Sleep. Sandman.
Made by the Sandmen
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Table of Contents Letter from the Editor
4-5
Contributor’s Biographies
6-7
Finding the Sweet Spot
8-11
Making a Mattress
12-13
Sleep Enviorment
14-17
Improve your room, Improve your sleep
18-19
Sleep, Why should you be getting it?
20-23
Sleep, the Perfect Cure
24-25
Making a Mattress
26-29
Letter from the Editor
30-31
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“Sleep is the golden chain that ties health and our bodies together� -Thomas Dekker
From The Editor Alex Barrera-Waters Sandman in Chief
Dear sandman readers, We all know that sleep can be the greatest thing in the world, but for some people, it is anything but. My fellow sandmen and I set out to create this magazine in hopes of helping some ailing sleepers. We have come a long way, and made a lot of changes from the birth of our magazine, in order to solve the most common issues out there. As of now, our magazine covers anything from how diet and exercise may affect one’s sleep to how to find a good mattress. We talked to sources all across Austin, and even more across the country, so we could bring you, the readers, the best possible solutions to your ailments, or to simply quench your sleepy curiosity. We welcome you and hope you appreciate our first edition of sandman, Alex Barrera-Waters & The Sandmen
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Meet the Sandmen Alex Barrera-Waters Alex is a compulsive rower, and has beef with anyone who says it isn’t a sport. He hopes to get a scholarship somewhere to row. In his freetime, he likes to eat and flaunt his Californianism. He has given up on his hometown team, the San Francisco 49ers. Since 2016, he has hopped upon the wagon of hype called the Warriors. He can often be heard screaming “Steph Curry have my babies!”.
Thana McLain Thana was born in Chang Mai, Thailand, but raised in Austin, Tx. In his freetime, Thana enjoys playing guitar, doing wood projects with Frank, and playing soccer. He has an extensive knowledge of fineeising people out of their money, He likes to buy and sell instruments.
Frank Mauro Frank Mauro is a ninth grader at LASA. His favorite pastime is playing sports like soccer, basketball, and spikeball. He is chill with everyone. He also has 4 siblings and 1 dog. Over the weekends he likes to camp or hang out with Thana.
Ethan Burd Ethan Burd is a freshman at LASA. He is very passionate about parkour and freerunning, which is what he spends most of his free time doing. He owns two dogs that are afraid of him. And he can do a backflip.
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Finding the Sweet Spot The right mattress for you.
Photo Source: Adobe Stock
Caleb Freid and Associate
comfortable, supportive, durable
Isaac Snow
When the average consumer goes into their local mattress store after their old one has lived out it’s eight-year sentence, they often don’t know the complex world they’re entering. People can often be swindled for their money and out of a good night’s sleep if they don’t understand what they’re looking for. Caleb Freid, Isaac Snow, and Adam Hickam will give their insight into how to find the right mattress for everyone. They’re all mattress experts and their respective stores in Austin, Texas, and have countless years of experience in the field.
Photos by: alex barrera-waters
Adam Hickam
He illustrious Mr. Sandman may bring sweet dreams to all, but these unsung heroes are the real magic makers of the sleep industry. A good night’s sleep would be an unknown pleasure without the work of the mattress specialists. Many people overlook the complexities of the mattress they sleep on, but these men value the beauty of the bed.
Finding the right mattress for everyone is not as easy of a task as it sounds. There are a lot of different aspects to take into account. Snow said, “It’s a lot of subjective things so, trying to get someone to get a mattress is more 2017
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“If it’s supportive, comfortable, and how long it is gonna last” -Isaac Snow
10 of an art than a science.” People have different biases they might not even be aware of, starting from their childhood, “You have to keep in mind what somebody grew up sleeping on, so for me, I grew up on really firm beds, so I slept on my stomach and that was great, because I wasn’t bowing in all night” said Freid.
A sign outside of Urban Mattress.
The biases go all over the place, it all just depends on the buyer’s background. This goes with what Freid said, “If you grew up sleeping on soft, you probably would prefer soft.” Some people also have biases that they can’t control, as Hickam said about the process, “I see if they have any health ailments, if they have hip problems or lower back problems, sleep apnea, it depends on their answer.”
Some mattress stores, like Mattress 1, offer different discounts on mattresses depending on a consumer’s situation. “If they have problems with their lower back, they can actually get a prescription from their doctor to get a memory foam mattress with an adjustable base because it is so good for your lower back. They can actually get a prescription and we’ll take the taxes off for them. So, we’ll give that to them tax free if they have a prescription from the doctor” said Hickam.
If the consumer can look past their biases, they can look into what really matters in their mattress. There are three main characteristics a mattress shopper should look for, as described by Snow:“If it’s supportive, comfortable, and then how long is it gonna last.” One can find different combinations of these three characteristics in the main types of mattresses. Certain mattresses fit certain needs, “You’re gonna have traditional innerspring, you’re gonna have hybrids, and then you’ll have ones that are all foam,” said Freid. Inside of all hybrid and innerspring mattresses, there are coils. These coils serve to support your body while you sleep, and more coils create more support. “So what’s gonna change any mattress is how much padding is on it, and then what type of support you have. Whether its 460 coils, 1000 coils, 1500 coils,
When looking for a mattress, it’s important to look for how comfortable it is, how supportive it is, and how durable it is. Different combinations of these three traits
work for different people, and can be found in all types of mattresses. People often grow biases as they age, so different mattresses may feel entirely different. The perfect mattress is different for everyone, but if you know what to look for, it’s not too hard to find.
Photos by: alex barrera-waters
Different people have different preferences, but “The number one most recommended mattresses are the Tempur Pedic mattresses” said Hickam.
A sign outside of Urban Mattress.
or whether there’s no coils,” said Freid about mattress types. These coils create a firmer, more supportive base, but it might not feel comfortable to all consumers, so mattress makers will add layers of padding, “The more padding we have, the less you’re gonna feel those coils and the softer it’ll be as a result,” said Freid. All of these different aspects add up to the consumer’s overall comfort. “We’re defining comfort, we’re talking about reducing the want to move around throughout the night. So, if you can keep your body relaxed, without pressure points on the shoulders from something too firm, or without sinking from something too soft, then it’ll allow you to sleep through the night without tossing and turning. Because if you’re tossing and turning, then your brain is awake and you’re not really getting into that deeper storage sleep, that REM cycle” said Freid. For someone well-versed in sleep, the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) cycle is the goldilocks spot. A perfect, deep sleep can be found in those stages.
“If you’re tossing and turning, then your brain is awake” -Caleb Freid
article by: alex barrera-waters
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Making a Mattress The essential components.
Getting a good sleep would be nearly impossible without some aspects of comfort. Every mattress has either memory foam or a layer of padding to alleviate any pressures from the springs below. Some people can be overwhelmed by padding.
In order to hold up one’s body, support is necessary. If the feet and spine are not aligned, back problems can ensue. An ideal mattress would let your body suspend itself healthily, without creating pains, in order to prevent moving in the night.
A perfect mattress would be a waste without durability. If a mattress wears down too quickly, it might not be worth the expense. Common wear and tear is to be expected, but the life span of a mattress should be between seven and ten years.
The price of a mattress ranges from a couple hundred dollars to a few thousand. Buying a mattress is a multiple year commitment, so opting out of a better mattress just to save some money isn’t very practical. One should be confident in their purchase.
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Sleep Environment All about how your room affects how you sleep: By Frank Mauro
Well lit bedroom with blue walls and white pilooes and matrees.
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ave you ever woken up in the middle of the night with a dry throat or tossed and turned for hours on end? Do you ever feel unsatisfied with your energy or growth? Do you forget things the day after you learn them in school? Your room or the environment may be contributing to your sleep disruptions. According to World Sleep Day, environmental conditions play a significant role in one’s ability to get proper sleep. Getting healthy amounts of sleep is needed for a healthy lifestyle. Maintaining a good sleep environment is essential to get deep consistent sleep. This means controlling the noise, temperature, darkness, humidity, and more in a sleep enviorment.
Some factors that affect how you sleep are “Noise, temperature, darkness, comfort, and humidity are major ones,. . .color, blue light, distractions, scent, stress, and diet are also factors”says Dr. mike Brown. Loud abrupt noises, like those from traffic, can interrupt sleep. Interrupting the sleep cycle, and reducing the intensity of sleep. If one lives in a urban or loud area Dr. Brown advises “soundproof your room if possible”.
“Noise, temperature, darkness, comfort, and humidity are major [factors in sleep],. .color, blue light, distractions, scent, stress, aand diet are also.”
2017 A couple put pillows over there ears becaus of noise making them uncomfortable.
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sandman 16 Human bodies sleep partly based on when they think it’s time to sleep, in order to alert the body that it is time to sleep it’s essential that your room is completely dark. “Do not allow any light to enter by closing off any gaps in windows” says Dr. Brown. It is also important that one minimizes the amount of blue light before bed, according to health.harvard.edu the use of artificial light throws the body’s biological clock the circadian rhythm out of whack. Then, sleep suffers.
Young lady is on her phone late at night.
Every night there is a natural temperature drop in the outdoors, it best to make the temperature of one’s room follow a natural rhythm. A good baseline for this is to “keep thermostat at around 65 degrees”.
Some person is turning down the tempuirater on a modern thermostat.
Staying comfortable is another way to get relaxed and ready for sleep. One can do several things like adjust pillows or find the right mattress. For more about mattresses read the article by Alex Barrera-Waters in this issue. It is also important to sleep in a healthy and comfortable body position. Sleeping in the fetal position on your nondominant side naturally tells your body there is nothing to worry about and in turn relax it. Keep distractions out of the sleeping enviorment. Sydney Kelly and Beck Ratcliff, LASA students, both say that they think that their phones are a huge reason for why they don’t sleep enough.“ I usually [use my phone] but I know I shouldn’t” says Kelley. Putting sleep in the schedule is very important. Beck Ratcliff, a student a LASA, says that his schedule is the number one thing keeping him from sleep. “I would say soccer messing up my schedule because I have to do homework late into the night”
responded Ratcliff. Lastly, one should do whatever little things feel helps. Kelley says that drinking a cup of tea helps her sleep, Ratcliff says that having his dog in his bed helps him sleep. Brown says that painting his walls blue helped him. Whatever little comfort or habit one may have, as long as it is helping relax and not affecting your circadian rhythm, the schedule your body expects and uses to sleep (aka when it’s dark during sleep), it is a good thing.
According to Brown in order to make an optimal room for sleep, one should - Not allow light to enter by closing off any gaps in the window, especially if living in the city. - Set the thermostat to about 65 degrees. - Make it so it’s not very noisy. (soundproof). - Get comfortable; adjust what mattresses or pillow to relax. - Keep distractions like phones out of the room and try not to intake too much blue light. - Schedule sleep.
2017 A white board with a schedule that emphasizes the activity of sleep
All photos credited to Adobe Stock
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IMPROVE your room, improve your SLEEP BY FRANK MAURO
Turn down the temperature
Setting your thermostat to about 65 degrees helps your body fall asleep. The drop in temperature can mimic the drop in temperature that happens naturally, thus appealing to out natural instincts
Turn off the lights Turn off all lights and pull the blinds down to limit as much light as possible form entering.
Turn down the Volume
Loud abrupt noises, like those from traffic, can interrupt sleep. Interrupting your sleep cycle, and reducing the intensity of your sleep. If you live in a urban or loud area soundproof your room if possible
Get Comfortable Being comfortable makes you relaxed and ready for sleep. You can do several things like adjust pillows or find the right mattress.
Avoid screens
The blue light can also use of artificial light throws the body’s biological clock the circadian rhythm out of whack. This results in less and worse sleep
Avoid distractions
Obviously if you’re doing something other than sleep you’re are not sleeping at night. You should move distractions, like your phone, out of your room.
Do what ever helps You Stuffed animals, fussy socks, or blue walls, what ever you think helps, might just be helping, via the placebo effect.
Schedule Sleep
sleepfoundation.org www.americansleepmedicine.com healthysleep.med.harvard.edu
Schedule sleep so that you are not over whelmed and have to work through the night, and also try and keep a reoccurring sleep and wake time. 2017
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Sleep, Why Should you be Getting It? by Ethan Burd
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Depression, lack of motivation, aggression, insomnia, and loads of other health problems. What could cause all these symptoms? Well the answer to that might surprise you. It’s sleep. Everyone needs high quality sleep to live a happy and healthy life. So I think everybody should know how to achieve that. You should also know what to do when you fail to get the sleep need. With the help of Dr. Marianne, Jingyu Gu, and Ed Ortiz, it will be easy to understand why sleep is important and what happens when you don’t get enough. Although it’s fine to occasionally have trouble sleeping and to occasionally be tired during the day, you should not be having trouble getting sleep every night or being tired during the day every day. We all know it sucks to be low-energy during the day, to have mood problems and trouble sleeping at night. The first step to fixing your sleep schedule, is being able to identify that you are having issues getting sleep, which is pretty easy. If you wake up and you’re tired that’s normal, but if you stay tired as the day goes by it might be necessary for you to look into fixing your sleep schedule. If you know for a fact you aren’t getting a healthy amount of sleep according to the chart below. You should make an effort to do less before you go to sleep, and you can read more about how to get better sleep later in this magazine. How can you consider sleep poor quality? Poor quality sleep shows many facts. For example if you’re getting bad quality sleep your body isn’t as comfortable so you toss and turn a lot. Or you aren’t having proper breaths so you snore a lot. It’s important to make sure your getting high quality sleep to having a happy and energetic day. You
can easily tell you are getting quality sleep if you are falling asleep 30 minutes after you get in bed, you wake up no more than once, when you wake up it’s for no more than 20 minutes, and you’re asleep at least 85% of the time you’re in bed. The most common issue when getting enough sleep is getting to bed on time. The blue light in technology or other screens keeps us awake. So one simple way to maximize the sleep you are getting is to not look at your phone at least 30 minutes before you go to bed. How much sleep a person needs varies. According to Ed Ortiz, - Newborns (0-3 months): 14-17 hours each day -
Infants (4-11 months): 12-15 hours
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Toddlers (1-2 years): 11-14 hours
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Preschoolers (3-5): 10-13 hours
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School age children (6-13): 9-11 hours
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Teenagers (14-17): 8-10 hours
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Younger adults (18-25): 7-9 hours
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Adults (26-64): 7-9 hours
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Older adults (65+): 7-8 hours
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A woman wakes up happy from getting high quality sleep
may be caused by sleep disorders, such as obstructive sleep apnea, insomnia, or restless legs syndrome poses a serious threat to one’s physical, mental, emotional and social health. Clinical research shows that insufficient sleep affects work, concentration, forgetfulness, mental tiredness, alertness, irritability, energy, daytime sleepiness, and social functioning. Conversely, research shows that sufficient, quality sleep provides myriad benefits— from contributing to a fresh, energizing start to your day to boosting your productivity, sociability and overall wellbeing. Years of clinical research tell us that proper sleep can: – Improve your overall well being and quality of life. – Boost your immunity and help you fight infection. – Help you perform better—and more safely—in work and school. – Strengthen your memory. – Help you metabolize sugar, which can help prevent diabetes.
– Prevent vascular complications, such as hypertension, heart disease and stroke. – Lower your risk of early death. There are lots of ways to treat people with sleep disorders, and sometimes it varies between person. Ortiz treats patients with counseling and medications if they can’t sleep at night (insomnia) or if they don’t allow themselves to get enough sleep (bad sleep habits).”I treat people very individually. Because there’s not a one-sizefits-all. And it really depends on what is going on for that person.” The one thing that is pretty much a one-size-fits-all, “I try to help people develop healthy sleep patterns. So in other words, lifestyle patterns, like you know, going to bed between 9 and 10 every night and then getting up 8 hours later if they’re an adult.” Getting too much or not enough sleep can also cause problems. “Short term sleep deprivations causes sleepiness, sleep attacks, yawning, car accidents, hallucinations, and memory/concentration problems. Long- term sleep deprivations can cause heart disease, high blood pressure, memory problems, weakened immune system, and major depression.” said Ed Ortiz added that too much sleep could be a sign that someone has a sleep disorder such as Narcolepsy or Obstructive Sleep Apnea. Narcolepsy is a disease
A bed with uncleaned sheets
where you get sudden attacks of sleep, loss of muscle tones, and rare hallucinations. The causes of narcolepsy aren’t well known although it is likely a genetic disorder. And obstructive sleep apnea is where you have troubles breathing when you are asleep. It is caused by obesity, drinking too much alcohol, and sleeping the wrong way. Why do you need sleep? We have a natural biological clock. And the rhythm of that clock is connected to daylight and nighttime. So when the light begins to go down, there are a cascade of physiological what? Where
“Age plays the biggest role in how much sleep you need.” - Ed Ortiz
chemicals begin to change. So our cortisol (CH) starts to decrease and our melatonin (ML) increases as the light wanes. And the melatonin is what helps us fall asleep. CH cortisol is what helps us wake up. Now as we know it’s important for our bodies to get good sleep or you can have troubles functioning properly and staying alert. The amount of time we sleep is important to our sleep being good quality, not only that but for good quality sleep our body needs to be comfortable. Getting good sleep can do many things as we discussed. The amount of sleep we need varies drastically between ages but over all quality is the same for all ages. So now we know the importance of getting proper sleep and the right amount. So, why do you need sleep? Because it’s super important to get good sleep because if you don’t it can cause many health complications. And since it’s such an easy thing to fix you don’t have to worry that much when finding a solution to not getting enough sleep. 2017
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All photos from AdobeStock
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Sleep, the Perfect Cure by Ethan Burd
Not getting enough sleep makes it harder for your immune system to fight off illness. In turn you have a higher chance of becoming sick. Research has shown that your immune system’s health is directly related to the amount of sleep you get. Sleep is how you absorb information in your brain. If you don’t get enough sleep you forget information and have a harder time learning and remembering information. There’s no point in studying for something late at night the day before because it will be difficult for you to remember the information you studied. Lacking enough sleep can make it very difficult for you to think. In addition to alertness and reaction time there are many other cognition related issues you can have missing even just one night of sleep. Having healthy skin requires a healthy amount of sleep. In a study people that didn’t get enough sleep had more defined wrinkles, pigmentation, and loose skin.
Getting too much and not enough sleep can be extremely bad for your heart. Studies showed that not enough or too much sleep increase your risk of having a heart attack and developing heart diseases. Not enough sleep can also have emotional effects on you. A study was done that showed people lacking sleep where more emotionally unstable about certain topics. And those who where lacking sleep were more easily irritated by things like being interrupted. In addition to all of these health problems, not getting enough sleep increases prevents your brain from clearing out the protein known as betaamyloid. Beta-amyloid is a toxin that is strongly associated with Alzheimers. When you work out you’re breaking your muscles down to be built back up stronger. When you’re asleep is when the muscles you broke down get healed even stronger. So if you aren’t getting enough sleep you’re muscles aren’t getting enough time to be built back up stronger. Meaning your muscles won’t grow when you don’t get enough sleep.
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Exercise your habits
Your lifestyle may be affecting your sleep more than you think. By: Thana McLain
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The average American eats around 3770 calories a day, about 1500 calories above the recommended amount. The average Joe also spends about 17 minutes a day, or an accumulative total of 2½ hours exercising every week, which is almost two hours below the suggested total by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The United States also hold a ranking within the top 15 countries with the highest percentages of obesity. According to data from the use of the global “Sleep Cycle” application, the United States holds the worst sleep quality of first world countries. When we think about sleep we typically think about how our amount of sleep affects our everyday lives. But what if we looked at this through a different lense. What if we asked ourselves: how do diet and exercise affect your quality of sleep? As we eat, every nutrient in our food we consume contributes to the quality of our lifestyle. Consider your body to act and
function as a machine. As you put in certain foods, it gives you fuels and resources that allow your machine to run as optimally as possible. A conversation with John Green, a exercise-guru gave great insight into the subject, “If you consider what is happening to your body, when you consume highly processed food, your body has an autoimmune response, so, think about the toll that it takes on your body. If I am putting a poor energy source into my machine, and its
not able to fully absorb the energy source, then you’re going to see poor results.”
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Overall, from most physical trainers, I found that diet is the most essential in sleep improvement. As I spoke to John he explained further, “I mean sleep is challenging because it’s hard to study unless I’m going to do a quasi experimental sleep analysis on myself, but I can tell you this, my diet plays a tremendous role in my overall energy level” Green explained that there is a key difference between having constant and consistent energy levels rather than random energy spikes coming from the
food you eat. This is not just true for when a person is awake, but aspects of poor dieting can cause very key problems to quality of deep sleep, and even lead to sleep disorders. I spoke with Dr. Dockery, and he explained some of the common sleep disorders caused by poor diet. One in particular, called sleep apnea is commonly found in people with obesity. As one lies on their back, “all of the fat in their throat closes off their windpipe and they stop breathing for a minute or so at a time” and those with sleep apnea can repeat this process up to 30 times a night.
important to note that fatty foods are very key in Much of the time they don’t even realize it, “but they wake up the next morning, they’re tired, and they haven’t disrupting sleep, “They are the type of food that’s hard to digest, which is going to make you not sleep slept well.” well.” A meal shortly before you go to bed is also going to make you not sleep well. If you go to sleep with food still in your stomach, food stays in your w stomach for about two hours, and will cause you to be more restless within that time.
“There are always food that I try and help people to avoid. Alcohol and caffeine are pretty high up on the list (Kent)”.
Sleep, diet, and exercise are the most basic essential parts to one’s health. Food provides the cellular building blocks for the body. As one sleeps mental recuperation and disposal of neurological waste occurs. It’s important to think about how the As well, specific types of foods can have very negative intertwined nature of these It is all intertwined and effects on energy levels and/or give unhealthy spikes of connected in principle. sleep not just in terms of energy, “There are always food that I try and help people how it affects you when you get a certain amount, to avoid. Alcohol and caffeine are pretty high up on the but also how your lifestyle choices affect your sleep. list (Austin Kent- Austin Physical Trainer).” As well it’s
All Photos Used Have Been Used From Adobe Stock 2017 29
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According to data realeased by the widespread mobile application, “Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock� , the United States ranks with the lowest score of all countries using the app with a 7.3% below the average line.
nd trol a n n o C a isease more th D r o 5 ied sf enter hich stud ly about 6 C e 7 Th ion, w icans, on p at least t n e v e Pre Amer ricans sle 0 0 4 , e 440 of Am t n e c . per night a s r hou
ople e p f % o ple 5 3 o at e th n 20 pe well, r o s i es, m with 1 ese. A enters t a t C S b ted obese, mely o ted by i hich n w U e c d , r u t n re s, he In t onside o be ex ey cond eventio icipant s t c r e t are idered a surv and P 00 par ion do ce l o s t con rding t Contro n 450,0 popula aintan m a acco isease ore th e U.S. uscleh D for ained m 0% of t c and m i t con under 8 e aerob unts. just eet th ed amo m d not mmen reco
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