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Meditate your way to sleep

A recent study on the impact of meditation on insomnia brings some cheer to the sleep-less. According to a study, sleep is essential to help maintain mood, memory and cognitive performance. Daytime alertness and memory are impaired by loss of sleep, especially when sustained over a few nights. Twenty-eight chronic insomniacs completed an eight-week study in the USA, on meditation as an intervention to help with insomnia. The results showed the mean insomnia severity index (ISI) scores reduced from 20.6 to 10.8, almost by half and the result was statistically significant. Some patients were able to come off their medicines as a result of meditation. An expert said: “Even though the body is at rest, the mind cannot unwind. This causes stress, leading to sleep disturbances. Meditation can help us ignore thoughts and creates a balanced state within, thereby removing stress.” During sleep, there is a reduction in heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate and decreased oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide elimination. Meditation induces similar physiological changes. Soon after beginning meditation, many people have reported better quality of sleep as well as needing less sleep. Meditation has positive effects on ailments that affect sleep. It has proven effective in the prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of hypertension, ischemic heart disease, bronchial asthma, COPD, anxiety neurosis, depression, cancer, certain degenerative diseases and many chronic pain conditions. Sleep disturbances are common in these conditions, which are then also improved by meditation. Meditation also influences the cognitive behavioral and emotional aspects of these patients, thus improving their overall prognosis. When we are stressed, it takes longer to fall asleep and often it is disturbed sleep. Sleep can be instantaneous, deep and undisturbed for a balanced mind that is trained through regular meditation.

Sexual orientation top suicide risk for young

Nearly one third of first-year college students have thought about suicide, according to a study across eight countries, and non-heterosexual identity or feelings were the biggest risks for this kind of thinking or behaviour. Having a religion other than Christianity, being female, having unmarried parents or at least one deceased parent and being age 20 or older were also important risk factors, though being a sexual minority also carried the highest risk of transitioning from suicidal thoughts to plans to attempts, the researchers found. — Agencies