A new wristband by biomedical device company HBI promises to let troubled sleepers skip the Ambien and still get a better night’s slumber. The DreamKeeper 400 relies largely on acupressure techniques, stimulating the median nerves on the inside of the wrist through electrostatic pulses and adjustable vibration.

HBI says the drug-free device doesn’t emit an electronic current or cause pain and tingling, and adds that it can be safely used by people with pacemakers.

Let’s say you’re a young IT manager, in your 20s, 30s or even early 40s. It’s not unheard of for you to put in 10-hour workdays in front of your computer, or some other user’s.

You try to eat something at least halfway healthy when you make it to the company cafeteria, but most days, you’re crashing by 4 p.m., which means a trip to ye olde vending machine for a Jolt or a Snickers (or both). By 6 p.m., you’re sprawled out all over your desk, ergonomics be damned, still typing furiously (and simultaneously) on your laptop and BlackBerry, wondering if you’ll ever get out the door.

Weekends mean family obligations, household chores and a few hours stolen here and there to catch up on key projects from work. There’s no time or energy for exercise more rigorous than mowing the lawn or riding bikes with the kids.

In your heart of hearts, you know the long days, heavy workload, poor eating, lack of exercise and cruddy posture add up to a pretty stressful work environment — and that’s before factoring in your boss’s notoriously short temper. But hey, you’re young, you can handle it, right?

Keep reading for the full list of ailments you can develop by spending hours a day in front of the computer. I’m a testament to this problem

Graphic via: ComputerWorld

Found an interesting article talking about the effects of nighttime sleeping issues such as sleep apnea or restless leg that’s caused many couples to begin sleeping in separate rooms. In fact, it seems to be quite the trends, even home designs are starting to adopt a philosophy of dual master bedrooms.

It was the sock in the jaw that finally did it.

An online survey found 1 in 4 people regularly retreats to a spare room or sofa to get a good night’s sleep.

“We were lying in bed spooning when he had an elbow spasm and punched me in the jaw,” says Barbara, a 55-year-old graphic designer from Lansing, Michigan, who asked that her last name not be used.

“I was already so sleep-deprived from his twitching and snoring that I was psychotic. After that, I just told him, ‘It’s all over, honey.’”

Barbara’s husband of 22 years, who asked not to be identified, moved into another bedroom. They’re among many loving couples who — because of snoring, restless legs, opposite schedules or other nocturnal difficulties — have decided to sleep apart.

Interesting, not so unfamiliar I think. I know my wife and I sleep apart, she snores like a lumber jack (no apnea though). I didn’t use too but I do now or did. She says the same thing, needs her sleep. Can’t blame her, even the dogs won’t sleep with me cause I keep them awake..

via: CNN

There’s plenty of discussion to be found on the internet about what sleep apnea is, vivid descriptions of what people sound like when they’re sleeping and snoring. I found this video of a guy named Nick. From what I gather the video was made while Nick was trying to prove he had sleep apnea. It’s quite dramatic but ultimately Nick was diagnosed and is on a CPAP machine. Pay particular attention to the amount of time Nick stops breathing at certain points (some as much as 30 seconds). It’s also very interesting to note just how much movement he has and I’d bet had no recollection of it the next day. This isn’t a joke and watching for some may be disturbing but if you think you can relate to Nick here, then you really should see about getting tested for sleep apnea.

The lack of sleep alters the brain in such a way that it makes a sleep deprived person sound as if they are drunk.

This from a study released back in July that found sleep-deprived people can sound as if they had a little too much to drink. The study recorded the acoustic changes at an almost subconscious level using a computer to detect minute changes in how a person spoke words and phrases. It seems pretty simple but it’s kind of not, in fact, the whole thing was way too technical for me to really comprehend but one can get the general idea how the study worked.

Boyce and her team theorized that the differences between the speech of people lacking sleep and those who had a good night’s rest would be comparable to the differences between conversational and “clear” speakers.

“Clear” speech occurs when a person articulates or even over-emphasizes syllables, words and phrases — such as when addressing a formal gathering, talking to people who are hard of hearing or for whom the spoken language is not their native tongue.

A word like “police,” for example, might sound more like “blees” in conversational speech, but like “poe-lees” in clear speech.

Boyce explained that “the process is largely subconscious,” but when people articulate more “they add more acoustic information bits to the acoustic signal.” Computers can then detect these bits of information and note “landmarks,” such as marking the puff of air released by the mouth when producing “t” or “k” sounds.

So remember, the next time you’ve got something important to do, take a nap first or put it off to another day. Being mistaken for having tossed a few back before some important meeting when in fact you’re a walking zombie might not be a good thing.

via: discovery.com