Sleep Center News Tips

Like a healthy diet and regular exercise sleep is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. A good nights sleep improves your brain performance, mood, and health. Lack of sleep can affect your immune system. Studies show that people who don’t get quality sleep or enough sleep are more likely to get sick after being exposed to a virus, such as a common cold virus.

 

Our sleep center is focused on addressing various sleep issues and below you will find information about latest news and trends that support a good nights sleep.

Are sleep problems related to dying earlier?

In a paper published by the Journal of Sleep Research, researchers reveal how they examined data from half a million middle-aged UK participants to determine if they had sleep problems or if they had trouble falling asleep at night or woke up in the middle of the night.

The report found that people with frequent sleep problems are at a higher risk of dying than those without sleep problems. This grave outcome was more pronounced for people with Type-2 diabetes: during the nine years of the research, the study found that they were 87 per cent more likely to die of any cause than people without diabetes or sleep disturbances.

The study also found that people with diabetes and sleep problems were 12 per cent more likely to die over this period than those who had diabetes but not frequent sleep disturbances.

Full information regarding the study can be found at University of Surrey.

Are Sleep and Late Night Snacking Related?

Sleep is essential for optimal health. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society developed a consensus recommendation for the amount of sleep needed to promote optimal health in adults.

Research also revealed what appears to be a popular American habit not influenced by how much we sleep: snacking at night. It turns out that the favored non-meal food categories — salty snacks and sweets and non-alcoholic drinks — are the same among adults regardless of sleep habits, but those getting less sleep tend to eat more snack calories in a day overall.

The recommendation is summarized in a recent article in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.

Does Sleep Position Indicate Intelligence?

New research suggests your sleep position in may tell you a lot about yourself your health, your age, perhaps even your education level. Although how we sleep is largely a matter of perceived comfort and habit, the study found sleep positions affect sleep quality. For example, people who sleep in the Log position report getting a better night sleep than those in the Fetal. Also, people who sleep in the Starfish or Log positions are more likely to sleepwalk.

For more information on sleep positions, including visuals on each one, visit http://bettersleep.org/better-sleep/sleep-positions.

25% of millennials are dependent on masturbation to fall asleep

25% of millennials are dependent on masturbation to fall asleep, a recent survey by Sleepline has found. The survey looked into how people of different age ranges depended on masturbation to fall asleep, as well as how many of these respondents watched porn before bed.

We already know that masturbation presents a number of health benefits – namely, research has found it to increase libido, strengthen the pelvic muscles (in women), enhance happiness levels, and even improve the immune system’s response to viral and bacterial pathogens.

Read additional details concerning the study here.

Cut Salt to Reduce Night-time Urination

The need to pee at night (nocturia) — which affects most people over the age of 60 — is related to the amount of salt in your diet, according to new research presented at the European Society of Urology congress in London.

Dr Matsuo Tomohiro said, “This is the first study to measure how salt intake affects the frequency of going to the bathroom, so we need to confirm the work with larger studies. Night- time urination is a real problem for many people, especially as they get older. Getting a good nights sleep can be impacted by nighttime urination. This work holds out the possibility that a simply dietary modification might significantly improve the quality of life for many people.”

Learn more about the study here.

How a good night’s sleep affects your overall health

Most people know a good night’s sleep helps them feel refreshed and invigorated. But fewer realize how vital sleep is to their overall health and well-being. “In general, we tend to look at sleep as a luxury, but in fact, it’s an absolute necessity,” said Dr. Vera Guertler, a family medicine physician at Penn State Health Medical Group.

Barriers to getting a good night’s sleep include alcohol and certain medications (called benzodiazepines) used for treating anxiety. Alcohol relaxes the drinker at first but arouses him or her later, fracturing their sleep quality. And many anxiety medicines will have a carryover sedation affect that can impair your ability to function.

Some signs people aren’t getting enough sleep include snoring, depression, getting up often to urinate during the night or daytime sleepiness, such as falling asleep at a stoplight.

People who want to learn their current quality of sleep can take the Epworth Sleepiness Scale. It asks you to rate your sleep in several categories on a scale of 0–3. If you get a score of seven or above, see a medical professional.

How Sleep Builds Relational Memory

Relational memory is the ability to remember arbitrary or indirect associations between objects, people or events, such as names with faces, where you left your car keys and whether you turned off the stove after cooking but before you left the house.

Previous research has established that animal and human memory benefits from sufficient, quality sleep. In a new study analysis on the underlying mechanisms that strengthen or create new relational memory happens during sleep.

The authors also noted that memory function and sleep quality decline with age, but current or new technologies that augment sleep oscillations may help protect and improve memory function in older adults. Source: UC San Diego Health

Sleep more to lose weight

Understanding the underlying causes of obesity and how to prevent it is the best way to fight the obesity epidemic and help people lose weight, according to Esra Tasali, MD, Director of the UChicago Sleep Center at the University of Chicago Medicine. “The current obesity epidemic, according to experts, is mostly explained by an increase in caloric intake, rather than lack of exercise” she said.

Now, a new study on how getting sufficient sleep affects caloric intake in a real-world setting could change how we think about weight loss. Source:  University of Chicago Medical Center

Sleeping longer at night leads to a healthier diet

Sleeping for longer each night is a simple lifestyle intervention that could help reduce intake of sugary foods and lead to a generally healthier diet, according to a King’s College London study. Sleep is a modifiable risk factor for various conditions including obesity and cardio-metabolic disease with some figures suggesting more than a third of adults in the UK are not getting enough sleep.

Results suggest that increasing time in bed for an hour or so longer may lead to healthier food choices. This further strengthens the link between short sleep and poorer quality diets that has already been observed by previous studies. Story Source: King’s College London.