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Newborns have very different sleep needs than older babies. Absolutely everyone has an opinion about how you should handle sleep issues with your new baby. Get familiar with your baby’s sleepy signals and put him down to sleep as soon as he seems tired.

Help your baby distinguish day from night
A newborn sleeps sixteen to eighteen hours per day, and this sleep is distributed evenly over six to seven sleep periods. You can help your baby distinguish between night sleep and day sleep, and thus help him sleep longer periods at night. Make nighttime sleep dark and quiet, except for white noise. You can also help your baby differentiate day from night by using a nightly bath and change into pajamas to signal the difference between the two. 

The biology of sleep
During the early months of your baby’s life, he sleeps when he is tired, it’s that simple. You can do little to force a new baby to sleep when he doesn’t want to sleep, and conversely, you can do little to wake him up when he is sleeping soundly. Newborn babies have very tiny tummies. They grow rapidly, their diet is liquid and it digests quickly. Actually it would be nice to lay your little bundle down at bedtime and not hear from him until morning, this is not a realistic goal for a tiny baby.

Sleeping through the night
For a new baby a five-hour stretch is a full night. Many babies can sleep uninterrupted from midnight to 5 am. This may be a far cry from what you may have thought “sleeping through the night” meant. What is more, some sleep through the nighters will suddenly being waking more frequently, and it’s often a full year or even two until your baby will settle into an all-night, every night sleep pattern.

Waking for night feedings
Many pediatricians recommend that parents shouldn’t let a newborn sleep longer than four hours without feeding, and the majority of babies wake far more frequently than that. No matter what, your baby will wake up during the night. The key is to learn when you should pick him up for a feeding and when you can let him go back to sleep on his own. Babies make many sleeping sounds, from grunts to whimpers to outright cries and these noises don’t always signal awakening. These are what I call sleeping noises and your baby is asleep during these episodes.
Learn to differentiate between sleeping sounds and awake sounds. If your baby is awake and hungry you will want to feed him as quickly as possible so he will go back to sleep easily. But if he’s asleep – let him sleep.

It’s fact that your baby will be waking you up, so you may as well make yourself as comfortable as possible. Being frustrated about having to get up won’t change a thing. The situation will improve day by day, and before you know it your newborn won’t be so little anymore – he will be walking and talking and getting into everything in sight … during the day, and sleeping peacefully all night long.

Most adults need six to nine hours of sleep each night. Some women experience insomnia around menopause, especially if hormone changes provoke hot flashes during the night. Sleep is adequate when one can function in an alert state during desired waking hours. The bedroom should be used only for sleep. Those who do not fall asleep within twenty minutes should get up, leave the bedroom to engage in relaxing activities elsewhere, and return to bed when drowsy. A regular sleep schedule is important. Choose a consistent time to get up, regardless of bedtime, even on weekends.

Managing sleep changes:
- keep your bedroom cool and dark
- use layered bedding that can be easily removed during the night 
- dress in light cotton nightclothes
- cool down with an electric fan or air conditioner
- keep a frozen cold pack under the pillow, and turn the pillow often so that the head is always resting on a cool surface
- keep cool water at the beside to sip when awakening during the night

Treatment of sleep disturbances should first focus on improving sleep routine with good sleep hygiene. This includes avoiding heavy meals in the evening and adjusting levels of light, noise, and temperature in the bedroom. Avoiding alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine throughout the entire day, not just during the evening, can help increase sleep efficiency and total sleep time. Daily exercising can also help ease insomnia, but exercising close to bedtime may have the opposite effect. When lifestyle changes fail to alleviate sleep disturbances, a clinician should be consulted to discuss other options and to rule out sleep disorders, such as thyroid abnormalities, allergies, anemia, restless leg, depression, or sleep apnea (breathing problems).

Physical activity is one of the most effective ways to reduce your sleep problems. Any physical activity is better than none. Physical activity will help you cope better with your busy and stressful week.

Choose physical activities that require strength, endurance and flexibility:
Strength activities, such as carrying groceries (or toddlers), heavy yard work or weight training, strengthen muscles and bones and improve posture. Aim for 2 – 3 times a week.
Endurance activities, which are continuous activities such as walking, cycling and tennis, are especially beneficial for your heart, lungs and circulatory system. Aim for 4 – 6 times a week.
Flexibility activities, such as stretches, yoga, housework or golfing, keep your muscles relaxed and your joints mobile. Try to incorporate some form of stretching 4 – 6 times a week.

People spend one third of their life in bed sleeping. The materials that surround us can create an environment that contributes to the further accumulation of carcinogens. Viscous elastic memory foam and polyurethane foam are made from chemicals that are completely foreign to the human body. Contrary to what consumers are told, they do not breathe and people are overheating. The noxious fumes can be toxic. Our bodies are made 93% water to be precise. We lose one liter of moisture every night. If the materials that surround us do not have the ability to both absorb, and release this moisture, we are uncomfortable, and restless. Viscous elastic memory foam, and poluethane foam do not have this ability, thus contributing to poor quality sleep. If you are concerned about your sleeping environment and would like better quality, healthier sleep, studies find a natural bed including 100% natural Latex, wood, and springs better.

Foot Patch

Yoga breathing is called pranayama, it allows prana or the life force energy to circulate throughout our body, relieve from insomnia, helps sleep, migraine, headaches, lowers the blood pressure, and massages the heart. We all know breath is life; concept of opening the nasal passages is a correct step to proper breathing. In yogic philosophy one believes we are allowed a predetermined number of breaths for our time here on Earth. In order not to end our life prematurely, we must remember to keep our breath relaxed, and rhythmical. Breathing allows prana or the life force energy to circulate throughout our body. Many people use only 1/5 to 1/3 of our lung capacity, breathing only into the upper portion of our lungs. As we age, and acquire more stress, and tension in lives, our breathing becomes less, and less integral. The diaphragm is the major muscle used for respiration; the process of inhaling and exhaling. As the lungs fill during inhalation, the diaphragm descends toward the abdominal organs. During exhalation, the lungs deflate, and the diaphragm relaxes. Slow deep breathing allows for a good massage of the abdominal organs as well as strengthening, and toning the abdominal muscles.
The some forms of Yoga is the perfect complement to increase performance. From its core-building strength poses to its lengthening hip openers and challenging balance postures-not to mention all the calming, energy-giving breath in the middle-yoga not only improves performance but also helps prevent injury’s. The muscles that support our centre-namel the rectus abdominis, the transversus abdominis, and the obliques in the front and the erector spinae and transversospinalis groups in the back-are where we derive much of our power and spinal stability. Yoga employs the use of bandhas, or energy locks, to control the flow of pranic energy within the body. This ancient practice just so happens to engage very important muscles. Mula Bandha activates the pelvic floor, thus lifting the pelvic muscles to aid/support in force closure of the sacroiliac joint, to which helps stabilize our pelvis.

If you are having trouble sleeping, you are not alone. This increases with age, and affects about 40 percent of women and 30 percent of men. Primary insomnia is not related to other health conditions, and is brought on either by a traumatic event related to sleeping, or by increased physical or psychological arousal at night. Sufferers experience anxiousness as they struggle to achieve sleep. This causes frustration, which only increases the problem. Secondary insomnia is more a symptom of other health issues, such as asthma, depression, heartburn, arthritis, chronic pain or cancer. There are also short and long term effects with insomnia. Some causes of acute or short term, insomnia are grief, anxiety, eating habits, stress, workplace shift changes, and environmental factors, is usually caused by worry over a stressful situation. Long term insomnia, which can last months or even years, is often caused by general anxiety, medications, chronic pain, depression, or other physical disorders. The practice of good sleep hygiene and rituals that promote sleep, can ensure better night.Here are some tips to improve sleep hygiene:

• Regular exercise routines, but avoid strenuous exercise within 3 hours before bedtime.
• Avoid alcohol or caffeine before bed time. Caffeine is stimulant. Though initially a sedative, alcohol will serve to interrupt sleep patterns.
• Avoid smoking or reduce smoking. Nicotine is a stimulant, could improve your ability to fall asleep.
• Avoid daytime napping.
• If you must nap, keep it to a 15 minute catnap.
• Avoid heavy meals prior to sleeping.
• Use relaxation techniques prior to bed time. This could be in the form of yoga, breathing exercises, and meditation.
• If you have a personal health concern, please consult your qualified health practitioner.

SLEEP DISORDERS