Anyone with a dog knows how, if given the opportunity at the beach or at a park, their dog will find something foul-smelling and often dead to roll around on.

Cats are also well known to kill birds and small rodents for food and fun and then bring their trophy home for you to find on the kitchen floor. This could also be the reason why diseases from cats are more prevalent and in many cases, more deadly.

The people who are at the greatest risk are young children, the elderly and anyone with a compromised immune system. They should be discouraged from letting their pets sleep on their pillow or kissing their pet. They should also not let their pet lick them as this has been shown to transmit some life-threatening infections, even from pets that seem healthy.

Some diseases you could catch from your pet includes:

• Roundworm
• Ringworm
• Hookworm
• Cat scratch disease/fever
• Chagas disease
• Staphylococcus infections
• Parasites
• Capnocytophaga Meningitis
• Bubonic plague
• Cryptosporidium
• Rabies
• MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus)
• Pasteurella
• Toxocariasis

A new born who had their pacifier used as a toy by their pet cat contracted meningitis.

After the dog of a 48 year-old Australian woman licked a burn on the top of her foot she contracted septicaemia and developed multi-organ failure.

A 9-year-old boy from Arizona developed plague after sleeping with his flea infested cat.

There was a family from the Pacific Northeast that caught plague from their dogs’ fleas.

A British woman who repeatedly kissed the family dog contracted meningitis.

One woman from Japan contacted meningitis after kissing her pet’s face.

Both a man and his wife from California contracted MRSA from their dog that slept with them and often licked their faces.

Your Pet and Your Sleep

The act of sleeping with your pet can also disrupt your sleep. My cat sometime snores and that either wakes me up of prevents me from getting to sleep because of the noise. I have to give her a nudge and like the Stooges say “Wake up and go to sleep.”

Pets, especially larger dogs can kick you while they are sleeping and animals moving around to a new position or climbing over you can wake you up.

My cat snuggles up to me but because she is like a little furnace I often move away, only to have her moved over next to me again. I end up with a sliver of the bed and the cat has the rest. Or someone’s dog just plain hogs most of the bed.

Sometimes a dog or cat scratching can shake the bed enough to either wake you up completely up or just enough to disrupt your sleep.

Occasionally someone rolls over in their sleep only to crunch a pet that reacts by biting them.

Precautions You Can Take

People should never sleep with their animal if they suffer from asthma or any pet allergies. They should also wash their hands after petting their animal, cleaning up pet waste and always before eating and preparing food.

My cat sometimes hops up on the kitchen counter to look out the window. I’ll shoo her away when I catch her but she is most likely up there when I am not home or asleep at night. I don’t know how many times I’ve made a sandwich on that counter unaware of the with extra cat butt flavouring I was adding.

Try keeping a container of bleach wipes on the counter and wipe it down often, especially before preparing any food.

You should also prevent you pet from ever licking you in the area of an open wound, cut or scrape. If they do you should wash and sterilize the area. The idea that that a dog’s saliva is cleaner than a human’s is a myth. Has your dog ever eaten excrement, garbage, spoiled food or a dead animal? Yiks!

Try tilting your pillows of your bed to a 45 degree angle to prevent your pet from sleeping on them.

Be Safe By Keeping Your Pet Healthy

• Take your pet to the vet on a regular basis
• Keep up any shots and vaccinations
• Take care of your pet’s teeth
• Have them treated for any internal parasites
• Frequently bathe and groom your pet
• Follow heartworm prevention including flea and tick prevention appropriate for the time of year and your geographical location
• Don’t let your pet lick your face
• Pick up after your pet immediately and keep the cat’s litter box clean

Take cat scratch disease, for example. The bacterial infection, caused by Bartonella henselae, comes from infected fleas and flea feces and is transmitted to humans, often simply by a cat strolling across a food preparation area that isn’t disinfected before food is placed on it.

The disease also could have come from pets that rolled or played in their feces, where salmonella can stay alive for up to 12 weeks.

Benefits of Sleeping With Your Pet

Having a pet has been shown to lower blood pressure, stress and anxiety, reduce cholesterol and triglyceride levels, decrease loneliness, boost the immune system, increase longevity and they give unconditional love. And many medical studies have shown that contact with pets can often help both the physically and mentally ill.

Pets also can increase an owner’s opportunities for exercise and socialising.

Even though sleeping with your pet could kill you, the risk is very small. If you practice good flea and tick control and regularly take your pet to the vet and keep them healthy, there will be little risk of disease.

And since having pets comes with many health benefits, having a pet sleep with you outweighs the risks.

Does your pet sleep with you? Leave a comment below.

To prepare yourself for daylight savings, stay up tonight one hour longer than your normal time you would go to bed. If you normally go to bed at 11pm, stay up until midnight Friday night and the same for Saturday night. Then try to get up an hour later than you normally would the following mornings.

When daylight savings kicks in at 2am Sunday morning you already have had a couple of days of preparing your body to the time shift so come Monday morning you should already be well into the groove.

And if you forget to put your clock ahead one hour before you go to bed on Saturday you’ll be showing up late for work Monday morning.

Hungry; too full; flatulence; too tired; sore muscles; spicy food; indigestion; too hot; too cold; have to pee; back hurts; arm hurts; ear hurts from a flattened pillow; have to yak; can’t get comfortable; I’m congested; I have to cough; bothered by my haemorrhoid that’s that the size of Kentucky.

Crick in my neck; nose hair; head ache; hangover; thirsty; have to pinch a loaf; upset stomach; sick; whirlies; hiccups; twisted testicle; hot feet; cold feet; greasy face and or hair; cramp in my leg; little toe wants to leave my foot and start it’s own foot.

Itchy beard or stash; fuzzy teeth and mouth; morning breath; jammies spiralled up my leg, sliding down my butt, twisted around my stomach; too fat; sweaty; itchy sheets; navel fluff build-up.

The cat meowing; cat breath; cat hair; cat butt; cat snoring; cat box; birds chirping; geese honking; frogs croaking; mosquitoes; flies; bed bugs; crows; cows; rooster; people from Toronto.

Sound of the clock numbers flipping over; thunder; lightening; humidifier; air conditioner; vacuum; coffee machine; blender; earthquake; tornado; rain; wind; siren; car alarm; house alarm; loud music; screaming; gun shots; police banging on the door; dog barking; jocularity; crying; TV; radio; stereo; Mariachi band.

Talking; gaming; heavy breathing; newspaper being dropped off; telemarketer at door, on phone; smoke alarm; smoke alarm low battery; airplane; lawn mower; weed whacker; motorcycle; truck; skateboarder; sound of bananas getting over-ripe.

Worry; too much to do; I’m alone; I’m afraid; sad; horny; having evil thoughts; excited; need to kill the SOB who cut me off on the highway 17 years ago; busy day ahead; lack of money; bills; not knowing what to do; mistakes; regrets; something I said, did, didn’t do; I’m lost; greed; exciting soccer scores (1-0, 0-1).

My mother; drinking buddy; kids; bed partner with all the sheets; detective; moon light; morning sunlight through the curtains; staring at the clock; smell of breakfast; the urge for broccoli; Lady Gaga’s nose.

Have to go shopping; have to get to work; have to get the garbage out; working on my to do list; pillow is too hard, too soft, too flat, too lumpy, too thin, too thick; being stabbed by a goose feather; cool draft down my back; routine; late for work; late for an appointment; for no apparent reason what-so-ever; went to bed too early; stupid government; no Royal invitation to the wedding.

I experience so many days in a row of being waken up that I want to do myself harm, like eating liver or throwing myself in front of a speeding tricycle.

Oh, and the alarm going off.

What did I forget? Add your comment below.

by Felix Neumann

Take this sleep test to determining if your are getting enough sleep or if you are sleep deprived. The following quiz has been designed for you after minutes of careful analysis.

In order to take this test, first WAKE UP! There is no pass or fail on this test but if you do not do well I will tell your mother.

1. My alarm clock sounds like:
 a) a gentle breeze blowing through the trees
 b) a crescendo of classical music
 c) an atomic bomb going off during a tornado while under a bridge

2. I hit the snooze alarm button:
 a) never
 b) once or maybe twice
 c) I keep hitting it until I have 12 seconds to make it out the door

3. When I wake up I feel:
 a) refreshed
 b) a little tired but ready to go
 c) like a zombie with a mouth full of cotton

4. The first thing I do in the morning is:
 a) go to the bathroom
 b) exercise
 c) drag my carcass to the coffee machine to fill my 3 gallon mug

5. I eat breakfast:
 a) every morning
 b) usually, but sometimes I don’t have time
 c) what’s breakfast?

6. By mid-morning I:
 a) feel full of energy
 b) need a coffee and a donut
 c) can’t remember how I got to work

7. During the day my concentration level:
 a) is even throughout the day
 b) sometimes goes down after lunch
 c) peaked 5 minutes after I got up

8. By 3pm I’m ready to:
 a) hit the gym on the way home
 b) work another 3 more hours
 c) rip your eyeballs out for asking such a stupid question

9. I have accidents:
 a) rarely
 b) no more than anyone else
 c) I have my insurance agent on speed dial

10. After dinner I usually:
 a) spend some quality time with my family
 b) maybe do a little housework
 c) fall asleep in my barcalounger and snore the paint off my walls

If the answer c) rang true for you more often than not, you are officially sleep deprived. I also lied. You did fail this test and I’m now calling your mother.

There are many famous insomniacs who despite their sleepless nights, or possibly because of it, led very productive lives. If some had gotten help with their insomnia, they could have been with us longer and others could have just had a happier life with less anxiety and depression.

Tallulah Bankhead – Had an young, gay man to hold her hand until she fell asleep

Robert Burns – Suffered depression and anxiety

Catherine the Great – Was too paranoid to sleep

Winston Churchill – When his depression aggravated his insomnia he would change beds

Charles Dickens – Needed his head pointing north and slept in the middle of his bed

Alexandre Dumas – He would get up and take long walks

Thomas Edison – Invented the light bulb so he could read at night

W.C. Fields – His cure for insomnia was to get a lot of sleep

Scott Fitzgerald – Was a prolific night time list maker

Benjamin Franklin – Got out of bed until it cooled down

Judy Garland – Took sleeping pills to the extreme

Cary Grant – Used hypnosis to quit smoking and to get to sleep

Abraham Lincoln – He would take long, midnight walks

John Stewart Mill – A philosopher with too many ideas and couldn’t quiet his mind

Napoleon – Tickled his belly to stay awake during the day

Groucho Marx – Made late night crank calls (before caller ID was invented)

Marilyn Monroe – Took too many sleeping pills and died too young

Sir Isaac Newton – Was just about to fall asleep when that apple hit him. Dang!

Marcel Proust – Wrote during his sleepless nights

Theodore Roosevelt – Drank a warm glass of milk with a shot of cognac in it

Shakespeare – Has helped thousands of high school students get to sleep

Margaret Thatcher – “Sleeping is for wimps!

Mark Twain – Needed an open windows and fresh air

Vincent Van Gogh – Took a dose of camphor on his pillow (which also helped poison him)

These famous insomniacs suffered many sleepless nights so you are not alone. But keep trying different things to get to sleep. Many will not work, but if you keep trying, you will eventually have a handful of tools that will work for you.

The hazards of not getting a good night’s sleep

1. Increased stress, obesity, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, stroke, memory loss, attention problems, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and mood disorders. And that’s just on a good day

2. Depression, which is a sad thing to have

3. Poor sleepers tend to smoke and drink more which compounds their health problems

4. You get sick more often and it tends to last longer. Your depressed immune system attracts bugs faster than a bowl of fruit at grandma’s house

5. You have a poor quality of life.  Trudging through the day with the only expectation that you’ll be doing all again tomorrow

6. Elderly people who sleep poorly suffer more falls which is a leading cause of death and carpet cleaning

7. Increase cancer rates and drug company profits

The benefits of a good night’s sleep

1. You can live longer. More hills to climb, more smiles to give away and more cows to tip

2. About eights hours of sleep each night can help you lose weight. This is eight hours of sleep time, not just in bed time.  It’s sure better than the watermelon or liver and onions diet

3. You have fewer colds because you have a stronger immune system, but only you’ll know this so you can still call in sick to work when the season opens

4. Students do better at school. This is because their heads are upright and the information has a good chance at entering an orifice and contacting a few brain cells as opposed to bouncing off the top of a head lying on a desk

5. You’ll feel marvellous. You’re mentally and physically refreshed and your mood is elevated as you laugh at the other poor saps that are dragging their butts around the office

6. You are more calm and relaxed

7. Your brain can remember new information better so you can be smarter than your dog and lawn mower combined

Women suffer from sleep difficulties more than men because a woman’s body goes through more hormonal changes and because women tend to take on more responsibilities like work, child care, household chores and taking care of the big baby (husband/significant other/lump on couch). Combine all this with a lack of leisure time, women often can feel exhausted. Being troopers, women keep going ignoring their tiredness as a symptom of a lack of sleep.

Women consistently taking more than half an hour to fall asleep also tend to be in a higher risk category for Type 2 diabetes and other medical problems. See your doctor if this is the case for you.

Top 12 causes of sleep problems women experience:

• menstruation – some become drowsy before and during their period
• birth control pills – alters a woman’s hormonal balance
• sex – may feel frustrated and physically restless if she did not achieve an orgasm
• menopause – may have feeling of depression and nervousness
• pregnancy – many pregnant women sleep poorly just because they can’t get comfortable
• emotional issues – depression and anxiety
• snoring with accompanying sleep apnea
• restless legs syndrome
• poor sleep habits
• narcolepsy – having sleep attacks during the day
• taking drugs and alcohol to get to sleep
• too much caffeine late in the day

Poor overall health can prevent a woman from getting a good night’s sleep. So eat right, exercise, make getting a restful amount of sleep a priority and learn to say “No” to some of life’s requests on your time. Giving the lump on the couch a boot may also help.

People with seasonal affective disorder (SAD) are very sensitive to the amount of daylight during shorter winter days and it throws their circadian rhythms out of whack, leaving them with the urge to sleep more if not hibernate. People that have or are depressed are more likely to be affected.

The sleep hormone, melatonin, which regulates the body’s circadian rhythms, normally rises at night and decreases with the morning sun. But the decrease in the amount of sunshine causes a higher level of melatonin to remain in your body.

Some of the symptoms of SAD

• difficulty concentrating
• fatigue
• exhaustion
• low libido
• sadness
• weight gain
• a craving for carbohydrate foods (bread, pasta, chocolate)
• a feeling of hopelessness
• irritability
• lethargy
• spending more time sleeping

My mother claimed to suffer from SAD but since she was bitchy and irritable all year round it was hard to tell.

Some of the remedies for SAD

• using a strong, full-spectrum light box for 30 minutes every morning
• getting outdoors whenever you can, even on your lunch break
• exercise to boost your “feel good” endorphins

To use a full-spectrum light box, sit 18” away and have the light shining in your face but not directly in your eyes every day after you wake up. A light box with 10,000 LUX will require about 30 minutes. A longer time is required for boxes with less power. You should check with your doctor first if you have any eye problems. The bright light from a full-spectrum light box may damage your eyes.

These remedies may also help shift workers and may lessen the affects of jet lag.

You may also want to read about:

     Circadian rhythms
     Shift work
     Jet lag

There is no question that snoring can affect the quality of the sleep of the snorer and those around them. One proven fact about snoring is that if you put a snorer and a non-snorer together, the snorer will fall asleep first.

Well meaning people have claimed that I snore. Well they are horribly, horribly wrong. I also leave the bathroom smelling like a field of wild flowers after a summers rain and my shower voice makes the angels cry. I also follow Adam’s* advice: “I reject reality and substitute one of my own.”

About a quarter of adults snore occasionally. Well that means that three quarters of you are perfect. Isn’t that special.

Men also rein supreme in snoring. A scientific study costing the equivalent of the gross national product of Latvia, or the gas bill for an hour of cruising on Paul Allan’s yacht, has proved this. They also could have just asked any woman.

Snoring can be worse if the snorer is overweight, elderly or abuses alcohol or drugs (or is related in any way to Keith Richards).

If you are a heavy snorer you should see your doctor to see if there is a physical reason why all the siding of your house has fallen off.

There are a few things a snorer can try:

• if overweight, loose some pounds (kilos, eh)
• avoid alcohol or drugs at bedtime
• sleep on your side – place pillows behind you
• use a vaporizer or humidifier to increase the humidity of your bedroom
• quit smoking
• reduce your intake of milk, cheese and bread if mucus build up is a problem
• you could get laser therapy – ask your doctor

If you are a bed partner of a snorer you can:

• get used to it
• wear ear plugs
• go to another room to sleep

Some couples are installing a sound proof retreat room for the non-snorer to go to. It’s like a “safe room” but more comfortable and better than trying to get to sleep next to a jack hammer.

* Adam Savage, MythBusters (on 19 times a day)

As we age our biological clock tends to shifts backward and instead of staying awake until 10 or 11 pm, we tend to want to go to bed at 8 or 9pm.  I’m glad I have a VCR (haven’t made the move to DVD) so I can tape shows that are on in the middle of the night. You know, the ones that are on between 8pm and 10pm. Since I get up at 4am, I’m dropping off at 7:30pm.

Teens have a tendency to sleep less that they did just a few years before. That is more because of social factors like staying up watching late night TV than just aging. They like to brag about how late they stayed up and how little sleep they need. These are the ones that will chew your head off for saying “Good morning” (although my mother used to do the “Rise and shine – up and at‘em” routine) and are asleep at the back of the classroom.

Older people may not necessarily sleep less but by the time we reach our mid 40’s, we are spending more time in the lighter stage 1 and stage 2 sleep and less time in the deeper stage 3 and 4. A night’s sleep is also broken up with more awakenings. We are also affected more by noises and other distractions like a ¼ full blatter or our pyjama bottom leg that’s cork screwed up to our thigh.

The elderly tend to have a poor night’s sleep and that is cause by age, pain and poor sleep habits. They also tend to treat sleep difficulties with over the counter sleep medications. Try cutting back on coffee, tea, cola and chocolate. Keep your bedroom dark and quiet and worry about your problems in the morning not when you’re trying to get to sleep.

Accepting that your sleep pattern will change as you age as a normal part of the life cycle will make it easier for you to deal with age related sleep problems. You’ll go to bed and wake up earlier and not sleep as deeply.