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Text messaging On Mobile Phones Affecting Quality Of Sleep

A recent study revealed that text messages on mobile phones are making an impact on the quality of sleep for almost 50% of the 16 year old people. According to a report, the sleep of 25% of 13 year old youngsters can also be affected.

The Leuven study on media and adolescent health was conducted in Flanders in which about 2500 children studying in 1st and 4th year - aged 13 and 16 years were asked how many times they wake in the night because of incoming SMS messages in their mobile phones. In the 13 year old children, 13.4% reported that they wake up 1-3 times in a month, 5.8% wake up one in a week, 5.3% wake up many times in a week and 2.2% wake up every night. In the group of 16 year old children, 20.8% wake up 1-3 times in a month, 10.8% wake up at least one time in a week, 8.9% wake up many times in a week and 2.9% wake up every night.

The children were also asked to tell how tired they feel at different times. These findings suggest that the mobile phones are having a great effect on the quality of sleep of increasing number of adolescents. The threat of not having quality sleep is more important than the threat caused by entertainment media. The entertainment media influences a person’s time to go to bed while mobile phones actually lead to disturbed sleeping patterns.

Studies have been conducted to look into the effects of computers and televisions in the bedrooms on sleeping patterns of children, but little works are done on the effects of mobile phones, particularly when they are used for text messaging.

There are little but growing bodies of research that aim at looking into the effects of mass media on the sleeping patterns of youngsters. Nightmares and lack of sleep are always linked to viewing televisions.

Health Insurance Reform Increases Competition In Insurance Industry?

There has been a major argument between the congressional sponsors of the health insurance reform and President Barrack Obama that the health insurance exchange will lead to an increase in the competition. As per the exchange, the consumers will be allowed to make a choice between private health insurance plans with the premiums artificially increased by the government mandates and the government program that will artificially lower down the premiums.

Michael Cannon reported in ‘Fannie Med? Why a Public Option is Hazardous to your health’, on Aug. 6 Cato Institute paper that the new program by the government will literally expel a huge number of American from their present health insurance plans as a result of which, their relationship with their doctors will be threatened. The employers will choose to leave their current health plans for their employees and the private health plans will be closing down.

An analysis made by the Lewin Group estimates that if the Congress uses price controls of Medicare and if the programs become available to everyone, it will be able to attract 120 million Americans out of their private insurance plans. This number means more than 50% of the private insurance market. Mr. Cannon reports that a large number of those Americans will involuntarily leave their current insurance plans.

It is amazing that all the fearful people showing up for expressing their worries at the town hall meetings of this summer dismissed by the leaders of the Congress as hate mongers, racists and worse, has been saying.

Mr. Cannon advises that if the Congress aims at increasing the competition and making the health care more efficient, then there are other options available. Medicare should be converted into a program which gives vouchers to the seniors and frees them from purchasing any health care plan from the market.

Thousands of dollars will be made available to the workers which are currently controlled by their employers in the lieu of large health savings accounts. Likewise, the workers will be able to purchase any health care plan of their choice from the market.

Last but not the least; the Congress should increase the competition by asking the states not to deny entry of health plans and health care providers licensed from other states into the market. This means that the health insurance and clinician licenses will become portable across the state borders.

Such reformations will reduce the costs, increase the innovation and decrease the number of people without any insurance. All this will be done without additional spending by the government or higher taxes.

You must be wondering that if the things seem to be too good, then why they have still not reached the tables of Washington?

New Credit Card Rules – Beware Of Bank Fees Raise

New credit card protection rules from the federal government kicked in recently. But keeping in view the stricter rules, the banks are raising interest rates and fees, with a hope to offset the potential losses of revenues from these reform measures. Experts of personal finance, Bill Hardekopf analyzing the reform legislation commented that the three changes that came into effect are:

1. Credit card issuers are now required to send a notice to the credit card users before 45 days of increasing their rates, and not 15 any more. This will give a chance to the card holder to either pay off the credit card or to do his shopping.

Hardekopf says that the 30 extra days of receiving the notice is advantageous for the consumers. But because the consumers are now given more time before the increase in the rate, they get more time to do their shopping with lower interest rate or transfer their balance to another card. Yet, it has to be noted that the offers for balance transfers are not as liberal as they were in the past and most of the cards now charge 3% fees for a single balance transfer.

Increases in the rates are widespread in the current period, so the consumers need to pay due attention to their entire bill inserts, plain white envelopes in the mail and any email notifications. These are the ways how most of the credit card issuers notify their consumers about their increase in the rates.

Hardekopf also comments that it is surprising that the CARD act needs the bank to send an advance notice to the consumers about increase in the interest rate, but it does not ask the bank to send notice to the consumers if it closes their account or decreases the card’s credit limit.

2. Under the new rule of CARD act, the banks will need to mail the monthly statements to the consumers at least 21 days prior to the date when it is due to be paid. Earlier, this period was 14 days before due date.

Hardekopf says that these 7 extra days should not be considered as a time when you can wait and then pay the bill on the last date. The payments should be made regularly as per your schedule so that the issuers get the payment on time, well in advance of the 7 days provided to you. If this extra time is used for delaying the paying of the bill, the consumers may forget and may incur an expensive late fee.

3. Under this rule, the consumers are given the right to opt out the fee increases and rate hikes. Currently, some issuers are allowing their consumers to opt out, but the new CARD act makes this mandatory.

If a consumer opts out of the rate increase, he will no longer be able to do shopping with the card and he will need to pay off all the remaining balance under existing rates within a period of 5 years. If a consumer chooses to opt out, he will need to inform the issuer timely by sending an opt out letter to the bank rejecting the rate hikes. The mail should be sent registered receipt and the consumer should also keep the letter’s copy for his own record. Then, the balance will need to be paid at original rate. The account that has been closed will also be shown on the credit record of the consumer.

Sleep Apnea Boosts Risk Of Death In Middle-Aged Man

A government funded study found that sleep apnea, which is an airway blocking condition robbing millions of people of their restful sleep, especially those who are over-weight, also rises the risk of death.

Doctors of seven institutions, including Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, measured the sleeping and breathing patterns of over 6,400 people and they were followed for the next 8 years. Adults who were more than 40 years of age and whose sleeping and breathing was disrupted very often were 50% more likely to die as compared to those who had a normal sleep.

Over 12 million people in US are believed to be suffering from sleep apnea. The National Institutes of Health said that four out of every five people do not even know that they are going through this condition and as a result, they do not get any treatment for it.

The rates of sleep apnea are also rising with the obesity levels for the reason that excessive fat in the throat and neck may block the airways, temporarily choking them, resulting in people gasping for breath.

Jonathan Samet, chairman of the Department of Preventive Medicine in the University of Southern California and the co-author of the study said in a phone interview that with the increasing number of obese people in US, this is an important matter of concern. Around 65% of the adults are obese or over-weight and this is causing increased cases of sleep-disordered breathing.

NIH reported that men are more likely to suffer from sleep apnea than women as 24% of adult men have this condition as compared to only 9% adult women. The most frequent cause of deaths among the men suffering from sleep apnea is heart disease.

A machine was used to measure the subjects of the study when they were sleeping at their homes. The machine recorded the length and number of interruptions that came in their breathing. In the 8 years during which they were followed, 1,047 subjects of the study died. Among men aged between 40 and 70 years whose breathing was blocked more than 30 times in an hour had double the risks of dying. The PLOS Medicine journal also published a report about a study conducted on women and the results found were not significant.

Samet, the former chairman of Department of Epidemiology of Johns Hopkins said that people who feel sleepy in the day and snore at nights should consult professional doctors. Weight loss or getting the treatment for boosting oxygen supply during sleeping reduces risks of getting heart disease and many other health related problems.

Night time equipment, known as CPAP or Continuous Positive Airway Pressure, is used for treatment which helps in keeping the breathing regular. Some of the companies that are marketing this equipment are Respironics Inc. from Murrysville, Pennsylvania and ResMed Inc. from Poway, California.

Car Dealers Waiting To Get Paid As Cash For Clunkers Program Coming To An End

According to Carroll Smith, the owner of the Pasadena dealership said that since the inception of Cash for Clunkers program in July, many have taken advantage of this incentive program to purchase Monument Chevrolet.

Under this program, up to $4,500 off the value of a new vehicle is taken up by the dealership and the amount is reimbursed by the federal government. But Smith is facing a problem and it is that he has not yet received any payment from the federal government for any of the transactions made till now.

Because of the Cash for Clunkers program, a large number of consumers rushed towards vehicle showrooms and bought cars, thus giving a boost to the sales of the dealers that they really needed. But Smith and several other dealers say that the government is too slow in paying back to the dealers, as a result of which they have come under financial constraints.

In the mean time, the National Automobile Dealers Association has recently announced that they had a meeting with the US Department of Transportation in which they had discussed about suspending the program. According to NADA, the dealers who are accepting additional deals under the Cash for Clunkers program are increasing their risks of not getting reimbursed because $3 billion is just about to finish.

In another developing news, Ray LaHood, the Transportation Secretary has assured the dealers that they will surely be paid and announced that more details of the program will be provided.

With every car sold taking off $3,500 - $4,500 from the vehicle’s price, Carroll Smith is coming under more cash deficit position due to the Cash for Clunkers program. Smith said that the dealers earn a profit of around $1000 or even less with every new car on an average.

Dale Early, the owner of Deerbrook Forest Chrysler Jeep, said that it is a huge financial strain for a person who does several transactions in a short period of time. He also said that handling the volume was not a part of the government’s preparation for the program.

He said that the government has not paid for the transactions he made under the Cash for Clunkers program. But fortunately, he has been able to make other deals in his showroom because of the people who found more attractive deals that do not come under the program or those who did not quality for the program. The program of Cash for Clunkers allows the customers to bring their gas guzzlers and get a voucher of up to $4,500 with purchase of a new and more fuel efficient vehicle.

Rebecca Linland, the industry analyst at the HIS Global Insight, said that the pace of the federal government to reimburse the dealers is very slow across the nation and this is a big problem. If the dealers are not paid soon, they may get into very serious problem in terms of their cash flow.

Linland noted that the dealers are not ready for floating money as she heard about a Virginian dealer who is owing $3 million that the government has to reimburse him.

NADA reported that the dealers have received only a fraction of the reimbursements to be made by the government. The spokesman for NADA, Charles Cyrill, said that there is an urgent need to fix the problems. Earlier, Cyrill had noted that the US Department of Transportation had informed NADA that it is going to increase its staff size so that the processing can be made faster.

Sasha Johnson, the spokeswoman of the department said that they are working overtime and incorporating several resources into the program so that the applications can be processed both responsibly and quickly. Sessions are also being held between the department and the dealers to stress upon the significance of submitting complete applications, without any mistakes.