IN YOUR DAILY DOSE today you’ll discover that your brain is an amazing machine. Researchers have discovered one more amazing thing your brain can do on the huge list of things it does. This discovery may lead to better treatment options for people with sleep disorders and treatment for individuals in coma.

IN MAKING CHANGES today are suggestions you can use today to improve your sleep quality each night. Sleep is important for your brain to detoxify and reduce your potential to suffer from dementia.

IN FACT OR FICTION you’ll learn whether or not that base tan you try to get each spring will really help prevent sunburn or skin cancer.

In The News

Your brain is amazing. You know only some of the things that it’s capable of. Each day your brain runs your body without one thought from you. It controls your hormone levels, your muscle movement, your kidney function and helps balance your neurotransmitters.

Recently, researchers discovered one more function your brain performs effortlessly. With this discovery may come new treatments for sleep disorders and could lead to more successful treatments of people who are comatose.

Almost everyone suffers from a sleep disturbance once in their lifetime and 20% suffer chronically. Researchers have discovered a function in the brain that is responsible for rapid arousal from sleep and anesthesia.

SOURCE:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/12/151221111442.htm

Daily Health Tip

One of the factors that impacts your sleep quality are the habits you develop around sleep. We each have eating habits, reading habits, work habits and we have sleep habits. In fact, doctors and researchers refer to sleep hygeine. Let’s learn a few tips that will keep your sleep hygiene clean and clear, providing for you the best rest you can get.

Making Changes

1. Don’t take medications for sleep on a regular basis. If your body relies on medication to sleep it will reduce the quality of sleep you get.

2. Stop drinking about 3 hours before bed. You’ll reduce or eliminate the number of times you have to get up to urinate, and interrupt your sleep.

3. Stay hydrated during the day. This is good for lots of things, not just sleep.

4. Don’t eat a large meal within 3 hours of sleeping. You can eat a small snack before bed if you are hungry enough that it might keep you awake.

5. Do NOT watch television, work on your computer or play with your cell phone in bed. You should be sleeping, having sex or possibly reading something light in bed. Nothing else.

My Daily Affirmation

I maintain a happy, peaceful environment in my home.

Making things work smoothly in my home provides a positive experience for my family and me. It creates a productive environment where we all feel that we are part of a team, instead of just individuals living together in the same home.

Fact Or Fiction?

Some people hit the tanning booth each spring to help protect their skin from sunburn in the early days of summer and to give them a ‘base tan.’  

The answer is NO. According to research from Yale University School of Medicine, a base tan offers you another 10 minutes in the sun without turning pink. That amounts to an SPF of approximately 3. “That, says David Leffell, the chief of dermatologic surgery and cutaneous oncology at Yale University School of Medicine, is “completely meaningless” in terms of providing protection.” Scientific American http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-a-base-tan-can-protect-against-sunburn/

Heather Rogers, Professor of Dermatology at Washington University School of Medicine says, You won’t change your skin type with sun exposure. It just won’t happen.”  

“Dermatologists say that such base tanners may engage in riskier behaviors like lying in the sun without sunscreen or reapplying lotion less frequently. Yet no matter how hard tanners may wish, spending time in the sun or on a tanning bed will not transform a pasty person into one with darker skin, at least long-term.” Scientific American  http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-a-base-tan-can-protect-against-sunburn/

Have a wonderful day!

Your Healthy Life America Team