Humans need sleep like food. Much as with recipes, there are many elements that make for good, joyous sleep. Just as a checklist won’t make you a great chef, this checklist may not give make you a great sleeper. But every little bit helps. 1. My sleep place is as cool, comfy, dark, safe as […]
Can Addiction Start in the ER?
Addiction and Pain Pain rots the soul. Opioids can effectively treat pain – and then rot the soul and body. The treatment of pain remains a difficult dilemna for the whole country. A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine highlights the opiod mess in a a new way, demonstrating how one prescription […]
How to Treat Insomnia Part II (Including When You’re Older)
Insomnia afflicts the majority of Americans over 65. It makes many people miserable, but can be aided or even erased by relatively simple techniques. Insomnia’s causes are many and complex, including changes in body clocks, types of illnesses, effects of medications, and the process of aging itself (see part I.) Fortunately, most treatments of insomnia, […]
Why Can’t Older Folks Sleep? (Part I)
Sleep and insomnia increase with age. Most studies find the inability to get proper rest affects the majority of folks past the age of 65 (Lots of younger people can’t sleep, either.) There are dozens of known reasons people can’t sleep. Here’s some of the most prominent. Aging Changes Sleep Take a newborn. Many neonates will […]
Why Don’t People Sleep?
“Can’t I just treat my insomnia with a book?” My interlocutor was sure there was a book out there (including one of my mine) that “could get me to sleep just fine.” Certainly many could do with a brief bout of Sleep School – understanding how sleep affects their health, performance, pleasure, pain, income and mortality […]