‘Relationship ADHD’: Have We Lost the Instinct for Commitment? (Health News Digest)

(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Menlo Park, CA, September 28, 2018 – Relationships have always been complicated. It takes time and effort to develop trust and intimacy and the deep love that sustains a couple over many years and through the rough patches. It takes sacrifice and compromise and putting another person’s wants and needs ahead of your own. These are timeless truths. Yet it seems that the ways in which relationships develop – or fail to develop – have changed. Psychiatrist Dr. Alex Dimitriu observes that his dating clients find that prospective partners come and go before either person has even had a chance to evaluate the potential for a lasting relationship. “What’s going on?” he asks. “Do we have ‘relationship attention deficit disorder’? Have our lives become so fragmented and our attention so distracted that we can no longer focus long enough to form a strong bond with a potential life partner?”

Click HERE for the full article on HealthNewsDigest.

What Pulling an All-Nighter Does to Your Mind and Body (Vice)

Here’s the bare minimum amount of sleep you need before a big exam.

By Nick Keppler, Sep 17 2018

You had a whole week to prepare for your Comparative Lit exam—but then, well, Assassin’s Creed happened. (Lots of Assassin’s Creed.) Now your only hope is the fallback option that college students have relied upon since the days of affordable tuition: the all-nighter. You go to the common room with two Red Bulls, a bag of books weighing as much as a car tire, and a laptop. You will mentally chain yourself to a desk and finish everything you’ve put off until the sun rises. But then you remember from Psychology 101 that sleep is, like, important. Aren’t you destroying the cognitive capacity you need to get through this year with at least a 2.6 by depriving yourself of it?

Click HERE for the full article on VICE.

Is It Possible To Sleep Too Much? 6 Things That Happen When You Get Too Much Rest (Bustle)

By Carina Wolff, 9/13/18

We all know how important sleep is, so it would feel correct to assume that the more sleep you get, the better. However, it is possible to have too much of a good thing, and this includes sleep. There are a number of surprising things that can happen when you sleep too much, which is important to keep in mind if you’re someone who likes to doze off deep into the day. Although this doesn’t give you an excuse to stay up all night, you also don’t want to overdo it when it comes to getting rest.

Click HERE for the full article on Bustle.

5 Fascinating Shower Tips For Anyone Who Has Trouble Sleeping

By CARINA WOLFF, 9/12/18

When it comes to getting a good night’s sleep, you might be focusing more on your bedroom atmosphere or avoiding caffeine too late in the day. However, you also might want to start paying attention to your bathing habits, as there are a number of shower tips that can help you if you have trouble sleeping. Since showers can change our body temperature, and temperature plays a role in our body’s natural circadian rhythm, you can change up your shower habits to help encourage better sleep at night and wakefulness in the morning.

“Any drop in body temperature can often help with deepening our sleep through the night,” psychiatrist and sleep medicine specialist Dr. Alex Dimitriu tells Bustle. “There is a substantial body of research that shows if you warm up, and then cool down through the night, sleep gets deeper. Meaning, we spend more time in deep sleep rather than light sleep when we cool down. Half of this involves warming up, and a hot shower or bath before bed can accentuate this drop in temperature.”

Click HERE for the full article on Bustle.

9 Tips for Better Sleep (Alternative Medicine Magazine)

September 2018

The exciting research in sleep science nowadays comes from labs studying the effects of sleep on the brain and what happens when you deprive your brain of restorative sleep. New research suggests that sleeping less than seven to eight hours a night risks memory loss, cognitive decline, and even Alzheimer’s disease.

If you regularly struggle to get to sleep or stay asleep, improving sleep habits can restore a restful night’s sleep. Following are a few tips for improving sleep:

Click HERE for the full article on Alternative Medicine Magazine.

How Sleep impacts Brain Health (Alternative Medicine Magazine)

September 2018

As important to your health as good nutrition and regular exercise, the consequences of missing sleep begin with diminished daytime function: mood, energy, concentration and reaction time. But, sleepless nights have implications well beyond making you sleepy the next day. Over the long term, it contributes to obesity and the risk of serious illness. Beyond its interplay with brain health issues such as dementia and Alzheimer’s, sleep in healthy, young people also plays a key role in memory formation and consolidation. Many younger patients with insomnia, or insufficient time sleeping, report significant short-term memory problems.

Click HERE for the full article on Alternative Medicine Magazine.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea Severity Tied to Lipid Levels (MD Alert, Reuters Health, MDLinx)

AUGUST 30, 2018, By Marilynn Larkin

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) severity is independently associated with cholesterol and triglyceride levels, researchers say.

Dr. Ludger Grote of Sahlgrenska Academy in Gothenberg and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 8,592 patients in the European Sleep Apnea Database without physician-diagnosed hyperlipidemia or reported use of a lipid-lowering drug. Patients’ mean age was 50, and 69% were men. Mean BMI was 30.8 kg/m2 and mean apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) was 25.7 events per hour.

Click HERE for the full article on MDLinx.

6 Mistakes You’re Making When Napping (Bustle)

By Carina Wolff, 8/29/18

Some people live for their daily naps. After all, they can be rejuvenating and the perfect break during an exhausting day. But if you’re just plopping on the couch and sleeping until you see fit, you may not be doing it right. There are a number of mistakes you can make when napping, and although they might seem harmless, they can leave you feeling groggy and low-energy and even affect your sleep schedule later on. Naps can be a healthy part of your day, but it’s important you follow a few simple rules.

Sleep depends on quality just as much as quantity, and it’s important to be aware of the different phases of sleep as well. “There is deep sleep and light sleep, and our bodies go through cycles of this every night — about every 90 minutes,” psychiatrist and sleep medicine specialist Dr. Alex Dimitriu tells Bustle. “Not all naps are equal, because depending on the timing of the nap, we may have more light sleep or deep sleep. Longer naps tend to bring us into deeper sleep, from which it can be harder to wake up.”

Click HERE for the full article on Bustle.

Sleep Issues: Restless Legs Syndrome and Your Sleep (Health News Digest)

Menlo Park, CA, August 23, 2018 – For millions of Americans, a good night’s sleep is an elusive goal. Insomniacs are plagued by a persistent combination of difficulty falling asleep, frequent waking and difficulty getting back to sleep, waking too early, and not feeling rested on waking. Chronic insomnia can have serious implications for quality of life, resulting in daytime sleepiness, irritability, impaired job performance, accidents, and health risks.

Click HERE for the full article on HealthNewsDigest.

Am I Sleep-Deprived and Tired – or Depressed? (A List Nation Magazine)

August 2018

Click HERE for the full article on A List Nation Magazine.

Ways to Deal with Panic Attacks (Energy Times)

Fear, trembling, sweating, pounding head; racing heart: A panic attack may not kill you, but it certainly feels possible. Psychiatrist Alex Dimitriu, MD, has a simple recommendation: breathe. ““Physicians have long known that the relaxation, visualization—and breathing—techniques taught in yoga and used in meditation help many patients manage their anxiety, including panic disorder,” says Dimitriu, founder of the Menlo Park Psychiatry & Sleep Medicine, Alex Dimitriu, M.D. Center in California.

Click HERE for the full article on Energy Times.

This Is What It’s Like to Live With Agitated Depression (Vice)

Agitated depression—or “melancholia agitate”—has been described as a mixed state in which some symptoms of depression exist with those of other psychiatric ailments.

By Nick Keppler, Aug 15 2018, 12:29pm

For Steven, a “bender” began with a scenario like this: He would be watching a movie at his girlfriend’s apartment. Then the thought hit him: He had done something wrong at his job—or just something inadequate. Steven works in finance, in security and regulation compliance; there are always things he could have given more scrutiny.

“My girlfriend would be talking, but I wouldn’t hear what she was saying,” says Steven (who requested that his last name and location be withheld because he feared possible termination from his job). “I would just be thinking, ‘You are lazy. You are stupid. You can’t pretend anymore. You are a piece of shit and you don’t have a plan.’”

Click HERE for the full article on VICE.

11 Things You Should Know Before Going Off Anti-Anxiety Medication (Insider)

By Arielle Tschinkel, August 8, 2018

If you struggle with anxiety , you know just how difficult it can be to find the best combination of coping tools to help effectively manage your anxiety.

Mental health is so important, and seeking professional help — which may include medication, talk therapy, or both — is a crucial step in helping to manage anxiety, and it often takes sufferers a very long time to find a strategy that works for them.

But whether you’ve been on anti-anxiety medication for a while — or aren’t sure the ones you’re taking are working properly — or have been taking them for a short time to manage an acute bout of anxiety, it’s absolutely crucial that you speak with your doctor before stopping any medications you’re on, no matter how small your particular dose or how infrequently you use it.

INSIDER spoke with three psychiatrists to find out what you can expect as you wean off or stop taking anti-anxiety meds.

Click HERE for the full article on INSIDER.

5 Health Benefits of Sleeping Naked (Shape)

Science says stripping down is good for more than your sex life.

By Colleen Stinchcombe | Aug 06, 2018

All of us want a good night’s sleep. And while there are endless suggestions on how exactly to do that, it turns out there might be one simple solution: Stripping down. “There are many benefits to sleeping nude,” says Chris Brantner, a certified sleep science coach and founder of online sleep resource SleepZoo. “[Sleeping naked] helps regulate your body temperature … leads to greater relationship happiness … [and] can result in more healthy genitals.”

But those are only a few of the benefits of sleeping naked. Here, experts explain why you should consider donning your birthday suit when it’s time to drift off.

1. You’ll get a deeper sleep.
“There is substantial evidence that a drop in body temperature helps with getting deeper sleep,” says Alex Dimitriu, M.D., a board-certified sleep medicine and psychiatry expert. Case in point: After following 765,000 people between 2002 and 2011, a study published in Science Advances concluded that increases in nighttime temperature led to worse sleep. On top of that, a study in Sleep Medicine Reviews found evidence that elevated temperatures mess with our circadian rhythms, making it tough to fall asleep and stay asleep.

Click HERE for the full article on SHAPE.

When You Don’t Get Enough Sleep (Bustle)

By NATALIA LUSINSKI, August 2018

If you’ve ever had insomnia, you know how frustrating it is not being able to fall asleep. Plus, all the pressure — you need to be up soon for work and really want to sleep more than just a few hours. Aside from the exhaustion factor, there are many things that happen when you don’t get enough sleep.

If you’re not sleeping enough, you’re not alone: According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM), approximately one-third of American adults aren’t sleeping enough either. Mattress company Reverie, too, recently surveyed 1,000 Americans and found that more than half of adults (57 percent) surveyed feel they don’t sleep enough and wish they got more sleep (58 percent).

Click HERE for the full article on Bustle.