Sleep Compass

About Me: Dorian Sagan

This poem appeared on the Upaya Newsletter 07/26/2010 Dorian Sagan, son of astronomer Carl Sagan and biologist Lynn Margulis, offered this wild and cogent poem at the Lindisfarne Fellows meeting... My name is Dorion Sagan. I am so grateful and therefore, as we learned yesterday, happy to be here. I am a writer. I am an animal.

Doga class relaxes dogs and their owners at West Palm Beach studio

By LIZ BALMASEDA This article first appeared on Palm Beach Post Staff Living  Monday, July 20, 2009 A Yorkie walks into a yoga class and the instructor says "down dog." The Yorkie looks at the two Malteses stretching on adjacent yoga mats, then looks at the instructor and responds: "Who are you calling dog?" That Yorkie is Napoleon, the regal little dude scampering between the mats in Elissa Von Poznak's "doga" class at the Gyrotonic Sat Nam studio in West Palm Beach on a recent Saturday. Doga is yoga one does with one's dog - if one's dog weighs less than 30 pounds.

Soothe Back-to-School Anxiety, Teach Kids to Relax

SUNDAY, Aug. 23 (HealthDay News) -- Children who are nervous about the new school year can relax by practicing "mindfulness" during anxious moments, researchers say. Experts at Duke University, in Durham, N.C., recommend mindfulness, which is a technique borrowed from meditation, to help children transition into the new school year and deal with many academic and social pressures.

Suboxone: Miracle or Menace?

(PDF Version Suboxone: Miracle or Menace by Steven Scanlan, MD) One addiction trades for another as the FDA-approved detoxification drug, Suboxone becomes America’s worst nightmare. Known as the “miracle drug,” Suboxone is estimated to be 25 times more potent than morphine. Steven R. Scanlan, M.D. is board-certified in Psychiatry and board-certified in Addiction Medicine by ASAM. He is co-founder of Palm Beach Outpatient Detox (P.B.O.D.) in Boca Raton, Florida. He was addicted to opiates during his medical residency in anesthesiology and detoxed with the help of Suboxone. He successfully detoxes his patients from opiates (eg. Morphine, Oxycontin) using regulated amounts of Suboxone ...

In search of SLEEP in LITERATURE

THIS POST FIRST APPEARED IN WORD SEARCH with Adair Jones **** In search of sleep in literature **** Posted in Musings..., Rediscovered, Wanderings by adairjones on November 8, 2009 Sleep in Literature The oblivion of sleep is a parallel of death.  Time stands still.  In sleep, we remain in the cocoon of eternity.  And yet, the idea of sleep holds within it the promise of an awakening, a resurrection. States of pre-adolescent sexuality, psychological disorder, drug- or alcohol-induced stupor, and even some diseases are all variants of the sleep experience. But its more than oblivion: sleep connects us to ...

TO NAP OR NOT TO NAP

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream (Shakespeare's Hamlet) Woman to Woman By Marion Bond West and Julie Garmon, July 05, 2010 Phone conversation, two weeks ago. "Julie, what's wrong? You don't sound too good." "I'm just tired. I'm not old enough to be this tired every day." "Why don't you take a nap?" "I never take naps, Mother." "Don't I know it. Even as a baby, you fought sleep." "I'd be wasting time and energy. My mind wouldn't relax. How long have you been taking naps?"

The Ceaseless Society

This post first appeared on SOF Observed, the blog site for Speaking of Faith with Krista Tippet: religion, meaning, ethics Shiraz Janjua, Associate Producer I’m not going to lie. I’m really enjoying Jon Kabat-Zinn. His Google talk introduced me to some very simple techniques that I’ve been using lately to help me fall asleep faster. Bedtime is when my mind is freed from all restraints, unfortunately. That’s when the hamsters go nuts, and it usually takes me an hour to fall asleep, on average. But just breathing the way Jon Kabat-Zinn shows has helped me bring my ETA to sleep down to ...

Mindfulness Meditation Helps Cancer Patients and Caregivers

This post first appeared in UPAYA newsletter 06/28/10 and AJC—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 11-23-09 Susan Bauer-Wu, PhD, RN, is an associate professor at Emory University’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and a faculty member of Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University. She also is a Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Cancer Scholar. The words, “You have cancer,” forever change one’s life. Even when the chances of cure or long-term remission are high, there is often questioning that takes place. Why me? What caused the cancer? What could I have done to prevent it? Will it come back? Is this new ache the cancer ...

A juxtaposition of God and the human brain

This post first appears on Scientific American Guest Blog Section on May 27, 2010 08:30 AM in Basic Science | Michelangelo's secret message in the  Sistine Chapel By R. Douglas Fields   At the age of 17 he began dissecting corpses from the church graveyard. Between the years 1508 and 1512 he painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Michelangelo Buonarroti—known by his first name the world over as the singular artistic genius, sculptor and architect—was also an anatomist, a secret he concealed by destroying almost all of his anatomical sketches and notes. Now, 500 years after he drew them, his ...

Is anonymity the final shame frontier in addiction?

All About Addiction Helping addicts get their lives back. by Adi Jaffe Adi Jaffe is a doctoral student at UCLA working toward a Ph.D. in psychology. See full bio June 17, 2010, Addiction Without anonymity, would the stigma of addiction disappear? Published on June 17, 2010 I'm a drug addict and a sex addict , and as far as I'm concerned, staying anonymous let's me remain buried in shame , and a double life, that keeps me always one step ahead of those close to me. Did I say too much? Did I give away my secrets? None of those ...

Trouble Sleeping? Just Breathe

by LIVESTRONG.COM, on Mon Aug 24, 2009 4:27pm PDT     By Brad Kearns If your mind is racing and you are having difficulty falling asleep, a few minutes of simple but effective breathing exercises can help calm your nervous system on a chemical level and lead to greater success in hitting the sack. The awareness and control of breath has been a central component of yoga, martial arts and Taoism for thousands of years. There are dozens of different methods and exercises you can explore through a good teacher or book. The practice of breath control in yoga is called pranayama. I'll ...

Self Help for Self Improvement and Better Sleep!

By Beth Farrell -- Library Journal, 08/15/2009 (this story first appeared on Library Journal.com August, 15, 2009) Serenity. Fulfillment. Happiness. Wisdom. Hot sex (yes, hot sex). A multitude of current and forthcoming self-help audiobooks promise listeners that, despite the constant doom and gloom in today's headlines, these higher states of being are well within reach. Seeking more enlightenment

Sleep songs–can they make you sleep?

Sleep songs--can songs make you sleep? OR is it the other way around -does sleep inspire songs????? The National Sleep Foundation has posted a list of the Top 100 Sleep Songs....most of these songs deal with the needing of sleep, sleep as a waste of time and/or problems with sleep--that is the negative side of sleep. Still many use songs and music to relax and to help induce sleep (See our post and suggestions). At Sleepcompass we think sleep is inspiring!

Baby boomers awakening to symptoms, risks of sleep apnea

This article first appeared March 8, 2010 in Palm Beach Post Health By Stacey Singer Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Dr. Jeff Davis at his home in Tequesta. Dr. Jeff Davis had all the symptoms -- daytime sleepiness, depression, snoring -- but it took another physician friend to make the diagnosis. He had obstructive sleep apnea. After two nights at a sleep center he now cuddles up each night with a CPAP mask that sends positive air pressure into his airway all night long. Gary Coronado/The Palm Beach Post

New ‘Club Bed’….Sleep Underwater in the Maldives!

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) Apr 24th 2010 at 3:02PM Sleep Underwater in the Maldives The world's first undersea restaurant opened 5 years ago this month at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island, and to celebrate the anniversary the restaurant is offering guests the chance to not only eat under the sea but sleep under it as well. The 12-seat restaurant will be converted to a private bedroom suite for two, complete with private champagne dinner and breakfast in bed.

The Right Way to Get Your Beauty Sleep

This post 1st appeared on Cadillac-ipedia by Rigel Celeste Mar 28th 2010 at 10:01AM Beauty sleep is very real. It's during sleep that skin damage from daily stress and pollution is repaired, dermal layers are rejuvenated, and even facial muscles are relaxed and gravity is shifted so wrinkles become less pronounced. Without enough sleep skin can look sallow and dry with uneven skin tone and more defined wrinkles. Wake up looking your best with these basic tips.

Welcome to “Club Bed’!!!

The place where we explore fun and different places to lay our heads! (and feet!)  In honor of South Florida's temperatures dipping into the 30's last month, I explored places to sleep that are beautiful but REALLY too cold for the Goldilocks  in me-(this bed is just right...)

Write it Down!

I CAN'T SLEEP! Odd thing to have your dental hygienist say to you... And my dentist and the receptionist! All 3 had different sleep problems! Let's start with Jessie first-

Courage to Sleep like a Dog-

And he does, bless his heart. He's a happy boy, he's a happy boy. Cheerily dragging one of my nieces Beanie Babies down the hallway, through the kitchen off into the netherlands of the laundry room. Checking out the cat's food and ignoring his own. Pouncing on Spike, the only 20 lb cat with claws in the house, eager to play. When he wants to play, he does, when he wants to eat, he does and when he wants to sleep, down goes the eyelids on those huge Chihuahua eyes.

Doctor, your patient is ‘crashing’!!!

Mustangs, Blondes and the Open Road

Yes, now not only do I look good flying down the highway in my Mustang Convertable, I have PROOF that its good for my health!  Uh, I wonder if I could get a discount on my health insurance now... Glass roof Ford Mustang returns for 2010 by Damon Lavrinc (RSS feed) on Jun 18th 2009 at 9:27AM 2010 Ford Mustang Glass Roof - Click above for a high-res image gallery

Truly a “compass” for the insomniac

Zen and the Art of Sleep This is a welcomed book for the insomniac, as well as for any one with an interest in sleep. I practiced "traditional" Sleep Medicine for 20 yrs (now retired), and recognize the need for more options to help people sleep. Inspite of knowing little about Zen, I found this book was quite readable and easy to follow. The author, Eric Chiles, suffered with insomnia for years, and pursued the traditional modalities and approaches with little success. He then took "up Zen" and found it useful in resolving his insomnia! Although the mention in the book that thinking ...

And The Night Wave Winner Is…Kathy The Crooner!!!

'Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream...' Some people connect over cookies, some bond over baseball and others click over cars, but....trauma?  Blood, guts and gunshots, the E.R. is a unique world all unto itself.  Life, with babies being born, Death with accidents and heart attacks and basically, everything in between!!! That's how I met Kathy.  Excellent nurse, cool, calm and collected, I've never seen the woman break a sweat over anything the ER department and now the Intensive Care Unit, could throw at her.  Literally. She handles demanding, rude doctors with the same professionalism and ease as she ...