The causes and cures for excessive sleepiness

While many suffer conditions like insomnia, resulting in lack of sleep for nights together, there are others who suffer the other extreme condition – excessive sleepiness.

If you rank amongst those, read on to know about the various probable causes and cures for the condition.

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Causes of Excessive Sleepiness

The extreme opposite of insomnia is the disorder known as hypersomnia, a condition of excessive sleepiness. Following are some of the known causes of this condition:

1. Irregular Work Hours
If you work night shifts and sleep during the day, you have most certainly already bid adieu to a ‘normal’ sleep cycle. Since the sleep cycle gets disrupted, your body ends up being deprived of its regular and required hours of sleep, resulting in sleepiness and grogginess throughout the waking hours.

2. Absence of Physical Activity
Would you call yourself lazy? Or does sheer lethargy define you? If yes, you may also additionally suffer (or as you may more complacently be imagining as blissful advantage) excessive sleepiness. When the body does not get its required dosage of exercise, it falls into a state of slow metabolism functioning, resulting in more lethargy and sleepiness.

3. Excessive Weight
Overweight or obese people are also likely to suffer hypersomnia, as per studies. Since the excessive weight tends to slow down the metabolic rate of the body, the energy levels also run low, consequently. The result is sleepiness extending beyond the required and normal hours.

Cures of Excessive Sleepiness

While you may be suffering excessive sleepiness due to any of the above or any other reasons, fret not! There are possible cures as well that can help you sleep better and not feel drowsy all the time.

1. Follow a Timetable
Just the way you did in school, bring about a routine in your work life as well. Eating meals on time, doing activities at a set time each day and going to bed at the same time every night will help regularize the body and make it accustomed to the routine you set for it.

2. Exercise
The cure for all that ails human kind, regular and appropriate exercise can take care of sleeping disorders as well. Exercise as part of your routine will ensure that the metabolic rate of your body stays high, thereby leading to higher levels of energy and lesser requirement of sleep.

3. Medication
There are natural ways to cure the disorder of excessive sleepiness, so you should resort to medication ONLY under the supervision of a medical professional and ONLY if the situation has become unmanageable.

Tons of medication is available in the market nowadays to deal with almost any kind of disorder or illness, finding the root cause of the condition can often lead to a better cure. So, dig deeper before you pick up those pills!

Credit: http://ph.she.yahoo.com/the-causes-and-cures-of-excessive-sleepiness-121518918.html, http://www.mensxp.com/

By: Unknown On 10/02/2013

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Give Yourself The Flu Vaccine Without Needles

Needle-wielding strangers jabbing you in the arm may be a thing of the past, at least when it comes to flu season.

For the last few years, researchers at Georgia State University have been developing a microneedle patch that dissolves into the skin as a simple way for patients to painlessly self-administer vaccines. As the group reports in the current issue of the journal Clinical and Vaccine Immunology, they’ve developed a flu vaccine for the patch. When tested on mice, it proved to be 100 percent effective more than a year after the mice where vaccinated.

Rather than a liquid, the flu vaccine uses dry virus-like particles (VLP) that coat the microneedle patch along with an agent that makes it unnecessary for the patches to be refrigerated.

The microneedles are just seven-tenths of millimeter in length — small enough to do away with the pain of being stuck with a hypodermic needle. Better yet, the tiny needles offer such a precise delivery that each dose requires a smaller amount of the vaccine, therefore reducing side effects.

Researcher envision the day when patients can self-administer the vaccine, but no word on how soon that will be. For those with a phobia of needles, that day can’t come soon enough.

Credit: Jeong-Woo Lee, http://news.discovery.com/tech/biotechnology/give-yourself-the-flu-vaccine-130906.htm

By: Unknown On 9/25/2013

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Skin Tattoo Takes Body Temperature

When it comes to grafting electronics onto skin, John Rogers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign churns out epidermic tech at a seemingly fevered pitch. Perhaps his latest creation will make sure he doesn’t overheat.

Along with a team of researchers from the U.S., China, and Singapore, Rogers has designed an extremely pliable patch that, when applied to the skin, can accurately measure skin temperature and can provide “clinically relevant information about cardiovascular health, cognitive state, malignancy and many other important aspects of human physiology.”

What Tattoos Really Say About You

The small, ultra-thin mesh electronics adhere to the skin with a special glue and are no bigger or more intrusive than a temporary tattoo. The device can also monitor heat flow, plus the constriction and dilation of blood vessels.

“Such devices can also be implemented in ways that reveal the time-dynamic influence of blood flow and perfusion on these properties,” researches explained.

As well, the patches can be used in reverse by delivering therapeutic heat to the skin, simply by increasing the patch’s voltage.

However, the patch isn’t ready for the market just yet, as it still requires an external power source. But the team is exploring two potential energy sources as solutions: solar power, for external patches, and bioelectric power for patches applied internally.

Credit: University of Illinois and Beckman Institute, http://news.discovery.com/tech/biotechnology/skin-tattoo-takes-body-temperature-130917.htm

By: Unknown On 9/25/2013

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