Common Problems

Finding what’s fixable for a good night’s sleep

Many common sleep problems, once solved, lead to deep, restorative sleep. Zia’s self-diagnostic tips and Sleep Advisors will help you identify these issues that and provide the tips and tools to deliver the rejuvenating sleep you so richly deserve.

Please note: the information provided below is not intended to offer medical diagnosis or a prescription for treatment. If you regularly have difficulty sleeping, please consult your physician.

Snoring

Five Natural Remedies to Stop Snoring
WebMD

Here's a classic one-liner, one partner speaking to the other: "Do you know that snoring causes a lack of sleep? MINE!" While the butt of many jokes, snoring isn’t a laughing matter to the millions of adults who snore and the people who love and (try to) sleep with them.
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Eight Ways to Love Your Snorer
WebMD

If your bed-partner is a snorer (and if you've listened to snorting all night long), then listen up. Your nightlife can be more slumbersome.
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Snoring: Symptoms, Causes, Cures, and Treatment
Helpguide.org

Snoring is noisy breathing through the mouth or nose during sleep. Just about everyone snores occasionally—even the baby and the beloved pet—and more than 30 percent of adults snore weekly. But chronic snoring may be problematic.
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Snoring
MayoClinic.com

Loud and frequent snoring may be more than just a nuisance. This nighttime annoyance may indicate a serious health condition, even as it disrupts your household and strains your relationships.
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Snoring Information
Stanford.edu

Most people know what snoring is and perhaps sleep with someone who snores. And while snoring may evoke some healthy ribbing, it may also be a sign of an unhealthy disorder called obstructive sleep apnea.
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Sleeptionary™ - Snoring
National Sleep Foundation

Snoring is noisy breathing during sleep. It is a common problem, neither age- nor gender-specific, and it affects approximately 90 mm American adults—37 mm on a regular basis.
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Women's Sleep Problems

Sleep Tips for Pregnant Women
National Sleep Foundation

In the third trimester, sleep on your left side to allow for the best blood flow to the fetus and to your uterus and kidneys. Avoid lying flat on your back for a long period of time.
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Women and Sleep - Understanding Menopause
National Sleep Foundation

Generally, post-menopausal women are less satisfied with their sleep and as many as 61% report insomnia symptoms. Snoring has also been found to be more common and severe in post-menopausal women.
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Sleep Disorders: Sleep and Menopause
WebMD

Approximately 75-85% of menopausal women experience hot flashes, which can last for five years. Hot flashes and sweating can make it difficult to sleep.
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Facts About Women and Sleep
Shuteye.com

Sleep loss in women has reached epidemic proportions. Unfortunately, many women are unaware of the negative impact sleep problems can have on their health and performance. Identifying the unique complications that contribute to sleep problems in women is an important step in achieving better sleep.
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Women and Sleep - Unique Challenges - Unique Solutions
Women's health.About

Each May, the Better Sleep Council sponsors Better Sleep Month to raise the awareness of the importance of sleep and mattresses to good health and quality of life. 
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Uncovering How Men and Women Sleep
Health A to Z

Even in their sleep, men are from Mars and women are from Venus.

A sleep survey shows that men and women in “Snoozeland” can be as different as, well, night and day. Men and women surveyed both surmise that men get a better night's sleep—but their perceptions are wrong.
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Stress & Sleep

Stress and Sleep in America Better
Sleep Council

The Better Sleep Council (BSC) conducted a stress and sleep survey to find out what keeps Americans up at night. This year's findings revealed a range of insights on Americans' stress and sleep cycles.
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Stress and Sleep Issues
WebMD

Is stress keeping you from getting the sleep you need? Or, is a lack of sleep causing you stress? Or, maybe you're just so tired you don't know what comes first anymore!
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Stress, Anxiety and Sleep
About - From the National Sleep Foundation

WASHINGTON, DC, April 8—The television screen brings vivid details of the war in Iraq into our homes while the increased threat of terrorist attacks looms over our communities. The weak economy has led to belt tightening in the business sector that has meant layoffs, higher unemployment and a less than inviting job market. The combination of these and other events is causing increased anxiety and stress levels for millions of people, often resulting in sleep disruptions that range from trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, to waking early or having nightmares.
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Is Stress Affecting Your Sleep Patterns?
About - Stress Management

Sleep is an important resource that keeps you healthy, mentally sharp, and helps you to more effectively cope with stress, among other things. Unfortunately, stressed and busy people tend to get less sleep than they need. According to a poll on this site, 50% of my readers are missing enough sleep to triple their risk of a car accident! Learn some of the reasons why stress and sleep deprivation seem to go together, and learn important techniques for getting the sleep you need.
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Stress - Coping With Everyday Problems
National Mental Health Organization

Stress is a natural part of life: "I'm stressed out," "I'm under too much stress," or "Work is one big stress" are all familiar phrases. But stress is hard to define. It means different things to different people. However, one thing is clear: for most of us, stress is a negative.
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Sleeping with Pain

How to Sleep Soundly
Alan Hedge, PhD, CPE
Professor, Ergonomics
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY, USA
Spine Universe

In Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale The Princess and the Pea, a princess is unable to get a good night’s sleep because a pea has been placed beneath her mattress. Actually, 20 mattresses! One moral to this tale is that the quality of what you sleep on matters to the quality of your sleep. In fact, when we sleep our bodies are compressed by gravity in a different way than when we stand upright. For optimal quality sleep, our body’s weight must be fully supported by the mattress and its structures. For this reason, the mattress has been called an “antigravity machine,” making possible the natural shape of the spine when reclined in sleep.
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Patrick J. Bird, Ph. D
Keeping Fit
Column 445
University of Florida College of Health and Human Performance

Q. I have some back pain that has been troubling me. My doctor said it will probably go away by itself, and he gave me a set of exercises. The exercises seem to help, but my back still hurts after I have been lying down for a while before going to sleep. Also, my back is often stiff and sometimes sore when I wake up in the morning. Do you have any suggestions that might help?
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Sleeptionary™ - Fibromyalgia
National Sleep Foundation

For people with fibromyalgia, the combination of pain and sleep disturbance is a double-edged sword. The pain makes sleep more difficult and the lack of sleep exacerbates pain. The good news is that reduction in sleep disturbance is usually followed by improvement in pain symptoms. This also highlights the importance of healthy sleep and access to sleep specialists in treating the disease.
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When Aches & Pain Disrupt Sleep
By R. Morgan Griffin
WebMD Feature

Aches and pains occasionally disturb everyone’s sleep. It doesn't take much—a pulled muscle from an overenthusiastic workout or an afternoon spent helping a friend move furniture can create havoc at 3 a.m., when pain awakes you and you’re staring into space, wishing for relief.
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Pain and Sleep
National Sleep Foundation

When you can't sleep and your head aches or your back hurts you will likely lose a lot of sleep.
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Breaking the Cycle of Chronic Pain and Insomnia
Spine-Health.com

Patients suffering from chronic pain often find that their problems are compounded by the additional difficulties that come with insomnia and sleeping disorders. Of those who report experiencing chronic pain (about 15% of the general U.S. population and 50% of the elderly), approximately 65% report having sleep disorders, such as disrupted or non-restorative sleep.
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About Fibromyalgia
National Fibromyalgia Association

Many fibromyalgia (FM) patients have an associated sleep disorder that prevents them from getting deep, restful, restorative sleep. Medical researchers have documented specific, distinctive abnormalities in the Stage 4 deep sleep of FM patients. During sleep, individuals with FM are constantly interrupted by bursts of awake-like brain activity, limiting the amount of time they spend in deep sleep.
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Improving Sleep When you have Fibromyalgia
Provided by Healthwise
Yahoo! Health

If you have fibromyalgia, you may often wake up feeling weary and unrefreshed. Some experts believe poor sleep contributes to fatigue and muscle pain.
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Traveling and Jet Lag

Jet Lag
Sleep Channel

Jet lag, or desynchronosis, is a temporary condition that some people experience following air travel across several time zones in a short period of time. This causes the traveler's internal clock to be out of sync with the external environment.  Read More>>

JET LAG -- Time Zone Change Syndrome
Stanford.edu

Time zone change (jet lag) syndrome consists of varying degrees of difficulties in initiating or maintaining sleep, excessive sleepiness, decrements in subjective daytime alertness and performance, and somatic symptoms (largely related to gastrointestinal function) following rapid travel across multiple time zones.
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Jet Lag
Sleep Education.com

Jet lag is a circadian rhythm sleep disorder that is also called time zone change syndrome. It involves a mismatch in the timing of your natural tendency to be asleep and the time when you are naturally awake. It occurs due to travel by airplane across many time zones. The long trip quickly puts you in a place where you need to sleep and wake at a time that is different than what your internal body clock expects.
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Ten Tips to Help You Avoid Jet Lag
About

Sooner or later, almost everyone who travels by air-from occasional passengers to professional pilots-is affected by jet lag. One research study reported that as many as 94 percent of all long-distance fliers experience some form of jet lag. Read More>>

Dealing with Jet Lag
Health AtoZ

The convenience and affordability of air travel during the past 20 years have dramatically changed the way we vacation and do business. In many ways, air travel has had positive influences on the quality of our lives. For our bodies, however, the effects of air travel are not always so positive. Read More>>