Most people nowadays are busy trying to burn those excess calories solicited from the just concluded Holidays and while many feel that exercise and cutting down the food intake is all that it takes to do so, hold on a second.

While controlling food intake and exercise may do that, do not forget the most important factor of all – SLEEP. Studies have shown that people would need 7.5 to 8.5 hours of sleep to truly reap the benefits of dieting.

Studies have demonstrated that lack of sleep leads to an increase in the hormone ghrelin (which tells the body to eat) and a decrease in the hormone leptin (which tells your body to stop eating).

Paired with a reliable bed and doing away with the vices like TV, do not overlook the value of sleeping properly. It may play a big difference when it comes to dieting and your overall health of course.

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The Holidays or the season for drinking and feasting may be over but this doesn’t mean the drivers who may eventually find themselves a bit sleepy on the roads are over. And to welcome the new year, here is something neat from Japanese company Juki, something you can mount on the driver’s seat whose intent is to alarm the driver in cases where he is about to doze off.

The solution is called the Anti-Sleep Driver Seat Sheet or the Sleep Buster. It does the trick by measuring the signals from the heart and aorta through a built-in sensor.

A piece of software called “Human Tachometer” then visualizes the condition of the driver on a controller.

The Sleep Buster is set to retail next month, priced at about US$2,000 in Japan. This includes the controller, sheet and the power module. No word yet of a U.S. release.

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Heimplanet offers an easy to build shelter for the outdoor lovers with an inflatable tent featuring a geodesic shape. It only takes 1 minute to set the tent up, a neat way to camp out in style. The tent is divided into 5 separate sections which should be more than enough to house groups and likewise prevent it from caving in just in case it accidentally deflates.

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The Holidays will mean a lot of feasting and late night outs and with that thought alone, you will agree that drunk or even simply drowsy drivers are sure to plague the streets. And to help avoid such unfortunate incidents, perhaps this new system will minimize or better yet negate such accidents for the season of cheers.

The system is the Active Driver Monitoring System, something that should keep drivers alert by monitoring their eye and head movements as well as the driver’s hear rate. This breakthrough will certainly be a big help, especially for the people who may drink too much and at the wee hours too.

But even without the device, just make sure you get enough sleep and drink conservatively. Christmas is a season of celebrating and not for sulking.

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A different kind of clock indeed, the Countdown Clock can be yours for just $32.

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Here is something timely. With people expected to embark on long trips as the Holidays set in, sleeping while driving could be pretty much a concern. But not with the Anti-Sleep Pilot! Considered a modern day NoDoz, this is one gadget you can have on your vehicle’s dashboard and will keep you awake once it senses you falling asleep.

The ASP will further keep you on your toes by giving you random tests throughout the drive and will help you maintain your alertness. And by how fast or slow you react to these test, the device will calculate at what level your fatigue is. If you really are just too tired to drive and the ASP senses it, it will send off signals and lights telling you that you need to take a break.

The ASP is only available in Denmark for now but should make its way into the U.S. soon.

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Getting behind the wheel and falling asleep has led to a lot of vehicular accidents but with this new technology, they Eyetracker system should help diminish those numbers and make driving a whole lot safer.

Especially with the Holidays coming up, the Eyetracker should be a nifty add-on for your car. It watches the driver’s face for telltale signs of sleepiness and issues a warning if it looks like they are about to doze off.

The system uses two cameras to keep tabs on the spatial positioning of the pupil and the line of vision. They Eyetracker is easy to install and should be something that could save a life.

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With the Holidays fast approaching, guests and sleepovers are expected to spike up again. And for the hosts who want to make sure that they give their guests proper accommodations, a crisis may arise with the shortage of container ships as stressed by Home and Bedroom.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and normally some homes would have relatives and friends to sleepover. And to make sure that they do get the best sleep accommodations, extra beds can do the trick.

However with shipping companies idling their operations due to the recession, it looks like they have their work cut out for them. With mass purchases for beds expected to spike, delays may eventually cause some inconvenience on their end.

Surging shipments of furniture, electronics and clothes to the U.S. and Europe, coupled with capacity cuts by shipping lines, has caused as much as 15 percent of containers to be delayed in Busan this year. (Bloomberg).

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It is that time of the year again when many people are expected to be stressed out and incur a lot of sleepless nights. This could be because of shopping, overeating, and other things associated with the coming Holidays. To make sure that people don’t get lost and let their sleeping habits get the best of them, SleepBetter.org offers some tips for consumers for the Christmas season.

1. Keep Your Schedule. Try to make your sleeping habits as regular as possible. Try to go to bed at the same time every night and wake up at the same time every morning. Don’t spend your day off from work in bed or you won’t feel rested the next day.
2. Try to stay away from greasy and heavy meals since you may find yourself having a hard to sleep since you are unable to digest them properly.
3. Go easy on drinking and the alcohol content you may consume. It will create problems during the second half of the sleep cycle, when the effects have worn off and a backlash effect occurs.
4. Travel Smart. If you’re traveling for the holidays as a passenger, invest in a travel pillow to catch a nap, wear comfortable clothing and bring along an iPod or other MP3 to play soothing music to help you sleep during the trip.

These are only some of the common things you can expect for the Holidays and for sure there are more. Just consider them your basic reminders and take it from there.

(Source) Press

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There are a lot of gadgets in the world today wherein you can customize the alarm according to the options available. Leading the cast of gadgets are mobile phones which normally make use of the available ringtones that they have. But now, there are actual alarm clocks that can be customized to serve as alternative ringing alarm clocks.

These MP3 clocks are loaded with features that you can customize down to the minute. You can add any sound, song, or voice that you like; schedule it for any date and time; and even arrange your wake-up tunes for months in advance. Most all of these programs accept multiple formats such as WMAs, WAVs, MPEGs, and AVI videos, in addition to MP3s.

Other features include a gentle wake-up option that gradually increases the volume; a weekend sleeper (for snoozing in on holidays and weekends); a sleep and slumber option for nighttime lullabies; lots of special effects such as fade in/out, etc.; an automatic computer shut down; and more.

(Source) Examiner

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Also, add to the fact that some stores have extended their shopping hours until midnight to allow shoppers to complete their shopping. So with that in mind, you can imagine how much sleep is lost. Anyone would be lucky to get more than 6 hours of sleep for the next couple of days.

While it is evident that some people are bound to lose sleep for the next couple of days, they can always normalize it after the holidays. But then again, you can always have a choice of foregoing shopping for now to avoid the cramped malls and stores. But if you do, it is doubtful if you can sleep through it, considering you just will not stop until your Christmas list is completed.

(Source) Central Illinois

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Each time December comes, it signals the month where people can take it a bit easy thanks to the festive mood and the shift to cooler climates. Even the sleep deprived people can look forward to this month as a stress relief month as most people are out shopping or staying indoors by the fireplace and taking it easy with their loved ones.

Now while the economic outlook is spoiling all the supposed relaxation we are all looking forward to, perhaps the psychological aspect of it all can be the deciding factor. Many of us are having a hard time sleeping, thinking of the future of our jobs or perhaps what the financial outlook has for all of us.

Give yourself a break. Free your mind of these threats that are depriving us of nothing to worry. The economic disaster is already there but it should not spoil our holidays. Enjoy the season of joy by calming down. Sleep soundly and don’t let the crisis bug get the best of you.

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