alisha7525
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Any one other facing a problem relating to sleep disorder is there any other way of solving the same?
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Nearly nine of 10 veterans receiving compensation are considered 50% disabled by the condition, in which breathing ceases during sleep. For a single veteran without dependents, the monthly payment is $822.15 for a disability rating of 50%. About half of Americans who suffer from it are overweight, according to the National Institutes of Health. Aging is also a contributing factor. Untreated, sleep apnea can lead to serious health problems, including heart disease. Veterans Affairs officials attribute the surge in claims more than 94% of them from veterans of Gulf War I or the Afghanistan and Iraq wars to greater awareness of the condition. With that awareness comes treatment and appropriate care, they say. "Sleep apnea has become more and more known as a disease," said Bradley Flohr, senior adviser for compensation service at the Veterans Benefits Administration. "It can be quite severe. You can die from it."
A change in federal law in 2004, phased in over 10 years and fully implemented in January, also allows veterans who qualify for retirement pay to receive their pensions and disability compensation. Prior to the change in law, the disability compensation had offset pension payments. To receive both payments, a veteran must be considered at least 50% disabled. USA TODAY first reported on rising sleep apnea claims in June 2010, when only 63,118 veterans were receiving benefits for the condition. Veterans with sleep apnea are considered by the Department of Veterans affairs to be 50% disabled if they need a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machine to get a good night's sleep.
The machine and mask increase air pressure in the throat to prevent the airway from collapsing. It eliminates virtually all symptoms of sleep apnea for most people although it is not a cure, said Michael Twery, director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research at the National Institutes of Health. Many find the mask uncomfortable to wear. The underlying condition remains, and that's why veterans are still compensated at the 50% rate, said Thomas Murphy, director of compensation service for the Veterans Benefits Administration. The intent is to offset the average impact on a veteran's earning power.
By comparison, a soldier or Marine who loses a leg below the knee while serving, and receives prosthesis can be attached, they are considered 40% disabled, which qualifies them for a $577.54 monthly payment. All amputees also receive an additional $101 a month, according to the VA. "If a veteran's missing a limb, and I put a new limb on him, and he can now walk around, why am I compensating him?" Murphy said. "That's an extreme exaggeration. You have hearing loss, and I put hearing aids in, I still compensate you for that.
The VA's rating schedule makes it impossible to determine precisely how much the department spends annually on sleep apnea compensation, said Steve Westerfeld, a VA spokesman. Veterans often have multiple disabilities, and a rating table determines their compensation. A veteran's dependents also boost compensation. The rating system for all disabilities, including sleep apnea, is under review; new rules could be in place within two years, Murphy said. If the 127,713 veterans with a 50% disability rating for sleep apnea in 2013 were paid for that condition alone, assuming no dependents, the cost would have been $1.25 billion.
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Sleep is a key part of any healthy lifestyle and today Dan Childs, head of the ABC News Medical Unit, will attempt to show how important it is to get some shut eye by doing the exact opposite and staying awake for 40 hours. Not sleeping can wreak havoc with your body in multiple ways including weakening your immune system and affecting your cardiovascular system, your cognitive function and even your memory. The effects can take effect quickly. After just one all-nighter, a person's cognitive ability is so impaired that it's comparable to having a blood-alcohol level of 0.10 percent, according to a 2010 study.
Our own Dan Childs will show what it's like to go without sleep for 40 hours.
The National Department of Transportation estimates drowsy driving is responsible for 1,550 fatalities and 40,000 nonfatal injuries annually in the United States. Namni Goel, a sleep expert and associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, said a lack of sleep has plenty of effects on the body besides fatigue. A sleep-deprived person's hormones will change so that they will crave unhealthy foods. "What we’ve also seen is people tend to eat more…his intake of fatty foods and carbs may go up," Goel said. "If you give him a choice between chips and apple, they'll pick the chips."
Recommended sleep ranges
Sleep expert Dr. Ilene Rosen explained that memory is also severely impacted by a lack of sleep. "Short-term memory is definitely affected and something you may have learned or studied right before bed might not be remembered in the morning," she explained. Rosen said a person will start to show slips in judgement after just 16 hours of wakefulness. "As you extend past 16 hours you get exponentially worse and worse and worse," she explained. When people are acutely tired, Rosen said the body will sometimes attempt to grab whatever kind of sleep it can, including "microsleep." In those cases, a person can appear awake, with their eyes open, but actually be sleeping. "They might have been thinking about nothing [until] something brings them back to focus attention," she explained.
Find Out What Happens When You Give Up Sleep For Days
Any one other facing a problem relating to sleep disorder is there any other way of solving the same?
Good advice. A nice cup of hot tea can also be helpful.Hi alisha
I have also faced this.Try this
Take a warm bath just before bedtime;
Stretching or yoga to relax the body or
If you are suffering from sleep Apnea try losing some weight, especially around the neck area.
Hope this works for you
Researchers at Duke University compiled a database of sleep patterns of hundreds of mammals, including 21 primate species. They found that not only do humans need less sleep than chimps, macaques and lemurs, we spend a greater percentage of our slumber in the deeper, more restorative stages of sleep.
Researchers at Duke University found that not only do humans need less sleep than chimps, macaques and lemurs, we spend a greater percentage of our slumber in the deeper, more restorative stages of sleep.
That might not seem surprising in this age of electric lights and round-the-clock activities, but co-author David Samson says this shift began long before we developed artificial lighting. He traces it back to when human ancestors left their nests in the trees for sleeping on the ground.
The need to sleep near fire and in larger groups for warmth and safety could have allowed these early humans to get the most out of their sleep in the shortest possible time. He notes that also left more time for other activities, like learning new skills.
Study: Humans Evolved to Sleep Less, Better
The findings in the journal Sleep are based on a study of 164 volunteers who allowed themselves to be exposed to the cold virus by researchers who were also tracking their sleep habits. First, the subjects underwent health screenings and completed questionnaires so researchers could understand factors such as stress, temperament, and alcohol and cigarette use. Their sleep habits were measured for one week prior to the beginning of the study, which required them to stay in a hotel room in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. Once sequestered in the hotel, researchers administered the cold virus via nasal drops and monitored the volunteers for a week, collecting daily mucus samples to see if the virus had taken hold.
The results of a sleep study test showed that those who had slept less than six hours a night during the week leading up to the study were 4.2 times more likely to catch a cold compared to those who got more than seven hours of sleep
The results showed that those who had slept less than six hours a night during the week leading up to the study were 4.2 times more likely to catch the cold compared to those who got more than seven hours of sleep. Those who slept less than five hours were 4.5 times more likely to get sick. "Short sleep was more important than any other factor in predicting subjects' likelihood of catching cold," said Aric Prather, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, and lead author of the study. "It didn't matter how old people were, their stress levels, their race, education or income. It didn't matter if they were a smoker. With all those things taken into account, statistically sleep still carried the day."
Short sleep was more important than any other factor in predicting subjects' likelihood of catching cold, it didn't matter how old people were, their stress levels, their race, education or income
Previous studies have linked lack of sleep to chronic illness, premature death, susceptibility to disease, car crashes, industrial disasters and medical errors. One in five Americans gets less than six hours of sleep on the average work night, according to a 2013 survey by the National Sleep Foundation.
People who lack sleep are more likely to catch colds
Lt. Col. Jacob Collen, a sleep-medicine physician, who also specializes in pulmonary issues on Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, said physicians usually prescribe Ambien to Soldiers suffering from insomnia. He and others spoke at the OTSG-sponsored Performance Triad Sleep Summit, Dec. 9. Ambien - a commonly prescribed brand of zolpidem - is a sedative and it's also known as a hypnotic, said Lt. Col. Ingrid Lim, sleep lead for Performance Triad, OTSG. While it does work in getting Soldiers to fall asleep, zolpidem "may impair your thinking or reactions," she said. It's something "you don't want to over prescribe."
Cognitive Therapy
Collen said that since there are only 24 sleep specialists in the Army, serving some 1 million troops, the attending physician may not realize that besides Ambien, there are non-prescriptive treatments that are effective for sleep issues. Currently, the most effective treatment is cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, or CBTi, he said. In addition, BBTi, or brief behavioral therapy for insomnia, is not only effective with sleeping problems, but can also be used with patients who have medical and psychiatric conditions and it can be delivered in a primary care setting, Lim said. CBTi treatments last several weeks and BBTi less, she said. Both involve encouraging change to thought patterns and behaviors that are the underlying causes contributing to poor sleep.
Col. Vincent Mysliwiec, a sleep medicine specialist with 121st Combat Support Hospital, Brian Allgood Army Community Hospital in Yongsan, South Korea, strongly discourages looking at the clock while sleeping.
While CBTi and BBTi are evidence based and clinically proven to be effective, there are, unfortunately, "watered-down versions" of those therapies that are out there, Collen said. These pseudo-versions cherry-pick from the manual rather than using the full approach. "We want Soldiers to get the rigorous, evidence-based version," he said. "It would be better to have no treatment at all than to get the wrong one. "There are a lot of dissatisfied people who've taken the watered-down version," he continued. "When they find it doesn't work, they tell others about their experience and they quit going to the MTF," or medical treatment facility. The solution, Collen said, is to provide more physicians - not just the 24 sleep specialists - training in CBTi and BBTi. Mobile training teams could be used to educate health care providers, including integrated behavioral health consultants.
Sleep Apnea