People often think they’ve an allergy house dust. But with 20% of Australians Allergy victims, a lot of them are actually allergic to microscopic house dust mites.

House dust mites belong to the identical family as spiders and ticks. They measure only 0.2-0.3 mm, and there are 50 pieces on one pin head. They live for 65–100 days, and females lay 60–100 eggs during their lives.

House dust mites love moderate climates and humidity. They feed on skin cells that we and animals shed, in addition to mold, which they digest using special enzymes. These enzymes are excreted within the feces 20 times a day. They also shed pieces of their exoskeletons.

All of those fragments trigger allergies in people affected by the sort of allergic rhinitis (also often known as hay fever).

What are the symptoms?

When people allergic to house dust mites inhale the allergens, they penetrate the mucous membranes of the respiratory tract and eyes. Their body recognizes allergens as a threat, releasing chemicals, including one called histamine.

This causes symptoms corresponding to a runny nose, itchy nose, eyes and throat, sneezing, coughing and a sense of mucus at the back of the throat (so-called postnasal drip).

People with the sort of allergy normally breathe through their mouths, snore, rub their nose continually (making a nasal wrinkle called the “mite greeting”), and have dark circles under their eyes.

Allergy to house dust mites can even cause poor sleep, constant fatigue, decreased concentration at work or school and lower quality of life.

For people affected by eczema, a damaged skin barrier can allow house dust mite proteins to enter the skin. This stimulates the skin’s immune cells release chemicals which make already dilated skin redder, more painful and itchy, especially in children.

Symptoms of allergy to house dust mites occur all 12 months round and often worsen after going to bed and waking up within the morning. However, people affected by allergies to house dust mites and pollen find that their year-round symptoms worsen in spring.

How is it diagnosed?

Dust mite allergy symptoms often worsen for months and even years before people seek help. However, accurate diagnosis not only means access to appropriate treatment, it’s also essential to minimize exposure.

Doctors and nurses can order: blood test to check for allergies to house dust mites.

Alternatively, healthcare providers with specialized allergy training can perform skin tests. This involves placing drops of allergens in your arm together with positive and negative “controls”. After quarter-hour, individuals who test positive can have a mark that appears like a mosquito bite.

How is it treated?

Treatment options include one or a mix of:

• every day non-sedating antihistamines
• steroid nasal spray
• allergy eye drops.

Your health care skilled will work with you to develop it rhinitis (hay fever) treatment plan. to reduce symptoms. If you employ a nasal spray, your doctor will do this show you how to use itbecause people often use it incorrectly.

If you have got too asthma or eczema aggravated by mites, your doctor will adjust your treatment asthma motion plan Or eczema care plan appropriately.

If severe symptoms occur, there may be a long-term option immunotherapy. This is meant to regularly disable the immune system’s ability to recognize house dust mites as a harmful allergen.

Immunotherapy involves taking a every day sublingual tablet under the tongue or a series of injections. Injections require monthly visits for 3 years, after an initial weekly preparation phase.

They are effective, but expensive (and time-consuming). Therefore, it is necessary to weigh the potential advantages and drawbacks together with your doctor.

How to minimize the danger of house dust mites?

There are also vital allergy minimization measures you’ll be able to take to reduce the quantity of allergens in your property.

Every week wash bedding and pajamas in hot water (over 60°C). This deletes House dust mite eggs and stays.

Choose blankets, covers or duvets that will be washed in hot water at a temperature above 60°C. Alternatively, inexpensive waterproof or airtight covers can protect against dust mites.

If you’ll be able to, favor blinds and picket floors over curtains and carpets. Dust blinds and surfaces weekly with a moist cloth and dust with a mask or have another person do it, as dust mites can turn into airborne during cleansing.

However, beware of pricy products with large marketing budgets and little evidence to support their use. For example, a brand new mattress will all the time be free from house dust mites. But as you proceed to sleep, the dust mite life cycle may begin.

Mattress protectors and toppers are commonly described as “hypoallergenic”, “anti-allergic” or “allergy-free”. However, their pore size just isn’t sufficiently small to prevent dust mites and their excrement from entering or exfoliating the skin.

Sprays that are intended to kill dust mites require simply enough spray to penetrate the product, which is probably going to get wet, may smell like a twig, and, if not dried properly, may develop mold.

Finally, the claim that expensive vacuum cleaners can remove all house dust mites is unfounded.

Light exposure is crucial to our physical and mental health, as this and future articles on this series will show.

But exposure to light can also be key. This tells our body to get up within the morning, when to poop, and what time is best to focus or be alert. When we’re exposed to light, we also control our body temperature, blood pressure, and even the chemical reactions that happen in our body.

But how does our body know when it is time to do all this? What does light have to do with it?

What exactly is the biological clock?

One of the important thing roles of light is to reset our biological clock, also often called the circadian clock. This acts as an internal oscillator, similar to an actual clock that ticks as you read this text.

But as an alternative of a ticking sound that you can hear, the body clock is a network of genes and proteins that regulate one another. This network sends signals to organs via hormones and the nervous system. These complex loops of interaction and communication have a rhythm of roughly 24 hours.

We don’t even have one clock, we have now trillions of biological clocks throughout our bodies. The central clock is positioned within the hypothalamus of the brain, and each cell in each organ has its own clock. These clocks work together to help us adjust to the each day light and dark cycle, adjusting our body functions to the time of day.

However, our biological clock shouldn’t be precise and works in a 24-hour rhythm (on average 24 hours half-hour). Therefore, the central clock needs to be reset every morning, signaling the start of a brand new day. That’s why light is so essential.

The central clock is directly connected to photosensitive cells within the retinas (back of the attention). This each day resetting of the biological clock to the morning light is mandatory for our body to function properly and be synchronized with the environment.

In parallel, when we eat, food also plays a task in resetting the biological clock, but this time the clock in organs apart from the brain, reminiscent of the liver, kidneys and intestines.

So it is simple to see how our each day activities are closely linked to our biological clock. In turn, the biological clock shapes the way in which our body works at certain times of the day.

What time of day?

Let’s take a better take a look at sleep

A naturally occurring brain hormone melatonin it’s linked to our central clock and causes us to feel sleepy at certain times of the day. When it’s vibrant, our body stops producing melatonin (its production is inhibited) and we’re alert. Closer to bedtime, a hormone is produced and released, causing a sense of drowsiness.

Our sleep too partially controlled By our genesthat are a part of our central clock. These genes influence our chronotype – whether we’re a “lark” (early bird), a “night owl” (late sleeper), or a “dove” (somewhere in between).

However, exposure to light at night, when we needs to be sleeping, can have harmful effects. Even weak light from light pollution could make us feel worse heart rate and how we metabolize sugar (glucose), may lead to mental disorders reminiscent of depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder, and increases overall risk premature death.

The primary reason behind these harmful effects is that “wrong-time” light disrupts the body clock, and these effects are more pronounced in “night owls.”

This “inappropriate” light exposure has also been linked to the harmful health effects we regularly see in people working night shifts, reminiscent of an increased risk of cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

What in regards to the intestines?

Digestion also follows a circadian rhythm. Muscles of the colon that help move waste they’re more lively in the course of the day and slows down at night.

The most important increase in colon movement begins at 6:30 am. This is one among the the reason why most individuals feel the necessity to poop within the early morning reasonably than within the evening.

The intestinal day-night rhythm is a direct results of the intestinal clock and the central clock (which synchronizes the intestines with the remainder of the body). It can also be influenced by when we eat.

What about concentration?

The biological clock also helps control our level of attention and alertness by changing the way in which the brain functions at certain times of the day. Levels of attention and alertness improve within the afternoon and evening, but decline in the course of the night and early morning.

These fluctuations impact on performance and may lead to decreased productivity and increased risk errors and accidents during waking hours.

Therefore, it will be significant to perform specific tasks they require our attention at certain times of the day. This includes driving. In fact, the disruption of the circadian clock in the beginning of daylight saving time – when our body has not had a likelihood to adapt to the time change – increases the chance automobile accident, especially within the morning.

What else controls our biological clock?

Our biological clock influences many other features of our biology, including:

• physical performance controlling the activities of our muscles
• blood pressure by controlling the system of hormones involved in regulating the amount of blood and blood vessels
• body temperature controlling our metabolism and level of physical activity
• how our body deals with drugs and toxins By controlling enzymes involved in removing these substances from the body through the liver and kidneys.

Morning light is significant

But what does all this mean for us? Light exposure, especially within the morning, is crucial for synchronizing our circadian clock and body functions.

Increased exposure to morning light does greater than just help us sleep well sanity AND reduces the chance of obesity. So increasing our exposure to morning light – reminiscent of going for a walk or eating breakfast outdoors – can directly profit our mental and metabolic health.

However, there are other features over which we have now less control, including: genes that control our biological clock.

When we take into consideration sleep habits, we often consider the activities involved in falling asleep, not the morning rush. And while it’s true that evening sleep hygiene could be the difference between success and failure, the habits we develop earlier within the day can even impact how rested we feel after we get up. If you want to sleep well, how you spend your mornings matters.

“Morning habits can have a huge impact on sleep quality because they can impact your 24-hour sleep-wake cycle,” she says Po-Chang HsuM.D., M.S. Here are the morning habits which may be ruining your sleep and what to do as an alternative to dramatically improve your sleep quality.

1. Problem: Waking up too early

It could appear obvious that waking up too early disrupts your sleep – sure, if we’re not sleeping, we’re not sleeping, but it surely also seems that depriving yourself of a number of critical hours of sleep within the morning can contribute to trouble before bed. “Early morning awakening is a common feature of insomnia,” he says Carleara WeissPh.D., M.S.H., R.N.

“Sometimes, due to academic or professional demands, we set the alarm to wake up too early to beat traffic, get the kids ready for school, or attend morning classes,” says the certified sleep science trainer Alex Savy. “This causes the body to tire quickly, and a cat nap later in the day can accidentally turn into full daytime sleep. This habit may disrupt your sleep cycle and make it difficult to sleep at night.”

What to do as an alternative: Weiss suggests adjusting your schedule to allow for seven to nine hours of sleep and establishing morning routines that do not require getting up within the early morning hours. Waking up early is less problematic if it follows an adequate amount of sleep, and if the realities of labor or family situations don’t allow for less painful wake-ups, daytime naps are high-quality, but don’t overdo it, says Savy. “A daytime nap lasting longer than 30 minutes can affect sleep at night.”

2. Problem: Snooze alarm going off

A couple of extra 10-minute stretches of sleep could appear to improve your rest, however the snooze alarm is not your friend.

“While it may be tempting to sleep for another 10 minutes, hitting the snooze button does more harm than good,” Weiss says. “Feeling sluggish and groggy, slow to react, and slow to think are some of the harmful effects of a snooze alarm.”

Additionally, in case your body gets used to anticipating an early alarm and a number of naps, this can potentially be followed by restlessness and stress during sleep, which also affects sleep quality.

What to do as an alternative: A signal to the brain and body that when the alarm goes off, it is time to get up. Turn on the sunshine, sit down immediately and get away from bed quickly. It could also be helpful to place your alarm clock out of reach, so you’ll have to stand up to turn it off.

3. Problem: Uneven wake-up time

Even though sleeping in it seems luxurious, it may do more harm than good. “Waking up at uneven times every day can alter your circadian rhythm, causing sleep problems, disruptions, and overall poorer sleep quality,” says Hsu.

What to do as an alternative: For a number of weeks, go to bed and get up at the identical time daily (yes, even on the weekend). While it is probably not easy at first, once you get into the habit, you may find that you drift off faster and get up feeling more rested – perhaps even without an alarm clock. You may find that your need for sleep goes away as you feel more rested overall.

4. Problem: Working in bed

“For freelancers or those working from home, it can be delightful to wake up in bed, grab a cup of coffee, grab your Mac on the bedside table, and start your workday right in your pajamas,” says Savy. However, working in bed worsens the standard of sleep since the brain begins to associate this space with mental activity, he warns.

What to do as an alternative: Use your bed just for sleeping (and sex). You can still work in your pajamas, but do it at your desk.

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5. Problem: being at the hours of darkness (literally)

The hormones melatonin and cortisol help you go to sleep and get up respectively, and light-weight affects each. Exposure to light stimulates the production of cortisol, giving our body a signal that it is time to be alert. If your room is dark within the morning and you don’t search for light throughout the day, it might affect your sleep hormones.

“The brain responds to changes in light throughout the day,” Hsu says. Providing loads of daylight within the morning may also help people keep their body clocks functioning properly and sleep higher. Conversely, insufficient exposure to light throughout the day may cause disruption of the circadian rhythm and, consequently, reduced sleep quality.

What to do as an alternative: Turn on the bedroom light when it is time to stand up, or open the curtains when the sun comes up. Dim the lights within the evening and avoid excessive light exposure from screens near bedtime.

6. Problem: Lack of a consistent morning routine

In addition to not having a consistent wake-up time, the dearth of a wake-up routine could make you feel drained and lack concentration throughout the day, Weiss says. “Irregular wake-up times and rushing out of the house as soon as you wake up don’t give your brain and body enough time to adjust the transition from sleep to wakefulness,” she says.

It’s also not a great idea to spend too long in bed after waking up. “Don’t spend more than 20 minutes in bed after the first alarm,” Savy advises. If you need a moment between waking up and getting up, you higher use it meditatereflecting on the day ahead without your phone and practicing gratitude.

What to do as an alternative: Weiss advises creating a straightforward morning routine and sticking to it. Again, habits are formed through repetition, so after a number of days of consistency, you’ll start doing things with increasing ease.

“Our body works like a clock, and consistency is the key to good health,” says Weiss. “Use the primary hour after waking up to establish a synchronized circadian rhythm that may keep you focused throughout the day and help you sleep higher at night. This could be achieved not only by waking up at the identical time daily, but additionally by trying to exercise and eat breakfast at the identical time daily.

Your morning routine doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming, just do the identical things in the identical order and at the identical time daily, even when it’s just showering, eating breakfast and brushing your teeth.

7. Problem: Drinking coffee too early

This may appear to be bad news if you depend on your morning cup of brew to help you get up, however the delay itself could make a difference. “Caffeine is known to wake the body and energize the mind, but drinking it before 11 a.m. is counterproductive to sleep at night,” says Savy. “Many studies have shown that coffee can interfere with the production of cortisol, the morning hormone that takes over the function of melatonin after an all-night shift. Peak cortisol production occurs between 8 and 9 a.mbut drinking coffee interferes with this natural regeneration process.”

What to do as an alternative: Try drinking coffee a bit of later within the morning and see if it makes you feel more rested. You haven’t got to do it unexpectedly – turn the clock back 10 or quarter-hour until you feel comfortable having it later. But not too late: avoid caffeine within the afternoon if possible stay in your system for 8 hours and even longer and interrupt sleep.

8. Problem: Not making the bed

Mess is related to stress and dissatisfaction with lifeso cleansing could be done good on your mental health. “Never leave your bed untidy when you wake up in the morning,” says Savy. “It’s likely to stay that way when it’s time to sleep.” The barely chaotic mood of an unmade bed can throw you off balance when it is time to rest.

What to do as an alternative: Make your bed as soon as you stand up. If you have busy mornings, be certain that you haven’t got too many pillows or other things to arrange that might make the method time-consuming.

This article was originally published in Clean plates.