Depths of Blackness

Swing Sleep

Medically known as nocturnal lagophthalmos, sleeping with your eyes open can be a temporary or permanent condition. Baby’s sometimes sleep with their eyes open but usually outgrown this around their first year or so.

Some people can only close their eyes part way when the blink during the day so a part of their eye dries out. They have to use eye drops to keep their eyes lubricated.

While sleepwalkers are going about their nightly rounds, they too are sleeping with their eyes open, although their brain isn’t really registering what is going on around them.

The real problem occurs when the eyes are left open regularly during sleep. The tears that are used to lubricate their eyes evaporate and the eyes dry out. Tears are used by the eyes to lubricate and to wash away debris like dust or pollen and they help kill off any bacteria that you may have been exposed to during the day.

Some of the problems that can develop include:

• Poor, shortened sleep due to sore and dry eyes
• Dust, dirt and other eye irritations are not cleaned out during the night
• Eyes can become inflamed
• Dry spots may develop on the cornea
• Blurred vision in the morning

Causes of Sleeping with Eyes Open include:

• Bell’s Palsy – temporary loss of muscle control in the face
• Surgery
• Stroke
• Infection
• Alzheimer’s
• Orbicularis muscle of your eyelid not functioning properly
• Runs in families
• Multiple sclerosis
• Face trauma from an accident

Treatments of sleeping with your eyes open must first involve treating any underlying condition that may be causing the problem. Some people wear a protective mask or eye patch to keep their eyes closed and others have used special medical tape to keep the eyelids shut. As a last resort to correct muscular damage, surgery has been used to implant weights to help hold down the eyelid.

Do you know someone who sleeps with their eyes open? Leave a comment below.

Talk in Their Sleep

After a restful nights sleep everyone wakes to sleep in their eyes. Some people think this is from the work of the Sandman who sprinkled sand into their eyes to bring about sleep and good dreams. These people are nuts.

Sleep in your eyes has been called eye crusties, sleep sugar, eye goop, sleep dust, eye boogers and eye gunk. It tends to stick to the corners of your eyes and can get into the hairs of your eye lashes as well.

Everyone gets it and some people get more than others. And some souls like me have this eye junk all day long.

During the day a small organ of your eye called the plica semilunaris secrets a sticky goop that helps to collect foreign material from your eyes and cleans it away before it can cause any damage to the cornea. Some of the debris that gets collected is dust, dirt, pollen, dead skin and blood cells, smoke and other air pollutants.

Blinking during the day helps remove the mess and the liquid evaporates or drains away into the back of your throat or into your sinus cavities. But during the night when you are lying down this rheum, known as gound, builds up behind your closed eyes and presents itself the next morning as the familiar sleep in your eyes.

If a person is suffering from allergies or has an eye infection (conjunctivitis), the eye can be welded shut by the over production of rheum. I remember having an eye infection and I would wake up and I couldn’t open by eyes as they were glued shut. A warm facecloth applied to my eyes would loosen up the gunk and I then could wash the rest of it out. Then it was off to the doctor for some eye drops.

If you have such an over abundance of gound that it glues your eyes shut you should immediately seek out medical attention because any infection could cause serious damage to your eyes.

Most people can clean out the eye boogers while they are in the shower, but a damp facecloth or cotton ball can also be used.

Sleep in Your Eyes All Day

Make sure you are getting a good supply of vitamin A (milk, eggs, carrots, sweet potatoes, cantaloupe and peaches, for example). Try to eliminate any possible sources of irritation from bright lights, take frequent breaks from your computer monitor and use an air cleaner to remove contaminates from the air in your house or office. Clean your contacts properly and change them according to their schedule.

The sleep in your eyes is necessary to protect your eyes from being scratched by whatever the wind is blowing at you during the day. Let the Sandman do his job.

I hate dogs. I’m not alone in this belief because when I Googled “hate dogs” I got back 238 million results, so quite a few other people feel the same way.

Now are dogs really the problem? They have their base traits and behaviours and they can be trained as much or as little as the owner likes. And that’s the problem. The over whelming majority of dog owners are irresponsible, ignorant mutants and people hate their dogs because of it.

Poop, Poop Everywhere

If dogs didn’t poop they would never be walked. The whole idea is use the parks, sidewalks and other people’s lawns as their dogs’ toilet so dog owner don’t have to deal with the mess. And if they ever do pick up, the bag of poop gets tossed in the woods, in a parks waste can or over someone’s fence.

I have never lived anywhere that I haven’t had to clean up after someone else’s dog – on a regular basis. And if you go to the owner with a shovel of steaming poop and their dog is the only one in sight running around they always claim it wasn’t their dog. Lie and deny.

There is currently a dog owner in my neighbourhood who walks their large dog and lets it poop in the center of the sidewalk. They make no effort what so ever to clean it up. And the poop goes on block after block.

Barking Their Little Brains Out

All dogs will bark if they are lonely, neglected, bored, hungry or untrained at being sociable, either with other dogs or toward other people. Or feeling unwanted.

I had a neighbour who used tie their large dog outside around quarter to six before they sat down to dinner. Evidently the dog used to bother them so outside it went – on a ten foot piece of rope.

“Bark”

Then a two to three second pause.

“Bark”

This went on until 10:30 to 11pm until they brought it in. Every evening!

No Means No

My crotch is not a place for your dogs’ nose. Ever. Enough said.

Run Everywhere, Go everywhere

Dog owners are always belly aching about how they want a dog friendly park. What I want is a people friendly park I can go to and not be stepping in or around poop or be confronted by a barking, snarling, off leash weapon.

Dogs jump up, knock kids down and run off with a ball some people were tossing around. And the owner never does anything. They don’t call their dog off, keep it under control or even apologize.

A neighbour knocked on my door one time and when I answered it her large, unleashed dog ran into my house with its muddy feet, and then jumped up on me.

Unless your dog is for assisting a handicapped person, your mutt shouldn’t be in stores, on busses or tied up and left in a public place. And keep it out of other people’s houses unless invited in.

Unsociable Critters

I have dogs to both sides of my house and behind me and all of them bark like nut cases whenever they see anyone and go bat crazy whenever they see another dog going by.

Why do dog owners want a dog that is so out of control, annoying and unfriendly? I’ve lived in the same house for three years and they all still go bonkers every time I go out in my yard.

And the smaller the dog the more insane they are. And for some reason, poor dog owners want to have several of these fur balls.

Pests and Vermin

Tear open garbage, dig up gardens, kill other pets and livestock, drool over whatever gets in their way, smell like a hobo in July and pee every ten feet.

If dog owners are too lazy, stupid or cheap to properly train their dogs then they shouldn’t have one.

Too many dog owners run out and get a dog because they saw one on a TV show that was acting so smart and friendly. Earth to dog owner. Those dogs have been professionally trained for years.

There was a sign up on a tree where I once lived that said “Slow Down – Kids and Dogs Playing”. Unless a car driver has crossed the sidewalk and drove across your lawn there shouldn’t be a problem, so what the heck is your kid or dog doing in the street?

As a responsible dog owner it is your job to keep your dog safe. That’s in a fenced yard or on a lease and under control. If your dog is running loose then you are responsible for what ever happens.

Ever have a problem with dog? Leave a comment below.

Sleeplessness

At least one in every 10 American adults suffers from tinnitus and it is the most common disability among Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

Although it’s not a serious, life threatening disease, its effects can reduce a person’s quality of life by taking an emotional and physical toll on sufferers. At study at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit found that people with insomnia reporting greater emotional distress from tinnitus. So it seems that when a person has insomnia the effects of their tinnitus are perceived to be greater.

Symptoms of Tinnitus

Sounds that can be “heard” in the ears include:

• Ringing
• Buzzing
• Whistling
• Roaring
• Clicking
• Swishing
• Hissing

Tinnitus is a symptom of some other underlying condition just as insomnia is a symptom of an underlying condition like stress, physical problems, use of drugs, psychological issues and poor sleep habits.

Issues that may cause or worsen tinnitus include:

• Circulatory system disorder
• Infection of the ear or sinus cavities
• Jaw joint disorders
• Wax build-up in the ear
• Medications like aspirin, antidepressants or antibiotics
• Exposure to loud noises
• Various psychological disturbances
• Hypo or hyperthyroidism
•  Stress

Many people with tinnitus take sleeping pills like Ambien on a regular basis but this could increase a person’s mortality rate by 3 to 5 times. Some relief if often found by treating the underlying causes of the person’s insomnia and their tinnitus together.

Medical treatments just seem directed at covering up the symptoms with a prescription medication and not solving the underlying problem.

Natural treatments for Tinnitus

Some natural treatments that can reduce the effects of tinnitus include:

• Zinc
• Ginkgo biloba
• White noise machine – in bedroom by pillow or worn as a hearing aid like device
• Avoid loud noises
• Reduce your stress
• Learn to physically relax and reduce tension in your body
• Reduce or eliminate nicotine, caffeine and alcohol
• Have background noise like a TV, radio or a fan
• Try acupuncture
• Meditation
• Coenzyme Q10

So try to tackle your insomnia and tinnitus together and you may find you have relieved both conditions.

Find a local support group or online forum. You are not alone as some famous people who suffered from tinnitus include Ludwig van Beethoven, David Letterman, Barbara Streisand and Eric Clapton.

In Love

Wind down at the end of the day with a relaxation drink to get you to sleep. They are promoted as helping you relax, unwind, chill out, reduce stress, find peace, serenity, calm you and sedate you and put you into a relaxing nights sleep.

When you have spent your day guzzling energy drinks and are over-caffeinated or you have a hectic life-style you can take the edge off by guzzling one of these.

Relaxation drinks are an anti-energy drink salvo aimed at convincing people that the solution to life’s problems can be found in a can. The marketing is slick, the cans look like energy drink cans and the shots are right up front by the cash register for those impulse buyers.

These anti-energy / relaxation drinks are marketed to the 18-30 year old age range and it’s all about the money not your health.

Relaxation drinks are sold as a nutritional supplement and the herbs used in these drinks can’t be patented, they are not regulated by the FDA, companies are not required to prove their effectiveness and they don’t have to back up any of their claims. Is this a great country or what?

Some claim that as a sleep enhancer you can fall asleep within 40 minutes of going to bed after taking their drink. Wait a minute. Most people fall asleep within 40 minutes of going to bed anyways.

Some Relaxation Drink Brands

• Unwind
• Drank
• MiniChill
• Neuro Sleep
• RelaxZen
• Just Chill
• Dream Water
• Vacation in a Bottle
• Mary Jane’s Relaxing Soda
• iChill

Well, the marketing department did a fantastic job coming up with great product names. They can little animals or scenes of summer flowers blowing gently in the wind on the can but behind that is a team of MBAs and accountants.

Ingredients in Relaxation Drinks

Some of the ingredients can include:

• Melatonin – a hormone that tells your brain it’s time for bed and controls your sleep-wake cycle
• Valerian – used for insomnia and reduce anxiety
• L-theanine – an amino acid that can relax the brain by reducing stress
• 5-HTP – amino acid that increase serotonin and can act as a sleep aid but it breaks down quickly in liquid
• GABA – neutrotransmitter that could relieve anxiety
• Kava – mellowing effect; can react with other medications; may cause liver damage
• Rose Hips – high in vitamin C
• B-Vitamins – for cell metabolism; added to food products because they are so heavily refined and added here to make the product seem food-like and good for you
• Lemongrass extract – sedative herb
• Ginseng – a stimulant
• Ginkgo Biloba – enhance memory
• Lemon Balm – has calming effects
• Magnesium – for anxiety
• Manufactured sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup and sucrose
• Red dye #40 and Blue bye #1 (yum-yum)
• Chamomile – sleep aid
• Passion Flower – treat insomnia

When taken individually in an appropriate dose, these herbs have been shown to help relax a person and to promote sleep. Many of them have been used for centuries for their effects.

But when a relaxation drink adds a mitt-full of different herbs to their products they generally do so in amounts that are so small as to not be truly effective. Many of the relaxing effects people experience are placebo effects – you think they will do something and so they do.

This reminds me of diet pills in the supplement market. If there was a study that found when a group of people took 1,000 mg of Bee-go berries (I made this one up) they lost five pounds a week. Diet pills soon flood the market with this herb in 50 mg tablets accompanied with the claim “People taking Bee-go berries have been shown to lose 5 pounds per week.”  The claim is totally true, but the 50mg doses in the tablet is no where near the 1,000 mg taken during the weight loss testing and is totally ineffective and a waste of money.

It’s similar in the relaxation drink market. Many of the products contain such a small amount of any one ingredient to be of limited use.

Dangers of Relaxation Drinks

People taking any prescription medication should exercise extreme caution as some herbs can interact with their medication. They should also not be consumed by children, anyone pregnant or nursing or are under a doctor’s care.

You also shouldn’t drive of have a compelling urge to operate a road grader or back hoe after consuming an anti-energy drink.

The whole energy drink – relaxation drink market is bizarre. It reminds me of the pill poppers who take a drug to wake them up, a drug to keep them going and a drug to put them to sleep. This is the same kind of madness that killed Elvis and many others.

People should save the $2 to $3 per can and learn to handle stress and get to sleep in natural ways. You could just go to a health food store and buy melatonin or chamomile tea at a fraction of the cost.

Try some exercise like walking or Tai Chi to burn off stress or turn off the TV and computer and meditate in the evening.

Have you tried relaxation drinks? Leave a comment below.