Athletes Take Note: Sleeping More Can Give You a Competitive Edge

Notes from Dr. Norman Blumenstock
Athletes, take note: if you want to optimize your athletic performance, be sure to get your zzz’s.

December 26, 2014

By Dr. Mercola

Athletes, take note: if you want to optimize your athletic performance, be sure to get your zzz’s. As noted by The Atlantic:1

“Without proper sleep, whether it’s a short-term or long-term deficit, there are substantial effects on mood, mental and cognitive skills, and motor abilities. When it comes to recovery from hard physical efforts, there’s simply no better treatment than sleep, and a lot of it.”

Not surprisingly, sleep deprivation has a detrimental effect on sports performance across the board, but certain types of athletes see a particularly marked drop in performance if they skimp on sleep.

The largest performance drop-offs can be seen among endurance athletes, and sports requiring quick reaction times and reflexes.

Non-athletes will also optimize their health and longevity by paying attention to the quality of their sleep. In fact, getting enough sleep appears to be key for aging well, and maintaining healthy brain and body into old age.

Competitive Athletes Get a Leg Up with More Sleep

To determine whether an athlete might gain a competitive edge simply by sleeping more, Stanford researcher Cheri D. Mah reached out to The Cardinal’s men’s basketball team.

For two weeks, the players’ athletic performance was assessed after getting their normal amount of sleep. They were fitted with motion-sensing wristbands to determine the actual length of their sleep, which averaged in at a mere 6.5 hours per night.

Next, the players were asked to extend their sleep time as much as possible for five to seven weeks. The players increased their average sleep time by about two hours—to 8.5 hours nightly. As reported in the featured article:

“The results were startling. By the end of the extra-sleep period, players had improved their free throw shooting by 11.4 percent and their three-point shooting by 13.7 percent. There was an improvement of 0.7 seconds on the 282-foot sprint drill—every single player on the team was quicker than before the study had started.

A 13-percent performance enhancement is the sort of gain that one associates with drugs or years of training—not simply making sure to get tons of sleep. Mah’s research strongly suggests that most athletes would perform much better with more sleep...”

Unfortunately, extensive and hectic travel schedules usually make sleep hard to come by when you’re a competitive athlete. While not an ideal alternative to getting a solid night’s sleep, taking naps whenever possible can help.

For the majority of you though, who are not professional athletes, research like this shows just how important it is to get enough sleep. If athletes can improve their professional performance by sleeping more, the same will apply to “regular folks” as well.

The Importance of Staying in Sync with Nature

Maintaining a natural rhythm of exposure to sunlight during the day and darkness at night is one crucial foundational component of sleeping well. This was addressed in a previous interview with Dan Pardi, a researcher who works with the Behavioral Sciences Department at Stanford University and the Departments of Neurology and Endocrinology at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

Exposure to bright daylight synchronizes your master clock—a group of cells in your brain called the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN). These nuclei synchronize to the light-dark cycle of your environment when light enters your eye. You also have other biological clocks throughout your body, and those clocks subsequently synchronize to your master clock.

One reason why so many people get so little sleep, and/or such poor sleep, can be traced back to a master clock disruption. One lifestyle factor that can significantly hamper your sleep is spending the entire day indoors in an area with few or no windows.

That, combined with spending your evenings in too-bright artificial light, is a surefire way to get out of sync with the natural rhythm of daylight and nighttime darkness. The end result is difficulty falling or staying asleep when it’s time for bed, and persistent daytime sleepiness.

Improve Your Sleep Hygiene with a Fitness Tracker

Getting enough sleep is really crucial to overall good health; I strongly recommend taking the matter seriously. While overuse of light-emitting technology is part of the problem, some gadgets can actually help you improve your sleep hygiene. We’re about to see an explosion of fitness trackers hitting the market, and I believe this can be a really good thing, provided you make good use of it.

There are already a few good ones available, but even better versions are sure to follow. The Apple Watch being launched next year is one example. Currently, one of the best is Jawbone’s Up32—it’s definitely among the most advanced fitness tracker to date. This lightweight wristband keeps track of a wide variety of data, including exercise, hydration levels, and REM sleep. The data collected can even tell you what activities led to your best sleep, and what factors resulted in poor sleep.

With this kind of data at hand, you can start making some really healthy choices. The Smart Coach will also remind you when it’s time to hit the sack. Besides tracking your sleep patterns, a fitness tracker can also inspire you to get enough movement into your day-to-day life.

A Fitness Tracker Can Help You Lead a More Active Lifestyle

Overwhelming evidence shows that prolonged sitting is an independent risk factor for chronic health problems and a shorter lifespan, so regularly getting off your chair is just as important as having a regular workout schedule. While some experts in this field recommend standing up at least 10 minutes out of every hour of sitting, I believe this may not be enough for optimal health. Personally, I now try to sit as little as possible. I strive to sit less than one hour per day, which is an achievable goal unless I’m travelling and am forced to sit in a plane or car.

Simply standing up has had the remarkable effect of “curing” my chronic back pain, which I’ve struggled with for many years. It would normally start after I’d walk or stand for more than 30 minutes, but since I reduced my sitting, the pain has essentially disappeared. 

Prior to this simple intervention, I’d tried four different chiropractors, posture exercises, Foundation Training, ab work, inversion tables, standing up every 15 minutes to stretch, and strength training. Yet the improvements were minimal. I’m still surprised I missed this important health principle for so long! Another recent epiphany I had is that most of us need to walk much more than we do. This is where a fitness tracker can be very helpful, as it allows you to objectively record how much you walk.

Most of us need about 7,000-10,000 steps a day, which is about four to five miles (6-9 km). Keep in mind that this is walking is in addition to, not in place of, your normal exercise program. If you can, consider walking barefoot, as this will help you get grounded—it’s even better if you can walk on the beach by the ocean. I believe the combination of high intensity training, non-exercise activities like walking 10,000 steps a day, along with avoiding sitting whenever possible is the key to being really fit and enjoying a pain free and joyful life. If you don't have a fitness tracker that records your steps and your sleep, I would encourage you to get one.

Beware of Sleeping Pills...

While most would not knowingly put their life on the line, you may be doing just that if you take sleeping pills. They’re simply NOT a viable alternative to synchronizing your sleep rhythm to the natural cycle of light and darkness... According to the statistics3 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), between 50 and 70 million Americans suffer from sleep deprivation, and nearly nine million Americans take prescription sleeping pills in pursuit of good night’s rest.

Unfortunately, the price you may end up paying for taking this “shortcut” could be higher than expected. A study4 by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) reveals that emergency room visits involving the sleep aid zolpidem nearly doubled between 2005 and 2010, reaching 42,274 visits in the year 2009-2010. Zolpidem is the active ingredient in sleep aids sold under brand names like Ambien, Ambien CR, Edluar, and Zolpimist. Polypharmacy—the use of multiple drugs—is part of the problem. In 57 percent of these overmedication cases, there were additional drugs involved:

• In 26 percent of cases, zolpidem was combined with benzodiazepines (Valium, Xanax, Ativan, etc.)
• 25 percent involved a combination with narcotic pain relievers
• Alcohol was also used in 14 percent of these emergency room visits

Sleeping Pill Use and Driving Can Be a Dangerous Mix

Recent research also shows that prescription drugs are involved in fatal car crashes at three times the rate of marijuana, and sleeping pills are among the drugs that could turn you into a danger on the road. Studies submitted to the FDA have revealed that blood levels of zolpidem above 50 ng/mL may impair your driving to a degree that increases the risk of an accident, especially among women. As a result, FDA recommended manufacturers cut the dosage of zolpidem from 10mg to 5mg for immediate-release products (Ambien, Edluar, and Zolpimist) and from 12.5 mg to 6.25 mg for extended-release products (Ambien CR).5

A 2013 CDC report6 also estimated that up to one-third of all fatal car crashes involve a drowsy driver, and daytime drowsiness is a very common side effect of sleeping pills. Other side effects associated with zolpidem include dizziness, hallucinations, agitation, and sleep-walking. It’s also important to realize that narcotic pain relievers and anti-anxiety drugs or sedatives can cause a dangerous enhancement of sleeping pills’ sedative effects.7 Sleeping pills have also been linked to a 35 percent increased cancer risk, along with a greatly increased risk of death from any cause.

Helpful Tips to Improve Your Sleep

My advice is to skip the medication and focus your attention on lifestyle changes that will allow you to get the best sleep possible. Remember, to sleep well, you need to have properly aligned circadian rhythms, and to achieve that, you need to get daylight exposure, ideally around solar noon, for a minimum of 30-60 minutes each day. In the evening, once the sun has set, dim all artificial light sources. In particular, you want to avoid the blue light wavelength.

Research shows that exposure to bright room light before bedtime suppresses melatonin production in 99 percent of individuals, which can rob you of sleep by preventing sleepiness. For night-time lighting, use blue-blocking light bulbs, dim your lights with dimmer switches and turn off unneeded lights, and if using a computer, install blue light-blocking software like f.lux.8 Also keep in mind that digital alarm clocks with blue light displays could have a detrimental effect. The following infographic, created by BigBrandBeds.co.uk, illustrates how your electronic gadgets wreak havoc on your sleep when used before bedtime.9

To optimize sleep you also need to make sure you’re going to bed early enough, because if you have to get up at 6:30am, you’re just not going to get enough sleep if you go to bed after midnight. Again, many fitness trackers can now track both daytime body movement and sleep, allowing you to get a better picture of how much sleep you’re actually getting. Chances are, you’re getting at least 30 minutes less shut-eye than you think, as most people do not fall asleep as soon as their head hits the pillow. Besides maintaining a natural circadian rhythm as described above, there are a number of additional ways to help improve your sleep if you’re still having trouble. Below are five of my top guidelines for promoting good sleep. For a comprehensive sleep guide, please see my article 33 Secrets to a Good Night's Sleep.

1. Avoid watching TV or using your computer at night—or at least about an hour or so before going to bed. TV and computer screens emit blue light, similar to daylight. This tricks your brain into thinking it's still daytime, thereby shutting down melatonin secretion.
2. Sleep in darkness. You don’t need to sleep in total darkness; the intensity of light has to be at a certain level (different levels depending on the spectrum) to suppress melatonin production. That said, complete darkness is probably best. I recommend covering your windows with blackout shades or drapes, or use an eye mask. Also avoid using night-lights, and cover up the display on your clock radio.
3. Keep the temperature in your bedroom below 70°F. A reduction in core body temperature is a part of the sleep-initiation and sleep maintenance process. A room temperature that is too warm or too cool can prevent your core temperature from lowering to its ideal place for good sleep. Aim to keep your bedroom temperature between 60 to 68 degrees, and identify the best room temperature for you through trial and error.
4. Take a hot bath or shower 30 minutes before bedtime. The hot bath increases your core body temperature, opening up the blood vessels in your limbs. When you get out of the bath, heat can leave your body easily (if the room temperature is cool), abruptly dropping your core body temperature, making you drowsy and ready for great sleep. Just be sure to filter your shower water as you can absorb more chlorine from breathing in a hot shower than you can by drinking chlorinated tap water all day.
5. Check your bedroom for electro-magnetic fields (EMFs). These can disrupt your pineal gland and the production of melatonin and serotonin, and may have other negative effects as well. To do this, you need a gauss meter. You can find various models online, starting around $50 to $200. Some experts even recommend pulling your circuit breaker before bed to shut down all power in your house. If electrical alarm clocks or other gadgets must be used, keep them as far away from your bed as possible, preferably at least three feet. Cell phones, cordless phones, and their charging stations should ideally be kept three rooms away from your bedroom to prevent exposure to harmful and sleep-disrupting electromagnetic fields (EMFs).

Metro-North railroad in New York approves contract to screen and test engineers for sleep apnea

American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Thursday, December 18, 2014

Earlier this week USA Today reported that the Metro-North New York commuter railroad will hire a firm to screen and test engineers for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) following a deadly crash that was caused by a fatigued engineer who had undiagnosed OSA. The crash killed four people and injured 70 in the Bronx on Dec. 1, 2013. The engineer, who fell asleep before the train derailed, was later diagnosed with OSA. 

Metro-North will spend up to $200,000 on a 7-month pilot program. All 410 Metro-North engineers and some 20 engineers in training will have to answer a survey and undergo a physical at Metro-North's medical facility. Based on those results, engineers will be referred for additional evaluation, including home sleep apnea testing. Officials stated that the program eventually may be expanded to Long Island Railroad and New York City Transit.

THE NEW HABIT CHALLENGE: OPTIMIZE YOUR SLEEP FOR MORE CREATIVE THINKING

Notes from Dr. Norman Blumenstock

Sleep has been proven to improve our ability to come up with creative solutions to problems by assisting the brain in flagging unrelated ideas and memories and forging connections among them. REM sleep is especially good at doing this according to psychologists from UC San Diego, who say REM sleep works better than any other state of being at fostering creative thinking. 

USE THIS BEDTIME ROUTINE TO WAKE UP WITH MORE BRILLIANT IDEAS.

BY RACHEL GILLETT
If you’ve ever been told to "just sleep on it," you may have considered the platitude a thinly veiled attempt to avoid giving any real constructive advice. But what if this was, in fact, the best suggestion you could receive when trying to solve a problem?

It turns out, there are ways to hack into our brains as we sleep to come up with creative solutions.

Sleep has been proven to improve our ability to come up with creative solutionsto problems by assisting the brain in flagging unrelated ideas and memories and forging connections among them. REM sleep is especially good at doing this according to psychologists from UC San Diego, who say REM sleep works better than any other state of being at fostering creative thinking.

Dr. Jeffrey Ellenbogen, a neurologist at Harvard Medical School and director of the Sleep Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital, found that if an incubation period—a time in which a person leaves an idea for a while—includes sleep, people are 33% more likely to infer connections among distantly related ideas. Essentially, sleeping on it is the ultimate means to approaching a problem from a new angle.

To use sleep to our problem-solving advantage, we can first ask ourselves the questions we’ve been wrestling with in our work or personal lives, thereby giving our brains something to ruminate on as we sleep.

Glynn Washington, host and cocreator of NPR's Snap Judgment, says he often goes to bed considering questions he'd been working on but for which he couldn't figure out the answers. "And when I wake up, I pick up a computer and start writing, to see if sleep helped me find an answer."

To give your brain more material to work with, you may also do some reading on the subject before bedtime, since research has shown that memory works best when something is learned shortly before sleep.

For the next week, I will sleep on the various problems and questions I wish to solve. I hope you’ll join me.

Log on to our New Habit Challenge Live Chat on Friday, December 19 at 11 a.m. ET to find out how it went and share your thoughts. Or send an email with what you loved or hated about the challenge to habits@fastcompany.com by end of day Thursday, December 18.

Why the workday should be 10–6, not 9–5

Notes from Dr. Norman Blumenstock

A new study shows those with a later work schedule get more sleep, which has prompted experts to suggest a later workday, according to Vox.

Updated by Susannah Locke on December 17, 2014, 9:10 a.m. ET

If you've ever wished you didn't have to get to work until later in the morning, you're not alone. A new study shows that those who start work later also get more sleep. And that's led some health experts to suggest that pushing back the workday could be a good idea.

Roughly 40 percent of Americans are sleeping less than they should. And a new study, published in the journal SLEEP, found that the main thing people were doing instead of sleeping was working. "It was evident across all sociodemographic strata no matter how we approached the question," study co-author Mathias Basner, a sleep psychiatrist at the University of Pennsylvania, said in an email.

It's tough to get people to work less and sleep more. But the researchers did find suggestive evidence of at least one potential remedy. For every hour later in the day that people started working, they got 20 more minutes of sleep. The researchers found a similar pattern for what time students started classes:

A later start of work or classes was correlated with more sleep overall. (Basner, M. et al. SLEEP Vol. 37, No. 12, 2014)

The study used data from the American Time Use Survey that the US Bureau of Labor Statistics does each year. Overall, they examined the habits of 124,517 people.
We don't know yet if the timing of the workday actuallycauses more sleep

There are several key caveats for this study, many of which were pointed out by either the authors themselves or by Lauren Hale, a public-health expert at SUNY Stony Brook, in an accompanying editorial published in the same issue of the journal.

For one, this dataset can only show correlations. It cannot determine that any factor really causes more or less sleep, or vice versa. As Hale notes: "It could also be that those who are short sleepers intentionally select jobs with earlier schedules (or those who prioritize long sleep do not consider jobs with earlier, more rigid schedules)."

She also writes that it's unclear if having people cut back on, say, paid work or commuting time would actually translate to more sleep: "Perhaps an extra hour in one's day will lead to more time eating potato chips on the couch rather than sleeping more?"

The only way to figure that out, though, is to go ahead and do an experiment and get people — and/or their bosses — to try it out.

But Starting The Workday Later Could Still Decrease Social Jetlag

There's actually another benefit to starting the workday later. Helping people get more sleep is the obvious one. But the other is that it would keep sleep schedules more consistent throughout the week, decreasing what researchers call "social jetlag."

There's increasing evidence that when people are sleeping can be as important as how muchthey're sleeping. Even if you get your recommended eight hours a night, you can still feel terrible if you are going to sleep and waking up at different times over the course of the week. And that's what most people are doing — essentially putting their brains through jetlag. It's one reason why so many people end up feeling terrible on Monday mornings.

SOCIAL JETLAG HAS BEEN LINKED TO OBESITY

Over the past few years, some research has been indicating that even a modest variation in waking and sleeping times can create serious health issues. For example, in 2012, German research Till Roenneberg co-authored a study that found that even the normal social jetlag that occurs between weekdays and weekends was correlated with increased body-mass index for overweight people. A lag of just one hour increases the likelihood of obesity by about a third.

So what can be done about it? There are really only two ways to fix social jetlag: either get up early on the weekends (ick) or sleep in later on workdays (hooray, hooray).
Not everyone can just show up late for work every day. Here's how to get more sleep, anyway:

The new SLEEP study noted several correlations that might be a little easier to get a handle on. It linked shorter sleep to watching more TV at night and spending more time grooming in the morning. So maybe there's something you can cut down on there. Like high maintenance hair.

There are also things you can do that didn't happen to be covered in the study. These include limiting caffeine in the afternoon, seeking out bright light in the morning and avoiding it before bed (including from glowing screens), and keeping regular wake and bedtimes through the week — even on weekends.

Eight Foods That Will Put You To Sleep In No Time

Dec 08, 2014 10:18 AM EST | By Food World News Reporter

If you find it hard to sleep sometimes, you are not alone. The good news is, there are certain foods that can help you sleep easily. Know these foods to help you sleep the right time. (Photo : Getty Images )

There are slow nights that make sleeping like a test. Sometimes sleeping becomes really complicated that make you reach out for something, or grab anything that could make you sleep. If you are one of the many people who find sleeping a hard task, here are eight foods that will put you to sleep:

Cheese and crackers are foods that can help you sleep. Earlier, we have known that warm milk can stimulate sleep. But the reason behind this is all dairy food sources can actually help. Dairy is rich in calcium that aids in the release of sleep-triggering melatonin by tryptophan.

Lettuce contains lactucarium, an effective sedative. Lettuce can be added to salads and best eaten during dinner or you can also make brewed lettuce with mint just before heading to bed. This is a proven food that can help you sleep in no time.

Rice is a food that is proven to stimulate sleep. Because it is high in glycemic index, it can easily make you fall asleep after consuming a cup of rice on dinner. If you want to fall asleep faster, a type of rice that can do the task is jasmine rice.

Pretzels and other foods high in glycemic index can increase blood sugar and insulin levels that also aid tryptophan's release that will make sleep easier.

Tuna, salmon and halibut are fish sources that are rich in vitamin B6. These foods with vitamin B6 help in producing serotonin and melatonin, the hormone in the brain that triggers sleep.

Walnuts are rich source of tryptophan. It is a powerful amino acid that enhances sleep by making melatonin and serotonin in the brain. These are "body clock" hormone that sets your sleeping pattern. Melatonin is a known induce-sleeping hormone that would keep sleepless nights at bay.

Tart cherry juice is proven to induce sleep based on a study done at the Louisiana State University. Older adults drinking at least 8 ounces of tart cherry juice twice a day sleeps longer than those on placebos. Tart Cherry juice is house to melatonin and antioxidants that make sleep easier to attain.

Whole grain toast with Almond butter is a sure combination that can make you fall asleep. One tablespoon of Almond butter is rich source of magnesium that induces sleeping. Magnesium is present in many foods including almonds, pumpkin seeds, wheat germ, and green leafy vegetables. People lacking in magnesium finds it hard to sleep based on studies. Whole grain is also a rich source of magnesium.

Aside from the foods that can help you sleep better, certain habits and lifestyle changes must also be done for you to have a healthy sleeping habit.

 Avoid watching TV or using your computer and other gadgets during your sleeping time, you can also avoid foods that contain tyramine such as pork, chocolates, tomatoes, potatoes and wine that easily converts to noradrenaline, a brin stimulant.

Avoid stimulants like cigarette because nicotine makes smokers stay awake longer at night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psf6_62asJ8&feature=youtu.be

Notes from Dr. Norman Blumenstock

Breathing problems or a chronic lack of sleep early in life may double the risk that a child will be obese by age 15, according to research published Thursday in The Journal of Pediatrics.

December 11, 201410:54 AM ET

ALISON BRUZEK

Sleep tight — and quietly, please.

ImageZoo/Corbis

A solid night's sleep does more than recharge a growing brain — it may also help keep a growing body lean.

Breathing problems or a chronic lack of sleep early in life may double the risk that a child will be obese by age 15, according to research published Thursday in The Journal of Pediatrics.

Childhood obesity has been linked before with the number of hours a kid sleeps each night. But other early problems with nighttime breathing — like snoring, or the more serious sleep apnea — also seem to be predictive of significant weight gain among children, according to the research.

It's the first study to look at both sleep duration and breathing problems as separate risk factors for obesity, says Karen Bonuck, professor of family and social medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and lead author.

"Sleep problems need to be thought of as a composite," she tells Shots. "It's not just sleep duration, sleep hygiene, sleep-disordered breathing. We need to think about healthy sleep overall, and we need to think about it early."

To examine sleep habits and how they might predict a child's body mass index, Bonuck and her colleagues used the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, which tracked 1,900 children in England for 15 years.

The mothers surveyed were asked how long their children typically slept at ages 18 months, 2.5 years, about 5 years, 6 years and 7 years. They also reported any sleeping problems like snoring, apnea or mouth breathing between the ages of 6 months and about 7 years old. Finally, the survey collected the height and weight of the children at ages 7 years, 10 years and 15 years.

They found that children who had multiple sleeping problems were twice as likely to be obese by age 7, 10 or 15 years, compared with those who had no problems. At age 15, 9.7 percent of teens with no sleep problems were obese, compared with 18.3 percent of those with multiple sleep problems.

In addition, children who slept less than 10 hours per night at ages 5 and 6 years were more likely to be obese at age 15.

While the study could only confirm an association, not causality, it makes sense that children who don't get enough solid sleep are tired, and may eat more, sleep scientists say. "Some of this actually might be related to certain hormones that regulate appetite," says Dr. Rakesh Bhattacharjee, a pediatric sleep medicine specialist at the University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children's Hospital.

Another theory holds that poor sleep quality or short duration may cause stress on the body that leads to inflammation.

Though many questions about sleep's effects and mechanisms remain, all agree it's important, especially in growing children, Bonuck says. Newborns should get around 16 to 18 hours per day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and preschoolers 11 to 12 hours.

Parents should look for early signals, Bonuck says. Noisy or halted breathing at night could mean something serious is amiss. "Watch your child," she says. "Does she or he snore more than three times a week?"

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all children who snore regularly be screened for sleep apnea — partly because it's easier to prevent childhood obesity than to treat it. "As Benjamin Franklin once said, 'An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,' " Bonuck says. "Pun intended."

Evidence Mounts for Poor Sleep/Pediatric Obesity Connection

Sleep-related breathing problems and chronic lack of sleep may each double the risk of a child becoming obese by age 15, according to new research from Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. The good news is that both sleep problems can be corrected. The study, which followed nearly 2,000 children for 15 years, published online in The Journal of Pediatrics.

“In recent years, lack of sleep has become a well-recognized risk for childhood obesity,” said Karen Bonuck, Ph.D., professor of family and social medicine and of obstetrics & gynecology and women’s health at Einstein and lead author on the paper. “Sleep-disordered breathing, or SDB, which includes snoring and sleep apnea, is also a risk factor for obesity but receives less attention. These two risk factors had not been tracked together in children over time to determine their potential for independently influencing weight gain. Our study aimed to fill in that gap.”

Dr. Bonuck and her colleagues used data collected on 1,899 children by the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) based in Avon, England. ALSPAC collected parent questionnaire data on both child sleep duration and SDB symptoms from birth through 6.75 years and child BMI data from research ALSPAC clinics.

Sleep-disordered breathing

The researchers found that children with the most severe SDB had the greatest risk for obesity. Those children who fell into the “worst case” SDB category were twice as likely to become obese by 7, 10 and 15 years of age, compared to the asymptomatic group. Children considered “worst case” scored highest for SDB symptoms of snoring, sleep apnea or mouth-breathing.

Children whose SDB peaked later, around 5 to 6 years old, fared better but still had a 60 to 80 percent increased risk of becoming obese. Overall, one-fourth of children in this population-based cohort had an increased statistical risk of obesity that arose from SDB symptoms experienced earlier in life.  Obesity was defined as BMI greater than the 95^th percentile for age and gender, according to the International Obesity Task Force.

Sleep duration

With respect to sleep duration, children with the shortest sleep time at approximately 5 and 6 years of age had a 60 to 100 percent increased risk of being obese at 15 years. Children with short sleep duration at other ages saw no significant increase in risk. (In this study, children with short sleep duration were those who, in any given age group, slept less than 90 percent of their peers. For those aged 5 and 6 years old, this was 10.5 hours a night or less.)

Interestingly, SDB and lack of sleep were equally strong risk factors for obesity, but their effects were independent of each other. The researchers looked for associations between short-sleep-duration children and SDB children across all age groups included in the study but did not find clustering, i.e., there was little evidence that children with one risk factor were more likely to also be affected by the other.  The study did not analyze whether children affected by both of the sleep-related risk factors were at greater risk for obesity than were children who had just one risk factor.

Poor Quality Sleep Could Lead To Brain Changes And Dementia, Study Finds

Posted: 12/10/2014 4:08 pm EST Updated: 12/10/2014 4:59 pm EST

It's bad enough being one of the millions of people suffering from sleep-disturbing conditions like emphysema and sleep apnea, waking up tired or having your spouse complain about your loud snoring. Now a new study reveals even scarier effects of not getting enough quality sleep.

Findings unveiled today in the journal Neurology, links the effects of sleep disturbances to brain changes that could lead to dementia later in life. Researchers looked at a cohort of 167 Japanese-American men with an average age of 84, following the mens' sleep patterns from the start of the study until their death, an average of six years later.

They found that lower blood oxygen levels at night, due to sleep disturbances, made men more likely to have harmful brain changes. The men with the lowest levels of blood oxygen were four times as likely to have brain abnormalities than men with higher levels. Those who had less deep sleep, or "slow wave sleep," were also more likely to have lost brain cells.

"These findings suggest that low blood oxygen levels and reduced slow wave sleep may contribute to the processes that lead to cognitive decline and dementia," study author Rebecca P. Gelber of the VA Pacific Islands Health Care System said in a release. "More research is needed to determine how slow wave sleep may play a restorative role in brain function and whether preventing low blood oxygen levels may reduce the risk of dementia."

Various studies have cautioned of the negative effects of lack of quality sleep on the brain. A Temple University study found that mice who were sleep deprived showed more plaques and tangles in the brain, a hallmark of Alzheimer's, as well as memory problems, in just eight weeks. Another study found that in older men, sleep disturbances increased the risk of Alzheimer's by up to 50 percent.

The researchers say that more studies could show whether or not getting more quality sleep or increasing blood oxygen levels could actually have the reverse effect on brain changes. Until then, let's all try to get a better night's rest.

IMPROVING YOUR SLEEP

Get Moving
Exercise 30 minutes a day. Nothing exotic is required; a good half-hour stroll will do the trick, but avoid exercising within three to four hours of bedtime.

Limit Caffeine
Limit the use of all caffeinated beverages (coffee, tea, soft drinks) throughout the day and do not consume any after lunch.

Talk To Your Doctor
Check all of your medicines with your doctor to see if they could be affecting your sleep.

Make The Bedroom A Bedroom
Use the bedroom just for sleep. It may be time to invest in earplugs, an eye mask or even heavier curtains to block out extra light and sound. Don't be afraid to give fidgeting pets the boot and avoid eating, watching television or finishing work in the bedroom.

Adjust Room Temperature
Make sure your bedroom is cool, dark and quiet. Try adjusting the temperature of the bedroom for a more optimal sleeping environment. (For easier temperature regulation throughout the night, ditch the singular heavy comforter and opt for piling on light layers that can be easily kicked off as needed.)

Sign Off
Every night budget a "pre-sleep" period of time (say, a half-hour) to read a book or watch the TV news, and then go to the bedroom with lights out after the period is up. 


Don't ruminate. Practice "thought-stopping"where you only allow yourself to worry about a problem during daytime hours. Refrain from checking texts and e-mails (physically banish your cell to a different room if necessary!) before and during your bedtime routine.