Very informative topic! I love it!

I think I am a light sleeper. I often woken up by even the slightest sound. I mean I still able to sleep or rest if the sounds around me is consistent, but if the sound become inconsistent, like a sudden change of snoring sound by my partner/colleague, I would immediately awaken by it. There was a time when I was still a kid, I got awaken by very light knocking made my late grandmother when she fell down in the toilet asking for help. she was in the 1st floor at the other end of the house and i am in the front. Sometimes I'm even woken up by birds chirping in the morning.

Also, I am not sure whether it is relative or not. I dreams a lot and sometimes quite vividly and I remember lots of it. As I read and research online, does dreaming really related to our subconscious mind? There were times when something big or significant happens in my life, I will dream of something that I did not encounter during the days before that night I dream of it and often when I woke from it, I will try to record or find some clues of what it really means online, like representation/symbols/clues of that certain things I dream of. Is it consider as something spiritual or can it be something scientific about it? I just happened to post some of my dreams in other thread


and this! I love to drive! Whenever I am in bad mood or lots of thinking, I always went for a ride at highway. Waugh, I didn't know about it

This post has been edited by apocalypxe: Apr 16 2015, 09:49 AM

Great thread.

You are in the picture? On the right?

Thanks for sharing.
Your case reminds me one of my clients. She faced similar problem as you; racing mind, running thoughts, can't focus, feeling anxious and stressful.
She did share about her testimonial with me, thus I can share with you over here:)

After I analyze her unique brainwave patterns, I found that her "Hibeta (brainwaves that are associated with stress, anxiety and tension)" is higher than her alpha and theta, the slow type of brainwaves (Alpha and theta are associated with relaxed and subconscious mental activities).
I always find people with racing mind have excessive high beta brainwaves profile on prefrontal lobe area.
Thus, this might explain why she was experiencing the similar problem that you are facing currently.
Check the graph below:



So what is the solution? You can try the counseling, psychotherapy, coaching, hypnotherapy, EEG biofeedback, medicine etc.
For her case, she chose the neuro-hypnotherapy technique (EEG biofeedback+hypnotherapy) to deal with her problem.

As you can see from the graph above, her brainwaves patterns (Same location on her brain) is significantly changed! After 10 days of practicing her customized self hypnosis tool, now she is able to go into deep hypnotic trance state and relax herself by keep increasing her alpha brainwaves (Relaxed and calm) and decrease her own Hi-Beta brainwaves (Stress and anxiety). ALL BY HERSELF
She told me that she feels a lot more positive and calm. She found that her stress level decreased significantly. She faces no more harmful thought and is more optimistic after her first neuro-hypnotherapy session.


Possible solutions:
Well, hypnotherapy or EEG biofeedback is just one of the solutions.
You can try other therapies as well, they work well too(Psychotherapy, counseling, medicine and coaching etc).
I share about this method simply because clinical hypnotherapy and EEG biofeedback are the areas of my expertise.

This post has been edited by zeropoint9: Apr 25 2015, 03:23 PM

how do i try the above solution please? 10 days is a short duration and i undstn diff people have diff reaction but i am willing to try

Thanks for love this thread! I'll do my best to answer your questions Do come and support me often over here ya.

Let me explain based on my personal view, personal experiences and research studies:
A lot happens in your body while you sleep. When you get your ZZZs, you cycle between REM and non-REM sleep.
REM stands for rapid eye movement. During REM sleep, your eyes move quickly in different directions. That doesn't happen during non-REM sleep.
First comes non-REM sleep, followed by a shorter period of REM sleep, and then the cycle starts over again.
Your dreams typically happen during REM sleep


REM sleep and tonic immobility(Some people refer to this state as a trance or hypnotic trance) similarity are:
-Both states show a similar EEG pattern with additional “theta” waves linked to the brain’s hippocampus (which plays an important role in memory and spatial perception)
-Both states show strong loss of muscle tone and suppression of reflexes
-Both states show changes in heart and breathing rate
-Both states affect the body’s ability to regulate body heat
-Both states show changes in the brain’s biochemistry including increased acetycholine and decreased serotonin and norepinephrine in the brain stem
-Significant changes in eye movement, facial twitches, and jerking limbs in both states
-Also, both states rarely last longer than a few minutes, varying from five seconds to 20 minutes
-Both tonic immobility and REM sleep appear to be linked to parts of the brainstem involved with sleeping, eating, and breathing.

They also appear to have very similar roles in helping the body recover from traumatic experiences. As an emergency reaction to extreme danger, tonic immobility prepares the body to cope with trauma and heal afterward. This happens through the release of brain chemicals such as acetycholine to reduce pain and increase drowsiness. Research into REM sleep has found many of these same biochemical markers which suggests that the vivid dreaming experienced during REM episodes plays a strong role in helping the body cope with stress and trauma.

You dream excessively and you love hypnotic trance state (You love to drive and experience"highway hypnosis"), reasons could be one of the following conditions:
1) You're going to need to learn to manage your stress better.
2) Your parietal lobe might be overactive, the parietal lobe processes visual, auditory and touch information.
3) Your temporo-parietal junction is overactive. In 2013, Ruby published a study which found people with higher levels of temporo-parietal junction activity were light sleepers. "This may explain why high dream recallers are more reactive to environmental stimuli, awaken more during sleep, and thus better encode dreams in memory than low dream recallers. Indeed, the sleeping brain is not capable of memorizing new information; it needs to awaken to be able to do that," Ruby said.



Possible solutions:
For your case, EEG biofeedback and hypnotherapy might be helpful.
One of my clients gave me her testimonial after solved her excessive dreaming problem.
Her case is almost same as what you described over here. She had suffered for excessive dreaming problem for more than 20 years.
What I did for her? I taught her how to calm down her overactive parietal lobe area by using neuro-hypnotherapy technique (EEG biofeedback+hypnotherapy), thus her problem solved. The biggest difference notice is that now her sleep quality has improved significantly, increase deep sleep and dreaming occurs to a lesser degree.



Source:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/media-...stery-rem-sleep
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/3682/201...than-others.htm
http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/sleep-101

This post has been edited by zeropoint9: Apr 17 2015, 12:25 AM

Thank you
I am the man in black suit

Aww...I was expecting the pretty lady

Anyway, how does one become a clinical hypnotherapist? What should he study?

That's great that you are open to try it.

Tips
For choosing a Hypnotherapist in Malaysia:
Make sure the hypnotherapist belongs to one of the major governing bodies such as - The Association of Hypnotherapy Practitioners, Malaysia (AHPM) which is regulated under the Ministry of Health Malaysia.

For choosing a EEG biofeedback practitioner:
Currently, there is still not professional regulation for EEG biofeedback practitoner in Malaysia. However, I would like to inform you that there are different EEG biofeedback systems in the market, I would recommend you look for someone who are using the international 10/20 system (An internationally recognized method to describe the location of scalp electrodes) to do the EEG biofeedback therapy. The reason is 10/20 system is a international standardized and accepted method for identifying locations on the scalp for EEG recording. It was developed early on by EEG pioneers. A EEG biofeedback practitioner should become very comfortable with this system as it is used on a daily basis, reseach studies and is essentuial for standardizing assessments and training, and for communicating results (Technical Foundations of Neurofeedback by Thomas F. Collura, 2014).

I'm sorry I disappointed you Haha.
The Traditional and Complementary Medicine Act (Act 756) sets the minimum competence level for the credentialing of a professional Mind Body Soul Therapy practitioner in Malaysia. The Association of Hypnotherapy Practitioners, Malaysia (AHPM) is regulated by Ministry of Health (MOH), Malaysia.
Thus, to be a registered hypnotherapist, the requirements are:
1) AHPM’s approved course or MQA acredited course (Next year, International University of Malaya-Wales (IUMW) will introduce the Bachelor Degree of Science in Hypnotherapy which is MQA accredited course)
2) Undergo AHPM’s supervision and be committed to continuing their education.
3) Must obtain at least 10 CEU in hypnotherapy or related fields of education to qualify for membership renewal every year
4) Follow AHPM’s protocols, AHPM’ guidelines and Code of Ethics at all times.

In my case,
I am a psychology degree holder.
Further training in the field of EEG biofeedback (oversea practicum) and diploma in clinical hypnotherapy (UK recognises qualification).
2015 onward, the requirements to become a registered hypnotherapist might be different.
My advice: check with AHPM before you enroll any course .
If your course is not approved by AHPM, you can't be a registered hypnotherapist in Malaysia legally.

This post has been edited by zeropoint9: Apr 17 2015, 01:10 AM

Thanks for the info

Qi gong has been and is very helpful, best of all, it's 100% effective WITHOUT pharmaceutical drugs


Title:
How Qi works from the perspective of the 3 Levels Theory of Matter


This post has been edited by ricstc: Apr 17 2015, 02:00 AM

Thanks for sharing .
As I know, Qi Gong practitioner is regulated by Ministry of Health Malaysia-T&CM department too.
Definition of Qi Gong(under Traditional Chinese Medicine Category):
A wide variety of traditional cultivation practices that involve methods of accumulating, circulating, and working with qi, breathing or energy within the body. Practiced for health maintenance purposes, as a therapeutic intervention, as a medical profession, a spiritual path and/or as a component of Chinese martial arts.
http://tcm.moh.gov.my/v4/modules/mastop_publish/?tac=31

And it's not all that strange in malaysia as shown in TV3 in 2011


But I believe it is HARAM for M a l a y muslims but only in malaysia

i am tracking this topic already.

okayyyyyy... now I finally understand able to connects it. ^__________________________^

O.O i didn't know there's a highway hypnosis thing!

I am interested to know more.. but will PM you for more details. lol

ur mind can be powerful to your body

Yes!
The mind and emotions play a critical role in our health

This post has been edited by zeropoint9: Apr 17 2015, 06:56 PM

EEG biofeedback therapy instead of medication to counter insomnia


The ability to finally enjoy a good night's sleep is something that can be learned. An Austrian Science Fund FWF project has investigated how this can best be learned and who responds best to such "brain training (EEG biofeedback therapy)".

Dark circles around the eyes, tired limbs, absent-mindedness – most people have experienced the effects on the body of a short night. "Roughly one-third of the Austrian population as a whole suffers from recurrent insomnia", says Manuel Schabus from the University of Salzburg. For years now, the psychologist has been studying a diverse range of states of consciousness. In a project funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, Schabus and his team have now studied how the state of mind of people with sleep disorders can be improved without administering medication.

Training vs. chemistry
"People who suffer from sleeplessness, also known as insomnia, are often in a state of 'hyperarousal'. Resorting to tablets seems to be the obvious solution", explains the researcher. However, medication-based treatments are usually for short-term use only and confine themselves to fighting this state of arousal, resulting in undesirable side effects including dependence, morningness, drowsiness or amnesia. "Medication often just reduces nocturnal brain activities and thus also helpful functions such as 'memory consolidation', which is the nocturnal stabilisation of information so that recall is easier the next day", says Manuel Schabus. The neurofeedback training deployed within the framework of the FWF project, a type of biofeedback training for the brain, guides the affected persons into sleep. So-called "sleep spindles" are used in this process. These are patterns identified in EEG measurements which are characterised by "spindle-like" rapid rising and falling brain oscillations, and which occur especially during light sleep.
Crucial rhythm
The preliminary studies carried out for the FWF project showed the positive effects of neurofeedback training on healthy people. This method has therefore now been tested in a pilot study on patients aged between 19 and 50 who suffer from sleep disorders. "The brain oscillations are trained during waking to a frequency range of between 12 and 15 hertz, known as the sensorimotor rhythm. This frequency range is also prominent in light sleep and manifests itself as sleep spindles, particularly when a person is falling asleep", explains Schabus. The patients were able to observe and learn to control their own sensorimotor rhythm (measured using EEG electrodes) on the computer screen. They were tasked with moving a compass needle on the screen to a green dot using only the power of mental relaxation. They received positive visual feedback each time they reached this dot, i.e. to increase the band power between 12 and 15 hertz.
"Using the training, we managed to strengthen the sensorimotor rhythm in a waking state and the sleep spindles in 16 out of 24 patients with mild insomnia. Those who responded well to the training reported an improvement in the quality of their sleep. This was ascertained by self-monitoring methods like sleep diaries and importantly also verified in our sleep laboratory", says Schabus, outlining the process. Each of the participants visited the sleep laboratory a total of 21 times, which meant that the effects could be studied in great detail. The researchers were also able to establish positive effects on memory consolidation when word pairs were retested after sleep following earlier learning. Interestingly, the subjective sleep quality among patients who successfully completed this type of biofeedback training also showed improvement, but so did people in a pure placebo condition. In general, the researcher cautions against generalising the results: in an even more extensive follow-up protocol, people with more persistent or more pronounced insomnia did not respond to the brainwave training, nor did they exhibit any positive changes in sleep or memory.
Hippocampus fitness
"When you consider the amount of information encountered by the brain, especially the hippocampus, on a daily basis, and how sensitively it responds to stress, it is important to be mindful of treating our thinking-organ with care. Systematic training and sufficient 'sleep hygiene' not only promote well-being but also protect newly learned information from disruptive influences", says Schabus. The studies conducted as part of the FWF project play an important role in encouraging trainingof this vital human faculty and act as a reminder to adopt a more conscious approach to sleep.

More information: Schabus et.al: "Enhancing sleep quality and memory in insomnia using instrumental sensorimotor rhythm conditioning." Biological Psychology 95 (2014) 126 –134.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23548378
Provided by Austrian Science Fund (FWF)


Source:
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-04-brai...r-insomnia.html

Brain waves predict our risk for insomnia

There may not yet be a cure for insomnia, but Concordia University researchers are a step closer to predicting who is most likely to suffer from it—just in time for World Sleep Day on March 13.

In his study published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, Thien Thanh Dang-Vu, from Concordia's Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology and PERFORM Center, explores the impact of stress on sleep. Although researchers already know that stressful events can trigger insomnia, the experiment reveals that some people are more vulnerable than others to developing the condition.
To determine the role of stress, the study examined the sleep cycles of 12 Concordia students as they went through the nerve-racking experience of finals. Measuring students' brain waves at the beginning of the school semester, Dang-Vu and his team found that students showing a lower amount of a particular pattern of brain waves were more at risk for developing insomnia afterwards in response to the stress of the exams.
The brain—specifically the deep, inner parts of the brain called the thalamus and cortex—produces electromagnetic activity during sleep. When monitored by diagnostic tools, this activity appears as patterns of squiggly lines that scientists refer to as spindles.
In a previous experiment, Dang-Vu and his team discovered that greater spindle activity helps sleepers resist waking, despite noise.

The new study aimed to test whether there would be a similar relationship between sleep spindles and stress.
The hypothesis proved true.
"We found that those who had the lowest spindle activity tended to develop more disturbances in response to stress, when comparing sleep quality at the beginning of the semester and the end of the school semester," Dang-Vu says.

"We are not all equally armed when facing stress, in terms of how we can manage our sleep. Some people are more vulnerable than others."

How to increase sleep spindle?
The preliminary studies carried out for the FWF project showed the positive effects of EEG biofeedback training on healthy people. This method has therefore now been tested in a pilot study on patients aged between 19 and 50 who suffer from sleep disorders. "The brain oscillations are trained during waking to a frequency range of between 12 and 15 hertz, known as the sensorimotor rhythm. This frequency range is also prominent in light sleep and manifests itself as sleep spindles, particularly when a person is falling asleep", explains Schabus. The patients were able to observe and learn to control their own sensorimotor rhythm (measured using EEG electrodes) on the computer screen. They were tasked with moving a compass needle on the screen to a green dot using only the power of mental relaxation. They received positive visual feedback each time they reached this dot, i.e. to increase the band power between 12 and 15 hertz.
"Using the EEG biofeedback training, we managed to strengthen the sensorimotor rhythm in a waking state and the sleep spindles in 16 out of 24 patients with mild insomnia. Those who responded well to the training reported an improvement in the quality of their sleep. This was ascertained by self-monitoring methods like sleep diaries and importantly also verified in our sleep laboratory", says Schabus, outlining the process. Each of the participants visited the sleep laboratory a total of 21 times, which meant that the effects could be studied in great detail. The researchers were also able to establish positive effects on memory consolidation when word pairs were retested after sleep following earlier learning. Interestingly, the subjective sleep quality among patients who successfully completed this type of biofeedback training also showed improvement.

What is sleep spindle?
A sleep spindle is a burst of oscillatory brain activity visible on an EEG that occurs during stage 2 sleep. It consists of 12–14 Hz waves that occur for at least 0.5 seconds. Sleep spindles are generated in the reticular nucleus of the thalamus.






Source:
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-04-brai...r-insomnia.html
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-03-brai...omnia.html#nRlv

This post has been edited by zeropoint9: Apr 19 2015, 05:54 PM

Sleep loss tied to emotional reactions
A person's loss of sleep can be connected to their likelihood of reacting emotionally to a stressful situation.

That is one of the recent findings included in a new book, "Sleep and Affect: Assessment, Theory and Clinical Implications," co-edited by a University of Arkansas psychology professor and his former doctoral student. Affect is a term in psychology that describes a broad range of emotional experiences.
"In our study, we wanted to find out if there was a link between the loss of sleep and our emotional response," said Matthew T. Feldner, a professor of psychology in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. "We saw that if a person lost a night of sleep they responded with more emotion to a laboratory 'stressor.' This finding extended previous work that had linked chronic sleep loss to anxiety and mood disorders."
Feldner co-edited Sleep and Affect with Kimberly A. Babson, a health science specialist at the National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Menlo Park, California. Babson earned her doctorate in clinical psychology at the University of Arkansas.
Sleep and Affect summarizes research on the interplay of sleep and various components of emotion and affect that are related to mood disorders, anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder and depression.
"One of the themes that emerged across these chapters is that certain components of emotion seem particularly linked to sleep," Feldner said. "What we call 'stressors' tend to be more emotionally arousing for people who haven't slept well, and emotional arousal also appears to interfere with sleep quality."
Babson conducted sleep-and-affect studies at the U of A under a National Institutes of Health research training fellowship. That research spurred her's and Feldner's interest in a book that synthesizes the latest research into the interrelationships between sleep and affect.
"We present this information in a way that will help clinicians both assess for sleep problems and problems related to anxiety or mood, when a patient is seeking treatment for one and maybe not the other," he said. "By improving sleep, we might improve our treatments for anxiety problems."
This book also includes the latest findings in neuroscience related to sleep loss. There appear to be effects of sleep loss on the functioning of the emotional regulation circuit of the brain, Feldner said.
"Some of the neurobiological structures that we think are involved in regulating emotional or affective experiences don't seem to function the same after we lose sleep as they do when we are fully rested," he said.
"Sleep and Affect" is published by Elsevier Publishing.


Source:
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-03-loss...-reactions.html

This post has been edited by zeropoint9: Apr 20 2015, 11:25 PM

EEG biofeedback tunes key brain networks, improving subjective well-being in PTSD

Pioneering research conducted at Western University (London, Canada) points to a promising avenue for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): utilising EEG biofeedback training to alter the plasticity of brain networks linked to the condition.

During EEG biofeedback, intentional control of one's own brain activity may be learned with what's called a brain-computer interface, which is able to represent graphically a person's real-time brain activation on a computer. This can be done noninvasively with brainwave activities, for example, where the computer monitor behaves like a virtual "mirror" to real electrical oscillations produced by neurons in the cortex. These are recorded by surface sensors on the scalp, also known as an electroencephalogram (EEG).


Available online at the psychiatry journal Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, lead authors Rosemarie Kluetsch and Tomas Ros describe the details: "This is the first study to show that key brain networks involved in mediating affect and cognition in PTSD can be volitionally modulated via EEG biofeedback, with measurable outcomes on subjective well-being. It was achieved by harnessing multiple imaging techniques, including EEG and functional MRI (fMRI). In a nutshell, using fMRI we captured the patients' resting-state brain activity just before and after a 30-minute EEG biofeedback training session, which was carried out outside the scanner using EEG. We then searched for any differences in connectivity within well-known brain networks. Interestingly, we discovered significant correlations between EEG and fMRI network activities as well as changes in self-reported calmness. This indicated that EEG biofeedback was able to directly modulate the brain bases of emotional processing in PTSD."

Senior author and principal investigator Dr. Ruth Lanius, a professor at the Department of Psychiatry at Western's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and a scientist with Lawson Health Research Institute, adds "The last decade of neuroscience research has offered a deeper understanding of the key brain networks involved in cognitive and emotional functions. Connectivity in the salience and default mode networks, for example, has been found to be altered in PTSD. We are now on the threshold of being able to use this information to understand the neural mechanisms underlying certain disorders and their treatments. EEG biofeedback offers great promise as a type of brain training that is directly based on the functional activation of these brain networks. We are therefore thrilled to see the first evidence of this in action, along with significant changes in subjective well-being. Our hope and vision for the future is that this approach could improve and potentially augment PTSD treatment."


Provided by University of Western Ontario
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-12-neur...n-networks.html