A study conducted by a team of researchers from Illinois found that poor sleep can increase the risk of disability due to rheumatoid arthritis.

Rheumatoid Arthritis

The immune system is responsible for protecting the body from viruses and other pathogenic organisms. But a disorder in the immune system can cause it to confuse healthy tissues and cells as foreign materials. This results to an autoimmune disease which leads to the development of autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis. RA, or rheumatoid arthritis, is a condition that causes the inflammation of joints and the tissues surrounding it. It can also affect other organs in the body.

Rheumatoid arthritis can happen at any age.  However, women are more often affected compared to men. RA usually affects the joints of the ankles, feet, knees, fingers and wrists. The severity and course of the disease can vary on a case-to-case basis. The primary contributors of the disease are hormones, certain genetic markers and infection. Various studies also show that certain habits like the lack of sleep can contribute to the development of rheumatoid arthritis.

Poor Sleep Can Increase the Likelihood of Disability from Rheumatoid Arthritis

A study published in the February issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine revealed that poor sleep is linked with higher risk of depressive symptoms, higher levels of pain and fatigue, and more functional disability in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The researchers suggest treating sleeping problems through the help of behavioral and other forms of intervention to better overcome the painful symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis.

The study aims to investigate the relationship between functional disability in more than 16 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and their quality of sleep. The study participants had an average age of around 58 years and over 70 percent of them were women. All of the study participants were clinically diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis for no less than 2 years, and they all had been suffering from rheumatoid arthritis for 14 years on an average.

The researchers asked the study participants to complete the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Medical Outcomes Study Short Form, the Health Assessment Questionnaire, and the Beck Depression Inventory. The results provided much needed information regarding the study participants’ quality of sleep, pain severity, functional disability, fatigue, and their depression levels. The participants were also asked to give their medical history and socio-demographic information.

The results of the study showed that a person’s quality of sleep has an indirect effect on functional disability after removing other factors like age, number of co-morbidities and gender. The results of the PSQI showed that more than 61 percent of the patients had poor sleep and 33 percent reported sleeping disturbances caused by joint pain in most days of the week.

Lead researcher from the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Nursing, Faith Luyster, said that the primary result of their study suggests that poor sleep was linked to worse cases of rheumatoid arthritis. She added that it is important to properly address the sleeping problems of rheumatoid arthritis patients through pharmacological and behavioral intervention.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory disease that affects more than 1.3 million American adults and which causes stiffness, swelling, pain and loss of function in the joint area. People with rheumatoid arthritis normally complain about sleep disruptions and poor quality of sleep. Luyster added that not being able to sleep well at night can contribute to the severity of fatigue and pain which, in turn, bi-directionally affects their quality of sleep.

Rheumatoid Arthritis: Risk Factors

It has been found that women are more at risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis than men. Adults aged 40 to 60 years are more likely to be infected with the condition. Genetic inclination and family history also plays a major role in the development of rheumatoid arthritis. Though medical experts say that the disease can’t be directly inherited, predispositions to rheumatoid arthritis can be passed on. Lastly, one of the adverse effects of smoking is a higher risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis.

Natural Ways to Fight Rheumatoid Arthritis Risk

Though the real cause of rheumatoid arthritis remains unknown, medical experts say that the key to preventing the disease is protecting the joints from damage. The joints are built to perform the stress of basic tasks but joints with arthritis cannot take the stress of twisting, pulling and pushing.

A tip to protecting the joints from too much strain is by moving the joint to its full range of motion. This can help maintain the active motion of your joints. But remember not to overdo the exercise and keep the movement to where it is pain-free and in the range of your flexibility. Keep the movements gentle and slow. Forcing the joints to make movements beyond its range of motion can only result to damage and injury.

Doing basic tasks will, more often than not, require the movement of the joints. Another tip to prevent the risk of rheumatoid arthritis is knowing which tasks cause joint pain and by finding a way to avoid it. Lifting heavy objects can cause sudden jolts of pain. And if this happens, try to find a better way of doing it without experiencing the same pain, especially with tasks that you do every day. Remember to observe proper body mechanics when doing things.  This will not only make the task easier to complete, but it helps you avoid injuries as well.

Rheumatoid arthritis pain is common in the hand area. The hands are full of joints and pain in this area can result to functional disability. Try to use your hands more carefully. Avoid tasks that will need prolonged pinching and gripping. The motion of the fingers needs to be in the direction of the thumb and not the little finger. Opening jars for example will direct the force to the palm instead of just in the fingers. Try to use jar openers rather than doing it barehanded. Using tools with ergonomically designed handles will help prevent the onset of pain.

Different joints can endure different levels of tasks. The joints in the fingers can only do so much but other joints can do so much more. When doing certain heavy tasks for example, try to use your strongest joints. Avoid keeping the joints in the same position for an extended period of time. When writing, try to give your hands some rest for 10 to 15 minutes. When driving long distances, try to stop for a few minutes. Move out and stretch your joints.

Sources
eurekalert.org
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
medicinenet.com
mayoclinic.com
mayoclinic.com
mayoclinic.com

Researchers found out that people with poor sleep quality have higher inflammation levels which could increase the risk for stroke and heart disease.

Alana Morris, MD, a fellow of cardiology at Emory University School of Medicine, will be presenting the findings of a recently concluded study at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions which will be held in Chicago on Sunday, November 14, 2010. The findings are the results of a survey involving 525 middle aged people who participated in the Morehouse-Emory Partnership to Eliminate Cardiovascular Health Disparities, or META-Health – a study about the participants’ duration of sleep and quality of sleep.  Several experts were a part of the META-Health study.  Medical experts who served as co-directors were Gary Gibbon, MD, the director at Morehouse School of Medicine’s Cardiovascular Research Institute; and Emory’s Cardiovascular Research Centre’s director, Arshed Quymi.  The director of Emory University’s Sleep Program, Donald Bliwise, also extended help by providing additional guidance.

Details of the Study

According to Dr. Alana Morris, acute deprivation of sleep results to changes in the function of the blood vessels, as well as an increase in inflammatory hormones production.  However, Dr. Morris emphasized the need for more research studies regarding the physiologic effects of persistent lack of sleep. Furthermore, she added that previously conducted studies which examined the response of the body to lack of sleep have utilized subjects who have been acutely deprived of sleep for over 24 hours in experimental sleep labs and nothing like this has been examined in epidemiologic studies.

For the META-Health study, researchers performed an assessment of the participants’ quality of sleep, making use of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index survey. The study population’s median sleep score is six, and getting a score which is more than six is deemed poor.  The data were also analyzed basing on the subjects’ sleep duration (in hours).

Subjects, who stated six hours of sleep, or fewer, were seen to have increased levels of three inflammatory markers.  The markers were C-reactive protein, Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and fibrinogen.  The average levels of C-reactive protein in subjects who reported less than six hours of sleep were approximately 25 percent greater than the people who had six to nine hours of sleep.  C-reactive protein in people who lacked sleep was 2 mg per litre, while those who had enough sleep had 1.6 mg per litre.  The difference between the two groups was still considered significant, even when recognized risk factors were corrected such as obesity, diabetes, blood pressure and smoking.

Significance of C-reactive protein

C-reactive protein is significantly used as an important marker for the risk of heart disease and inflammation. People with C-reactive protein levels which are more than 3 mg per litre have twice the risk of having a heart attack, as compared to people with low C-reactive protein levels.  This information is according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Heart Association.

According to Dr. Morris, the levels of C-reactive protein in people who had little sleep were higher.  However, it was still within the range of what health experts consider to be low to intermediate risk. But she points out that the population of their study was a representative of the community-based population and not patients who are in hospitals or those with known heart diseases, so their population study have overall lesser risk and lower levels of C-reactive protein compared to people who belong to the high risk population utilized in some studies.

Morris added that inflammation might be the reason why poor quality of sleep increases the risk for stroke and heart disease. She said that whether or not the lack of sleep directly contributes to cardiovascular mortality is still questionable.

Short Sleep or Long Sleep?

Past research studies have shown that individuals who get to sleep for seven to eight hours each night live the longest, and those who have too short or too long sleep duration results to a higher mortality.  Researchers discovered that sleeping for too short or too long a time are often associated with psychological stress, diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure which are risk factors for the development of stroke and heart diseases.  But in the META-Health study, subjects who slept longer than nine hours did not exhibit significantly greater inflammation marker levels.

How to Sleep Better

While some people have the ability to fall asleep instantly as soon as their heads hit the pillow, there are some unfortunate ones who find it difficult to sleep.  For them, sleep just doesn’t come easy.  If you belong to the latter category, here are some tips on how you can sleep better:

Set a Routine

Setting and following a routine is an appropriate way to condition your body.  It is like setting your internal body clock, which goes off at specified times.  Before going to bed, you may set rituals – take a bath, apply lavender lotion, drink warm milk, read a few pages of your favourite novel before you turn off that bedside lamp.  Stick to this ritual and you will find how easy it is to fall asleep once everything is done.

Also, go to bed at a regular time each night and wake up at the same time each day. Do this even on weekends, even if it is so tempting to sleep and wake up late.

Eat Right, Drink Right

• Refrain from eating big meals during dinner, especially those that contain high levels of fats since it takes too long to digest.  Also, avoid acidic and spicy foods since this may result to heartburn and stomach trouble.
• Increase your consumption of foods that are rich in vitamin B complex such as whole grains, legumes, wheat germ, fish, and egg yolks; and vitamin C such as tart fruits and green leafy vegetables.  These vitamins aid in converting tryptophan (mainly found in milk) to serotonin which helps you achieve deep sleep.
• Avoid drinking alcohol before going to sleep since it would greatly affect the quality of your sleep by letting you wake up in the later part of the night.
• Caffeine causes problems in sleeping even if you drank it ten hours before sleeping.  So it would be wise to reduce your caffeine intake.
• Do not drink too much liquid at night.  Large amounts of tea, juice, soft drinks and even water can wake you up and cause frequent trips to the bathroom.

Go Natural

• Do not use sleeping pills.  There are other effective and safer ways to sleep.
• Drink chamomile tea before sleeping.  It has been used for over 1,000 years and is said to induce sleep and improve its quality.
• Hops pillows, or those that contain the herb Humulus lupulus, is helpful for people with insomnia.  It is said to have sedating and calming effects, helping a person sleep better.
• Adding lavender oil when bathing before going to bed is helpful since it gives a calming and relaxing effect and it enhances the quality of sleep.

Sources
life123.com
helpguide.org
eurekalert.org

Study shows that sufficient sleep especially among pregnant women lowers the risk of high blood pressure.

According to a study published in the October 1 issue of the Sleep journal, getting poor quality of sleeping during the first trimester of pregnancy may increase a woman’s risk of developing high blood pressure. The study was conducted by the University of Washington’s School of Public Health in Seattle and was led by epidemiology professor Michele A. Williams, ScD.

The pregnant woman may develop symptoms and complications which may appear in the later months of the pregnancy. Preeclampsia is a serious health condition that is linked to the excessive amounts of protein in urine and high blood pressure is one of its symptoms. This happens after 20 weeks of pregnancy and may increase a woman’s risk of developing eclampsia, a life-threatening condition acquired during pregnancy.

The Results

The study evaluated the health conditions of pregnant women who were in the habit of sleeping six, or less, hours per night and another group of women who consistently sleeps for 9 hours in the same conditions. It was observed that in the third trimester, the first group experienced systolic blood pressure that is almost 4 points higher than the second group. The researchers advised that pregnant women needs to get 9 hours of sleep every night since they have greater needs for sleep.

The researchers also observed women who slept more than 9 hours per night and found out that they had a systolic blood pressure of more than 4 points higher than the women with 9 hours of sleep. Despite of a very minimal difference, the increase in blood pressure is enough to bring a pregnant woman’s blood pressure into an alarming level. Pregnant women who consistently had 9 hours of sleep every night in their early months of pregnancy had an average systolic blood pressure of 114 on their last weeks of pregnancy.

The study consisted of a group of 1200 healthy pregnant women who answered questionnaires regarding their sleeping habits from their first day to the 14th week of pregnancy. 25 percent of the women slept for 9 hours, 13.7 percent slept for 6 hours, 55.2 percent had 8 hours of sleep, and another 10.6 percent had more than 9 hours of sleep. Over 6 percent of the group was diagnosed of having preeclampsia.  According to the survey and health examinations, women with less than 5 hours of sleep every night for the first 3 months of pregnancy have 10 times greater risk of developing preeclampsia.

The study only produced preliminary evidence with no sufficient information regarding the relationship between having too much and too less sleep to a pregnant woman’s blood pressure. Williams said that studies being conducted regarding sleep should put some attention on the effect of good sleeping habits to pregnant women.

Tips to Maintain a Healthy Pregnancy

When pregnant, a woman is aware that she responsible, not only for her own health, but for the health and well-being of a growing life inside her womb.  For some, this complicates the simple.  But there is no need to worry.  Here are a few tips on how to maintain a health pregnancy:

Watch What You Eat

Pregnant women will tend to be very wary about a lot of things, especially when it comes to scrutinizing anything that they put inside their mouth. During pregnancy, a woman needs to be more aware of everything she eats, and it is important to know how one type of food can affect the small and fragile life growing inside them. Because of this, medical experts will advice pregnant women to:

• eat more fruits and vegetables
• drink more juices

This is to supply the body all the nutrients that it needs. Eating fruits is one of the easiest and most effective ways of fulfilling your nutrient requirement as a pregnant woman. You can choose to eat fresh fruits but when eating fruits from a can, choose the ones which are kept in their own juices and not in syrups and liquid sweeteners.

• Eating at least half an ounce of raisins a day can supply you with high amounts of potassium, fiber and iron and at the same time sating your craving for sweets without taking in too much sugar.
• Yogurt is loaded with calcium and it can supply as much as a quarter of your daily requirement. It is also a rich source of probiotics that help in improving digestion and nutrient absorption.
• Mixing cereals with sundries, nuts and berries can either serve as a wholesome breakfast or a fast-grab snack while you are on the go, avoiding the temptation of driving through a fast food for some greasy junk food. Notice that all of these foods are easy to find and make. Pregnancy is already as stressful as it can get. You don’t need to keep yourself worrying about what to eat.

Keep Moving

It’s hard to move around when you are pregnant especially during the last trimester. The fear of falling or slipping may prevent pregnant women from doing too many movements and they may tend to just stay home until the baby arrives. A walk in the park for a few minutes may be good enough to maintain a health pregnancy. But it’s also important to know that exercise does not only improve the your baby’s health while he’s inside you but it also keeps you healthy and may make labor much easier than when you’ve been spending most of your time at home doing limited movements.

According to a study conducted by the American Physiological Society, the earliest stage a person can start preventing the possibility of any heart disease is while he’s inside his mother’s womb. Exercise during pregnancy ensures a healthy heart for babies once they are born. While the pregnant mother is doing her exercises, the baby is also experiencing the same cardio workout and health benefits.

Bask in the Sunshine

Vitamin D deficiency is the most common vitamin deficiency in pregnant women. This is according to a study on the health of pregnant women conducted by researchers at the University of Pittsburg. Their levels of vitamin D were still below the borderline despite them taking vitamin supplements. Researchers said that the data may mean that women are not getting enough sunlight.

Visit your Doctor Regularly

A consistent prenatal checkup is a necessity to keep the mother and the baby healthy during pregnancy. It is also the best way of diagnosing any possible health complications at the earliest stage. Remember that a person’s mental and physical development starts in the womb, and there are studies to support this fact. Brain development starts really early and insufficient pre-natal support may cause long-term disadvantages.

Sources
webmd.com
naturalnews.com
naturalnews.com
articles.mercola.com

A new study from Los Angeles has shown that seniors who have a poor quality of sleep also experience depression and other negative symptoms.

Good sleep is important for everyone, but a new study shows that the necessity of quality sleep is especially crucial when it comes to seniors.  A recent study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society showed that if seniors don’t sleep well each night, it could decrease their overall quality of life.

The research focused on residents of Assisted Living Facilities in Los Angeles.  The study followed up with them for 6 months and traced their sleep patterns and emotional states.  The researchers found that the 65% of seniors that reported that they slept poorly also have increased levels of depression and poor quality of life.

Of the seniors studied, sleep was about 5 hours on average.  The people also reported “trouble sleeping” as defined by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality index. This includes waking up in the middle of the night, or taking more than 30 minutes to fall asleep.  The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index is a free test that measures your quality of sleep. It only takes 5 minutes to complete and can be found here.

Those who reported poor sleep in the Los Angeles study were not only more depressed but also more likely to need help with common everyday activities.  Jennifer Martin, PhD, of the University of California, Los Angeles and VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System stated, “We cannot conclude that poor sleep truly causes these negative changes; however, future studies should evaluate ways to improve sleep in ALFs to see if sleeping better might improve quality of life, delay functional decline and reduce risk of depression.”

The study does mention that there are effective methods for improving sleep, for example, bright light therapy.  Other methods for improving sleep include spending time outside during the day, resisting alcohol or caffeine before bed and avoiding smoking.

Sources:
medicalnewstoday.com
sleep.pitt.edu
health.com

Need to pull an all-nighter but don't know how you're going to pull it off? Researchers say you can "bank" sleep for later use.

The dreaded all-nighter.  Virtually every college-aged adult has experienced at least one of these, burning the midnight oil to finish a paper, cram for a test, or prepare an oral presentation.

While the occasional all-nighter is something most of us have experienced, that knowledge doesn’t make them any easier to bear.  The experience can be hellacious, and the effects are long lasting, as our internal body clocks are thrown out of whack several days after the fact.

Well researchers think there may be a way to make these all-nighters more tolerable.  How?  By saving up sleep time.  That is to say that if you know ahead of time that an all-nighter is on the horizon, sleeping longer in the run-up to that all-nighter can make it less tiresome.

In short, just as state governments have rainy day funds—where states set aside excess revenue so it can be spent for an emergency—people can develop their own “sleepy day funds.”

Researchers discovered this after recruiting participants to take part in a sleep experiment.  Half of the participants were asked to change their sleeping patterns slightly so that they would sleep longer (e.g. going to bed earlier than normal and waking up later than normal) for a full week.  The other half were instructed to keep their sleeping patterns as close to normal as possible.

The next week, all of the participants slept for no more than three hours per night.

Putting the participants through various physical and mental tasks that assessed their mental sharpness and physical dexterity, the researchers found that those who slept longer “were more resilient during sleep restriction.”

“They showed less performance deterioration with regards to reaction time and alertness than the group that had been given the habitual prior sleep,” said Tracy Rupp to the BBC News.  Rupp was the study’s lead researcher, hailing from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

As much as we know that the body needs sleep, no one really knows why.  Similarly, the researchers don’t know just why the brain is able to “bank” or “save” sleep for those difficult days.  They’re also not sure how much sleep is enough for making all-nighters more bearable.

It’s fitting that this research comes from a branch of the military.  Training often requires soldiers to put their body through extreme physical demands on little sleep.  In the course of Navy Seals’ basic training, for example, recruits go through several weeks of rigorous physical and mental training.  One of those weeks—appropriately dubbed Hell Week—recruits must do all their training on no more than four hours of sleep!

With any luck, further research will enable Navy Seals to “bank” their sleep in preparation for Hell Week.  But further research will be beneficial to every one of us—students, parents, and 9 to 5’ers alike—to better endure those long days at class, nights with our sick-as-a-dog kids, or evenings spent at the office.

Source:
news.bbc.co.uk
newsmaxhealth.com

British Medical Journal reports on the significant tie between diminishing sleep apnea episodes and losing weight.

All of us have trouble sleeping now and then.  Whether it’s due to stress, an uncomfortable bed, thoughts you can’t get out of your head, or a disturbing conversation where things were better left unsaid, common but frustrating experiences cause us to wake up several times a night.

But imagine waking up not several times a night, but hundreds of times a night.  Because if you’re one of the approximately 20 million people in America with sleep apnea, this is your life in a nutshell.

Sleep apnea is different from other sleep conditions in that it seems like the person who has it is sleeping fine.  In fact, at various point in the night, their sleep can be reminiscent of the dead – literally.  They’ll stop breathing for minutes at a time, waking up gasping for breath.

If this sounds serious, it is.  And if it sounds scary, it is.  People have been known to die from sleep apnea.

Besides the obvious side effects associated with sleep apnea—like difficulty staying asleep, excessive sleepiness during the day because of the lack of sleep during the night—sleep apnea has long term health consequences as well.  Because of the intermittent cessations in breathing, high blood pressure is a common trait.  And with high blood pressure carries the added risks of stroke and heart disease.

Treatments for sleep apnea are both invasive and non-invasive, ranging from surgery on the nose or throat, oral appliances that allow for a greater airway passage or masks that open the nasal passages.  And while these treatments have worked to varying degrees and extents, the most cost-effective way of treating sleep apnea may be to lose weight.

According to a study published in the British Medical Journal and conducted by researchers from the Karolinska Institute, people who lost weight cut their sleep apnea episodes almost in half compared to the control group.

Here’s how the study went down:  All of the participants used a therapy that’s very commonly used in people with sleep apnea called Continuous Positive Airway Pressure, or CPAP.  This is where a mask is placed over the nose during sleep which allows for a greater airflow (gentle, but greater), hopefully diminishing the snoring and breathing cessation episodes.

Both of the groups in the study used CPAP (pronounced see-pap), but only one of the groups went through an intense program that had them lose weight.

The researchers believe that the combination of CPAP and the participants’ rigorous weight loss program (an average of 41 pounds was lost) decreased the number of sleep apnea incidents.  They really emphasized the importance of the weight loss because the drop in the number of incidents was so significant for the weight loss group compared to the CPAP-only group.

As propitious as these findings are, there are some limitations to how far they can be generalized to the population at large.  For example, this is only the second study that’s addressed the link between weight and sleep apnea.  And while both studies have found losing weight affects the incidence level of sleep apnea, this most recent study only looked at men (65 in total).  Further, it was only done on people who were obese (i.e., a BMI index level over 30).

If you think you may have sleep apnea, there are some things you can do to self-diagnose.  For example, people with sleep apnea almost always awake with a dry mouth, are excessively sleepy throughout the day (to the point of falling asleep at the dinner table) and have headaches upon awakening in the morning.  If these symptoms sound familiar, have someone else observe you while you sleep to determine definitively if it is indeed sleep apnea.  For example, have them see if you wake up excessively (at least 12 times); if you stop breathing for at least 10 seconds during each apnea episode; and count the number of episodes there are per hour (five or more is indicative of sleep apnea).

Sources:
Balch, Phyllis A.  “Prescription for Nutritional Healing.”  Fourth Ed.  New York:  Avery, 2006.
sciencedaily.com
mayoclinic.com

Lack of sleep affects brain function in young people, researchers conclude.

As the school year comes to a close and finals make their ignominious return to young people’s lives, millions of high schoolers will be burning the midnight oil this week, hoping to cram in as much information as possible to nail that chemistry quiz, that English exam, and that economics essay.  In the process, many of them will sacrifice sleep.

But no big hairy deal, right?  Who amongst us hasn’t spent a night cramming for a test?  And after all, they can always make up for their “sleep debt” over the weekend, because young people – who haven’t logged as many hours on their bodies or their minds as those more advanced in years – are resilient

Right?

Not so much, according to a study that was presented at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies last week in Seattle, Wash.

While it’s true, young bodies are certainly more able than older bodies to handle endurance activities without resting, that’s not the case for the mind.  In fact, it’s older minds that have a greater ability to perform when operating on little sleep.

The researchers from the University of California-San Diego found that among 33 older adults (ages ranged from 59-82) and 27 younger adults (ages 19 to 39), the older adults were far better at performing memory-related tasks, verbal recognition tests and reacting to certain stimuli.

On it’s face, this may seem counterintuitive.  But when you stop and think about the amount of sleep a newborn baby has – which progressively grows shorter as he or she gets older – it makes more sense.  And as I wrote in a previous article on sleep, the brain doesn’t really stop growing until around the age of 25.  Nothing revitalizes the brain for repair and development than sleep.  Brain exercises are important, sure – which you can find online simply by searching “brain exercises” – but no exercise comes close to what sleep provides for improving the brain’s overall functioning prowess.

The most sage sleep advice with regards to studying came from my mother.  In my high school days of cramming for courses, my mom always advised that instead of cramming my head with information when I was dead-tired, it was far better that I go to bed early, and wake up early so that my mind would be refreshed.

Her advice epitomized the “Mother Knows Best mantra,” as I always wound up doing better on tests when my brain was rested, rather than riddled with worry and weariness from those dreaded all-nighters.

So if your son or daughter is tempted to burn the midnight oil for finals, that oil will burn far more efficiently in the wee-hours of the morning after a good night’s rest.

Source:
sciencedaily.com

Proper amount of sleep may bring blood pressure levels down

With the recent release of my book The Blood Pressure Miracle in stores across the country and the amount of work I’ve done recently to promote it, my attention is immediately grabbed whenever I see a headline that links anything to high blood pressure.  And so it was when I read this recent report that links sleep to high blood pressure.

Lacking a good night’s sleep can sometimes be attributed to the person; in other words, the person is not getting enough sleep simply because he or she isn’t biding their time well and chooses to stay out late or stay up late.  But for others, like the 70 million Americans who are affected by a chronic sleep disorder, it’s an unfortunate part of their reality that they must cope with night in, night out.

While tossing and turning is certainly inconvenient and frustrating, leaving people cranky and testy the next morning, it frustrates blood pressure levels as well, according to a new study that investigated the links between high blood pressure and sleep.

The study involved approximately 600 middle-aged adults of varying ethnicity and gender and was spread out over a five-year period.  The University of Chicago researchers tracked these men and women over the years, noting the average amount of sleep they got each night and keeping track of their blood pressure levels throughout the process.

The results?  Pretty galling.

I say “galling” because we all know that we ought to be getting seven to eight hours of sleep a night, the eighth hour being the most important hour for proper thinking and memory function.  We know this, yet only one percent – one percent! – got the recommended eight hours of sleep.  The majority of those involved in the study got around six hours of sleep a night (which is estimated to be the average amount the average American gets).

And as the researchers showed in their study, there was something of an inverse relationship between the hours slept and whether that person developed high blood pressure.  For instance, when researchers compared people who got six hours of sleep with those who got an average of five hours of sleep, the five-hour folk increased their risk of hypertension development by 37 percent!  One hour difference had that big of an impact!

The researchers say that more studies need to be done before it can be said with any definitiveness that more sleep can bring blood pressure levels down, as there are lots of variables that go into high blood pressure development (e.g. diet, exercise, ethnicity, family history, etc.).

In times like these, it can be just plain hard to sleep, even if you don’t have a sleep disorder.  In a poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation, one-third of Americans lose sleep every night because of the country’s current economic situation.

Thinking about anything distressing is a nightmare for sleep.  Do your best to put all distressing thoughts out of your mind when your head hits the pillow by thinking “happy thoughts,” like lying out on the beach, or a particularly pleasant past experience.  Here are three other tips to follow, as suggested by National Sleep Foundation:

• Exercise, but don’t exercise too close to bedtime.  Exercise tires the body physically (conducive to sleep) but it revs up the brain (not conducive to sleep).

• Caffeine’s fine to drink in moderation, but not around bedtime.  Not even a little.  Put the lid on caffeine at dinnertime; keep it limited to a morning cup or in your afternoon brew.

• Just as a handyman can’t function without his tool belt, Mr.  Sandman can’t be summoned without a quality bed.  Your sleeplessness may be a function of improper “tools.”  Try out a new mattress.

Sources:
msnbc.msn.com
sleepfoundation.org

Lack of sleep can endanger your health, including increased diabetes risk.

It sounds like a study straight out of the timeless nursery rhyme Goldilocks and the Three Bears, where the porridge can’t be too hot or cold, the chair can’t be too big or small and the bed can’t be too spacious or cramped.  It has to be “just right,” or the results can be devastating for your health.

What am I talking about?  Sleep.  How too little or too much of it increases the chances of developing type II diabetes, this according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Copenhagen.

Sleep is one of those mysterious things in life that we all know we need, but no one really knows why.  Without it, the effects are quite apparent—we don’t perform at our jobs as effectively, our personalities are affected negatively (crabbiness, short-temperedness) and we increase our risk of developing life’s nuisances, like colds, or plagues like expedited aging.

So I suppose it comes as no surprise that sleep also impacts whether one develops diabetes – after all, it seems to impact every other aspect of life.

Before coming to their conclusions, the Danish researchers made sure to take into account contributing factors for developing diabetes, as it’s often predicated on one’s ethnicity, family background, weight and age.  Once those things were given their due attention, they arrived at some fascinating results.

After tracking the sleep pattern behaviors of approximately 280 participants in their study over a six-year period, they found that those who slept more than what was considered “average” were 20 percent more likely to have developed diabetes.  The same percentage was found among those who slept below the “average” amount of time.

What did the researchers classify as “average”?  You guessed it—between seven and eight hours of sleep per night.

This isn’t to say that those who slept the average amount of time didn’t get diabetes, but their rate of developing diabetes was significantly lower, about 7 percent overall.

Despite all the data and the importance placed on sleep in the media and elsewhere, many of us consider it to be something of an afterthought.  After all, with only 24 hours in which to perform our daily tasks, who has time to sleep?  I know I often fall into this line of thinking.

It’s a flawed line of thinking, though.  Study after study shows just how important sleep is, but most of us don’t need to see a study to appreciate sleep’s importance.  We can feel it and we can see it in our diminished performance at work, at home, or at the gym.

To get more sleep, you really need to commit to a routine.  The body enjoys routine, particularly when it comes to quality shuteye.  If you can, try to go to bed at the same time every night and wake up at the same time every morning.  Use your bed for its purpose – sleep – not as a couch for television watching or as a La-Z Boy for snacking.  And don’t underestimate the power of sound when sleeping.  Small things can improve or disturb one’s ability to sleep, like the television (disturb) or, as my mom used to call it, “the sounds of the night” (improve).  Find a noise that’s comforting while sleeping, like the chirping of the peepers if you live in a more rural area, or the pitter-patter of rain if you live in the often rain-soaked Northwest.

Sleep could very well prevent a life spent pricking your finger to test your blood sugar.  But as it pertains to life in general and how the lack of it often causes lashing out at those around us, sleep can prevent us from being hostile to others, not to mention our long term health.

Source:
Science Daily

If you have read my book, you might recall the portion that discusses the role sleep plays in avoiding or precipitating hypertension.  A Columbia University study analyzed the health and sleeping habits of over 4,000 men and women.  Independent of other risk factors, the researchers’ determined that the participants’ blood pressure rates were elevated because of their lack of sleep, just six hours a night on average.  This isn’t much of a surprise, really, as sleep plays a role in the regulation of blood pressure levels. 

If only this information could be hammered into our youth of the nation’s heads like the music blaring from their iPods is.  Because according to a team of researchers from Case Western University, the lack of sleep teens get contributes to hypertension, as the role of sleep on blood pressure levels applies to everyone – not just the folk beyond their high school days.

The study involved approximately 250 students between the ages of 13 and 16.  Besides the regular health check-ups, the researchers asked the participants to fill out a sleep diary, keeping track of how many hours they slept in the study period; the sleeping behaviors of the participants were observed throughout the study period as well.

At the outset, 14 percent of the participants were either pre-hypertensive or hypertensive.  Making sure that other factors didn’t contribute to their findings – like weight, and sex – the researchers found a pattern in the blood pressure levels of the participants and their sleep behavior.  Similar to the aforementioned Columbia University study, the researchers found that the blood pressure levels were higher for those who slept less than six and a half hours on average a night; those who had trouble falling asleep had even higher readings.  These findings led the researchers to conclude that less than six and a half hours of sleep a night doubles the risk of hypertension, and if one has trouble sleeping, that risk is tripled.

Eight hours of sleep is recommended for everyone per night, particularly for teenagers.  This is the stage of life where so much is going on in a teen’s brain, lots of wiring and rewiring that will ultimately determine what kind of adults they’ll turn out to be.  As important as sleep is to the brain, though, it plays an even more important role in the regulation of a healthy blood pressure. 

School days are just about here again.  It’s my hope that as kids shop for back-to-school clothes in the waning days of summer, they will do it on a good night’s sleep.  Hopefully, they’ll continue their good sleeping habits – turning in around the same time every night and awaking around the same time every morning – throughout the school year (consistency in time to bed and time to rise improves sleep quality).  It will not only improve their performance in school, but it will also improve their performance in other aspects of their busy lives, be them in sports (greater concentration skills), with friends (decreased moodiness makes for increased camaraderie) or in the arts (improved focus).