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Ian Parker speaks with the team behind the billion-dollar search for a blockbuster drug that could cure insomnia: http://nyr.kr/IogAFe
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
10 Reasons You Can't Sleep
Busting the top sleep myths of how to get a great night's rest—and the real ways to get the shut-eye you need
By Barbara Loecher is a senior editor for Prevention.
Read more: http://www.prevention.com/author/barbara-loecher#ixzz2cUi2GyWK
You'd think Michael Perlis would know better. An MD and one of the nation's preeminent sleep researchers, Dr. Perlis didn't get 8 hours of sleep last night. Nor the night before. In fact, the most sleep Perlis ever gets is 7 hours. Now and then, when he has a pressing work deadline, he gets 5. But you won't find him napping over his computer keyboard at 3:00 in the afternoon. That's because Dr. Perlis, director of the University of Rochester's Sleep and Neurophysiology Research Lab, knows something you don't. He knows that the “Everyone needs at least 8 hours of sleep” maxim is about as bona fide as Bigfoot.
“Certain popular beliefs, like the 8-hour rule, are misconceptions,” says Dr. Perlis, who wakes well rested after 7 hours. “In fact, some of these misconceptions can actually contribute to sleep problems like chronic insomnia." - Dr. Perlis.
If you're one of the 60 to 70 million Americans with a sleep problem, there's a good chance a misconception or two may be keeping you up at night. Before you invest in a $1,500 mattress or spend a couple of nights wired with electrodes in a sleep disorders center, follow our truly soporific suggestions for a good night's rest every night. And see if you can trace your sleep problems to one of these 10 popular myths.
10 Reasons You Can't Sleep
Myth 1: Everyone needs 8 hours of sleep a night
Think most experts agree on this one? Wrong! “Asking how much sleep a healthy adult needs is like asking how many calories a healthy adult needs,” says Perlis. “It depends.” Since our sleep requirements are partly inherited, some of us need more, or less, than others.
But how much more or less sleep we should be getting is one of the most contentious issues in sleep research today. At a conference in 2002, when sleep researcher Daniel Kripke, MD, from the University of California, San Diego, argued that getting less than 8 hours a night might be beneficial, “it practically started a food fight,” recalls Phil Eichling, MD, an eyewitness at that conference and a sleep researcher at the University of Arizona College of Medicine.
Dr. Kripke has good reasons for giving the thumbs-down to the 8-hour rule. He conducted one of three studies that found that people who slept either 8 hours or more or 6 hours or less ran significant risks of dying of heart disease, stroke, or cancer. The highest risk was found among those who slept the longest. On the other hand, critics of the less-sleep-is-better school argue that getting too much sleep probably isn't hastening the Big Sleep. It's more likely that people who are dozing so long have underlying health problems that cause their fatigue. (It's a symptom of many conditions, including depression, heart disease, and cancer.)
What you should do: Let the sleep researchers argue this one out. For now, the consensus is that the amount of sleep people need varies considerably. It ranges from as little as 5 hours to as much as 11 hours a night, says Gary Zammit, PhD, director of the Sleep Disorders Institute at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in New York City. Some people are 5-hours-a-night types who may be able to stay up to watch Letterman and still wake refreshed at 6 am. Others are 9-hour snoozers who should be asking, “Who's Letterman?” They just can't stay up that late.
To figure out how much sleep you need, keep a diary for the next week or two, logging how much snooze time you get at night and how alert you feel the next day—without the use of stimulants such as coffee or a splash of cold water on the face in the afternoon.
If you need stimulants to keep you awake, you're not getting enough sleep.
Myth 2: Nodding off in the afternoon is normal
It's normal to feel slightly less energetic in the afternoon, due to your circadian rhythms of sleepiness and wakefulness. But nodding off during a boring lecture, meeting, or your daughter's recital—especially in the mid-afternoon—is not normal. It's a sign that you're not getting enough sleep if your head starts drooping while your boss is going over last month's figures or your adorably earnest preschooler is explaining why Superman bests Batman. The difference between less energetic and downright drowsy? If your eyelids feel heavy, you're tired, says William C. Dement, PhD, the Stanford University scientist known as the father of sleep research.
In fact, if you feel drowsy during the day—for example, you fall asleep on Sunday afternoon while reading a page-turner such as The Da Vinci Code—you may be running a significant “sleep debt.” That's sleep research lingo for the total hours of sleep you've lost, one sleep-deprived night after another. Here's how it happens: If you need 8 hours of sleep and get only 7, after a week you've lost the equivalent of almost one night's sleep. That's your sleep debt. And it's cumulative. One expert estimates that the average sleep debt among Americans is 500 hours a year.
After losing only the equivalent of one night's sleep over the course of a week, however, your body will respond as if you'd pulled an all-nighter: You may experience waves of extreme fatigue; itchy, burning eyes; emotional fragility; loss of focus; even hunger as your body tries to find a way (“Aha! Twinkies!”) to become energized and stay upright. Sleep debt can also cause serious health problems down the line. Some recent studies suggest that decades of chronic sleep deprivation may increase your risk of high blood pressure and heart disease. Additional research suggests that repeated lack of sleep may also boost your risk of diabetes by speeding age-related changes in the way your body uses glucose.
What you should do: First, determine what's causing your sleep debt; the remedy for it will depend on the right diagnosis. Do you have insomnia? To find out, ask yourself:
Do I take more than 30 minutes to fall asleep at night?
Do I awaken in the middle of the night and have trouble getting back to sleep?
If the answer to either or both is yes, and it's happening three or more nights a week, insomnia is piling up your sleep debt. Skip the next slide and go to the fourth for advice, because the Rx for insomnia is very different from remedies for other sleep problems.
Sleep advice for people who don't have insomnia
Not an insomniac? Lots of things could be keeping you up or interrupting your sleep occasionally: worry, a child with nightmares, a pet hogging the pillow, a snoring spouse, even tree branches brushing against your house. Or if you're like millions of time-starved Americans, you could be regularly stealing from sleep time to finish the work you didn't get done at the office, to answer e-mails, to pay bills, to do laundry, or to just have some quiet time for yourself. In fact, says Carl E. Hunt, MD, director of the National Institutes of Health National Center on Sleep Disorders Research, this bad habit is the number one cause of daytime sleepiness in the United States.
If your sleep is interrupted once in a while, one good night's sleep will help you feel refreshed. Chronic problems—worry, the snoring spouse, the snuggling pet, the noisy crab-apple branch outside your window—will require specific solutions (a visit to the doctor, a bed in the hallway for Fluffy, a skilled arborist). But if you're cheating yourself of sleep time “to get things done,” or if you just don't realize how much sleep you need, you have a “sleep phase disorder” of your own making. To remedy it, you're going to have to adjust your bedtime.
Take a week or so to experiment. Keep your rising time the same but move your bedtime back an hour for 3 or 4 days—say, from midnight to 11 o'clock. If you're still waking up tired and lurching to Starbucks in midafternoon, move your bedtime another 45 minutes to an hour earlier. Staring at the ceiling for 30 minutes before you drift off? Shift your new bedtime later in 15-minute increments until you hit your magic hour. How will you know? You'll wake up refreshed, you'll feel in top form at work, and decaf will do.
Myth 3: If you have insomnia, you need to go to bed earlier, nap, or sleep more
Step away from the bed! If you suffer from insomnia, all three of those “remedies” could make your tossing and turning much worse, says Kimberly Cote, PhD, a sleep researcher at Brock University in Ontario.
Blame it on something called the sleep homeostat. A hardwired system controlled by brain chemicals, it's not unlike your appetite.
You know that the longer you go between meals and the more active you are, the hungrier you become. Likewise, your homeostat builds up a hunger for sleep based on how long you've been awake and how active you've been. The more sleep hungry you are, the faster you nod off and the more soundly you doze. But just as you're not eager for a big meal at night if you pig out all day or snack too close to dinner, you're not going to feel tired if you go to bed earlier or nap.
When you have insomnia, experts recommend that you let your sleep homeostat adjust itself naturally, without trying to compensate with different bedtimes and catnaps.
Many things can keep you from falling or staying asleep: for example, consuming alcohol or caffeine, or feeling stressed, anxious, or depressed. But insomnia often takes on a life of its own. After a few nights of tossing and turning, what's likely to keep you up is worrying about getting to sleep, says Cote. Eventually, you start associating going to bed with worrying about falling asleep, so instead of easing you into slumber, your nervous system goes on high alert, anticipating—and bringing on—another sleepless night.
What you should do:
Go to bed an hour later than usual to make yourself more tired. If you absolutely must nap—perhaps because you're exhausted and have a long drive ahead of you—make up for it by postponing bedtime for the amount of time you napped.
Many things can keep you from falling or staying asleep: for example, consuming alcohol or caffeine, or feeling stressed, anxious, or depressed. But insomnia often takes on a life of its own. After a few nights of tossing and turning, what's likely to keep you up is worrying about getting to sleep, says Cote. Eventually, you start associating going to bed with worrying about falling asleep, so instead of easing you into slumber, your nervous system goes on high alert, anticipating—and bringing on—another sleepless night.
What you should do:
Go to bed an hour later than usual to make yourself more tired. If you absolutely must nap—perhaps because you're exhausted and have a long drive ahead of you—make up for it by postponing bedtime for the amount of time you napped.
When you lie down in bed, try a breath-counting exercise. Or try another anxiety-relieving option: Visualize a pleasant and relaxing experience, such as lying on a deck chair on a cruise ship in the Caribbean.
Feeling anxious about sleep? Get up and leave the bedroom. The idea here is to break the association between bed and anxiety. Try reading or doing some other enjoyable but low-key activity.
Take a warm bath just before you go to bed. Bathing will elevate your body temperature, but lying down will make it drop because your muscles relax and produce less heat. Sleep tends to follow a steep decline in body temperature.
Exercise. In a number of studies, exercising 30 to 45 minutes during the day or evening helped insomniacs enjoy better, and somewhat longer, sleep. Why exercise seems to help is still unclear, though one possibility is that it has effects similar to sleeping pills. Try this sleep-time yoga routine to get you started.
If your insomnia is chronic, see your doctor. She can diagnose and treat any contributing health problems or refer you to a sleep center.
Myth 4: Napping will ruin your night's sleep
This is true only if you have insomnia. Otherwise, “napping can help to improve performance later in the day,” says Cote. “In fact, more employers should not only recommend napping but also facilitate it, especially for people working the night shift.”
What you should do: Nap as early in the day as possible, so your homeostat can build up the necessary hunger for sleep that will propel you into slumber come nightfall. And snooze for no more than 30 minutes. (Set an alarm clock.) If you nap longer, you'll be more likely to awaken from deep sleep and feel groggy. Nap less, and you won't feel refreshed.
Myth 5: You have to miss a lot of sleep before it affects you
Losing even 90 minutes of sleep for just one night can reduce your daytime alertness by as much as 32%. That's enough to impair your memory, your thinking ability, and your safety on the job and on the road. One Australian study found that volunteers who stayed awake just 6 hours past their normal bedtime for a single day performed as poorly on tests gauging attentiveness and reaction time as those who were legally drunk. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that each year at least 100,000 crashes, and more than 1,500 deaths, are the direct result of driver fatigue.
What's worse, sleep deprivation also impairs your ability to recognize that you're not running on all cylinders. In other words, you really shouldn't be operating heavy machinery (or much else), but you don't realize it. “The ability to judge how well you're doing is probably one of the first things to go when you don't get enough sleep,” says Cote. “That's why you need to take preventive measures.”
What you should do: If you miss several hours of sleep one night, consider calling in sick the next day. Or ask if you can work from home. That way, you won't have to drive. And you may even be able to take a half-hour nap during your “lunch hour” at your home office. If you have to go in and public transportation is an option, take it. Or call a coworker and ask if she can give you a lift to the office. If you're nodding off at your desk, take a brisk walk up and down the stairs or hall. Exercise helps you snap to, in part because the accompanying rise in body temperature appears to boost alertness for a time. If possible, set aside half your lunch hour for a nap—in the lounge (if it includes a couch), in your (locked) car, or even on your desk (clear it off first). Remember to set an alarm, or ask a buddy to wake you (your brain will thank you for it).
Myth 6: You can catch up on sleep on the weekend
Unless you have insomnia, it's theoretically possible to make up for some lost sleep by dozing longer on the weekend. But it's not realistic. With Saturday morning Little League and all those inevitable weekend odd jobs, chances are you won't really be able to make up for the sleep you missed, says Dement. You'll end up finishing the week in the red, with an ever-bigger sleep debt.
What you should do: It's always better to get a good night's sleep every night. But if you do rack up a sleep debt during the workweek, try to sleep in on the weekend or take a nap so you can pay at least part of it down, Dement says. You may need to invest in a white-noise machine unless you're able to sleep through the din of power lawn mowers, leaf blowers, and your kids' afternoon games in the backyard.
Myth 7: Exercising before bed keeps you from sleeping
That's not true for everyone. In fact, research shows that even vigorous exercise right before bedtime doesn't affect sleep for many people (and in some cases it may help). This is good news if your busy schedule gives you a short window of time between dinner and bedtime to squeeze in some activity.
One exception: If you're a sedentary and overweight postmenopausal woman, a new study indicates that you'll sleep better if you exercise earlier in the day; exercising later can interfere with your sleep.
People who have trouble sleeping can probably exercise about an hour before bed without problems. “But we don't have hard data, so people really have to do their own testing,” says Dr. Perlis.
What you should do: Experiment. If you exercise at night and suspect that your workout may be keeping you up, reschedule it for earlier in the day for several days to see whether you sleep better. Keeping a sleep diary for those days—noting when you exercise and how well you sleep—can help. If you find you do sleep better when you exercise earlier, make the switch permanent.
Myth 8: You have to have insomnia to take sleeping pills
Actually, sleeping pills are most helpful if you take them before insomnia becomes chronic, says Dr. Hunt. They can help correct your off-kilter sleep homeostat. Unlike older meds, newer prescription sleeping pills, such as Sonata (zaleplon) and Ambien (zolpidem), can help you drift off to sleep within minutes and stay asleep, thus breaking the cycle of sleeplessness and anxiety that can turn a few nights of insomnia into chronic sleeplessness.
These newer pills act on areas of the brain that promote wakefulness. They also wear off faster than older meds, so you're not semicomatose in the morning. “If you take one at 2 am, you can get up for work at 6 or 7 am, and the effect is gone,” Dr. Hunt says. The new generation medications also more closely replicate natural sleep. In contrast, the older drugs stinted users on the deepest and most restorative phases of sleep. These phases normally occur four or more times a night.
Pills are still controversial. Like all medicines, they can cause side effects (dizziness, headache, agitation), and they're not meant for long-term use.
What you should do: Talk to your doc about the pros and cons of medication. If you'd prefer a drug-free alternative, consider cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). Studies suggest it has a better outcome than pills. Similarly designed to break the cycle of sleepless, anxious nights, CBT trains insomniacs to avoid detriments such as counterproductive worry about lost sleep. Usually the therapy runs from four to eight sessions, but some patients find relief with as few as two. The downside of CBT: It costs about $300 per session and, unlike pills, is not always covered by insurance.
Myth 4: Napping will ruin your night's sleep
This is true only if you have insomnia. Otherwise, “napping can help to improve performance later in the day,” says Cote. “In fact, more employers should not only recommend napping but also facilitate it, especially for people working the night shift.”
What you should do: Nap as early in the day as possible, so your homeostat can build up the necessary hunger for sleep that will propel you into slumber come nightfall. And snooze for no more than 30 minutes. (Set an alarm clock.) If you nap longer, you'll be more likely to awaken from deep sleep and feel groggy. Nap less, and you won't feel refreshed.
Myth 5: You have to miss a lot of sleep before it affects you
Losing even 90 minutes of sleep for just one night can reduce your daytime alertness by as much as 32%. That's enough to impair your memory, your thinking ability, and your safety on the job and on the road. One Australian study found that volunteers who stayed awake just 6 hours past their normal bedtime for a single day performed as poorly on tests gauging attentiveness and reaction time as those who were legally drunk. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that each year at least 100,000 crashes, and more than 1,500 deaths, are the direct result of driver fatigue.
What's worse, sleep deprivation also impairs your ability to recognize that you're not running on all cylinders. In other words, you really shouldn't be operating heavy machinery (or much else), but you don't realize it. “The ability to judge how well you're doing is probably one of the first things to go when you don't get enough sleep,” says Cote. “That's why you need to take preventive measures.”
What you should do: If you miss several hours of sleep one night, consider calling in sick the next day. Or ask if you can work from home. That way, you won't have to drive. And you may even be able to take a half-hour nap during your “lunch hour” at your home office. If you have to go in and public transportation is an option, take it. Or call a coworker and ask if she can give you a lift to the office. If you're nodding off at your desk, take a brisk walk up and down the stairs or hall. Exercise helps you snap to, in part because the accompanying rise in body temperature appears to boost alertness for a time. If possible, set aside half your lunch hour for a nap—in the lounge (if it includes a couch), in your (locked) car, or even on your desk (clear it off first). Remember to set an alarm, or ask a buddy to wake you (your brain will thank you for it).
Myth 6: You can catch up on sleep on the weekend
Unless you have insomnia, it's theoretically possible to make up for some lost sleep by dozing longer on the weekend. But it's not realistic. With Saturday morning Little League and all those inevitable weekend odd jobs, chances are you won't really be able to make up for the sleep you missed, says Dement. You'll end up finishing the week in the red, with an ever-bigger sleep debt.
What you should do: It's always better to get a good night's sleep every night. But if you do rack up a sleep debt during the workweek, try to sleep in on the weekend or take a nap so you can pay at least part of it down, Dement says. You may need to invest in a white-noise machine unless you're able to sleep through the din of power lawn mowers, leaf blowers, and your kids' afternoon games in the backyard.
Myth 7: Exercising before bed keeps you from sleeping
That's not true for everyone. In fact, research shows that even vigorous exercise right before bedtime doesn't affect sleep for many people (and in some cases it may help). This is good news if your busy schedule gives you a short window of time between dinner and bedtime to squeeze in some activity.
One exception: If you're a sedentary and overweight postmenopausal woman, a new study indicates that you'll sleep better if you exercise earlier in the day; exercising later can interfere with your sleep.
People who have trouble sleeping can probably exercise about an hour before bed without problems. “But we don't have hard data, so people really have to do their own testing,” says Dr. Perlis.
What you should do: Experiment. If you exercise at night and suspect that your workout may be keeping you up, reschedule it for earlier in the day for several days to see whether you sleep better. Keeping a sleep diary for those days—noting when you exercise and how well you sleep—can help. If you find you do sleep better when you exercise earlier, make the switch permanent.
Myth 8: You have to have insomnia to take sleeping pills
Actually, sleeping pills are most helpful if you take them before insomnia becomes chronic, says Dr. Hunt. They can help correct your off-kilter sleep homeostat. Unlike older meds, newer prescription sleeping pills, such as Sonata (zaleplon) and Ambien (zolpidem), can help you drift off to sleep within minutes and stay asleep, thus breaking the cycle of sleeplessness and anxiety that can turn a few nights of insomnia into chronic sleeplessness.
These newer pills act on areas of the brain that promote wakefulness. They also wear off faster than older meds, so you're not semicomatose in the morning. “If you take one at 2 am, you can get up for work at 6 or 7 am, and the effect is gone,” Dr. Hunt says. The new generation medications also more closely replicate natural sleep. In contrast, the older drugs stinted users on the deepest and most restorative phases of sleep. These phases normally occur four or more times a night.
Pills are still controversial. Like all medicines, they can cause side effects (dizziness, headache, agitation), and they're not meant for long-term use.
What you should do: Talk to your doc about the pros and cons of medication. If you'd prefer a drug-free alternative, consider cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). Studies suggest it has a better outcome than pills. Similarly designed to break the cycle of sleepless, anxious nights, CBT trains insomniacs to avoid detriments such as counterproductive worry about lost sleep. Usually the therapy runs from four to eight sessions, but some patients find relief with as few as two. The downside of CBT: It costs about $300 per session and, unlike pills, is not always covered by insurance.
To find a board-certified therapist, contact the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
Myth 9: You'll get addicted to sleeping pills
At one time, sleeping pills were addictive barbiturates. (Remember poor Neely in Valley of the Dolls?) But the newer drugs, known as non-benzodiazepines, are unlikely to leave you hooked.
Because they don't make you high, the drugs don't pose the same abuse potential, says Dement. “And contrary to another popular belief, they won't lose effectiveness over time, so you won't have to keep taking a higher and higher dose.” Getting off sleeping pills, however, can be tricky, he acknowledges. Stopping abruptly can trigger a recurrence of insomnia, so it's important that your doctor gradually taper your dose.
What you should do: Rest assured: A short course of sleeping pills won't turn you into a junkie.
Myth 10: If you have work to do, it's better to get up early than stay up late
Do just the opposite. If you have only 4 hours to spare for sleep, snoozing in the early morning (2 am to 6 am) will benefit you more than will late-night sleep (10 pm to 2 am), a recent Stanford University study suggests. You'll still function worse than you would with a full night's sleep, but you'll function better than you would had you gone to bed at 10.
What you should do: Work until 2 am. By then your sleep homeostat will have you so tired, it'll catapult you into a particularly restful sleep, Perlis says. You'll probably wake up feeling groggier than usual, so allow time for a shower and cup of coffee before heading out. The early-morning sleep you get will carry you only through late morning, so if that presentation is scheduled for the afternoon, try to sneak in a 30-minute nap during your lunch hour. Splash your face with water and sip your favorite stiff coffee when you wake up.
Source: http://www.prevention.com/health/sleep-energy/sleep-myths-and-real-solutions-better-sleep
Myth 9: You'll get addicted to sleeping pills
At one time, sleeping pills were addictive barbiturates. (Remember poor Neely in Valley of the Dolls?) But the newer drugs, known as non-benzodiazepines, are unlikely to leave you hooked.
Because they don't make you high, the drugs don't pose the same abuse potential, says Dement. “And contrary to another popular belief, they won't lose effectiveness over time, so you won't have to keep taking a higher and higher dose.” Getting off sleeping pills, however, can be tricky, he acknowledges. Stopping abruptly can trigger a recurrence of insomnia, so it's important that your doctor gradually taper your dose.
What you should do: Rest assured: A short course of sleeping pills won't turn you into a junkie.
Myth 10: If you have work to do, it's better to get up early than stay up late
Do just the opposite. If you have only 4 hours to spare for sleep, snoozing in the early morning (2 am to 6 am) will benefit you more than will late-night sleep (10 pm to 2 am), a recent Stanford University study suggests. You'll still function worse than you would with a full night's sleep, but you'll function better than you would had you gone to bed at 10.
What you should do: Work until 2 am. By then your sleep homeostat will have you so tired, it'll catapult you into a particularly restful sleep, Perlis says. You'll probably wake up feeling groggier than usual, so allow time for a shower and cup of coffee before heading out. The early-morning sleep you get will carry you only through late morning, so if that presentation is scheduled for the afternoon, try to sneak in a 30-minute nap during your lunch hour. Splash your face with water and sip your favorite stiff coffee when you wake up.
Source: http://www.prevention.com/health/sleep-energy/sleep-myths-and-real-solutions-better-sleep
Monday, August 19, 2013
20 ways to sleep better every night
20 ways to sleep better every night
By Teresa Dumain
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/08/16/20-ways-to-sleep-better-every-night/#ixzz2cTHJIQ6Y
Sound slumber results in increased energy and productivity, improved heart and immune system health, a better mood, even a longer life. And hey, you just feel so much better after a satisfying 8 hours of rest. But chances are, you're not getting it. "Sleep issues are epidemic among women today," said Michael Breus, clinical psychologist and author of The Sleep Doctor's Diet Plan.
Not surprisingly, women tend to get less sleep than men do overall, said Dr. Marianne Legato, director of the Partnership for Gender-Specific Medicine at Columbia University. Even if you don't have children, levels of sleep-promoting estrogen sink regularly during menstruation and then permanently in menopause. And symptoms related to both—cramps, headaches, hot flashes, and night sweats—also disrupt slumber.
But experts agree that these biological facts don't mean that sleep deprivation has to be your destiny. "Feeling tired should never be considered normal," said Breus. Yet there are no stock sleep solutions, either: Finding out what works for you takes some trial and error, but it's well worth it, said Dr. Lawrence Epstein, chief medical officer of Sleep HealthCenters. "Sleep is a basic biological necessity—just like eating—and it has an impact on every aspect of your health and your life," he notes.
Try these 20 ideas to find the sleep formula that works best for you.
1. Set a sleep schedule—and stick with it
If you do only one thing to improve your sleep, this is it, said Breus: Go to bed at the same time every night and get up at the same time every morning—even on weekends. A regular sleep routine keeps your biological clock steady so you rest better. Exposure to a regular pattern of light and dark helps, so stay in sync by opening the blinds or going outside right after you wake up.
2. Keep a sleep diary
To help you understand how your habits affect your rest, track your sleep every day for at least two weeks. Write down not only what's obviously sleep related—what time you go to bed, how long it takes you to fall asleep, how many times you wake up during the night, how you feel in the morning—but also factors like what you ate close to bedtime and what exercise you got. Comparing your daily activities with your nightly sleep patterns can show you where you need to make changes. For a sample sleep diary, go to sleepdoctor.com
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3. Stop smoking
Reason number 1,001: Nicotine is a stimulant, so it prevents you from falling asleep. Plus, many smokers experience withdrawal pangs at night. Smokers are four times more likely not to feel as well rested after a night's sleep than nonsmokers, studies show, and smoking exacerbates sleep apnea and other breathing disorders, which can also stop you from getting a good night's rest. Don't worry that quitting will keep you up nights too: That effect passes in about 3 nights, said Dr. Lisa Shives, sleep expert and founder of Northshore Sleep Medicine.
4. Review your medications
Beta-blockers (prescribed for high blood pressure) may cause insomnia; so can SSRIs (a class of antidepressants that includes Prozac and Zoloft). And that's just the beginning. Write down every drug and supplement you take, and have your doctor evaluate how they may be affecting your sleep.
5. Exercise, but not within four hours of bedtime
Working out—especially cardio—improves the length and quality of your sleep, according to Shives. That said, 30 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise keeps your body temperature elevated for about 4 hours, inhibiting sleep. When your body begins to cool down, however, it signals your brain to release sleep-inducing melatonin, so then you'll get drowsy.
6. Cut caffeine after 2 p.m.
That means coffee, tea, and cola. Caffeine is a stimulant that stays in your system for about eight hours, so if you have a cappuccino after dinner, come bedtime, it'll either prevent your brain from entering deep sleep or stop you from falling asleep altogether.
7. Write down your woes
"The number one sleep complaint I hear? 'I can't turn off my mind,'" said Breus. To quiet that wakeful worrying, every night jot down your top concerns—say, I have to call my insurer to dispute that denied claim, which will take forever, and how can I spend all that time on the phone when work is so busy? Then write down the steps you can take to solve the problem—I'm going to look up the numbers before breakfast, refuse to stay on hold for more than three minutes, and send e-mails tomorrow night if I can't get through—or even I can't do anything about this tonight, so I'll worry about it tomorrow. Once your concerns are converted into some kind of action plan, you'll rest easier.
8. Take time to wind down
"Sleep is not an on-off switch," said Breus. "It's more like slowly easing your foot off the gas." Give your body time to transition from your active day to bedtime drowsiness by setting a timer for an hour before bed and divvying up the time as follows:
First 20 minutes: Prep for tomorrow (pack your bag, set out your clothes).
Next 20: Take care of personal hygiene (brush your teeth, moisturize your face).
Last 20: Relax in bed, reading with a small, low-wattage book light or practicing deep breathing.
9. Sip milk, not a martini
A few hours after drinking, alcohol levels in your blood start to drop, which signals your body to wake up. It takes an average person about an hour to metabolize one drink, so if you have two glasses of wine with dinner, finish your last sip at least two hours before bed.
10. Snack on cheese and crackers
The ideal nighttime nosh combines carbohydrates and either calcium or a protein that contains the amino acid tryptophan— studies show that both of these combos boost serotonin, a naturally occurring brain chemical that helps you feel calm. Enjoy your snack about an hour before bedtime so that the amino acids have time to reach your brain.
Some good choices:
• one piece of whole grain toast with a slice of low-fat cheese or turkey
• a banana with 1 teaspoon of peanut butter
• whole grain cereal and fat-free milk
• fruit and low-fat yogurt
11. Listen to a bedtime story
Load a familiar audiobook on your iPod—one that you know well, so it doesn't engage you but distracts your attention until you drift off to sleep, suggested Shives. Relaxing music works well, too.
• one piece of whole grain toast with a slice of low-fat cheese or turkey
• a banana with 1 teaspoon of peanut butter
• whole grain cereal and fat-free milk
• fruit and low-fat yogurt
11. Listen to a bedtime story
Load a familiar audiobook on your iPod—one that you know well, so it doesn't engage you but distracts your attention until you drift off to sleep, suggested Shives. Relaxing music works well, too.
12. Stay cool...
Experts usually recommend setting your bedroom thermostat between 65 degrees and 75 degrees—a good guideline, but pay attention to how you actually feel under the covers. Slipping between cool sheets helps trigger a drop in your body temperature. That shift signals the body to produce melatonin, which induces sleep. That's why it's also a good idea to take a warm bath or hot shower before going to bed: Both temporarily raise your body temperature, after which it gradually lowers in the cooler air, cueing your body to feel sleepy. But for optimal rest, once you've settled in to bed, you shouldn't feel cold or hot—but just right.
13. ...especially if you're menopausal
During menopause, 75 percent of women suffer from hot flashes, and just over 20 percent have night sweats or hot flashes that trouble their sleep. Consider turning on a fan or the AC to cool and circulate the air. Just go low gradually: Your body loses some ability to regulate its temperature during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, so overchilling your environment—down to 60 degrees, for instance—will backfire.
14. Spray a sleep-inducing scent
Certain smells, such as lavender, chamomile, and ylang-ylang, activate the alpha wave activity in the back of your brain, which leads to relaxation and helps you sleep more soundly. Mix a few drops of essential oil and water in a spray bottle and give your pillowcase a spritz.
15. Turn on the white noise
Sound machines designed to help you sleep produce a low-level soothing noise. These can help you tune out barking dogs, the TV downstairs, or any other disturbances so you can fall asleep and stay asleep.
16. Eliminate sneaky light sources
"Light is a powerful signal to your brain to be awake," explained Shives. Even the glow from your laptop, iPad, smart phone, or any other electronics on your nightstand may pass through your closed eyelids and retinas into your hypothalamus—the part of your brain that controls sleep. This delays your brain's release of the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin. Thus, the darker your room is, the more soundly you'll sleep.
17. Consider kicking out furry bedmates
Cats can be active in the late-night and early morning hours, and dogs may scratch, sniff, and snore you awake. More than half of people who sleep with their pets say the animals disturb their slumber, according to a survey from the Mayo Clinic Sleep Disorders Center. "But if your pet is a good, sound sleeper and snuggling up with him is comforting and soothing, it's fine to let him stay put," advised Shives.
18. Check your pillow position
The perfect prop for your head will keep your spine and neck in a straight line to avoid tension or cramps that can prevent you from falling asleep. Ask your spouse to check the alignment of your head and neck when you're in your starting sleep position. If your neck is flexed back or raised, get a pillow that lets you sleep in a better-aligned position. And if you're a stomach sleeper, consider using either no pillow or a very flat one to help keep your neck and spine straight.
19. Breathe deeply
This technique helps reduce your heart rate and blood pressure, releases endorphins, and relaxes your body, priming you for sleep. Inhale for five seconds, pause for three, then exhale to a count of five. Start with eight repetitions; gradually increase to 15. To see if you're doing it right, Breus said to buy a bottle of children's bubbles, breathe in through your belly, and blow through the wand. The smooth and steady breath that you use to blow a bubble successfully should be what you strive for when you're trying to get to sleep.
20. Stay put if you wake up
"The textbook advice is that if you can't fall back asleep in fifteen minutes, get out of bed," said Shives. "But I ask my patients, 'How do you feel in bed?' If they're not fretting or anxious, I tell them to stay there, in the dark, and do some deep breathing or visualization." But if lying in bed pushes your stress buttons, get up and do something quiet and relaxing (in dim light), such as gentle yoga or massaging your feet until you feel sleepy again.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Sleeping During a Full Moon: Why It's Hard
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How the Moon Messes With Your Sleep
A new look at old data gives credence to a long-suspected phenomenon
We are all, quite literally, lunatics—and I mean that in the nicest way possible. It is the moon, after all, that is responsible for the luna part of that word—and the moon has always made us at least a little crazy. Over our long history we have been charmed by it, spooked by it, seduced by it. We kiss by the moon, go to war by the moon, we spent $25 billion—in 1960s money, no less—to go to the moon. So it’s hardly a surprise that the moon is in some very real ways inside of us all.
The human menstrual cycle is the best-known example of the way our bodies—over millions of years of evolution—have synchronized themselves to the rhythms of the moon. Less well-known is the lunar link to the electrochemistry of the brain in epileptic patients, which changes in the few days surrounding a new moon, making seizures more likely. And then there are the anecdotal accounts of the effects the moon has on sleep.
People have long reported that it is harder to get to sleep and remain asleep when the moon is full, and even after a seemingly good night’s rest, there can be a faint sluggishness—a sort of full-moon hangover—that is not present on other days.
For a research paper that was just released today, the initial work took place an awful long time ago. In 2000, a team of investigators from the University of Basel, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the Switzerland Centre for Sleep Medicine, recruited 33 volunteers and studied them in a sleep lab on and off over the course of three years.
The investigators gathered a range of data—brain wave activity during sleep as measured by electroencephalograms (EEG); levels of melatonin, a sleep-related hormone; the amount of time it took subjects to fall asleep and the amount of time they spent in deep sleep; and their subjective reports of how rested they felt the next day.
All of it was intended to learn more about human sleep patterns in a general way and, more specifically, how they are affected by age and gender.
Only a decade later did the investigators realize that they may be able to re-crunch the data to learn about the moon.
The investigators gathered a range of data—brain wave activity during sleep as measured by electroencephalograms (EEG); levels of melatonin, a sleep-related hormone; the amount of time it took subjects to fall asleep and the amount of time they spent in deep sleep; and their subjective reports of how rested they felt the next day.
All of it was intended to learn more about human sleep patterns in a general way and, more specifically, how they are affected by age and gender.
Only a decade later did the investigators realize that they may be able to re-crunch the data to learn about the moon.
“The aim of exploring the influence of different lunar phases on sleep regulation was never a priori hypothesized,” they wrote in a wonderfully candid passage in their paper. “We just thought of it after a drink in a local bar one evening at full moon.”
Thus should all great science be done, since as it turned out, the second look revealed intriguing patterns. On average, the subjects in the study took five minutes longer to fall asleep on the three or four nights surrounding a full moon and they slept for 20 fewer minutes.
In addition, EEG activity related to deep sleep fell 30%, melatonin levels were lower and the subjects reported feeling less refreshed the next day than on other days. The subjects slept in a completely darkened lab with no sight of the moon, and none of them—at least from what was known—appeared to have given any thought at all to lunar cycles. And since the moon was not an experimental variable in the original study, it was never mentioned either to the subjects or even among the investigators.
In addition, EEG activity related to deep sleep fell 30%, melatonin levels were lower and the subjects reported feeling less refreshed the next day than on other days. The subjects slept in a completely darkened lab with no sight of the moon, and none of them—at least from what was known—appeared to have given any thought at all to lunar cycles. And since the moon was not an experimental variable in the original study, it was never mentioned either to the subjects or even among the investigators.
In terms of scientific reliability, all of this is both good and not so good. A study can’t get more effectively double-blind than if no one is even thinking about the thing you wind up testing for, which makes the findings uniquely objective. On the other hand, the ideal moon study would have been carefully set up to give equal weight to every night in the lunar cycle. This study—while capturing most of the nights in the month—did so in a less rigorous way.
“The a posteriori analysis is a strength and a weakness,” concedes lead author Christian Cajochen, head of the University of Basel’s Centre for Chronobiology, in an e-mail to TIME.
“The strength is that investigators and subject expectations are not likely to influence the results, yet the weakness is that each subject was not studied across all lunar phases.”
“The strength is that investigators and subject expectations are not likely to influence the results, yet the weakness is that each subject was not studied across all lunar phases.”
Even if the moon has as significant an effect on sleep as the study suggests, what’s less clear is the mechanism behind it. Dark labs eliminate the variable of light, so that can’t be it. And before you ask, no, it’s not gravity either. The authors stress that while lunar gravity does indeed raise tides in the oceans, it doesn’t on lakes and even many seas. Those bodies are simply too small to feel the effects—to say nothing of human bodies.
Rather, the answer is simply that, like every other species on Earth,
we evolved on a particular planet with a particular set of astronomical cycles—day and night, full moons and less full—and our circadian systems adapted.
It’s hard to say where the internal clock is in, say, a flowering plant, but in humans, it’s likely in the suprachiasmatic nuclei, a tiny region of the brain near the optic nerve involved in the production of melatonin, certain neurotransmitters and other time-keeping chemicals, all in a rhythm consistent with both its terrestrial and cosmic surroundings.
Physically, human beings may be creatures of just this world, but our brains—and our behavior—appear to belong to two.
we evolved on a particular planet with a particular set of astronomical cycles—day and night, full moons and less full—and our circadian systems adapted.
It’s hard to say where the internal clock is in, say, a flowering plant, but in humans, it’s likely in the suprachiasmatic nuclei, a tiny region of the brain near the optic nerve involved in the production of melatonin, certain neurotransmitters and other time-keeping chemicals, all in a rhythm consistent with both its terrestrial and cosmic surroundings.
Physically, human beings may be creatures of just this world, but our brains—and our behavior—appear to belong to two.
Read more: http://science.time.com/2013/07/25/how-the-moon-messes-with-your-sleep/#ixzz2buVOIOSP
Sleeping During a Full Moon: Why It's Hard | TIME.com
Link: http://science.time.com/2013/07/25/how-the-moon-messes-with-your-sleep/
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Melatonin treatment in children with ADHD and chronic sleep onset insomnia
Melatonin treatment in children with ADHD and chronic sleep onset insomnia
Melatonin, also known as N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine, a hormone secreted by the pineal gland in the brain with functions of regulating sleep cycles, other hormones, timing in secretion of female hormones that affect the menstrual cycle, etc. The levels of the circulating hormone vary in a daily cycle, depending to the circadian rhythm is an internal 24-hour “clock”.
Melatonin treatment in children with ADHD and chronic sleep on set insomnia
In the study to assess long-term melatonin treatment course, effectiveness and safety in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and chronic sleep onset insomnia (CSOI), researchers at the Department of Neurology, Elisabeth Hospital, Tilburg, The Netherlands, found that long-term melatonin treatment was judged to be effective against sleep onset problems in 88% of the cases.
Improvement of behaviour and mood was reported in 71% and 61% respectively. We conclude that melatonin remains an effective therapy on the long term for the treatment of CSOI in children with ADHD and has no safety concerns regarding serious adverse events or treatment related co-morbidity.
Discontinuation of melatonin treatment usually leads to a relapse of sleep on set insomnia and in resuming melatonin treatment, even after several years of treatment (24).
Made From Fresh Fruits And Vegetable Recipes
Secret To A Vibrant And Healthy Lifestyle
That You Can Find Easily At The Comfort Of Your Kitchen.
Back to Vitamin and minerals for http://thevitamins-minerals.blogspot.ca/p/vitamins-and-minerals.html
Back to home of living health of 50 and over http://healthyliving50over.blogspot.ca/
Sources
(24) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19486273
Posted by Kyle J. Norton at 6:06 AM
That You Can Find Easily At The Comfort Of Your Kitchen.
Back to Vitamin and minerals for http://thevitamins-minerals.blogspot.ca/p/vitamins-and-minerals.html
Back to home of living health of 50 and over http://healthyliving50over.blogspot.ca/
Sources
(24) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19486273
Posted by Kyle J. Norton at 6:06 AM
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Irregular Bedtimes Curb Young Children’s Brain Power | Neuroscience News
Irregular Bedtimes Curb Young Children’s Brain Power
Posted on July 10, 2013By Neuroscience NewsFeatured, Psychology
Going to bed at different times every night throughout early childhood seems to curb children’s brain power, according to a large, long term study by academics in the ESRC International Centre for Lifecourse Studies in Society and Health at UCL.
Given the importance of early childhood development on subsequent health, there may be knock-on effects across the life course, suggest the authors.
The authors looked at whether bedtimes in early childhood were related to brain power in more than 11,000 seven year olds, all of whom were part of the UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS).
MCS is a nationally representative long term study of UK children born between September 2000 and January 2002, and the research drew on regular surveys and home visits made when the children were 3, 5, and 7, to find out about family routines, including bedtimes.
Girls who had never had regular bedtimes at ages 3, 5, and 7 had significantly lower reading, maths and spatial awareness scores than girls who had had consistent bedtimes. The impact was the same in boys, but for any two of the three time points.
The authors wanted to know whether the time a child went to bed, and the consistency of bed-times, had any impact on intellectual performance, measured by validated test scores for reading, maths, and spatial awareness.
And they wanted to know if the effects were cumulative and/or whether any particular periods during early childhood were more critical than others.
Irregular bedtimes were most common at the age of 3, when around one in five children went to bed at varying times. By the age of 7, more than half the children went to bed regularly between 7.30 and 8.30 pm.
Children whose bedtimes were irregular or who went to bed after 9 pm came from more socially disadvantaged backgrounds, the findings showed.
When they were 7, girls who had irregular bedtimes had lower scores on all three aspects of intellect assessed, after taking account of other potentially influential factors, than children with regular bedtimes. But this was not the case in 7 year old boys.
Irregular bedtimes by the age of 5 were not associated with poorer brain power in girls or boys at the age of 7. But irregular bedtimes at 3 years of age were associated with lower scores in reading, maths, and spatial awareness in both boys and girls, suggesting that around the age of 3 could be a sensitive period for cognitive development.
The impact of irregular bedtimes seemed to be cumulative.
Girls who had never had regular bedtimes at ages 3, 5, and 7 had significantly lower reading, maths and spatial awareness scores than girls who had had consistent bedtimes. The impact was the same in boys, but for any two of the three time points.
The authors point out that irregular bedtimes could disrupt natural body rhythms and cause sleep deprivation, so undermining the plasticity of the brain and the ability to acquire and retain information.
Senior author Professor Amanda Sacker, Director of the ESRC International Centre for Lifecourse Studies in Society and Health at UCL, says: “Sleep is the price we pay for plasticity on the prior day and the investment needed to allow learning fresh the next day. Early child development has profound influences on health and wellbeing across the life course. Therefore, reduced or disrupted sleep, especially if it occurs at key times in development, could have important impacts on health throughout life.”
Notes about this neurodevelopment and sleep research
The study is published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
Contact: Media Relations Office – University College London
Source: UCL press release
Image Source: The painting of the sleeping baby is credited to Tojetti, Virgilio, 1851-1901 and is released into the public domain by Boston Public Library.
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Original Research: Abstract for “Time for bed: associations with cognitive performance in 7-year-old children: a longitudinal population-based study” by Yvonne Kelly, John Kelly and Amanda Sacker in Journal of
Epidemiology and Community Health. Published online July 8 2013 doi:10.1136/jech-2012-202024
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Irregular Bedtimes Curb Young Children’s Brain Power | Neuroscience News
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brain development, brain plasticity, circadian rhythm, Health, neurodevelopment, neuroplasticity,neuropsychology, Neuroscience, Psychology, Sleep, sleep deprivation, social epidemiology
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Irregular Bedtimes Curb Young Children’s Brain Power | Neuroscience News
Night Owls
Night owls more likely to have Dark Triad of personality traits
Watch out for the creatures of the night – those who prefer to stay up late tend to have more evil personality traits than those who prefer to be early risers, according to research.
By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent
26 Jul 2013
Research suggests people who like staying up late tend to have more evil personality traits.
Psychologists have found that people who are often described as “night owls” display more signs of narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathic tendencies than those who are “morning larks”.
The scientists suggest these reason for these traits, known as the Dark Triad, being more prevalent in those who do better in the night may be linked to our evolutionary past.
They claim that the hours of darkness may have helped to conceal those who adopted a “cheaters strategy” while living in groups.
Some social animals will use the cover of darkness to steal females away from more dominant males. This behaviour was also recently spotted in rhinos in Africa.
Dr Peter Jonason, a psychologist at the University of Western Sydney, said: “It could be adaptively effective for anyone pursuing a fast life strategy like that embodied in the Dark Triad to occupy and exploit a low-light environment where others are sleeping and have diminished cognitive functioning.
“Such features of the night may facilitate the casual sex, mate-poaching, and risk-taking the Dark Triad traits are linked to.
“In short, those high on the Dark Triad traits, like many other predators such as lions, African hunting dogs and scorpions, are creatures of the night.”
Dr Jonason and his colleagues, whose research is published in the journal of Personality and Individual Differences, surveyed 263 students, asking them to complete a series of standard personality tests designed to test their score for the Dark Triad traits.
They were rated on scales for narcissism, the tendency to seek admiration and special treatment; Machiavellianism, a desire to manipulate others; and psychopathy, an inclination towards callousness and insensitivity.
To test each, they were asked to rate their agreement with statements like:
“I have a natural talent for influencing people”,
“I could beat a lie detector” and
“people suffering from incurable diseases should have the choice of being put painlessly to death”.
The volunteers were also asked to complete a questionnaire about how alert they felt at different times of the day and how late they stayed up at night.
The study revealed that those with a darker personality score tended to say they functioned more effectively in the evening.
They also found that those who stayed up later tended to have a higher sense of entitlement and seemed to be more exploitative.
They could find no evidence, however, that the traits were linked to the participants gender, ruling out the possibility that the tendency to plot and act in the night time had its roots in sexual evolution.
Previous research has suggested that people who thrive at night tend also to be more intelligent.
Combined with the other darker personality traits, this could be a dangerous mix.
Notorious leaders including Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin are among those who are known to have stayed up late at night and had displayed these dark personality traits.
Other night owls such as Bill Clinton, the former US president, and Winston Churchill, the former British prime minister, have often been accused of showing less extreme elements of at least some of these traits.
However, there are some examples of night owls where these negative traits may be harder to spot.
President Barack Obama is reputed to a night owl, as was Elvis Presley and James Joyce.
Famous morning larks include Napoleon, Ernest Hemingway and George W Bush.
Dr Jonason added: "We felt that providing evidence of such an odd relationship would better make our case that being high on the Dark Triad might be adaptive in selecting certain niches.
"I think it is too simplistic to think that people are either/or. People everywhere can exhibit these traits.
"Those who want to exploit others should have a bias towards choosing the night-time niche because the night time means fewer people are awake to detect exploitation."
Other research has shown that evening types tend to b more extrovert and creative types such as poets, artists and personalities.
Morning types were often found in roles like civil servants and accountants.
Findings from Surrey University have suggested that people's tendency to be night owls or morning larks is determined by their genes.
Professor Jim Horne, a sleep researcher at Loughborough University, said: “There are quite a lot of things associated with the time we go to bed and get up.
“People who are shorter sleepers tend to be a bit more manic about things and tend to take risks and have delusions of grandeur.
“Morning types are more rigid and less adaptable in their body clocks while evening types are better able to deal with shift work and jet lag.
"In reality, the majority of people are neither one or the other. Genes probably only account for about 10 per cent of it, but whether we are night owls or morning larks tends to change with age.
“We tend to go to bed later when we are younger. Students also tend to be more full of bravado and so this may have influenced these results.
“It would be interesting to see if morning types are more trustworthy and more upstanding citizens because these are the people who get up to go to work on time and go to church perhaps."
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/10204896/Night-owls-more-likely-to-have-Dark-Triad-of-personality-traits.html
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Research | UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center
Research
Below is a selection of research that is currently being conducted and research completed about mindfulness.
Participate in Mindfulness Research: Mindful Awareness Meditation for Sleep Problems
The purpose of this study is to see whether Mindfulness Meditation or Sleep Education can improve sleep among older adults.Who is eligible?
- Adults age 55 and over
- Have trouble sleeping
- Sleep monitoring
- Mindfulness Meditation or Sleep Education
- Up to $50 compensation
- Free parking at UCLA
Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology | Investigator: David S. Black, M.P.H., Ph.D.
Learn more »
Source:
Research | UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center
http://marc.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=18
http://marc.ucla.edu/workfiles/PDFs/Sleep_and-Mindfulness-Studey_UCLA.pdf
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