Sleep Disorders News: Getting A Good Night’s Sleep
Getting A Good Night’s Sleep
A good night’s sleep is something we all value. Scientists tell us, and we know from experience, that it refreshes us, helps us perform better, and contributes significantly to health and happiness, especially in children. And yet, there are millions of us suffering from ongoing shortage of sleep.
According to the World Association of Sleep Medicine (WASM), sleep problems add up to a global epidemic that affects 45% of the world’s population.
“Insomnia, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), restless legs syndrome (RLS), and sleep deprivation significantly impact physical, mental and emotional health, in addition to affecting work performance and personal relationships,” they said, on the fourth annual World Sleep Day on Friday 18th March 2011, when health professionals from WASM and other organizations worldwide came together to deliver the message that sleep is a “human privilege that is often compromised by the habits of modern life”.
The 24/7 Technological Society
When we think about it, these figures are hardly surprising. Over the last two or three decades, the choice of round the clock activity available to the average Westerner today has become overwhelming. We can shop at 2 am, either at the supermarket or online, we can do our banking online 24/7, we can watch any number of films and TV channels or catch up on programs around the clock, we can download games, books and software and start enjoying them without having to wait until the morning.
And then there’s the communications technology through which we make ourselves accessible to others, via mobile or cell phones, internet chats and and social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Over less than a generation our social “interfaces” have multiplied enormously, leading to an ever increasing volume of transactions with a growing number of people.
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And all this impacts not only our daytime activity, but damages our sleep environment: it’s much harder to wind down and prepare for sleep when the bedroom is more like a NASA control center than a haven of peace and tranquility.
This is especially evident in the younger generation. Research suggests that as a group, teenagers are experiencing sleep deprivation on an unprecedented scale. A contributing factor is the tide of technology flooding into the bedroom of the average teenager.
Home insurance surveys show that most British children have a games console, a TV, a CD player and a DVD player in their bedroom, which one in five parents now ranks as containing more expensive items than the kitchen or living room. The bedroom is also the room teenagers spend most of their time in, and where they tend to hang out with their friends when they call round.
Calling and texting on cell phones is an especially big stealer of sleep time among teenagers. Doctors in the US are becoming very concerned about the effect this has on their health and development.
Dr R Michael Seyffert of the New Jersey Neuroscience Institute at JFK Medical Center in Edison, sees two or three teenagers a month with severe night-time cell phone problems, which he defines as spending two or more hours of texting and phoning each night. He says he has seen more of this in the last five years than ever before, and predicts it is only going to get worse.
Few would disagree with him: as we drift on this tide of technology toward a total 24/7, globally connected society, with an increasing number of gadgets to inform, stimulate and entertain us, the traditional boundaries between activity and sleep are being eroded, and we are likely to see a rise in the number of people experiencing health problems from lack of sleep.
How Much Sleep Do We Need?
Expert opinion varies as to the exact number of hours of sleep we need for optimum health, and some suggest it also depends on individual needs and age. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine says most adults need about seven to eight hours of sleep a night to feel alert and well rested. The National Sleep Foundation also recommends between 7 and 9 hours.
One recent study suggests it could be as little as 6 hours, but more than 9 hours could be just as bad as not enough. Dr Charles Bae, a neurologist at the Cleveland Clinic Sleep Disorders Center in Ohio, and colleagues examined data on 10,654 patients who had competed questionnaires about quality of life, depression and average hours sleep per night.
They were surprised to find that sleeping more than 9 hours a night was linked to a similar reduction in quality of life and increase in symptoms of depression as sleeping less than 6, they said at the SLEEP 2011 conference in Minneapolis.
Children and teenagers need more sleep than adults. Teenagers need at least 9 hours, says the National Sleep Foundation in the US.
Many people do not realize that sleep is far from being a “passive” process where the brain just switches off at night. It is an “active” process involving the whole body and the brain.
Neurotransmitters, chemicals that brain cells use to signal to each other, control whether we are asleep or awake by action on different parts of the brain. In the brainstem, which joins the brain to the spinal cord, brain cells produce serotonin and norepinephrine that keep some parts of the brain active while we are awake, while other brain cells at the base of the brain control signals that lead to sleepiness and falling asleep by “switching off” the ones that keep us awake.
When we sleep we go through several stages of sleep from light to deep sleep, and then the cycle starts over. One of the stages is REM (rapid eye movement), which stimulates the brain regions used in learning. Infants spend much more time in REM sleep than adults. REM is also linked to increased production of proteins and learning of mental skills.
Research also suggests that a chemical called adenosine, which causes drowsiness, gradually accumulates in the bloodstream while we are awake and gradually breaks down during sleep.
Study: Sleep boosts athletic performance
Young basketball players wanting to improve their game should put in long hours — not only of practice time, but also of sleep, U.S. researchers say.
A researcher in the Stanford University Sleep Disorders Clinic and Research Laboratory said her study has shown that basketball players at the college level improved on-court performance by increasing their amount of total sleep time.
“Athletes may be able to optimize training and competition outcomes by identifying strategies to maximize the benefits of sleep,” the researchers wrote in the journal SLEEP.
While it’s long been known lack of sleep can have negative consequences, very few studies have looked at the effect that sleep extension can have on performance, particularly of athletes, a Stanford release said Friday.
Most athletes focus on nutrition and physical training as part of their regimen, Mah said, but competitive athletes at all levels typically do not consider optimizing their sleep and recovery.
“Intuitively many players and coaches know that rest and sleep are important, but it is often the first to be sacrificed,” she said.
Over the course of two basketball seasons, Mah and colleagues worked with 11 healthy players to measure the effects of sleep extension on specific measures of athletic performance. At the end of the study period, the players ran faster 282-foot sprints (16.2 seconds vs. 15.5 seconds) and their shooting accuracy during practice improved, with free throw percentages increasing by 9 percent and 3-point field goal percentage increasing by 9.2 percent.
Sleep is an “unrecognized, but likely critical factor in reaching peak performance,” Mah said.
Home Sleep Testing (HST) Surpasses User Expectations
Sleep Group Solutions (SGS) is pleased to announce the widespread launch of InterpStudies.com, a home sleep study interpretation portal. Home sleep testing has been among the fastest growing segments of the sleep and medical market as it is a viable and cost effective study, similar to the overnight PSG tests done in sleep labs.
Home sleep tests (HST), such as the Embletta is the same HST device used today in many hospitals, Sleep Disorders Centers, VA and Kaiser Systems. These home sleep tests are user friendly, and frequently administered by primary care physicians, internal medicine physicians, dentists and other specialties. Since Embletta supplies many sleep labs with sleep study technology-sleep doctors are familiar with the data and diagnosing is seamless when studies are uploaded to InterpStudies.com. “Interpstudies.com was built with a scalable infrastructure so that companies interested in getting started with home sleep testing do not need to invest in the technology and expensive servers or programs, nor networking with physicians to make a system like this work. With Sleep Group Solutions and the InterpStudies.com network distributors, DME companies, multi-state medical groups and others can work with home sleep testing and offer physician interpretation nationwide with no additional investment.” explains John Nadeau, Sleep Group Solutions, VP.
Being a part of Sleep Group Solutions ‘Complete Home Sleep Testing Solution’ includes:
*Embletta Units: The “gold standard” in home sleep testing, and most other HST devises
*Customized web portal access for you and your customers: Seamless and easy access
*Interpretations by InterpStudies.com
Create your business’s own ‘Complete Home Sleep Testing Solution’ today, with the most cost effective model, and comprehensive company around. Dr. Gregory Carnevale, a sleep doctor in New York, and part creator of InterpStudies.com says “InterpStudies, LLC was born out of this idea to provide home sleep study interpretations efficiently and accurately using the most modern technology, and competitive price.” Dr. Carnevale mentions in a recent interview with the Sleep Magazine, and that’s exactly what InterpStudies delivers.
About Interpstudies.com
InterpStudies is a completely web-based company that transfers (“uploads”) home sleep study data that you provide to our team of “Analyzers” who are board certified sleep physicians. Our Analyzers will send you a report within 5 business days providing you with the most current American Academy of Sleep Medicine guidelines regarding diagnosis and treatment options, including CPAP, oral appliances and other treatments. Interpstudies.com work most often with Remlogic software and Embletta home sleep study equipment. Additional devices can be used including: MediByte Jr, Easy Ambulatory PSG, Somte, Watch-PAT (Prices and acceptance of new clients will change from time to time). The InterpStudy team with help you with all phases of the process including set-up and uploading. Most of this assistance can be done remotely.
About Sleep Group Solution
Sleep Group Solutions is an airway diagnostic technology company serving the needs of physicians and dentists interested in screening, diagnosing and treating sleep apnea and other upper airway disorders. Sleep Group Solutions offers the latest screening and diagnostic equipment solutions for patients with allergy, sinus congestion, rhinitis, deviated septum, nasal polyps, snoring and sleep apnea. SGS offers the most comprehensive dental sleep medicine CE seminars in the industry focused on teaching dentists the protocols needed to make the treatment of snoring and sleep apnea part of their practice. SGS offers sleep study interpretation, oral appliances (Norad Boil & Bite, Respire), online directory 1800SleepLab.com and online marketing at Sleeptest.com. SGS is the manufacturer of the Eccovision Systems Rhinometer and Pharyngometer.