Category: Sleep
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Medical Crap
Nothing like a call from the service-that-provides-CPAP-supplies saying “Hey, your insurance said you’re not covered” on a Monday. I have checked websites and made calls; yes we have insurance for the next year. Then called back about CPAP supplies and also sleep doc appointment. I wish the US didn’t insist on letting everyone involved in patient care extract their executive bonuses. I’m happy to pay for my…
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Interesting – research on insomnia & depression
I’ve written about depression and insomnia before. Also that I can induce depression symptoms by shorting myself on sleep. Now the NIMH is studying interactions between depression and insomnia. Doctors have long considered poor sleep to be a symptom of depression that would clear up with treatments, said Rachel Manber, a professor in the psychiatry and behavioral sciences department at Stanford, whose 2008 pilot trial of insomnia…
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In The News
The AMA has endorsed the idea that “obesity” is a disease, not a “condition”. (Personally I consider it a characteristic.) Forbes states that this is “a move member physicians hope will spur better reimbursement for treating overweight Americans and create better health outcomes.” Exactly how it’s supposed to “create better health outcomes” when commonly prescribed treatments do not work long-term or create good health outcomes is not addressed. In good…
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Big Fat Sleep
No, it’s not news that lack of sleep is tied to fat. What sleep researcher Dr. Orfeu Buxton found is more information on how this occurs. The resting metabolic rate of the volunteers by the end of the five weeks was 8% lower than where they had started. […] That could explain why night shift workers tend to gain more weight and have a higher likelihood of obesity than day workers;…
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Anyone who uses an alarm clock ”is by definition sleep-deprived”
Quoting this here, because sometimes I need the reminder that I don’t control my sleep needs. S]ocietal pressure [to go short on sleep], what nationally recognized sleep expert Dr. Mark Mahowald calls “the pervasive, erroneous attitude that sleep is not a biological imperative, that it is negotiable. We have raised sleep deprivation to a badge of honor.” […] Most adults need seven to nine hours of sleep a…
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What’s Important?
My mother was fat, though she lost weight shortly before she died. My father, by contrast, was always thin and muscular. Yes, he drank like the Navy seaman he’d been and smoked 1-2 packs a day, but he was strong and healthy. He gained some weight when he retired and quit smoking, but not much. Heck, he’s lost some in the last few years. Why? He wasn’t…
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Things That’s Up
New job is going well. It’s my first completely non-managerial job in years. Even when I was a “department of one” I was was still doing a lot of project / process management. I’m enjoying just doing things. I also like this “getting paid” thing. ;) My commute is about an hour each way, sometimes longer, depending on bus connections. This is longer than I’m used to,…
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Some Good Things
Riot Nrrd explains why judging other people’s health can be inaccurate. Despite turning my ankle a couple times Monday (and working too much and walking too little these past weeks) I didn’t have problems walking over a mile at the Sounders game Tuesday night :) My new CPAP mask arrived! Somehow I’d broken the widget that connects the nose piece to the headgear. I’ve got another mask which…
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Sleep-Deprived Teens May Pay A Hefty Price
That’s the title of this piece on Yahoo! news about teens who sleep less eating more fats. (Eating more fat = the “hefty price”. Geddit? Amazing how reporters think nobody’s ever made a fat joke before them.) In the study, adolescents who slept fewer than eight hours on a weeknight consumed more of their daily calories from fat and fewer calories from carbohydrates than teens who slept…
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Thankful Thursday
[a not-always-weekly exercise in gratitude] Not too hot today, so the HVAC system at work going out for most of the day didn’t lead to sweltering…. Helped the man of the house move some equipment that I distinctly remember was really heavy … only it didn’t seem that heavy when I was carrying it tonight. (The dumbbell workouts are paying off!) Fun time with friends watching the Sounders…
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Sleep Eating and Fat Dissolvers
On the one hand, I think it’s great that more sleep research is going on and that it’s possible to treat those who become violent in their sleep or who sleepwalk (or drive). Busting myths can definitely be a good thing (“violence during the night does not signify lurking aggression.”) Communicating that yes, some people do eat during their sleep, and it doesn’t necessarily signal a daytime…
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What’s Up With You?
Hi y’all. Feel like it’s been a while since I had a real post. So. Still here. Still fat. What’s changed: Started walking again. The hip pain I referenced about 10 days ago? Still here. Still decreasing, thank heavens, but still here. I took nearly two weeks off from walking every day. I have begun doing very short walks again, and have continued to do leg lifts…
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Thankful Thursday
[a not-always-weekly exercise in gratitude] 1) Able to slowly and gently dance around the living room this week :) 2) Life expectancy keeps going up. 3) Enjoyable walk today despite the sometimes-rain sometimes-drizzle. (I picked a shopping area, so I could spend a lot of time inside or under eaves.) 4) How cleaning my bedroom and CPAP mask/hose can make me feel so much better when I…
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Things That Make Me Go “Hm”
With the fall TV season starting, it might be good to think about which TV shows you actually want to watch. Kate and Marianne point out in Lessons from the Fat-o-Sphere that watching TV encourages you to compare your body to the people on TV – who with very few exceptions are underweight and fat-shaming, or fat-shaming commercials. I’m not saying you should give up something…
Living ~400lbs 