to note that they also have relatives who are like this. The internal organs (and one’s entire nervous system, too) could end up with critical and lasting damage if you have an excess of glucose in you.

The Life of a Diabetic

If you have Type 2 diabetes, you need to live in a healthy manner. Living healthy and engaging in healthy practices will affect you tremendously. Two common examples of healthy routines include exercising and consuming healthy foods. Making sure that your glucose levels stay in the recommended range translates into being able to avoid complications in your health. A finger prick test is a common and reliable way to monitor your body’s blood glucose levels.

This test, according to physicians, is sufficient enough for glucose monitoring like the HbA1c test. The amount of glycated hemoglobin in your blood is determined by this HbA1c test, aside from it alerting you if you reach a high glucose level. Results of these A1c tests show that people with diabetes are at a seven percent level. The CDC reports that if one maintains their a1c levels at seven percent, they could reduce the possibility of risks as high up as forty percent.

Over-Controlled Levels

When your a1c levels dip below 7% you might experience adverse effects, according to recent medical studies. A study conducted by a medical center in Seattle (Lancet and Swedish), indicates that people who keep their median a1c levels and/or use insulin will be at a higher death risk. Then again, many tests indicate that a seven percent maintaining level of a1c is still healthy. Maintaining a seven percent level of a1c is still good, according to the endocrinologist Matt Davies for as long as physicians are well-aware of the medical history of their patients before any treatment is prescribed.

About the Guest Author - Kristina V. Ridley writes on <a href=”http://www.diabetesmeters.org/”>glucose meter readings</a> , her personal hobby blog focused on helping people get free information to prevent diabetes and test blood glucose at home.

Every day, millions of travelers struggle against one of the most common sleep disorders — jet lag. For years, jet lag was considered merely a state of mind. Now, studies have shown that the condition actually results from an imbalance in our body’s natural “biological clock” caused by traveling to different time zones. Basically, our bodies work on a 24-hour cycle called “circadian rhythms.” These rhythms are measured by the distinct rise and fall of body temperature, plasma levels of certain hormones and other biological conditions. All of these are influenced by our exposure to sunlight and help determine when we sleep and when we wake.

When traveling to a new time zone, our circadian rhythms are slow to adjust and remain on their original biological schedule for several days. This results in our bodies telling us it is time to sleep, when it’s actually the middle of the afternoon, or it makes us want to stay awake when it is late at night. This experience is known as jet lag.

Some simple behavioral adjustments before, during and after arrival at your destination can help minimize some of the side effects of jet lag.

• Select a flight that allows early evening arrival and stay up until 10 p.m. local time. (If you must sleep during the day, take a short nap in the early afternoon, but no longer than 30 minutes. Set an alarm to be sure not to over sleep.)
• Anticipate the time change for trips by getting up and going to bed earlier several days prior to an eastward trip and later for a westward trip.
• Upon boarding the plane, change your watch to the destination time zone.
• Avoid alcohol or caffeine at least three to four hours before bedtime. Both act as “stimulants” and prevent sleep.
• Upon arrival at a destination, avoid heavy meals (a snack—not chocolate—is okay).
• Avoid any heavy exercise close to bedtime. (Light exercise earlier in the day is fine.)
• Bring earplugs and blindfolds to help dampen noise and block out unwanted light while sleeping.
• Try to get outside in the sunlight whenever possible. Daylight is a powerful stimulant for regulating the biological clock. (Staying indoors worsens jet lag.)
• Contrary to popular belief, the type of foods we eat have no effect on minimizing jet lag.

According to experts, stress or the potential for stress is another problem that can lead to sleeplessness. Two common travel related stress conditions are the “First Night Effect” and the “On-Call Effect.” The first condition occurs when trying to sleep in a new or unfamiliar environment. The second is caused by the nagging worry that something just might wake you up, such as the possibility of a phone ringing, hallway noise or another disruption.

Try these tips on you next trip to help avoid travel-related stress and subsequent sleeplessness.

• Check with the hotel to see if voice mail services are available to guests. Then, whenever possible, have your calls handled by the service.
• Check your room for potential sleep disturbances that may be avoided; e.g., light shining through the drapes, unwanted in-room noise, etc.
• Utilize music, ambient noise machines, or even better “Sleep Recordings” in the hotel room to create a familiar pattern for sleep.
• Request two wake-up calls in case you miss the first one.

Speed Sleep utilizes conditioned response strategies to quickly lead you to the deepest levels of sleep. The process guides you down in a Zen methodology. The book Zen and the Art of Sleep by Eric Chiles offers a deeper understanding of how effective the process can be.

Zen and the Art of Sleep offers a surprising discovery for insomniacs. The problem isn’t sleep. The problem is trying to capture and control sleep. Readers new to Zen Buddhism are gently guided down this reflective path. Along the way, emotional baggage and misguided endeavors that feed insomnia fade away. Zen Practice exercises reveal awake and asleep to be part of the same moving stream. Unblocking that flow allows the inevitable bedtime moment of drowsiness, a moment not so different from any other, to proceed naturally and without effort.

Trend Hunter Magazine Review of Speed Sleep

http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/speed-sleep-sleeping-your-way-to-success

Sleeping your way to success is now possible, thanks to Speed Sleep (no, not that kind of success - get your mind out of the gutter!).  Speed Sleep is an audio track that uses guided visualization to teach listeners to fall asleep quickly and deeply, as well as to nap effectively.  Besides being a great alternative to prescription drugs or OTC sleep aids, the kind of regular high quality sleep that Speed Sleep promotes helps reduce stress and boosts creativity and productivity.

Considering that we have coaches or optimization for virtually everything else these days, from fitness regimes to personal finances, it was only a matter of time before people started to optimize their sleep. It is an excellent idea, however, since we spend approximately one third of our lives sleeping, we should make the most of it!

Myth: Men and women are affected the same way by insomnia.

Fact: Insomnia is nearly twice as common in women than in men, and women are more likely than men to report insomnia to their healthcare professional. A woman’s sleep is uniquely influenced by menstrual cycle, biological life stage, stress level, health, mood, parental status, work hours and other life responsibilities.

Myth: Exercising before bed will make me tired, and help me sleep.

Fact: Exercise can be helpful for good sleep, especially when done regularly in the morning or afternoon and not too close to bedtime. If you don’t exercise regularly, add good sleep to a long list of reasons why you should take up the practice.

However, sleep experts have cautioned people to avoid strenuous exercise right before sleep and even up to three hours before bedtime. That’s because exercise has an alerting effect and raises your body temperature. This rise leads to a corresponding fall in temperature five to six hours later, which makes sleep easier then. If you’ve been exercising close to bedtime and having trouble falling or staying asleep, try to arrange your workout earlier in the day.

Myth: I can have alcohol or wine with my sleep aid – it will help me get to sleep faster.

Fact: Sleep medications should not be used with alcohol or other drugs. Sleep aids should also not be taken before driving or operating machinery, or before taking a bath or shower, among other things. Always follow your healthcare professional’s instructions about how to take, when to take, and how long to take sleep aids.

Some people feel that alcohol is a sleep aid on its own. However, while alcohol may calm you and speed the onset of sleep, it actually increases the number of times you awaken during the night.

Here are some quick tips that will improve your napping skills. They can be used just before you do a Speed Sleep:

Take six deep breaths- After you get comfy, take six really deep, slow, breaths. If you can, breathe in from the nose, and out through the mouth. Nice, slow, easy.

Feel your aches- Without moving, take a quick inventory of the aches and pains you feel, especially around the face, the neck, your jaw, and your lower back.

Think of warmth- Imagine sending liquid warmth through those parts, such that the warmth pours over the aches, and washes them down out of your body off the bed, and onto the floor.

Release your worrisome thoughts- Say to every bothersome thought that comes into your head, “I can’t fix you right now. I’ll get back to you later.” Everything that comes up is not meant to be solved right now. Your brain’s just trying to get rid of them. Even reminders. “I’ll remember you when I wake up.” Let them all go.

Assure yourself you will wake up on time- This is important for nappers, but also for people who have trouble waking up. Just give yourself a quick reminder of when you want to wake up. Think of the numbers on the clock.

Think of a relaxing space- You’re in a hammock, up off the ground, wrapped in a cocoon of comfort, swaying gently in the open air. The sun is warm on your face, and there’s a breeze blowing you back and forth. This visualization helps you “see” what sleep’s reward will be, getting you more in the mood to sleep.

Visualization has proven helpful in developing the appropriate brain wave patterns to achieve restful sleep. The more you practice these techniques and build them into a ritual, the better your opportunity for repeatable success. Just like Speed Sleep it is about increasing the speed at which you achieve those deep levels of sleep. The speed at which you get to sleep after practicing these improves as you practice.