Author Interviews, Sleep Disorders / 12.03.2024

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Soomi Lee, PhD Associate Professor | Department of Human Development and Family Studies | Center for Healthy Aging Director of STEALTH Lab: https://sites.psu.edu/stealth/ The Pennsylvania State University MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response:  Sleep quantity and quality decline with advancing age; a risk of chronic conditions also increases with age. While previous studies report that poor sleep is a significant risk for chronic conditions, many have focused solely on a single dimension of sleep, such as duration, thereby limiting the ability to assess multiple co-occurring dimensions and their associations with chronic conditions. This study aimed to evaluate multiple dimensions of sleep health, including regularity, satisfaction, alertness, efficiency, and duration. By analyzing data from a national sample of adults (n=3,683) collected over two time points spanning a decade, the study identified four distinct sleep health phenotypes: good sleepers, insomnia sleepers, weekend catch-up sleepers, and nappers. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Heart Disease, Kidney Disease, Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Sleep Disorders / 15.11.2023

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Lead Author: Rupak Desai, MBBS Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center Independent Researcher, Atlanta, GA, Presenter: Vamsikalyan Borra, MD Resident Physician, Internal Medicine University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Weslaco, TX MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The relationship between sleep apnea (OSA) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) is quite complex. OSA can cause hypoxia, activation of the sympathetic nervous system, and hypertension, all of which can have negative effects on kidney function. On the other hand, in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD), intensifying renal replacement therapy has shown some improvement in sleep apnea severity, suggesting a bi-directional relationship between the two conditions. While there are still uncertainties, recent studies have focused on understanding the interplay between OSA and CKD. The role of CPAP therapy, a common treatment for OSA, in relation to CKD is not yet clear. Observational studies present findings regarding the impact of CPAPs on kidney function. However, researchers are actively investigating its cardiovascular benefits and its influence on the progression of CKD. The objective of this study is to analyze the trends in composite cardiovascular events in hospital encounters among geriatric patients with CKD, comparing those with and without obstructive sleep apnea. Additionally, we are also investigating sex and racial disparities in trends of major adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events (MACCE) among geriatric patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Furthermore, we are assessing the impact of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment and dependence on MACCE outcomes in OSA patients (more…)
Aging, Author Interviews, Mental Health Research, Sleep Disorders / 02.07.2023

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Valentina Paz, M.Sc Ph.D.  Student Research and teaching assistant Universidad de la República, UruguayHon. Research AssistantMRC Unit for Lifelong Health & Ageing Department of Population Science & Experimental MedicineInstitute of Cardiovascular ScienceUniversity College London MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Prior research indicates that napping can enhance performance on specific cognitive tasks. However, some authors argue that the advantages derived from napping may vary between individuals who frequently have a nap and those who never naps. Furthermore, it remains to be seen whether habitual daytime napping has a positive or negative impact on cognition and the association between napping and brain volume is not well characterized. Therefore, our study aimed to examine whether the association between genetic liability to daytime napping, cognitive function, and brain volumes might be causal using a technic called Mendelian randomization and the UK Biobank. (more…)
Author Interviews, Lifestyle & Health, Mental Health Research, Sleep Disorders / 30.05.2023

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Joanna Gorgol PhD Student University of Warsaw MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: People differ in the time when they prefer to wake up and fall asleep: some people prefer going to bed and waking up early, while others prefer later hours. Most of the population is somewhere between them. Research indicates that being a morning person is related to reporting higher satisfaction with life and conscientiousness. Studies also show the associations between being religious and having higher life satisfaction and conscientiousness. It seems that religiosity might mediate the relationship between morningness and higher life satisfaction. To better understand these associations we conducted two questionnaire-based studies of Polish adults, one with 500 participants and the other with 728 participants. All participants completed questionnaires measuring their chronotype, satisfaction with life, personality traits, and religiosity (more…)
Author Interviews, Health Care Systems, Sleep Disorders / 16.02.2023

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Michael R. Schutz, Ph.D. Professor of Music Cognition/Percussion at McMaster University Founding director of the MAPLE Lab and Core member of the McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind. Prof. Schutz is also a professional musician and directs McMaster’s percussion ensemble.   MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Hospitals around the world are filled with devices generating aconstant stream of tones conveying information to medical staff.overburdened healthcare professionals, and contributes to burnout inmedical staff.  The Emergency Care Research Institute (ECRI) regularlyincludes problems with auditory alarms in their list of "Top 10 HealthTechnology Hazards" and they  are so problematic an FDA surveyimplicated them in hundreds of patient deaths.While there is currently a lot of interest in how to improve alarmmanagement protocols, this study is different in that it looks atimproving the quality of the alarm sounds themselves.  For historicalreasons many default to simplistic "beeps" which are generallyannoying.  While annoying is useful for critical alarms requiringimmediate action, the vast majority of these messages are merelyintended to update medical staff of changes (i.e. blood pressure isrising) or indicate other situations that do not require immediateaction. Unfortunately, many machines use the same simplistic andannoying "beeps" regardless of whether the messages are urgent ornon-urgent.  This constant flood of annoying beeps negatively affectsboth patients (extending recovery time due to interrupted rest) andstaff (who can develop "alarm fatigue" from the constant cacophony). (more…)
Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, JAMA, Nutrition, Occupational Health, Sleep Disorders / 09.11.2022

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Zhilei Shan, MD, PhD Postdoctoral fellow on Nutritional Epidemiology Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Unhealthy sleep behaviors and sleep disturbances are associated with higher risk of multiple diseases and mortality. The current profiles of sleep habits and disturbances, particularly the differences between workdays and free days, are unknown in the contemporary US. MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings? Response: In this nationally representative cross-sectional analysis with 9004 adults aged 20 years or older, differences in sleep patterns between workdays and free days were observed. The mean sleep duration was 7.59 hours on workdays and 8.24 hours on free days (difference, 0.65 hour). The mean sleep and wake times were at 11:02 PM and 6:41 AM, respectively, on workdays and 11:25 PM and 7:41 AM, respectively, on free days (differences, 0.23 hour for sleep time and 1.00 hour for wake time). With regard to sleep disturbances, 30.5% of adults experienced 1 hour or more of sleep debt,46.5% experienced 1 hour or more of social jet lag, 29.8% had trouble sleeping, and 27.2% experienced daytime sleepiness. (more…)
Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Schizophrenia, Sleep Disorders / 18.10.2022

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Michael J. Prerau, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Medicine, Faculty, Division of Sleep Medicine Harvard Medical School Associate Neuroscientist and Director of the Neurophysiological Signal Processing Core Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders Department of Medicine Brigham and Women's Hospital MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The brain is highly active during sleep, which makes it an important, natural way to study neurological health and disease. Scientists typically study brain activity during sleep using the electroencephalogram, or EEG, which measures brainwaves at the scalp. Starting in the mid 1930s, the sleep EEG was first studied by looking at the traces of brainwaves drawn on a paper tape by a machine. Many important features of sleep are still based on what people almost a century ago could most easily observe in the complex waveform traces. Even the latest machine learning and signal processing algorithms for detecting sleep waveforms are judged against their ability to recreate human observation. In this study, the researchers asked: What can we learn if we expand our notion of sleep brainwaves beyond what was historically easy to identify by eye? (more…)
Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Melatonin, Pediatrics, Sleep Disorders / 28.09.2022

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Rebecca Robbins, Ph.D. Instructor in Medicine Associate Scientist, Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders Investigator, Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders Departments of Medicine and Neurology Brigham and Women's Hospital MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Teens face myriad challenges to sleep, ranging from biological factors, including a preference for later bedtimes and increased need for sleep, to social factors, including social pressures and increased academic workloads, all limiting teenagers in their ability to keep a healthy sleep schedule. In a nationally representative sample, we explored the prevalence of another potential barrier to sleep among teens, which are a set of beliefs that are held in the population, yet are actual counter to scientific principles regarding sleep and circadian rhythms. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, Sleep Disorders, Weight Research / 26.09.2022

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Steven K. Malin, PhD, FACSM (he/him) Associate Professor Department of Kinesiology and Health | School of Arts and Sciences Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Nutrition | Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Institute of Translational Medicine and Science New Brunswick, NJ 08901 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Type 2 diabetes is a condition where blood glucose (sugar) is elevated in the  blood. This can be problematic as it leads to blood vessel damage and the promotion of cardiovascular disease. Nearly 30 million people  in the U.S. have type 2 diabetes, making it a major public health issue. The cause is not entirely clear, but many, including our team view insulin resistance as a central culprit. Insulin resistance is when the body does not respond well to the hormone insulin. Insulin is vital because it promotes glucose uptake into tissues, like skeletal muscle. Two reasons that are often used to explain the development of insulin resistance include: poor diet (e.g. high sugar and/or high fat coupled with excess calories) and a lack of physical activity. However, more recently, a lack of sleep has been raised as another critical behavioral factor contributing to insulin resistance. Thus, targeting a healthy diet, activity and sleep pattern is thought to prevent the transition from health to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. (more…)
Abuse and Neglect, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Melatonin, Sleep Disorders / 24.05.2022

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jeanne Duffy, MBA, PhD Associate Professor of Medicine Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders Harvard Medical School MedicalResearch.com:  What is the background for this study?  Response: Aging is associated with changes in sleep timing, quality and duration, and even older adults without chronic medical problems have shorter and more disrupted sleep than young adults. Many prescription sleep aids increase the risk of nighttime falls, have adverse effects on next‐day cognition, and are associated with increased mortality, and so are not recommended for long-term use in older adults. In previous studies, we and others have shown that melatonin, a hormone secreted at night, increases sleep duration in young adults but only when administered during the day when endogenous melatonin levels are low. We wanted to explore whether melatonin could improve the sleep of healthy adults and whether, like young adults, its impact depends on when during the day the person is trying to sleep. (more…)
Author Interviews, Genetic Research, Sleep Disorders, UCSF / 20.03.2022

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ying-Hui Fu, PhD Professor, Neurology Weill Institute for Neurosciences UCSF MedicalResearch.com:  What is the background for this study?  Response: Most people are aware that a lack of sleep is associated with all sorts of health issues. However, familial natural short sleeper (FNSS) individuals sleep 4-6.5 hours a night most of their live and stay healthy. We set out to determine whether natural short sleep mutations can offer protection from various diseases. We chose Alzheimer as an example to start. (more…)
Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Sleep Disorders / 18.03.2022

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Peng Li, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School Research Director, Medical Biodynamics Program (MBP) Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders Associate Physiologist, Brigham and Women's Hospital MedicalResearch.com:  What is the background for this study?  Response: People commonly see increased sleep during daytime in older adults. In people with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, daytime drowsiness or sleepiness are even more common. Prior studies have showed protective effects of short naps on cognitive performance and alertness acutely, while also there are studies that have demonstrated more daytime naps are associated with faster cognitive decline in the long-term. We sought to investigate whether daytime napping behavior predicts future development of Alzheimer’s dementia. And we noted that there had been no studies to date that have documented the longitudinal profile of daytime napping during late life objectively. (more…)
Aging, Author Interviews, Sleep Disorders / 15.03.2022

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Rene Cortese, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Child Health – Child Health Research Institute Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health School of Medicine Core Faculty - MU Institute for Data Science and Informatics University of Missouri Columbia, MO 65212 MedicalResearch.com:  What is the background for this study?  What are the main findings? Response: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) affects 22 million people in the U.S. and is linked to a higher risk of hypertension, heart attacks, stroke, diabetes, and many other chronic conditions. We have found that untreated OSA also accelerates the biological aging process, and that appropriate treatment can slow or possibly reverse the trend. Age acceleration testing involves a blood test that analyzes DNA and uses an algorithm to measure a person’s biological age. The phenomenon of a person’s biological age surpassing their chronological age is called “epigenetic age acceleration” and is linked to overall mortality and to chronic diseases. (more…)
Author Interviews, Insomnia, Pediatrics / 17.02.2022

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Julio Fernandez-Mendoza, PhD, CBSM, DBSM Associate Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Health Sleep Research & Treatment Center Director, Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center MedicalResearch.com:  What is the background for this study?  Is insomnia familial? Response: Consistent research has shown that about 25% of school-age children have insomnia symptoms consisting of difficulties initiating or maintaining sleep. However, what has remained unknown is to what extent those insomnia symptoms persist all the way into adulthood, or whether they developmentally remit (go away with age) as the child grows into adolescence or young adulthood. This is the question that our study focused on. (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Sleep Disorders, Technology / 03.06.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Michele Ferrara, PhD. Professor of Psychobiology and Physiological Psychology Chair of the Psychology Didactic Council Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences University of L'Aquila MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: During the current period of social distancing, the pervasive increase in the use of electronic devices (smartphones, computers, tablets and televisions) is an indisputable fact. Especially during the long lockdown period of Spring 2020, technologies played a pivotal role in coping with the unprecedented and stressful isolation phase. However, exposure to backlit screens in the hours before falling asleep can have serious repercussions on sleep health: on the one hand, by mimicking the effects of exposure to sunlight, and thus interfering with the circadian rhythm of the hormone melatonin, and on the other hand, counteracting the evening sleepiness due to the emotionally and psycho-physiologically activating contents. In light of this assumption, we decided to test longitudinally during the third and the seventh week of lockdown a large Italian sample (2123 subjects) through a web-based survey. We assessed sleep disturbances/habits and the occurring changes of electronic device usage in the 2 hours before the sleep onset. (more…)
Author Interviews, Circadian Rhythm, Heart Disease, Occupational Health, Sleep Disorders / 27.04.2021

Circadian misalignment is associated with a high cardiovascular risk among shift workers: MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Sara Gamboa Madeira Medical Doctor - General & Family Physician PhD Student - EnviHealth&Co - Faculty of Medicine Lisbon University MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: One in every five employees work in shifts across Europe1. Shift work have been associated with an increased risk for several cardiovascular diseases2 and three main mechanism have been proposed: unhealthy behaviours, disturbed sleep, and circadian misalignment. This study focused on the role of circadian misalignment, which we assessed via social jetlag. Social jetlag is calculated using the Munich Chronotype Questionnaire3 by the difference between sleep behaviour on free-days (mainly driven by the individual “biological clock”, also called chronotype) and sleep behaviour on workdays (mainly drive by the “social clock”, namely work schedules). Chronotype is an individual feature which ranges from early/morning people to late/evening people (from proverbial lark to owls), with the majority of the population falling in between as a Gaussian distribution. Therefore higher levels of social jetlag mean a greater mismatch between what your biological clock need (e.g. go to sleep at 9pm) and what your social obligations impose on you (e.g. work until midnight). (more…)
Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Endocrinology, Insomnia, Menopause, Sleep Disorders, Weight Research / 23.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Leilah K. Grant, PhD Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Medicine Brigham and Women’s Hospital Harvard Medical School  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The prevalence of obesity increases in women around the age of menopause which increases the risk of diseases like diabetes and heart disease. Changes in hormones, like estrogen, are thought to contribute to weight gain during menopause, but other common symptoms of menopause such as sleep interruption may also play a role. While short sleep is known to adversely affect metabolism, little is known about the metabolic consequences of the type of sleep disruption most common in menopausal women – increased nighttime awakenings (i.e., sleep interruption) caused by hot flashes, but no change in overall sleep duration. We therefore did this study to see how an experimental model menopause-related sleep interruption would affect metabolic outcomes that may contribute to weight gain.  (more…)
Author Interviews, General Medicine, Sleep Disorders / 06.10.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Nathan Warren is a Ph.D. candidate in marketing at the University of Oregon. His research examines how people respond when social norms, such as masculinity norms, are disrupted by social change. He hopes that his research can empower people who are struggling to adapt to changing norms to live healthier, happier, and more productive lives. For more information on his research, please visit: www.nathanwarrenresearch.com Dr. Troy Campbell is a behavioral scientist (PhD, Duke University), former marketing professor (University of Oregon), former art, film, and psychology scholar (UC Irvine), professional designer and researcher (Netflix Insights, Disney Imagineering, UnitedHealth) and currently chief scientist at On Your Feet.  Troy believes everything can be awesome when you start with the right science and follow with the right creative process, and he hopes his professional services or public guides can help his clients make something awesome and impactful. For more information on Troy Campbell, please visit: www.troy-campbell.com MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?  Response: In the United States, the average American sleeps less than the minimum seven hours of sleep per night recommended by the Center for Disease Control, and nearly half of Americans report negative consequences from insufficient sleep. This problem appears to be especially prevalent in men, who report getting significantly less sleep, on average, than women. A cultural complication is the notion that getting less than the recommended amount of sleep signals something positive about an individual. For example, US President Donald Trump has boasted about getting less than four hours of sleep per night and regularly derogates his political opponent Joe Biden as “Sleepy Joe.” "The Sleep-Deprived Masculinity Stereotype," a new paper in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, examines a possible stereotype connecting sleep and masculinity along with its underlying mechanisms and its social implications. Authors Nathan B. Warren and Troy H. Campbell conducted 12 experiments involving 2,564 American participants to demonstrate that a sleep-deprived masculinity stereotype exists.  In one experiment, participants were asked to imagine seeing a man shopping for a bed. Then, a salesperson asked the man, “How much do you normally sleep?” The results found that the mean masculinity rating for participants in the lots of sleep condition was significantly lower than the mean masculinity rating for participants in the little sleep condition. In another experiment, participants were asked to ascribe different attributes to a male character, assigned to either a “very masculine and manly” man or a “not very masculine and not very manly” man. Participants in the masculine condition described their character sleeping 33 minutes less sleep per night than the characters described in the not masculine condition. A final experiment showed that participants who imagined stating they sleep more than average felt significantly less masculine than participants who imagined stating they sleep less than average. Collectively, the experiments found that men who sleep less are seen as more masculine and more positively judged by society. The same patterns were not consistently observed for perceptions of women.   (more…)
Author Interviews, Eisai, Insomnia / 02.10.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Margaret Moline, PhD Executive Director, Neurology Business Group, Eisai, Inc Lemborexant International Program Lead and Global Medical Lead MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
  • SUNRISE 2 was one of two pivotal Phase 3 studies evaluated in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of DAYVIGO (lemborexant) CIV in December 2019.
  • SUNRISE 2 was a pivotal six-month placebo-controlled treatment trial with a 6-month active treatment period including adult patients age 18 or older who met DSM-5 criteria for insomnia disorder.
  • Patients were randomized to placebo (n=325), DAYVIGO 5 mg (n=323), or DAYVIGO 10 mg (n=323) once nightly for the first six months of the study (Treatment Period 1).
  • The primary efficacy endpoint was the mean change from baseline to end of treatment at six months for subjective sleep onset latency (sSOL; the estimated minutes from the time that the patient attempted to sleep until sleep onset).
  • Secondary efficacy endpoints were mean change from baseline to end of treatment at six months subjective sleep efficiency (sSE; the proportion of time spent asleep per time in bed) and subjective wake after sleep onset (sWASO; the minutes of wake from the onset of sleep until wake time). These endpoints were measured by sleep diary.
  • At Virtual SLEEP 2020, a post-hoc analysis of SUNRISE 2 was shared in an oral presentation, which looked specifically at the long-term efficacy and safety of lemborexant in elderly adults with insomnia disorder.
  • Insomnia disorder, a chronic condition with long-term consequences for health and well-being, is prevalent in older adults.
  • This analysis of the SUNRISE 2 data reflects new learnings on the sustained impact of DAYVIGO on sleep onset and sleep maintenance in an older patient population. 
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Author Interviews / 03.09.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Kyla Fergason Senior Undergraduate Student Michael K. Scullin, Ph.D. Principal Investigator Baylor University MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: There’s a fairly sizable literature suggesting that religious affiliation and religious engagement are associated with positive health outcomes. Therefore, we were surprised to find that agnostic/atheist individuals reported better sleep health than Christian individuals in the Baylor Religion Survey (BRS-5). 73% of agnostic/atheist individuals reported sleeping 7-9 hours/night whereas only 63% of Christian individuals met these consensus sleep guidelines. The most affected Christian denominations were Baptists (54.6%) and Catholics (62.3%). These results stood even after adjusting for age and gender. We predicted the opposite pattern. And, it wasn’t just about longer sleep durations. Agnostic/atheist individuals even reported greater ease falling asleep compared to Christian individuals.    (more…)
Author Interviews, Insomnia, Sleep Disorders / 09.07.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jakob Weitzer MSc Department of Epidemiology Center for Public Health Medical University of Vienna Vienna, Austria  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Chronic insomnia is a highly prevalent, often underdiagnosed and undertreated disease. Previous research has linked dispositional optimism to a better sleep quality and to insomnia symptoms, and showed that optimism can be trained. Since we think that positive psychology plays an important role for our health we wanted to further shed light on this topic.  (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Sleep Disorders, Stanford / 07.07.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Eileen B. Leary, Ph.D. Student Epidemiology and Clinical Research Stanford University MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Would you briefly explain what is meant by REM sleep? Response: Sleep is a regulated, reversible, and recurring loss of consciousness that is a critical requirement for a happy, healthy life. REM sleep is an important component of sleep defined by rapid eye movements and commonly associated with dreaming. We learned from previous studies that sleep duration is associated with mortality, however little was known about how the different sleep stages relate to timing or cause of death. (more…)
Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Cognitive Issues, Sleep Disorders / 01.07.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Rebecca Robbins, PhD MS Fellow at Brigham & Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Sleep difficulties are common among older adults and are associated with cognitive decline. We used data collected over 10 years from a large, nationally representative longitudinal survey of adults over the age of 50 in the U.S. We examined the relationship between specific sleep difficulties and cognitive function over time. MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings?  Response: Our results show that early difficulty falling asleep and early morning awakenings, when experienced "most nights" of the week, were each associated with worse cognitive function. Conversely, reports of waking feeling rested was associated with better cognitive function, over time.   (more…)
Author Interviews, Circadian Rhythm, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Sleep Disorders / 15.06.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Christine Blume PhD Centre for Chronobiology Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel Transfaculty Research Platform Molecular and Cognitive Neurosciences Basel MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: In modern societies, human rest-activity rhythms and sleep are between the often-conflicting poles of external social time (e.g., work hours and leisure activities) and an individual’s internal biological time. This can lead to so-called “social jetlag”, which has repeatedly been associated with detrimental health effects. With the restrictions to control the pandemic, social timing relaxed as people many started working from home and public life came to a standstill. In an online survey with 435 respondents, we investigated the effects of the phase with the strictest COVID-19 restrictions on the relationship between social and biological rhythms as well as sleep during a six-week period (mid-March until end of April 2020) in three European societies (Austria, Germany, Switzerland). (more…)
Author Interviews, ENT, JAMA, Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Pediatrics / 03.02.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Jonathan R. Skirko, MD , MHPA, MPH Assistant professor Division of Pediatric Otolaryngology University of Utah Health  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Obstructive sleep apnea is a common problem that that impacts the lives of many people. Understanding treatment effectiveness is important and Health-State Utility is a standardized way of assessing quality of life.  Before this study, we didn't have a way of measuring quality of life in this population in this important way. You have to accurately measure something before you can improve it. (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Sleep Disorders / 28.12.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Margaret Moline, PhD Lemborexant International Program Lead and Global Medical Lead Executive Director, Neurology Business Group Eisai, Inc.  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? This study, called SUNRISE 1, is one of two pivotal Phase 3 studies in the lemborexant clinical development program that supported the recent FDA approval of DAYVIGO (lemborexant).
  • On December 20, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved DAYVIGO (lemborexant) 5 mg and 10 mg, an orexin receptor antagonist indicated for the treatment of adult patients with insomnia, which is characterized by difficulties with sleep onset and/or sleep maintenance.1
  • DAYVIGO will be commercially available following scheduling by the DEA, which is expected to occur within 90 days.
  • SUNRISE 1 was a one-month, randomized, double-blind, placebo- and active-controlled, multi-center, parallel-group clinical trial in adult female patients age 55 and older and male patients 65 years and older who met DSM-5 criteria for insomnia disorder. Patients were randomized to placebo (n=208), lemborexant 5 mg (n=266) or 10 mg (n=269), or active comparator (n=263) once nightly.1
  • The primary efficacy endpoint was the mean change in log-transformed latency to persistent sleep (LPS; defined as the number of minutes from lights off to the first 10 consecutive minutes of non-wakefulness) from baseline to end of treatment (Days 29/30), as measured by overnight polysomnography (PSG) monitoring.1
  • The pre-specified secondary efficacy endpoints in Study 2 were the mean change from baseline to end of treatment (Days 29/30) in sleep efficiency (SEF) and wake after sleep onset (WASO) measured by PSG.1
  • SUNRISE 1, lemborexant 5 mg and 10 mg demonstrated statistically significant superiority on the primary efficacy measure, LPS, compared to placebo. lemborexant 5 mg and 10 mg demonstrated statistically significant improvement in SEF and WASO compared to placebo.1
  • The effects of lemborexant at the beginning of treatment were generally consistent with later timepoints.
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Author Interviews, BMJ, Heart Disease, Sleep Disorders / 10.09.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Nadine Häusler Department of Medicine, Internal Medicine University Hospital of Lausanne Lausanne, Switzerland MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: There are controversial results regarding the effect of napping on cardiovascular disease (CVD) exist i.e. some studies report adverse effects of napping whereas other find beneficial effects of napping on CVD. Most studies compare nappers to non-nappers or study nap duration but neglect to take the frequency of napping into account. Moreover, studies measure naps in a different way, study different populations and include different confounders, which makes it hard to compare the results. Thus, we aimed to study the association between CVD and napping as a more holistic behavior i.e. not just the duration but also the frequency of napping. (more…)
Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, JAMA, Mental Health Research, Sleep Disorders / 23.08.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Chenlu Gao, MA Graduate Student Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Baylor University Michael Scullin, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Baylor University  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: According to the World Alzheimer Report, dementia affects 50 million adults worldwide, and this number is expected to approach 131 million by 2050. Dementia patients often require assistance with daily activities from caregivers. The Alzheimer’s Association reported that, in the United States, 16 million caregivers spend on average 21.9 hours per week providing care for patients with dementia. Being a caregiver is stressful, which not only challenges emotional, cognitive, and physical health, but is also associated with shorter and poorer sleep at night. If a caregiver cannot obtain restorative sleep at night, their quality of life and their abilities to perform the caregiving role can be compromised. For example, sleep loss may jeopardize caregivers’ memory, causing them to forget medications or medical appointments for the patients. Sleep loss can also impair immune functions, causing the caregivers to suffer from illnesses. In the long-term, sleep loss is associated with cortical thinning and accumulation of beta-amyloid and tau, which increase the risks of dementia. Undoubtedly, there is a need to systematically study whether caregivers sleep less or worse during the night and whether we can improve their sleep quality through low-cost behavioral interventions. To answer these questions, we systematically reviewed and meta-analyzed 35 studies with data from 3,268 caregivers of dementia patients.     (more…)
Author Interviews, Race/Ethnic Diversity, Sleep Disorders, Tobacco / 12.08.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Christine Spadola, M.S., LMHC, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Florida Atlantic University Phyllis and Harvey Sandler School of Social Work Boca Raton, FL 33431-0991 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Short sleep duration and sleep fragmentation are associated with adverse health outcomes including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, certain cancers, and mental health challenges such as depression and anxiety. Avoiding the use of alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine close to bedtime represent modifiable behaviors that can improve sleep. Nonetheless, among community dwelling adults (e.g., adults in their natural bedroom environment as opposed to research laboratories) and specifically African Americans, there is a lack of longitudinal research investigating the use of these substances and the associations with objective measures of sleep.. (more…)