Analyzing and keeping a track record of a person’s sleep patterns would normally mean having to use various accessories to properly monitor one’s sleeping patterns. However, technological breakthroughs has made it possible to offer solutions without having to deal with such inconveniences.

That is where the SleepBot Android app comes in. The app comes free and intends to help in tracking a person’s sleep patterns. It tracks, logs and analyzes sleep patterns and credit goes to two college sophomores who had sleep issues themselves back in 2010.

“To be honest, it didn’t start off as a business,” she says. “We have a goal to actually help people. But, we know that it’s possible now because of the demand of people who want to do this for sleep.”

And with that, the said app is now manned by a three-man team based in New York where the app offers users a way to track sleep, set alarms, get sleep tips and view stats online.

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Here is another potential device that should aid you in your sleep problems. With the aid of an iPhone, all you need is the Lark Wristband and then you can hook it up to serve as an alarm clock, a sleep coach and a sleep monitor.

All these things were made possible through a micromotion sleep pattern sensor and makes use of a data tracking method called actigraphy to help measure people’s sleep patterns to reportedly about 85 to 95 percent accuracy.

All one has to do is download the Lark Up app from the iTunes store and the band’s hardware will automatically connect with your phone and update your sleeping habits onto your phone every morning

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GEAR4 has announced that they will be coming out with a new iOS accessory called the Renew SleepClock in the U.S. by March, 2012. And while the price tag of $199 seems a bit steep, wait until you check out the features it comes with which should make it a whole lot reasonable.

This includes two sensors that will monitor breathing and movement which should help log sleep cycles for people who want to monitor their sleep.

The monitoring is done through a non-contact sensor which aside from monitoring will also determine when users are asleep to wake up people at the right time. Other features include a fading playlist, multiple alarm chime settings and an app that will monitor a person’s sleep patterns. With sounds from the radio, iPod playlists, or even gentle and calming sounds are all available.

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Here is another device that should be useful for people who want to keep a close watch on their health and their sleep patterns. The Basis Wrist Monitor is a handy gadget made to help monitor a person’s heart rate and sleep patterns without the inconvenience that some other devices carry.

Aside from that, it can also aid you in monitoring your burned calories, something definitely worth having for the health buffs. That and some other queer stuff that seems to be surprising for this portable device, the Basis Wrist Monitor was made to make healthy living a whole lot comfortable and worry-free.

The band is also customizable and water resistant that makes it lush for people enduring in daily healthy activities. The Basis Wrist Monitor is now available for pre-order here.

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Massages are made to help us relax more, and based on feedback from some folks who went over to this Vancouver clinic, the body massage helped them gain better sleeping patterns. According to the massage therapist over there in Vancouver, massage is a great way to address disrupted sleeping patterns.

Massages seem to be the safest way to help you sleep better nowadays, something that many sleep deprived individuals may want to check out to improve on their sleep problems. Oh and of course, rest assured you will feel good as new after a great body massage.

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This is the Renew iPhone Sleep Clock, a device that can monitor your breathing and movements while you are in lala land. It collects the necessary data for your sleep cycle which should come in handy to help diagnose and remedy what exactly is wrong as far as your sleep issues are concerned.

You can review data about how long you are spending in light and heavy (REM) sleep phases – getting a lot of sleep doesn’t always mean you’re getting good rest if your REM phases are short. It’s even possible to have the SleepClock wake you up during your lightest phase of sleep, so you feel more well-rested.

If the Renew iPhone Sleep Clock interests you, it is available from Gear4 for $200.

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The Zeo Sleep Manager Mobile retails for about $99 in case you want to check it out.

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Quach and his colleagues surveyed about 1,500 parents of kids starting at 22 different elementary schools in Melbourne. Of these parents, 161 said their child had a moderate or severe sleeping problem and 108 were recruited for the study. Kids with more serious sleep-related breathing problems, for instance, were excluded.

This and of course some of the distractions like games or even gadgets could spell a big difference as far as helping kids sleep better. Also, it could help them lead healthier lives and perform better in school.

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Sleep issues do not select the people who are plagued by it and thankfully, sleep apnea treatments are now covering regions as far as India. Yes, India is not spared from people who have sleep apnea and thanks to the development of a non-invasive treatment, sleep apnea victims in India may yet be diagnosed and helped out.

They call it the Proven Sleep Apnea Therapy, something backed by the Indian government through collaboration with Stanford University and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. The solution is convenient and portable, not relying on power to be operated. The new device will monitor people’s sleep patterns as they lie in bed before making the information available for assessment.

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To help track your sleep issues better, here is another health-inspired device that should help in the diagnosis of sleep issues. This is the Jawbone UP, a wrist-worn sensor bracelet that aims to help track movement and sleep patterns with the aid of a special app.

The bracelet comes with an array of sensors that may include an accelerometer along with a battery inside the water-proofed housing. They come in blue and pink color schemes and can be connected through an iPhone.

The app works by monitoring a person’s movement and then works with an open platform. Somewhat similar to some gadgets from Nike, the Jawbone UP will be out later this year with prices and actual launch date yet to be made official.

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As far as sleep enhancements are concerned, we have already seen devices such as watches and even some external devices to do the trick. But rather than get something that may perhaps be restricted towards needing a gadget outside the standard things a person would have, why not a shirt to monitor those sleep patterns?

The Somnus Sleep Shirt stands to change the face of sleep monitoring without much adjustment. Nyx Devices offers a shirt that contains thin and flexible respiratory sensors that can measure a wearer’s breathing patterns when they are in bed.

There is an attached small pocket as well at the bottom of the shirt called the Sleep Logger that powers the sensors of the shirt. The device likewise transmits the gathered data to the Nyx website for analysis when the device is plugged in to charge.

The device is still in the testing phase and will reportedly be priced under $100.

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Television has been used by some parents to help get their kids to sleep. Watching cartoon characters like Bugs Bunny or Spongebob Squarepants do seem harmless. In fact they are hilarious and keep the kids occupied, not to mention happy. However, a sleep study proves otherwise and point to these late night TV shows are potentially violent en route to kids getting nightmares.

A new sleep study out of the Seattle Children’s Research Institute shows wee ones between the ages of 3 and 5 experienced more nightmares, tiredness during the day and trouble waking up when they watched violent shows or when they were on the computer or watching TV after 7 p.m. This was reported at Good Morning America.

The researchers went through sleep diaries kept over a week from parents who took note of their child’s sleep patterns and behaviors. Watching TV or using a computer on an average of 73 minutes per day with seemingly harmless cartoon characters account for violence.

For the parents, you may want to rethink your sleep strategy for your kids. They may be causing more harm and trauma rather than help for your little one/s.

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The Tanita Sleeping Scan makes use of a vibration microphone to sense body motion, heart rate and breathing patterns which surrenders the gathered information into an SD card. The data can thereafter be uploaded to a PC and analyzed with an included sleep analyzing software.

From there, people will be able to see graphs showing how many hours they were asleep as well as the number of times they woke up. The device should be something useful for people suffering from insomnia and other sleep disorders. The Tanita Sleeping Scan SL-501 costs $653.

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With the growing rate of people suffering from sleep apnea, here is another app for your Apple device that could come in handy. It called the Sleep Cycle iOS app, something that should help monitor a person’s sleep patterns all throughout the night and wakes you up in the lightest sleep phase.

The app can register up to 4 days of sleep patterns which should help you evaluate and improve your waking patterns. But this also means keeping your iPhone powered on all night and placed on your bed upside down. The app will make use of the proximity sensors of the device to turn off the display.

The App also gives you a report of your sleep patterns over the period of use of the app. With this you can monitor your sleep time and deep sleep patterns.

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There have been a lot of guinea pigs used by specialists to provide a better understanding on sleep patterns and today we learn that Cavefish have been used to probably bring back clues on human sleep disorders. A study published at the Current Biology,

Apparently they first had to find out how and when fish sleep. After that, they found that once a fish had been in this position for 60 seconds, it was definitely in a different state: Like rousing a sleepy teenager, it took three times as many taps on its tank to get a sleepy fish moving after that 60-second mark.

With all that settled, studying Cavefish concluded that a few specific genes must be responsible for the sleep change. It’s likely that the genes regulating sleep in fish are the same genes regulating sleep in humans claims Richard Borowksy of New York University.

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Here is another sleep gadget that should come in handy for people who want to get improved sleep treatment. This is the REMY, a biometric sleep monitor which records sleep patterns and activities to help break down and evaluate what goes on when you are in slumber.

All you have to do to use it is to set your desired waking time and the camera begins recording your body movements. About half an hour before your pre-set wake time, it casts a light pattern over the blanket which simulates dawn.

When you wake up, you can go over your movements and see what movements occurred during your sleep and perhaps use it to evaluate your sleep issues with a sleep specialist.

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It seems that a lot of people have shown confidence on the SLEEPTRACKER, a device pegged to help people sleep better from Innovative Sleep Solutions. To date, the device has reportedly helped about 150,000 people worldwide, helping people wake up refreshed.

The SLEEPTRACKER Elite monitors a person’s sleep patterns to detect the possible waking time. Through this process, users no longer have to worry about losing or lacking sleep. They can sleep at the proper time, refreshed and totally good to go.

With SLEEPTRACKER Elite, users can upload 12 hours of sleep data via USB to the desktop – providing a look into personal sleeping habits. Users can compare data and see when, where and why they are getting the best nights of quality sleep.

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Babies normally sleep a lot and perhaps one thing that we would be surprised at is their ability to learn about the things around them. While this development stage is seen more to be common when they are awake, it seems that newborn babies can learn more while asleep between 16 to 18 hours a day.

A new research shows that babies are into the learning process while supposedly sleeping. This was discovered by Dana Byrd, member of the research team that conducted the study that appears in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Newborn infants’ sleep patterns are quite different than those of older children or adults in that they show more active sleep where heart and breathing rates are very changeable,” she said. “It may be this sleep state is more amenable to experiencing the world in a way that facilitates learning.”

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Smoking or smoke cessation has been known to be deadly for innocent people around smokers but apparently it seems that people with asthma may encounter some problems as well with smokers around. Kids exposed to tobacco smoke have been found to have a harder time sleeping, going as far as encountering behavioral problems and poor school performance.

Researchers say it’s likely that asthmatic children exposed to tobacco smoke have more night-time breathing problems, which in turn disrupts their sleep. Along with the effects of tobacco smoke on children’s airways, nicotine, a known stimulant may directly affect sleep patterns.

(Source) Doctor NDTV

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If you have heard of the iHome+Sleep, then the coming of this new app may interest you all the more. iHome will be launching two new App-enhanced speaker lines with the iA5 and the iA100. These new speaker solutions are the first alarm clocks to offer advanced features when used together with an app.

Both products include tracking sleep patterns and gathering Sleep Stats, customizable alarms and music settings and new ways to interact with the most popular social networks, all through a user-friendly touch screen interface.

(Source) Press

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Harrison’s Sleep Disorder Center expanded and renovated by providing adding more capacity and adding new equipment to accommodate and resolve patient issues suffering from sleep disorders. The new look offers a more appealing setup, close to a hotel-like atmosphere, and was completed last September.

Patients are prescreened before being referred to the sleep center, to make sure a study would benefit them. Once there, they’re hooked up to a dozen or so wires, each monitoring a different parameter. The suites feature the latest in Philips Respironics sleep diagnostic technology, which provides state of the art monitoring of sleep patterns and recorded symptoms for immediate diagnoses and recommended treatment.

(Source) KPBJ

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For the sleep deprived people out there, here is an alarm clock you should really consider. aXbo announces the availability of the Single Edition Sleep Phase alarm clock which should help a lot in supervising your sleep patterns and wake you at the right moment. There will only be 2,000 units available by the middle of this month for the wrist-worn device and will retail for about 179 EUROS excluding shipping charges.

(Source) Ubergizmo

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After a year of waiting, the FitBit will be officially in the market by this month. The FitBit is a gadget you can flip on to your shirt which will in turn determine how much exercise you have been doing and how much calories you are burning. The device can also track your sleep patterns based on movement. In this case, you can convert it to a wristband since there are some people who may not necessarily be dressed to sleep.

The FitBit will retail for $90.

(Source) Gadget Review

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Older women are believed to have more sleep issues than older men but did you know that they complain more? Weird as it may seem, sleep deprivation has been bugging both genders but of the two, a research finds that women are actually getting better sleep than men.

Through a study participants kept a sleep diary and wore a device called an actigraph on their wrists to determine their sleeping behavior and sleep patterns. And afterwards, the actigraphs themselves revealed that men actually had less sleep than women at 6 ½ hours. Women slept 15 minutes more.

As people get older they tend to sleep less, and to sleep more lightly. But this doesn’t mean we all have insomnia to look forward to. Obviously, the latter was in reference to women who complained more about Insomnia. Older people should realize they may need to sleep less and go to bed a bit later, and avoid snoozing away the day.

(Source) Reuters

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With the school year set to start soon, parents will now have to adjust once again their sleeping habits to make sure that their children get the proper preparations when trooping back to school commences. This is a familiar cycle where you have to admit that once Summer sets in, parents enjoy the break as well since they avoid having to wake up early to attend to their little tykes.

It is important that parents recognize that getting less sleep can affect disposition, learning ability, and recall. Parents with existing sleeping disorders need to be especially careful during this time of transition. Dr. Michael Lacey, the Medical Director of the Atlanta Sleep Medicine Clinic says, “Adding more sleep deprivation to someone with an existing sleep disorder such as insomnia or sleep apnea can throw him or her over the edge. This extra sleep loss can potentially harm mood, ability to function at work, and even negatively affect the entire family.”

Parents should also remember that sleep is absolutely essential for children’s performance at school. Angie Ledford, a parent from Loganville, GA says, “My kids have a hard time remembering things and keeping up in school if they are tired. Sometimes without enough sleep they will even get headaches.”

(Source) Press

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Yesterday, I had posted about the Zeo Sleep Coach as one of the potential gadgets for use. Now we have another sleep gadget in the form of the ZZZ checker which can help analyze your sleep patterns. It uses audio and visual sensors to figure out when you’re tossing and turning, snoring, grinding your teeth, or doing any other sleepytime hijinks that might interfere with your body’s rejuvenation.

During the night, the ZZZ Checker determines if your sleep level qualifies as light, medium or deep, and then shows you how many hours and minutes you’ve spent in each one. You can either read the data off the screen, or transfer it to your PC via USB for detailed day-to-day graphs using its included software.

Price: $248.00

This is not available on Sleepzine.

(Source) DVice

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The continued journey towards finding a reasonable solution for sleep-related patterns continues and this time around, it is Zeo’s (formerly Axon Labs), turn to try and track sleep patterns and determine if there are sleep disruptions or disorders that can be addressed.

Zeo is based on a headband that tracks your sleep patterns via a sensor that monitors electrical signals from your brain. The headband transmits data wirelessly to a bedside display, where it’s stored on an SD card.

The sleep information can then be uploaded to the “myZeo Personal Coaching” Web site, where the beauty begins with concepts such as a personal sleep score or “ZQ;” information on the “7 Sleep Stealers;” and a full “7 Step Sleep Fitness Program.” The site notes that sleeplessness “is now the third biggest health complaint in the world after headache and cold, and there are currently over 80 known kinds of chronic sleep disorders.”

Now how is that for a new way to figure out the sleeping issues that people are experiencing. Surely, this is one gadget that people will want to check out.

This product is not affiliated with Sleepzine.

(Source) CNet

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Sleep deprivation is common for people who have to work on shifts. There are a lot of factors contributing to it. But among them include that of the body clock. Normally, we are all used to standard sleep at night scenario but no thanks to the jobs that cater to different time zones, the need to earn a living despite this constraint has to be done.

The only bright note about it is that the pay is better. Companies provide night differential for taking on graveyard shift but you just have to ask yourself, is it worth it? Some say it is but other alter their body clocks which may become a health hazard if they are not careful.

There are there are 3 factors that affect employee sleep patterns:

1. Shift Length
2. Fixed vs. Rotating Shifts
3. Shift Start Times

Each have their own contributions to sleep deprivation and while many want to address the problem, it is a burden that some have to take. Shift changes practically assure you that you have to sacrifice some hours of sleep since the transition may not give the proper allowance.

As far as shift start times, it all takes getting used to. But you can be that once it is time to go to work, drowsy or sleepy employees are reporting for work which could take a while to normalize. In these cases, Coffee Anyone?

(Source) Press

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When you get a nasty headache, it is either you take an aspirin or some form of medication or sleep it out. But the problem of sleeping it out may lead to insomnia since sleeping at the unusual part of the day may leave you awake in the evenings.

Headache sufferers often treat their pain by taking naps to sleep it off, but they run the risk of developing insomnia by disrupting their normal sleep patterns and perpetuating the cycle of headaches, a new study shows.

“Going to sleep was one of the main things people tried to treat their headaches, and they rated it a very effective treatment,” said study author Jason C. Ong, an assistant professor of behavioral sciences at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. “It could be that people are taking naps or using sleep as a way to try to cope with pain, but that could actually lead to more sleep disturbance at night.”

(Source) US News

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If there is a great way to stay awake, it is either through consuming Taurine or Caffeine. Would you consider consuming them together? Studies show that they can be great stimulants if taken together. However, there is the question of how much to consume.

Each person is only supposed to consume up to 3,000 milligrams of taurine per day in order to still be considered safe. Too much caffeine can lead to irregular heart beats, increased blood pressure, disruptive sleep patterns, added nerves, irritability, and other more serious heart problems.

Taurine is an amino acid that supports brain development and regulates water levels and mineral salts within the blood. Taurine has long been thought of as an antioxidant and is common as a dietary supplement. The amino acid is found mostly in proteins such as fish, meat, and breast milk.

So if you are planning to fight off the sleep bug, make sure you consume at the proper amount. Going over it can prove to be dangerous if not fatal.

(Source) Kolotv

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Room lighting can really change the ambiance of a room in a hurry. And this includes the mood, sleepy mood for that matter, of babies who often sleep better if you set the lights dimmer or depending how they react to it. SKOFF lighting knows these needs and apparently they have a good LED light fittings which come in various designs, can blend in well with any room on a different kind of design and lighting requirement for the modern babies of today.

SKOFF designers, inspired by characters from stories created for their own children and from story books for youngest children and by the most beautiful of cartoons, created a series of products ideally blending in with kids’ world, so that it may be a care-free world also at night. The lamps with their aesthetic appearance assumed the shape of Moon going to sleep, shining Starlet, or of a nice, pink Mouse.

(Source) Live-PA

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So now it can be told. As far as understanding why some babies have a chaotic way of sleeping, much of it can be attributed to the state that their mothers are in before they are born.

This is really a traditional belief. We see mothers doing a lot of things to help mold their babies into wiser and healthier offsprings. Apparently, the bottom-line is that they have to make sure that they are always in a light mood since the mental state plays a vital role in baby upbringing and sleep patterns are included in them.

Here are some of the common things we see pregnant mothers do to ensure that their baby is healthy both physically and mentally overall:

1. Reading books
2. Sleeping at the right time
3. Body Lying positions
4. Food preferences
5. Vitamins and supplements

These are common things we see for most mothers today. For the new and upcoming mothers, take the advice of your own mother. They can make a difference in the upbringing of you future child and help you understand them better.

(Source) Science Daily

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As far as sleep comparison is concerned, it would be intriguing to note if some animals would follow the same sleep patterns that we do. Apparently thanks to the continued research of most groups such as the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, Calif., there is a bird that has been discovered to sleep like us. The said bird is called the Zebra Finch, a songbird that has episodes of rapid-eye-movement sleep and slow-wave sleep as well as transition stages and quick spikes, all reminiscent of mammalian sleep patterns.

As for the zebra finch results, he said, they show that a cortex isn’t required to have such structured sleep, and they also raise evolutionary issues. “The question now becomes whether evolution has gone through the trouble of selecting for these particular patterns more than once,” he said.

(Source) The New York Times

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To most people, Insomnia is an enemy that they want to conquer. But the problem is, despite all the artillery in the form of pills and CPAP sleep masks seem to be falling short of achieving their primary purpose. It is for this reason that perhaps the natural means of trying to get some sleep should be the way to go.

Most of these tips are common but if we really put our minds to it, it may eventually pay off.

1. Identity the Insomnia Issue.
2. Take note through monitoring your sleep patterns
3. Use your daytime activity to support your nighttime rest
4. Really Prepare for Bed
5. Create a bedroom that seduces you into sleep

These tips are explained in detail here.

(Source) Shine

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Apparently, many of us have our share of sleep problems and others can see it with the sleeping patterns that we follow. Most of these sleeping patterns may be abnormal in nature and the important thing is to analyze and find a way to explain why such sleep patterns turn out to be this way.

Mouth swabs have reportedly been identified as a new way to be able to determine sleep patterns. The genes are key points in the human body that can help analyze the sleep patterns we follow and through these new means, the circadian rhythm of how we sleep can be analyzed and evaluated properly.

Researchers at the Swansea University have developed the new technique of studying sleep pattern through mouth swab. This system can assist findings of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and chemotherapy effectiveness at certain times too.

This analysis identifies the genesdefine that regulate the sleep cycle. The usual sleep and wake pattern is known as circadian rhythm.

A number of genes manage the circadian rhythm and produce ribonucleic acid (RNA). The level of this acid present is indicative of how active an individual is at a given time.

(Source) The Med Guru

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This is really something elementary. We all know the level of dedication that some people put towards their work and some have set aside sleep to make sure that they achieve what they want as far as career and profession is concerned. These are career-oriented people who could care less about their health at the prime of their lives but while it may be a great reprieve for the meantime, consideration towards overall health in the long run will surely take its toll.

A new study has found women get more sleep than men, but they also have a tougher time getting to sleep and staying asleep.

The Statistics Canada study also found Canadians earning $60,000 or more a year slept 40 minutes less on any given day in 2005 than someone who made $20,000.

It says high-income Canadians tend to dedicate more time to their paid work, spend less time with their children and less time engaged in leisure activities — so their lifestyle affects their sleep patterns.

(Source) Canoe.ca

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