Today I have found a brilliant interview I’m recommending if you have symptoms of depression, wondering if you have depression, or you’re thinking about getting depression (that’s a joke)!

Basically, I think this is compulsory listening.

This is one time I didn’t have to do the interview myself.

The interview is between Dr Joseph Mercola and leading medical journalist, author and Pulitzer Prize nominee Robert Whitaker.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/05/08/robert-whitaker-interview.aspx

I want you to listen right to the end of this interview, it will be time worth spent.

It also includes some amazing information – even on the placebo effect, which I found fascinating too. Interesting how everyone knocks “the placebo effect” – after listening to this you might have a shift!

And ‘natural recovery rates’ discussions are interesting too.

And it’s very encouraging when he says whether you get treatment, or you don’t get treatment, you’re going to get better. In approximately 90 percent of cases.

This message is VITAL to listen to. I fully recommend this to you.

And just when you start to think that we might be taking ‘natural’ too far, you’ll also hear that there is a very small group that drugs may be appropriate for.. and the exact definition of that small group. i.e. Those categorized as “Severe Depression” on the Hamilton Scale. And it doesn’t necessarily mean medication for life…

After listening to Robert Whitaker you might want to read his book:

Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America

I’ve often thought that when we get a bit ‘feral’ or ‘dippy’ that it is actually our minds and bodies shifting for us, in order to help bring about change. 

The thing is, it’s not that easy to change our lives, even when we know we should – and some mental attitude rearrangement might be part of a positive process towards our better future.  Or, it could be telling us that what we are doing is not good for us.

Physical pain is a sign something ain’t right.  Mental pain, in my opinion, is exactly the same.  And it’s all connected … ignore one and the other will eventually be effected.

Are we listening to our body and mind? 

Peace

Elizabeth

Looking for a bedcovering for your Best Night’s Sleep?

For BOTH of you, not just one of the partnership? 

What we’ve found is that in about 80% of couples, one partner is hotter than the other .. temperature-wise.

The Compatibility Blanket has pure cotton sheeting on one half (for the person who feels hot) and pure merino wool blanketing on the other half (for the person who feels cold). 

Put the Compatibility Blanket on top of your top sheet, with the cotton half over the hot person, the woollen half over the cooler person.  When it gets colder just add more bedcoverings.

One side will always be warmer than the other.  No more arguments!

The Compatibility Blanket is unique in the world, only available from Eyrie Pty. Ltd., right here, now.

We ship all over the world.

Why sleeping cool is better for your sleep:

• Overheating in bed reduces your REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, and causes disturbed sleep patterns.
• Overheating in bed has been associated with the following adverse skin conditions – doona eyes, facial dermatitis, peri-oral dermatitis, grover’s disease, facial excrescences, atopic eczema, acne and hair and scalp problems.  Source:  Dr Hugh Molloy and Dr Garry Egger Good Skin book.
• Overheating in bed is associated with problems in the first trimester of pregnancy.
• The ultimate temperature for sperm production is 35.5 degrees C, temperatures above that can effect fertility.
• Lastly in order to fall asleep our core body temperature needs to reduce by 0.3 of a degree.  This temperature drop is actually a trigger to switch our bodies to sleeping mode.  This is one of the main reasons why people recommend having a warm bath before bed, so that that temperature drop can be effected.  It’s another reason why we don’t like people getting into beds that have been pre-warmed with electric blankets.  If you do pre-warm your bed, turn the blanket OFF when you get into bed.

Our normal body temperature is 37 degrees C, so you can see that sleeping ‘cool’ can be quite cool indeed, from the figures above.

We have also noticed that men are usually the hotter ones in bed, not always, but mostly.  e.g. Tall, slim men can be the cooler ones.

And we also notice that women after menopause can become the hotter ones, where previously they were the cooler ones.  The Compatibility Blanket will not stop the hot flushes, but it will assist in each of these situations.

Here’s what they’re saying:

“Simply wonderful.  We love it!  Now everyone is happy.  Thank you Compatibility Blanket.”  T and S Combes, Lue, NSW

“A Lifesaver” J.B. Camperdown, VIC

“A marvellous idea, after years of arguments and discomfort!” M. McA, Manildra, NSW

“.. banish bedroom battles forever with this ingenious solution: the Compatibility Blanket” Home Beautiful magazine.

GUARANTEE – The Compatibility Blanket comes with an unconditional 30 day money back guarantee (excluding P&H).  And a full warranty against any defects in workmanship for 12 months (we’ve never had a complaint).

This blanket is not available anywhere else in the world.  We ship internationally.

And it was the start of my whole interest in natural solutions for insomnia when I realised that basic sleep information, without the use of drugs, was hard to find and/or too complicated to interpret from medical journals etc.

The Compatibility Blanket is a unique and appropriate wedding or engagement present.

To purchase the blanket, go here now.  The price $ USD 237 includes postage, GST, international freight, and international insurance.

The PayPal gateway accepts both PayPal and major credit cards.

Click here to purchase.

How Does it Work?

The Compatibility Blanket is used in conjunction with your regular bedcoverings as the first layer over your top sheet.  If you’re someone who gets very hot in bed, a sheet and the Compatibility Blanket may be all you ever need.  Otherwise, you simply use the Compatibility Blanket in conjunction with your normal coverings (not heavy doonas/duvets, please!).

What Does the Compatibility Blanket Look Like?

The Compatibility Blanket is a high quality bedding product, manufactured from top grade Australian merino wool and cotton and impeccably finished and packaged.  It has a centre seam dividing the two climate zones, so it’s easy tell which half is for which person.  It is a versatile ivory colour with ivory satin trim.

What size does it come in?

The blanket comes in Royal Size, generously sized for both a Queen or King sized bed.  It will remain stable on the bed and will not slide during the night.

To end the nightly battle of the bedclothes click here NOW!

Well, actually…  you might be doing exactly that.

A recent study, published by Biological Psychiatry compared the white and gray matter volumes of 24 older, chronic insomnia patients to 13 normal sleepers, and controlled for physical and psychiatric disorders that could alter brain densities.  They found that severe insomniacs exhibited the most extensive density loss, regardless of how long they had suffered from the disorder.

They can’t make the call on what causes what.. the order this happens in…  yet.

Original source:  Ellemarijie Altena, lead author of the study from the Netherlands Institute of Neuroscience. 

Here’s the link if you want to read more:

http://news.discovery.com/human/insomnia-brain-sleep.html

The article specifically is “Reduced Orbitofrontal and Pariental Gray Matter in Chronic Insomnia:  A Voxel-Based Morphometric Study” by Ellemarije Altena, Hugo Vrenken, Ysbrand D. Van Der Werf, Odile A. van den Heuvel, and Eus J.W. Van Someren.  The article appears in Biological Psychiatry, Volume 67, Issue 2 (January 15, 2010), published by Elsevier.

And for a more detailed report in Elsevier, go here:

http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authored_newsitem.cws_home/companynews05_01414

What I found most interesting in this study, was that the areas of the brain affected were the ones involved in:

• evaluating the pleasantness of stimuli, and
• the brains ‘resting state’

and they might therefore have difficulty recognising “optimal comfort to fall asleep”.

Dr. John Krystal, Editor of Biolgoical Psychiatry, commented, that “insomnia is a common feature of nearly every psychiatric condition associated with reduced cortical volume; in fact, it is a common symptom of psychiatric disorders or high levels of life stress, generally”.

My apologies for bringing news of detrimental effects on the microstructure of the brain to your attention, to make you more stressed about your best night’s sleep…. but… it is my mission to educate.

Peace

Elizabeth

Today on National TV in Australia is the program Dead Tired: Awake is the New Sleep on SBS ONE at 1.30 – 2.30 pm.

I think this show is going to be a repeat, but I also remember this program to be pretty good quality – in the research area, with a number of notable experts around the world being featured.

Unfortunately not a lot of natural strategies to implement.. but we need the general information too – in order to fully understand the problems around sleep and insomnia.

Hope you get some benefit from it.

Elizabeth

Here is an exercise that you might do if you are having problems with any of the following things – some sleep related, some not.

• feeling out of sorts generally
• bumping into things
• declining performance
• self sabotage
• anxiety
• panic
• procrastination
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

We know that a number of the issues above relate to sleep.

How can you fall asleep fast if you’re worried and anxious about things?

Sleep solutions are only useful if they address how to fall asleep, how to sleep better and are natural sleep aids.

Now before you watch…  here’s my personal story on how a neurological re-balance, similar to this process,  changed one aspect of my life quite dramatically – about 22 years ago.

I used to be a reading dyslexic, falling asleep or not actually comprehending what I was reading.  When I tried to study at school I would either get really bored, fall asleep, or find myself reading the same 2 paragraphs over and over again… to get the meaning.  I just didn’t register.  I didn’t read a whole book ever until I was about 29 years old.    Yes, even through my university years.

And for those of you who are thinking that dyslexia relates to jumbling up numbers it’s not always about that (though that certainly does sound like dyslexia).

My numbers were fine – in fact, I think it was BECAUSE I was quite intelligent in other areas, like maths (topping the class in a number of subjects) that no-one ever found out my problem.

And back then (before twitter and facebook!) – alternative health was marginalized (not like now where everyone who’s anyone is looking closer at what is offering).

It was a wacky looking neurological re-balance like this that fixed my reading dyslexia.  (And by the way it was Geraldine Gallagher, one of the featured sleep experts, who knew exactly what I needed to do in order to start reading properly).

So have a look at this process… and if you want to address some of the issues listed at the top of this blog, tap away with Doctor Ng.

Tell me how you go with this.  I’d love to know.

If I hadn’t experienced benefits for many years from people trained in how our neurology works, I wouldn’t believe a word of any of this.  There’s nothing logical to the untrained person about this.

We need the sleep experts.

Good news is, it’s very easy to do, and harmless to find out if it is going to make a difference in your life.

Have fun…. tap, breathe, readjust

Elizabeth

PS.   For people who think they might also be a reading dyslexic, other signs are not being about to ride a 2 wheeler bike, and being annoyed by slow walkers (you want to walk fast, they want to walk slowly).  It was the movement of my eyes from left to right continually, that ‘switched off’ my system and made me want to fall asleep, or ‘not engage’.  There is also a connection between allergies and dyslexia, another thing to consider.  There are opportunities to find sleep solutions when you investigate your allergies and food intolerances.

Here’s Nic, have a listen:

He’s straight forward, easy to understand and talks about going beyond the

debilitating problems of anxiety and panic attacks.

We asked Nic to be featured on Sleep With The Experts for two reasons.  Firstly he is a medical researcher and editor of an international medical journal, and secondly, he personally suffered from and overcome anxiety and panic disorder.

I know, through my years of listening to people just like you, that anxiety and panic are  the reasons some people can’t sleep, never fall asleep fast and are desperate to know how to fall asleep.

We invited him on to the series as a sleep expert for these reasons. 

You’ll also find out about Nic’s extensive research into benzodiazepines during his period of searching for his solutions.

Of course stress and sleep are related.

The cure for insomnia is sometimes complicated.  For one person the secret could be home remedies for insomnia (as simple as listening to their favourite sleep music, meditating to relax, high quality herbal teas, vibrational essences – similar to Bach flower remedies, etc).

But for others the cure for insomnia might only be found by investigating 10 food additives and colourings that they might be sensitive to, learning a tapping procedure to reduce their anxiety, resolving issues from the past (that they may or may not even remember!), etc. 

And all this can be done, thankfully.

Sleep solutions then, come in many forms – that’s why we have set up this complete training program, and called in a variety of sleep experts.

What you can be sure of, is that they are all natural sleep remedies or natural sleep aids and include conversations and explanations on home remedies for insomnia too.

Here is one of a number of videos Rod Sherwin (our sleep expert from Week 8 of the webinar series) has up on You Tube.

You might like to go and check out more of his demonstration videos.

So instead of saying “I can’t sleep” when you are going to bed, or in the middle of the night, decide to use the strategy of tapping  to work your way through the problem, and find your sleep solutions this way.

And Rod’s demonstration was very clear during the webinar… you can actually tap away during the webinar itself, following his lead.  He was very practical.

The reason we featured Rod Sherwin as a sleep expert is his ability to teach people how to relieve anxiety to help them fall asleep fast. 

And if you wake in the middle of the night you can use his EFT techniques to fall asleep again, rather than experiencing the frustration of lying there, trying to sleep, with no strategies on how to sleep better.

Click here to find out information on just one of the 50+ food additives and colourings mentioned by sleep expert Sue Dengate in her presentation “Fed Up with Sleep Disturbance”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6huSqO84Gc

Sue Dengate also reported that MSG had been implicated (along with a number of other artificial substances) in a case of a child who suffered from sleep apnea and snoring.

So there are a number of reasons not to eat MSG.

When making this decision, be very mindful of the variety of words and descriptions that are used by manufacturers and fast food outlets.

e.g. apart from the descriptions and names mentioned in the video above they can also include

• flavour enhancer 621,
• hydrolysed/formulated,
• vegetable/plant/soy protein
• HVP, HPP
• yeast extract/s
• broth

And THEN there are the additives that are used to enhance the flavour enhancer MSG…  hmmm  now there is a new slant on it!

So watch out for 627 and 631 – E627 and E631.

When 627 or 631 are included in addition to MSG (under whatever name they have chosen to declare it as) then they boost the effective MSG up to fifteen times. (Source:  Sleep With The Experts, Sue Dengate, Week 2 webinar, 2009)

In your case will you find out how to sleep better and fall asleep fast just by cutting out all MSG from your diet?

That might be a very simple sleep solution. 

Organic food might be the only way for some people to safely know that they are avoiding all chemicals. 

We won’t go into the discussions as to whether all ‘organic’ labelling is fine…  but rather consider the broad idea that at least we know that with truly organic food, we might find the cure for insomnia, or at least one of them.

One secret to natural sleep remedies and natural sleep aids can be to educate yourself about the foods you eat, the perfumes you use, and how to read labels – which involves some competance with labeling laws and loopholes.   

This may sound daunting, and without Sue Dengate’s quality information I think it would be.

Chemicals, preservatives, additives, synthetic antioxidants, colourings etc are part of modern manufacturing because we are ‘moving away from the farm’ – but there are costs involved in our reliance on other people and companies to produce the foods and environments we live in.

You don’t have to go ‘back in time’ and refuse all processed foods, but you do have to be very careful about what you eat, and the chemicals in your life in order to fall asleep fast and sleep better and sleep deeper. 

Especially if certain food intolerances are your specific (and possibly ONLY?! problem).

The complex life just got more complicated.  No wonder we are wondering how to fall asleep!

It has been proven many times over that ‘other people’ and some companies do not have our best interests at heart. 

It is naive to think differently.

The last night of Sleep With The Experts wrapped the whole series.

Week 9 sifted down the 50-plus types of insomnia to a manageable and understandable 10 Insomnia Types™. 

Here are Elizabeth’s Ten Insomnia Types™:

Type A  – Difficulty Getting to Sleep

Type B – Difficulty Staying Asleep

Type C – Waking Too Early in the Morning

Type D – Drugs, Food Additives and Colourings

Type E – Varying Sleep Times (shift-work, jet-lag, circadian rhythm issues) 

Type F – Muscles and Muscular.  Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS), twitching, etc.

Type G – Illness and Pain – includes sleep apnea

Type H – Mind Games (depression, anxiety, phobias etc)

Type I – Environment (snorning partners, overheating in bed, living on a train track etc)

Type J – Decisions, Decisions (mortgage, relationship, job, etc)

Elizabeth Shannon presents What's Your Insomnia Type?

The best part?

 I matched specific, practical and non-drug solutions to each Insomnia Type™.

If you were in on the webinar finale, you already know that many of these sleep solutions have never been presented to the public before, in fact some were launched publicly for the first time during Sleep With The Experts.

Obviously series wrap up forces you to think strategically, and get specific on exactly why you can’t sleep, and how you can’t sleep.

The training program goes into full detail of the types of sleeping problems, how to fall asleep and fall asleep fast. 

How to sleep better and stay asleep once you are asleep. 

How to prevent yourself from waking in the night and waking up too early in the morning. 

The other insomnia types include the sleep environment, health issues around sleep, the side effects of some drugs (both prescribed and recreational), muscle tension, restless legs syndrome etc.

And we haven’t forgotten the very important considerations with circadian rhythms and how they are disturbed with international travel, shiftwork etc.  These areas of sleep are becoming more and more public, as we all realise that some of our most vital occupations are subject to sleep deprivation, long hours of work and very little consideration of the consequences.  We rely on our ambulance drivers, medical doctors, nurses, air traffic controllers, pilots etc.

All sleep solutions provided in the training program are natural sleep remedies and natural sleep aids – and Elizabeth has matched the sleep solutions to each Insomnia Type.

And the home remedies for insomnia are not ones that you have normally heard about. 

Here is your passport to world-first information on how to sleep better.

Sleep Tight

Elizabeth