Blog - The Health Sessions

How to Sleep Well with a Chronic Illness

This article is written by Danielle B Roberts.

According to the National Health Council, 157 million Americans will be living with at least one chronic illness. An illness is considered to be chronic if the duration is three months or longer. Some examples of common chronic illnesses are diabetes, heart disease, endometriosis, lupus, Parkinson’s disease, and multiple sclerosis.

Due to the pain and restlessness caused by chronic illnesses, many people who have a chronic illness also suffer from insomnia. About 60 million Americans suffer from insomnia. Insomnia too can be a chronic condition.

You are considered to have insomnia if you have or do any of the following:

Difficulty falling asleep
Coming in and out of sleep in the middle of the night
Waking up earlier than expected
Fatigue during the day
The feeling of being unrefreshed when you wake up
Difficulty focusing and remembering

These are just a few of the symptoms one can experience from insomnia. Insomnia can bring on its own battles as well. Insomnia can cause you to have anxiety, depression, mood swings, and more. If you have a chronic illness, here are some things to try to help your insomnia.

12 Simple Ways To Make Your Home More Accessible

This article is written by Jacklyn Donalds.

We’ve all experienced days when accomplishing even the simplest of everyday tasks can prove to be a struggle. Chronic illness is commonly associated with discomfort, pain and fatigue. Multiple Sclerosis (MS) can present these in addition to mobility and coordination challenges, which can make daily tasks difficult on a regular basis.

According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), six out of ten adults in the US have a chronic disease, one out of four live with some type of disability, and only .73% of housing units with a resident wheelchair user is actually fully wheelchair accessible. When faced with mobility challenges, the accessibility of a given environment is a major determining factor in how engaged and active you’re able to be. This is especially important in the home, where you should have the most peace of mind.

Luckily, there are some relatively simple steps that can be taken around the house that can help you conserve energy and accomplish tasks more efficiently.

34 Ideas for a Healthy Morning Routine (That Can Be Done Under 10 Minutes)

Maybe you’ve read it too: what you do after waking may be the key to a healthy and successful life.

There’s lots of anecdotal evidence that many influential people, from world leaders to CEO’s and movie stars, utilize the early morning hours to set themselves up for success and reach their goals. They’ll eat a hearty breakfast, get their exercise in and meditate before the rest of the world rises.

That sounds fantastic, but a healthy morning routine isn’t always easy to realize when you’ve had a bad night’s sleep and got to get your (uncooperative) kids ready for school.

That’s why lots of life coaches tell you to get up one hour earlier so you have time to perform your morning routine. “You have to make sacrifices and put your priorities first if you want to be successful”, they claim. And if they can do it, you can do it too, no excuses.

Well, I disagree.

After a decade of delayed sleep syndrome and painsomnia, followed by years of kids waking up multiple times every single night, sleeping is sacred to me. Even more so, I think that getting enough undisturbed, restful sleep is one of the most important things you can do to feel happy, energetic, productive and ‘successful’ – whatever that means to you. Especially if you suffer from persisting health problems.

So getting up at the crack of dawn to do yoga and sip green juice while the rest of the house is still asleep, is not necessarily my idea of a healthy start of the day. Surely there must be healthy habits you can do that fit more seamlessly into your existing morning routine?

Here are 34 ideas for a healthy morning routine that can be done in 10 minutes or less.

How to Safely Enjoy The Summer Sun

Sunshine is your number one source of vitamin D, a vitamin needed to keep your bones strong, support your immune system and protect your mental health. Too much sun exposure, however, damages your skin, putting your at risk for skin cancer.

At the same time, sunscreen lotions are currently under scrutiny, because some of the chemical active ingredients they contain may be harmful to your health and the environment.

How can you get the benefits of sunshine and still protect your skin?

8 Mind Tricks to Cope with Chronic Pain | The Health Sessions

8 Mental Techniques to Cope with Chronic Pain

There’s an overwhelming amount of advice available about how to reduce pain. But how exactly do you deal with pain that won’t go away?

Millions of people around the world suffer from pain that continues beyond the expected period of healing. When you experience chronic pain, your body is in a constant state of fight-or-flight. This on-going stress damages your body and even changes the neural circuits in your brain. Chronic pain can also lead to depression, anxiety, sleeping disorders and avoidant behavior, which in turn worsen your existing pain.

Everyone copes with pain differently, but some ways are more effective and constructive than others. When it comes to chronic pain, there’s one group of strategies you may easily overlook: how to manage pain with your mind.