Better Sleep Month

There’s nothing better than a good night’s sleep. It helps restore the body so it’s physically and mentally functioning at its best.  But when we don’t get the zzzz’s we need, it results in feeling mentally foggy, emotionally cranky, and physically exhausted.

That’s why Better Sleep Month, dedicated to addressing concerns about how chronic lack of sleep can be detrimental to overall health, is important. If you are having sleep issues, you’re not alone. The Cleveland Clinic says about 70 million adults in the United States suffer from sleep disorders.

Bedtime Stories Are Important

Historically, parents have always insisted that their children have bedtimes, to provide ample quality sleep to maintain good health and well-being. Reading a bedtime story to children is a great way to help kids unwind and slow down for a good night’s sleep, something we should all do to decompress after being stimulated with activities all day long. According to the CDC, children need the most sleep, especially newborns and infants. Once kids are school-aged, they need 9 to 12 hours of sleep per night. Teenagers require 8 to 10 hours, and adults from 18 years old to 65+ ideally need at least 7 hours. These are consecutive hours of sleep, not chopped up into little naps throughout the day, because that won’t provide the restorative sleep cycles the body needs.

Grown-Ups Need Their 40 Winks

Here’s the problem. If you’re an adult contending with insomnia or sleep deprivation and you’re not getting the restful hours of sleep you need, it can prompt a number of health issues. Sleep affects your heart and circulatory system, metabolism, respiratory system, and immune system.

The National Institutes of Health reports that sleep is a necessary restorative time for your body. You’ve probably heard about sleep cycles, which include the initial drowsy stage when you begin to fall asleep. This is when your body’s parasympathetic system takes control and slows your blood pressure and heart rate, allowing it to relax and not work as hard. Next comes stage 2, the light sleep, followed by the deepest sleep, in stages 3 and 4. In these stages, your heartbeat and brain waves are at their lowest levels, and the body is healing and restoring cellular energy. The last cycle is sometimes referred to as the 5th stage, or the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) cycle. It’s in the REM cycle that your heart rate and blood pressure return to normal.

The body needs rest. Otherwise, it has no way of healing or growing or providing the immunity you need. If you’re not getting enough sleep or you have insomnia, your body is not able to get its restoration completed, leaving you with a higher risk of:

  • Coronary heart disease
  • High blood pressure
  • Obesity
  • Stroke
  • Type 2 diabetes

Lack of Sleep? Could Be a Hormonal Issue

Your hormones play a vital role in maintaining a healthy sleep pattern. As the Mayo Clinic reports, when the body’s circadian rhythm or the body’s sleep clock is off, it throws the whole body into imbalance. For example, there are two basic hormones needed for sleep — the stress hormone called cortisol and the sleep hormone called melatonin. If the body is operating efficiently, these two hormones will work together in a kind of crisscross pattern. Melatonin should go up as the sun goes down — to help you sleep. Conversely, cortisol should be higher in the morning to help rev your engines and get you moving but should decrease at night to help you sleep.

If something is wrong with this rhythm because of an imbalance of melatonin or cortisol, it could be the reason you are having trouble either falling asleep, staying asleep, or both.

  • High cortisol results in insomnia, anxiety, sugar cravings, feeling tired but wired, and increased belly fat
  • Low melatonin results in excessive fatigue, depression, anxiety, and insomnia

Our Sleep Kit Provides Answers

Any Lab Test Now® can help. We have a very effective and accurate test to help determine if your sleep struggles are due to a hormonal issue. The Sleep Balance Take Home Hormone Kit is a simple test that measures melatonin and cortisol levels via urine collection on test strips four times throughout the day. It’s available in-store or online. After turning in your kit, results will be available within 3 to 5 days.

How to Handle Your Test Results

The lab tests we provide are confidential, affordable, and convenient. You own the results, and you choose how to proceed with them. However, we do encourage you to consult with your provider for further details to make the best decisions about your health. If you do not have a primary care physician, Any Lab Test Now® has partnered with DialCare, a service that helps you find a provider licensed in your state.

Any Lab Test Now® is Your Partner in Health

Get the sleep you need to live a healthy life. If you’re having sleep issues, visit your local Any Lab Test Now® and pick up a Sleep Balance Take Home Hormone Kit to find answers.

Suffering from COVID-Somnia? Help Could Be One Test Away

You can call it “Covid-Somnia.” Americans have been losing sleep over the pandemic — literally. Even before the coronavirus crisis, millions of people suffered from insomnia — the inability to fall or stay asleep. The pandemic has added even more challenges to getting some shut-eye — even for people who previously had no sleeping problems.

Our frontline and essential workers are probably most affected — working longer hours and taking on more shifts to help take care of the rest of us. But the disruption to our daily lives and fear of being exposed to the virus is taking a toll on every one of us — and it is showing up in our sleep, or lack thereof.

Pandemic Panic

According to data compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Health Statistics, more than 4 in 10 American adults had developed symptoms of depression or anxiety by the end of 2020. Both are known to have the potential to cause sleeping issues.

Concerns about the pandemic have not slowed down. People worry about catching the virus themselves or infecting others, including older family members who might be at high-risk because of pre-existing conditions. Isolation and lack of social interaction are also contributing to the problem.

Economic concerns, including job loss, are adding to the strain, as well as uncertainty about when life will return to normal, keeps minds racing and the body tossing and turning.

Fatigue is a public health problem. A lack of sleep can lead to impaired reaction times, affect judgment and vision, create difficulty with processing information and short-term memory recall. This constant state of weariness is very unhealthy. Sleep is crucial to our health and well-being.

  • Sleep rejuvenates our immune system. Studies have found that a lack of sleep can make some vaccines less effective.
  • Sleep impacts our mood, and the feeling of weariness can worsen depression.
  • Sleep gives our brain a rest so we can think and learn better.
  • Sleep also contributes to our mental health. A lack of sleep is often linked to many mental health conditions such as bipolar disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
  • Sleep can also impact metabolism. Not enough sleep can lead to insulin resistance, which causes weight gain.

Settling Sleep Issues

Any Lab Test Now® offers a Sleep Balance Kit to help make sure you are getting the rest you need and measure any impact your current sleep patterns are having on your health.

The Sleep Balance Kit does not even involve a blood draw — just a simple series of urine tests to determine key levels of two important hormones: melatonin and cortisol.

  • High cortisol results in insomnia, anxiety, sugar cravings, feeling tired but wired, and increased belly fat.
  • Low melatonin results in excessive fatigue, depression, anxiety, and insomnia.

The Sleep Balance Kit is available in-store or for purchase online. The sample collection is conducted in the privacy and comfort of your own home. You do not even need a doctor’s order.

Be at Ease

Any Lab Test Now wants you to be at ease when it comes to seeking out any type of lab work or purchasing an at-home kit.

We provide you a safe and clean alternative location for lab work. Each of our 190+ stores is sanitized several times a day, in accordance with the CDC’s protocols. Any Lab Test Now is a committed partner in helping you manage your family’s healthcare so you can make educated decisions that will directly affect your quality of life. We want to put you at ease during the coronavirus pandemic. We are here to help.

Find your closest Any Lab Test Now store at www.anylabtestnow.com.

 

Can a simple test lead to better rest?

When you consider what it takes to get a good night’s sleep, a lot of things probably come to mind. The bed usually comes to mind first. Is it comfortable? Is it familiar? Do you have the right pillows? Next, it’s probably your surroundings. Is it dark enough? Is it quiet? Your local Any Lab Test Now can’t do much about the state of your mattress and pillows, but we can try to help you get a better night’s sleep.

For some people, having just one thing slightly off can make all the difference when it comes to getting a good night’s sleep. So many things can affect our slumber that many of us don’t really consider one of the most important factors: our hormones. They play a huge role in not only our ability to get sufficient sleep, but also in the quality of our rest. And while many different hormones play a part, there are two that are center stage in the sleep arena: melatonin and cortisol.

Melatonin: The Rhythm of the Night

Melatonin is a hormone produced by the pituitary gland and it is vital to your body’s ability to regulate your sleep/wake cycle. Scientists say that the level of melatonin in your body should begin to rise as the sun goes down, preparing your body for sleep. The level should peak in the early morning hours just before dawn, then begin dropping after you wake. In a study published by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), high levels of melatonin at 8 a.m. were more than a wake-up call. They were associated with:

  • Better quality sleep
  • Lower depression scores
  • Better attention spans
  • Better visual memory
  • Better at arithmetic

If these levels are off, or if the rhythms are disrupted, you could find yourself wide awake in the middle of the night.

Cortisol; Co-Star of the Sleep Show

Cortisol is often called the “stress” hormone because levels in the blood rise during times of extreme stress. It’s responsible for your body’s “fight or flight” response, but it’s also critical for everyday bodily functions. Cortisol should take over where melatonin leaves off. Scientists say cortisol levels should rise 30 minutes to one hour after you wake up. It’s what gets you going in the morning. They will gradually drop to their lowest levels in the evening so you can calm down and go to sleep. But the problem comes in to play when excess stress keeps your cortisol levels high. This keeps you awake, which usually leads you to turn on lights, which lowers your melatonin levels, creating a vicious cycle.

Are Your Hormones Working Together?

If these two hormones aren’t playing nice on a regular basis, you could be in for bigger trouble than just a few sleepless nights. Disturbed sleep has been associated with:

  • Metabolic syndrome
  • Type 2 diabetes
  • Cardiovascular disease
  • Obesity

Testing for a Better Night’s Sleep

So how can Any Lab Test Now help you find your way to a better night’s sleep? It’s easier than you might think! It’s a simple test, that you take at home, that will provide you and your doctor with information about your levels of cortisol and melatonin throughout the day and night. The Sleep Balance Take Home Hormone Kit is a simple urine test requiring urine collection on test strips at four different times.

First, urine is collected when you wake up, so your nighttime melatonin levels can be checked. About two hours later, a second collection will measure your cortisol awakening response. The third collection is in the evening when both your melatonin and cortisol levels should be low. Finally, the last test is performed just before bed, where your melatonin level should be rising for sleep and your cortisol should be at its lowest level of the day.

Your First Day to a Better Night’s Sleep

The Sleep Balance Take Home Hormone Kit can help you and your doctor get to the bottom of your sleep problems. Find out more at your local Any Lab Test Now.