Tag Archives: sleep

Program Improves Sleep For Mothers Hospitalized For Delivery

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
“Now I’m having contractions.” by Remus Pereni is licensed under CC BY 2.0Kathryn A. Lee, RN, CBSM, PhD
Department of Family Health Care Nursing
University of California at San Francisco
San Francisco, California 

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: Sleep deprivation can adversely affect health and wellbeing in any patient population.

In pregnancy, adverse outcomes may include preterm birth, longer labor, cesarean birth, and depression.

We found that women with high-risk pregnancies were sleep deprived even prior to hospitalization. Our sample averaged 29 weeks gestation, and half reported getting only between 5 and 6.5 hours of sleep at home before hospital admission. Our sleep hygiene intervention strategies gave them more control over the environment in their hospital room, and they self-reported significantly better sleep than controls. Interestingly, both groups increased their sleep time to almost 7 hours at night, on average, in the hospital before they were discharged home.

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Parents Encouraged To Keep Screen Devices Out Of Kids’ Bedrooms At Night

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
“Video Game Addicts” by Michael Bentley is licensed under CC BY 2.0Dr. Marsha Novick, MD
Associate professor of pediatrics and family and community medicine,
Penn State College of Medicine 

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: The results of this study solidify some well-established data concerning childhood obesity – namely that children who watch more television and have a more sedentary lifestyle are more likely to have an overweight or obese BMI compared with those who are more active. The survey results highlight some associations between increased technology use and difficulty with sleep quantity in children and adolescents.

The data suggest:

  • ​​Increased technology use at bedtime, namely television, cell phones, video games and computers, is associated with a decrease in the amount of sleep children are getting. These children were more likely to be tired in the morning and less likely to eat breakfast.
  • Specifically, children who reported watching TV or playing video games before bed got an average of 30 minutes less sleep than those who did not, while kids who used their phone or a computer before bed averaged an hour less of sleep than those who did not.
  • The data also suggests that children with overweight or obesity were more likely to have trouble falling asleep and trouble staying asleep than their normal BMI counterparts
  • When children were reported by their parents to use one form of technology at bedtime, they were more likely to use another form of technology as well.

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Starting School Before 8:30 AM Associated With More Anxiety and Depression in Adolescents

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Jack Peltz, Ph.D.
Clinical assistant professor in Psychiatry
Rochester Medical Center

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: Approximately 90% of high-school aged adolescents get either
insufficient sleep during school nights or barely meet the required
amount of sleep (ie, 8–10 hours) expected for healthy functioning.(1)

In fact, sleep problems and insufficient sleep are so pervasive for
adolescents that they could be considered an epidemic due to their
adverse impact on adolescent mental and physical health.(2–5)

As a result,addressing insufficient adolescent sleep represents a critical
point of study and intervention. The growing body of evidence suggests
that later school start times (SST), 8:30 AM or later as recommended
by the American Academy of Pediatricians,6 convey
multiple benefits on adolescents, including improved sleep, better
mental and physical health, and improved academic outcomes.(7–10)

This research, however, has focused on the direct effects of delaying
school start times, or specifically how moving SST back directly predicts changes
in an outcome (eg, mental health, academic achievement). This
type of analysis precludes examining the important role that SST
might play as a condition or context under which other sleeprelated
processes take place. For instance, earlier school start times might exacerbate
the impact of sleep-related processes on adolescent behavioral
health outcomes. Thus, incorporating school start times as a larger contextual variable
that might moderate models of sleep and adolescent functioning
represents a gap in the literature and a unique opportunity to advance
conceptual models. Accordingly, the current study examines
the moderating role of school start times on the associations between sleep hygiene,
sleep quality, and mental health.

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Half of Menopausal Women Report Getting Insufficient Quality Sleep

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Anjel Vahratian PhD MPH Maternal and Child Health Epidemiologist Branch Chief at the National Center For Health Statistics   Centers for Disease Control and PreventionDr. Anjel Vahratian PhD MPH
Maternal and Child Health Epidemiologist
Branch Chief at the National Center For Health Statistics
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

MedicalResearch.com: Why did you conduct this study?

Response: Our research focuses on the health of women as they age and transition from the childbearing period. During this time, women may be at increased risk for chronic health conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

As insufficient sleep is a modifiable behavior that is associated with these chronic health conditions, we wanted to examine how sleep duration and quality varies by menopausal status.

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Despite Sleep Benefits To Teens, Only Half of Parents Support Later School Start Times

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Galit Dunietz, Ph.D., MPH Doctor of Philosophy Department of Neurology University of Michigan  Ann Arbor MI

Dr. Dunietz

Galit Dunietz, Ph.D., MPH
Epidemiologist, Sleep Disorders Center
Department of Neurology
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor MI

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: Insufficient sleep has a negative impact on health, cognition and mood and is linked to motor vehicle accidents. However, sleep loss in adolescents has become an epidemic and arises in part from biological processes that delay sleep and wake timing at the onset of puberty. This biology does not fit well with early school start times (before 8:30 a.m.). Despite recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine to delay school start times, most schools in the U.S. have current start times before 8:30 a.m.

In this nationally representative study of US parents of teens, we examined whether parents supported or opposed later school start times (after 8:30 a.m.). We also examined what may have influenced their opinions.

We found that only about half of surveyed parents of teens with early school start times supported later school start times. Opinions appeared to depend in part on what challenges and benefits were expected to result from the change.

For example, parents who expected an improvement in their teen’s academic performance or sleep quantity tended to support the change, whereas parents that expected negative impact on afterschool activities or transportation opposed delays in school start times.  We also found that parents had misconception about sleep needs of their adolescents, as the majority perceived 7-7.5 hours of sleep as sufficient, or possibly sufficient even at this young age when 8-10 hours are typically recommended.

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Mobile Message Delivery Can Help Parents Learn Safe Infant Sleep Practices

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Rachel Y. Moon, M.D. Division Head, General Pediatrics Professor of Pediatrics University of Virginia School of Medicine Charlottesville, VA 22908

Dr. Moon

Rachel Y. Moon, M.D.
Division Head, General Pediatrics
Professor of Pediatrics
University of Virginia School of Medicine
Charlottesville, VA 22908

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: Approximately 3500 babies die suddenly and unexpectedly during sleep in the US every year. Even though there are safe sleep recommendations, many parents do not follow them because of misinformation or misconceptions.

Therefore we tested 2 complementary interventions to promote infant safe sleep practices. The first was a nursing quality improvement intervention aimed at ensuring that mothers would hear key messages and that there was appropriate role modeling of safe sleep practices by hospital personnel.

The second was a mobile health intervention, in which mothers received videos and text messages or emails with safe sleep information during the baby’s first two months of life. We randomized mothers to receive either the safe sleep interventions or breast-feeding interventions (the control interventions). Mothers who received the mobile health intervention reported statistically significantly higher rates of placing their babies on their back, room sharing without bed sharing, no soft bedding use, and pacifier use, compared with mothers who received a control intervention. Although the nursing quality improvement intervention did not influence infant safe sleep practices, there was an interaction such that mothers who received both the safe sleep nursing quality improvement intervention and the safe sleep mobile health intervention had the highest rates of placing their babies on the back.

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SIMPONI ARIA (golimumab) Improved Sleep and Pain in Ankylosing Spondylitis Trial

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Atul A. Deodhar, MD, MRCP, FACP, FACR Professor of Medicine Medical Director, Rheumatology Clinics Medical Director, Immunology Infusion Center Oregon Health & Science University 

Dr. Deodhar

Atul A. Deodhar, MD, MRCP, FACP, FACR
Professor of Medicine
Medical Director, Rheumatology Clinics
Medical Director, Immunology Infusion Center
Oregon Health & Science University 

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: The GO-ALIVE study (CNTO148AKS3001) is a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of golimumab, an anti-TNFα monoclonal antibody, administered intravenously (IV), in adult patients with active ankylosing spondylitis (AS). The primary objective is to evaluate the efficacy of golimumab 2 mg/kg in patients with active AS by assessing the reduction in signs and symptoms of AS. The secondary objectives include assessing efficacy related to improving physical function, range of motion, health-related quality of life, and other health outcomes.

A total of 208 patients who had a diagnosis of definite  ankylosing spondylitis (per modified New York criteria) and Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) ≥4, total back pain visual analogue scale (VAS) ≥4, and CRP ≥0.3 mg/dL were randomized.  Patients were treated with IV golimumab (n=105) at Weeks 0, 4, and every 8 weeks through Week 52 or placebo (n=103) at Weeks 0, 4, and 12, with crossover to IV golimumab at Week 16 and through Week 52.

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Continuous Release REMfresh® Mimics Natural Melatonin Release

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

David C. Brodner, M.D</strong>. Founder and Principle Physician, The Center for Sinus, Allergy, and Sleep Wellness Double Board-Certified in Otolaryngology (Head and Neck Surgery) and Sleep Medicine Assistant Clinical Professor, Florida Atlantic University College of Medicine Medical Director, Good Samaritan Hospital Sleep Laboratory Senior Medical Advisor, Physician’s Seal, LLC®

Dr. Brodner

David C. Brodner, M.D.
Founder and Principle Physician, The Center for Sinus, Allergy, and Sleep Wellness
Double Board-Certified in Otolaryngology (Head and Neck Surgery) and Sleep Medicine
Assistant Clinical Professor
Florida Atlantic University College of Medicine
Medical Director, Good Samaritan Hospital Sleep Laboratory
Senior Medical Advisor, Physician’s Seal, LLC®

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Chronic sleep and wakefulness disorders affect an estimated 50 to 70 million Americans, and long-term sleep deprivation has been associated with negative health consequences, including an increased risk of diabetes, hypertension, heart attack, stroke, obesity and depression.

Sleep/wake cycles are regulated by melatonin, levels of which normally begin to rise in the mid- to late evening and remain high for the majority of the night. Levels begin to decline towards early morning, as the body’s wake cycle in triggered. Melatonin levels typically decline with age, with a significant decrease after age 40.

And as people age, their bodies may no longer produce enough melatonin to ensure adequate sleep. In addition to difficulties falling asleep, sleep in older populations can include fragmented and sustained sleep problems. Melatonin supplementation has been shown to promote and maintain sleep in older populations.

In this study, we compared the pharmacokinetics (PK) profile of REMfresh®, a continuous release and absorption melatonin (CRA-melatonin), with that of a leading immediate-release melatonin (IR-melatonin) formulation.

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Cycles of Poor Sleep Then Crashing Leads To Loss of Creativity

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Michael K. Scullin, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience Director, Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory Baylor University Waco, TX 76798

Dr. Scullin

Michael K. Scullin, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
Director, Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory
Baylor University
Waco, TX 76798

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: In studio-based courses (e.g., design, architecture, art), students have a large project due at the end of the semester that requires creativity and attention to detail. Anecdotally, they will work long hours without sleep to finish the project.

The problem is that cutting back on sleep may actually be impeding their ability to execute the project successfully.

We used wristband actigraphy (a device that detects movement and light) to monitor sleep for one week in 28 interior design students—many of whom had a final project due. At the beginning and end of the week, the participants completed tests of attention and creativity.

We found that students slept less than contemporary recommendations (7 to 9 hours; Associated Professional Sleep Societies) on approximately half of the nights, and shorter sleep was associated with declining attention and creativity scores across the week. The more thought provoking result was that many individuals showed inter-night variability in how long they slept (e.g., going from 4 hours to 11 hours to 5 hours to 8 hours, etc.). Inter-night variability in sleep duration was an even stronger predictor than total sleep time in how creativity scores changed across the week.

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Sleep Difficulties Linked to Survival Among Women With Breast Cancer

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Claudia Trudel-Fitzgerald Ph.D. FRQS Postdoctoral research fellow & Clinical psychologist (OPQ) Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Boston, MA 02115

Dr. Trudel-Fitzgerald

Claudia Trudel-Fitzgerald Ph.D. 
FRQS Postdoctoral research fellow & Clinical psychologist (OPQ)
Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Boston, MA 02115

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: There is very limited research on the association between sleep characteristics and survival among individuals with cancer. However, this is an important question, especially among breast cancer patients because sleep disturbances are frequently reported by these women. Preliminary studies have suggested that sleep duration is related to mortality. The novel findings of our research indicate that not only sleep duration, but also changes in sleep duration before versus after diagnosis, as well as regular difficulties to fall or stay asleep, may also be associated with mortality among women with breast cancer over a period of up to 30 years.

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Insomnia Linked to Increased Risk of Stroke and Heart Attack

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Qiao He
Master’s degree student
China Medical University
Shenyang, China

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Sleep is an important factor for biological recovery functions, but in modern society, more and more people have complained having sleep problems like insomnia, one of the main sleep disorders. It is reported that approximately one-third of the German general population has been suffering from insomnia symptoms. In decades, many researchers have found associations between insomnia and bad health outcomes. Insomnia seems to be a big health issue. However, the results from previous studies regarding the association of insomnia and cardiovascular or cerebrovascular events were inconsistent. Therefore, we conducted this study.
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LGBTQ+ Patients Have Poor Sleep Compared to Heterosexuals

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Jen-Hao Chen PhD Assistant Professor Department of Health Sciences and School of Public Affairs University of Missouri - Columbia

Dr. Jen-Hao Chen

Jen-Hao Chen PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Health Sciences and School of Public Affairs
University of Missouri – Columbia

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: It has been well known that sexual minority adults in the US have worse health as compared with heterosexual peers. Queer folks are found to have poorer physical, mental and behavioral health outcomes because of their marginalized status and social environments. But we know very little about prevalence of sleep problems in the population of sexual minorities compared to heterosexual people. Do sexual minorities lose sleep? Do they wake up more often during the night? Do they sleep less? This study aims to address this important gap in the LGBT health literature. Using recent nationally representative data, we exam whether sexual minority adults have greater odds of having short sleep duration and poor sleep quality. In addition, we also investigate sexual minorities’ sleep in the context of gender and race/ethnicity  Continue reading →

Poor Sleep In Early Childhood Linked to Later Cognitive and Behavioral Problems

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Dr. Elsie M. Taveras, MD MPH Chief, Division of General Pediatrics Director, Pediatric Population Health Management Director, Raising Healthy Hearts Clinic

Dr. Taveras

Dr. Elsie M. Taveras, MD MPH
Chief, Division of General Pediatrics
Director, Pediatric Population Health Management
Director, Raising Healthy Hearts Clinic
MassGeneral Hospital for Children

MedicalResearch.com: What are the primary findings of this study and why are they important?

Response: The primary findings of this study are that children who get an insufficient amount of sleep in their preschool and early school age years have a higher risk of poor neurobehavioral functioning as reported by their mothers and independently by their teachers at age 7. These behaviors included poorer executive function and more hyperactivity/inattention, emotional symptoms, conduct problems, and peer relationship problems.

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Sleep Duration and Exhaled Nitric Oxide in Asthma and Health Adults

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Rauno Joks, MD
Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine
Chief, Division of Allergy & Immunology
Program Director, Allergy &Immunology Fellowship
SUNY Downstate Medical Center

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: There are circadian and circannular patterns to many diseases, including allergy and asthma. Humans spend roughly one-third of their lifetimes asleep. Your immune system never sleeps, but shifts its activity when you sleep.

It is known that asthma disease activity can be worse at night – the reasons for this are complex, and may involve changes in allergic responses.

We found, in a preliminary study of both adults with and without asthma, that longer duration of nighttime sleep was associated with lower levels of exhaled nitric oxide, a biomarker which is elevated in exhaled breath of those with allergic asthma. This may carry over into the afternoon as well, but the sample size was too small to fully conclude that.

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Drug-Induced Sleep Endoscopy With Cardiorespiratory Monitoring For OSA

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Dr. Simone Baiardi MD Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna

Dr. Simone Baiardi

Dr. Simone Baiardi MD
Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum
University of Bologna

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Drug-induced sleep endoscopy (DISE) is an useful tool for studying the upper airway dynamic in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS), and it’s crucial for the therapeutic choice (especially for non ventilatory treatment, such as surgery). The main limits of DISE are the lack of standardization of procedure and the low inter-observer reliability among non-experienced ENT surgeons.

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Obstructive Sleep Apnea More Common In Obese Adolescents With Enlarged Tonsils

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Ron B. Mitchell, MD Professor and Vice Chairman, Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery William Beckner Distinguished Chair in Otolaryngology Chief of Pediatric Otolaryngology UT Southwestern and Children's Medical Center Dallas Dallas, TX 75207

Dr. Ron Mitchell

Ron B. Mitchell, MD
Professor and Vice Chairman,
Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery
William Beckner Distinguished Chair in Otolaryngology
Chief of Pediatric Otolaryngology
UT Southwestern and Children’s Medical Center Dallas
Dallas, TX 75207

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) has not been widely studies in adolescents. This is one of a few studies that was targeted at 12-17 year olds who were referred for a sleep study for possible OSA. The study included 224 adolescents (53% male). aged 12 to 17 years. The mean BMI was 33.4 and most were either Hispanic or African American (85.3%). A total of 148 (66.1%) were obese. Most adolescents referred for a sleep study (68%), had  Obstructive Sleep Apnea. Normal-weight adolescents were least likely to have OSA at 48%, while obese children were most likely at 77%. Severe OSA was most likely in obese males with tonsillar hypertrophy.

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More Children Means Increasingly Less Sleep For Mothers

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Kelly L. Sullivan, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Epidemiology Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health Georgia Southern University Statesboro, Georgia

Dr. Sullivan

Kelly L. Sullivan, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Epidemiology
Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health
Georgia Southern University
Statesboro, Georgia

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: The original aim of this study was to determine which factors were associated with getting sufficient sleep in men and women. In this analysis, we considered many possible influences including BMI, age, race, education, marital status, exercise, employment status, and income in addition to having children in the household. The aim was to determine which factors were most strongly associated with insufficient sleep in men and women specifically in order to inform efforts to best address their sleep challenges.

In this study, we found that younger women with insufficient sleep time were more likely to have children in the household compared with women who reported sufficient sleep. Each child in the household was associated with a nearly 50% increase in a woman’s odds of insufficient sleep.

This finding held after controlling for the potential effects of age, exercise, employment status and marital status. Children in the household were also associated with the frequency of feeling unrested among younger women, but not among younger men. Women with children reported feeling tired about 25% more frequently compared to women without children in the household.

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Excessive Sleeping May Be Early Marker of Dementia

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Dr. Matthew P. Pase Sidney Sax NHMRC Fellow, Department of Neurology Boston University School of Medicine Investigator, Framingham Heart Study; Senior Research Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology. Boston MA 02118

Dr. Matthew Pase

Dr. Matthew P. Pase
Sidney Sax NHMRC Fellow, Department of Neurology
Boston University School of Medicine
Investigator, Framingham Heart Study;
Senior Research Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology.
Boston MA 02118

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Sleep disturbances are common in dementia. However, most studies have focused on patients who already have dementia and so it is unclear whether disturbed sleep is a symptom or a cause of dementia.

We studied 2,457 older participants enrolled in the Framingham Heart Study, a large group of adults sampled from the community in Framingham, Massachusetts. We asked participants to indicate how long they typically slept each night. Participants were then observed for the following 10-years to determine who developed dementia, including dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease. Over the 10 years, we observed 234 cases of dementia. Information on sleep duration was then examined with respect to the risk of developing dementia.
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Inflammasomes Might Be Involved in Making You Sleep More When Sick or Sleep Deprived

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Mark Robert Zielinski, MD
Department of Psychiatry
Harvard Medical School and Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System
West Roxbury, MA 02132

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Anecdotally, people have known that the immune system and sleep are related. In the last several decades this relationship has been systematically investigated. This work led to important findings that several molecules that enhance inflammation including interleukin-1 beta regulate sleep. Interleukin-1 beta is known to increase sleep and sleep intensity after sleep loss and in response to pathogens. However, it was unknown how these effects are connected. Interestingly, the NLRP3 inflammasome is a protein complex that senses changes in the local environment and subsequently activates pro-inflammatory molecules including interleukin-1 beta. Therefore, we wanted to see if the NLRP3 inflammasome is involved in sleep regulation. 

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Obstructive Sleep Apnea: Task Force Finds Insufficient Evidence To Screen All Adults

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Dr. Alex Krist, MD MPH Task Force member Associate Professor Fairfax Family Medicine Residency Co-director, Ambulatory Care Outcomes Research Network Virginia Commonwealth University

Dr. Alex Krist

Dr. Alex Krist, MD MPH
Task Force member
Associate Professor
Fairfax Family Medicine Residency
Co-director, Ambulatory Care Outcomes Research Network
Virginia Commonwealth University

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) has been found to be associated with serious health conditions, including heart disease and diabetes. Additionally, OSA can cause excessive daytime sleepiness, which can significantly impact a person’s quality of life, increase involvement in motor vehicle crashes, and lead to an increased risk of death. Estimates show that OSA affected between 10 and 15% of the U.S. population in the 1990s, and rates may have increased over the past 20 years, so the Task Force wanted to examine the evidence on screening adults without symptoms or symptoms for obstructive sleep apnea.

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Active Memory Blocker Prevents Experiences During Sleep From Being Remembered

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Roi Levy
The Leslie and Susan Gonda (Goldschmied) Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center,
The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences
Bar Ilan University
Ramat Gan, Israel

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Long-term memory after an experience takes many hours to be reach its final form. During the consolidation period, the nascent memory is labile: the consolidation can be interrupted by new experiences, or new experiences that are too insignificant to be remembered can capture the consolidation process, and thereby be remembered.

To avoid potentially maladaptive interactions between a new experience and consolidation, a major portion of the consolidation is deferred to the time in which we sleep, when new experiences are unlikely. For over 100 years, studies have demonstrated that sleep improves memory formation. More recent studies have shown that consolidation occurs during sleep, and that consolidation depends on the synthesis of products that support memory formation. Consolidation is unlikely to be shut off immediately when we are awakened from sleep. At this time, even a transient experience could capture the consolidation, leading to a long-lasting memory of an event that should not be remembered, or could interfere with the consolidation. We have identified a mechanism that prevents long-term memories from being formed by experiences that occur when awakened from sleep.

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Insomniacs May Benefit From Internet Delivered Program

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Lee M. Ritterband, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences Director, Center for Behavioral Health and Technology University of Virginia School of Medicine Ivy Foundational Translational Research Building Charlottesville, VA 22903

Dr. Lee M. Ritterband

Lee M. Ritterband, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences
Director, Center for Behavioral Health and Technology
University of Virginia School of Medicine
Ivy Foundational Translational Research Building
Charlottesville, VA 22903 

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, a non-pharmacological intervention, is the first line recommendation for adults with chronic insomnia (see recommendations made earlier this year from the American College of Physicians). Access to CBT-I, however, is limited by numerous barriers, including a limited supply of behavioral medicine providers. One way to help improve access to this effective treatment is to develop and evaluate additional delivery methods of CBT-I, including Internet-delivered CBT-I.

This study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of an Internet-delivered CBT-I program (SHUTi: Sleep Healthy Using The Internet) over the short-term (9-weeks) and long-term (1-year).

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Patient Room Lighting Improves Sleep in Hospital Patients

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Luc Schlangen PhD
Principal Scientist at Philips Lighting Research Eindhoven
the Netherlands

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main finding

Response: Everyone knows that sleep is critical to one’s overall health and well-being. Yet one-third of the general adult population report difficulties sleeping. Ongoing social commitments and work routines make it difficult to make sleep a priority, also in hospitals.

People increasingly recognize that the usage of light emitting electronic devices before bedtime is compromising sleep. Consequently, many people started to use these devices in a more sleep-permissive mode during the evening, using algorithms that automatically dim down the intensity and blue content of their tablet and smart phone screens as the evening progresses. Moreover, there is increasing evidence that brighter daytime light conditions help to improve mood and nighttime sleep quality.

These observations inspired us to undertake a joint study with the Maastricht University Medical Center. In the study we explored whether a tunable lighting system with extra daytime brightness and lower light intensities and warmer tones of light in the evening and night, can improve sleep and wellbeing in hospital patients. We found that the system was well appreciated and helped hospital patients to fall asleep more rapidly. Moreover, after 5 days in a room with such a dynamic lighting system patients slept longer by almost 30 minutes as compared to a standardly lit room.

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Study Recommends Children Avoid Mobile Screens Before Bedtime

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Senior Lecturer in Medical Statistics Statistics Editor for the Cochrane Skin Group (Honorary Associate Professor, Nottingham University) Institute of Primary Care and Public Health Cardiff University

Dr. Ben Carter

Dr Ben Carter PhD
Senior Lecturer in Medical Statistics
Statistics Editor for the Cochrane Skin Group
(Honorary Associate Professor, Nottingham University)
Institute of Primary Care and Public Health
Cardiff University

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: This study leads from the growing use of mobile and media device use in children. We report the impact of devices leads to poorer sleep outcomes.

MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?

Response: Using or even merely access to your mobile and media device should be restricted 90 minutes prior to bedtime.

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Nighttime Hot Flashes With Sleep Disruption Linked To Depressive Symptoms During Menopause

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Hadine Joffe, MD, MSc Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School Vice Chair for Psychiatry Research Director of Division of Women's Mental Health / Dept of Psychiatry / Brigham and Women’s Hospital Director of Psycho-Oncology Research / Dept of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care /Dana Farber Cancer Institute www.brighamwharp.org

Dr. Hadine Joffe

Hadine Joffe, MD, MSc
Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Vice Chair for Psychiatry Research
Director of Division of Women’s Mental Health / Dept of Psychiatry / Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Director of Psycho-Oncology Research / Dept of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care /Dana Farber Cancer Institute
www.brighamwharp.org

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: We conducted this study to advance our understanding about causes of mood disturbance in the menopause transition that are specifically related to menopause. We used an experimental model to dissect out the contributions of hot flashes and sleep disturbance from contribution of changing levels of estrogen because hot flashes, sleep problems, and estrogen fluctuations co-occur and are difficult to distinguish from one another. Understanding whether hot flashes and/or sleep disturbance are causally related to mood disturbance will help us identify who is at risk for mood changes during the menopause transition. This is incredibly important now that we are finding effective non-hormonal treatments for hot flashes and sleep disruption.

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