Sleeping as You Get Older

As we get older, our sleep needs can change. It is understood that children and adolescents need more sleep than adults, but surprisingly, older adults may also need to get more sleep. It is recommended that seniors get at least seven hours of sleep, but some need up to nine hours per night.

Unfortunately, many seniors struggle to get the sleep they need. Sleep disturbances can increase with age. Older adults often find it difficult to fall asleep, and they sleep less deeply. They also tend to wake up more during the night. Older adults also often find that they get sleepier earlier in the evening and if they do not shift their bedtime earlier, they can lose needed sleep time.

Why do seniors have these common sleep problems? As you age, your body produces less melatonin, the sleep hormone. You can also become more sensitive to environmental disturbances— temperature, sounds, and light. Finally, seniors have more medical problems, which can lead to unsettled sleep patterns. Poor sleep can lead to depression, decreased attention spans, memory problems, increased risk of falls, and greater use of over the-counter sleep aids. This can all lead to a lower quality of life.

Many seniors depend on daytime naps to counteract the problems associated with diminished night sleeping. There are some treatments that can help. Your doctor can recommend ways to safely get the sleep you need. You should also make good nutrition and daily exercise a part of your life. These contribute to your general well-being, which promotes good sleep habits as well.

Eat That Chocolate

Good news for chocolate lovers!  Recent studies have shown that there are more benefits to eating chocolate than we knew. A recent small trial found that eating chocolate helped those with peripheral artery disease, which impairs blood circulation, walk longer on a treadmill. People who eat chocolate cut their risk for heart failure by as much as a third. It can also lower blood pressure and reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke by 39 percent.

But not so fast! Before you grab a chocolate bar, you should know that these results come largely from studies involving dark chocolate, not milk chocolate. There are components in dark chocolate that come from cacao, which is packed with healthy chemicals like flavonoid, polyphenols, and theobromine. The more cacao content, the healthier the chocolate. So stick with chocolate that is at least 70 percent cacao for the best benefit. Eating dark chocolate consistently is the best strategy. You should try to include about seven to eight ounces of dark chocolate in your diet each week for the  maximum benefit. Any more than that and you will be adding more calories without much increase in health benefits.

The Carpet Fiber of the Future?

Imagine a carpet that resists staining, fading and wear better than any other you’ve ever experienced. Now picture that carpet being soft and luxurious underfoot. If that wasn’t enough, this synthetic carpet fiber is made from a renewable, natural source. Almost sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it?

In the world of carpet, things change all the time. New combinations of styles, colors, textures and  patterns are introduced every year. As tastes change, so do carpets. One thing that rarely changes is the selection of fibers used to make carpet yarns. In fact, since the 1960’s, there have basically been only 3 synthetic carpet fibers available; nylon, polyester and olefin (polypropylene).

Things changed in 2009 when a new kind of fiber became available to consumers. Polytrimethylene terephthalate or PTT is generically known as triexta. The fiber is marketed under the trade name Sorona by DuPont and SmartStrand Carpet by Mohawk Industries. Triexta promised a superior combination of cleanability, colorfastness and durability than any one of the other synthetic carpet fibers could.  Interestingly, the process of making the fiber now known as triexta was invented in 1941 and was considered to be another form of polyester (polyethylene terephthalate or PET). Polyester carpets have been around since the 1960’s. Remember shag?

The problem with polyester PET is its lack of resilience, allowing it to crush down and distort in traffic areas. The fiber producer and carpet manufacturers realized the difficulty of convincing the public that PTT overcame the limitations of polyester and made a petition to the Federal Trade Commission to create a new designation for PTT polyester.  After 3 years of careful review and due process, the FTC agreed that the characteristics of triexta were unique enough to grant PTT a new designation as a subclass of polyester. The generic name triexta was applied to this previously underappreciated polymer.

So what is so great about triexta? According to carpet manufacturers and the fiber producer, triexta is virtually stain proof. It is also extremely colorfast, resisting color loss from sunlight, UV light and even chlorine bleach.But the same things can be said of polyester. It is the improved resilience of triexta that makes it superior to polyester.

How does triexta compare to nylon? In the category of resilience, nylon is the still the winner. But in the category of colorfastness and stain-resistance, triexta is the clear champion. Olefin is also colorfast and stain resistant, but it lacks resilience, tending to crush in high traffic areas.

One additional feature of triexta is the softness of the fiber. Carpets made with triexta feel softer and more luxurious than any other synthetic fiber. This is surprising in a carpet that is expected to last 20 or more years in normal use. Softness and durability rarely go hand-in-hand.

What about cleanability? We have observed that carpets made with triexta clean as well as polyester and generally easier than nylon. However, some oily soils form a bond with the fiber and can be more challenging to remove. Typical soiling and food and beverage spills are removed fairly easily. Products that would stain nylon are no problem for triexta; they clean out readily.

So is triexta a miracle fiber? Only time will tell. The jury is still out since these carpets have only been widely available for about 6 years now. It definitely shows promise.

No matter what kind of carpet you have, Hansen Steam Way has the training, equipment and expertise to keep it beautiful for a long time.