Feature Channels: Sleep

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When it comes to executing items on tomorrow’s to-do list, it’s best to think it over, then “sleep on it,” say psychologists at Washington University in St. Louis.

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Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health have established the first link between air pollution and sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), a known cause of cardiovascular diseases.

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Doctors have long known that snoring is hazardous to health for a number of reasons. In addition to restless nights and increased daytime sleepiness, sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) has a series of associated health problems, including increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD).

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Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health have established the first link between air pollution and sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), a known cause of cardiovascular diseases.

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University of Maryland School of Nursing study shows successive 12-hour shifts for U.S. hospital nurses leaves many with serious sleep deprivation, higher risk of health problems, and more odds of making patient errors.

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A mission to Mars? A six-man crew will simulate a 520-day Mars mission in a Moscow isolation chamber. U.S. scientists will monitor the crew’s rest-activity cycles, performance and psychological responses to see how often sleep loss, fatigue, stress, mood changes and conflicts occur.

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People with brain injuries may produce low amounts of melatonin, which affects their sleep, according to a study published in the May 25, 2010, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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Patients with suspected obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may no longer have to spend an expensive and uncomfortable night at a sleep center to monitor their sleep-disordered breathing. According to new research, those who performed sleep testing in their home with portable monitors showed similar improvements after three months of treatment with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) in daytime function as compared to patients who underwent overnight testing in a sleep center.

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Sleep apnea may cause metabolic changes that increase insulin resistance, according to researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The intermittent hypoxia associated with sleep apnea causes a distinct drop in insulin sensitivity in mice, even though chronic hypoxia, such as that associated with high altitude, did not.

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According to a new study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM), just one night of short sleep duration can induce insulin resistance, a component of type 2 diabetes.

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Children with sickle cell disease who also have lower blood oxygen levels while both asleep and awake are likely to have heart abnormalities, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and other institutions have found.

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For commercial motor vehicle drivers with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), effective treatment lowers healthcare costs and disability rates, reports a study in the May Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, official publication of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM).

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Working the nightshift interferes with sleep, particularly for workers in their 30s and 40s, reports a study in the April Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, official publication of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM).

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Sleep. Humans need it in order to perform well on the job, in space and on the ground. Space researchers have developed software that uses mathematical models to help astronauts better adjust to shifting work and sleep schedules. On Earth, the software could help people who do shift or night work or who experience jet lag due to travel across time zones.

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Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with an increased risk of stroke in middle-aged and older adults, especially men, according to new results from new research supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health. Overall, sleep apnea more than doubles the risk of stroke in men.

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Findings from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology could provide good news for elderly patients who suffer from sleep apnea. The research results from Prof. Peretz Lavie and Dr. Lena Lavie of the Faculty of Medicine show that elderly patients with moderate sleep apnea live longer than their counterparts in the general population.

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Recent studies have shown that behaviors such as happiness, obesity, smoking and altruism are “contagious” within adult social networks. In other words, your behavior not only influences your friends, but also their friends and so on. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego and Harvard University have taken this a step farther and found that the spread of one behavior in social networks influences the spread of another behavior, adolescent drug use.

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Nurses participating in shift work, especially those working rotating shifts, face a significantly increased risk of developing Irritable Bowel Syndrome and abdominal pain compared to those working a standard day-time schedule, according to research published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

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During the 2010: The Year of the Lung campaign, the ATS and other members of the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) are honoring World Sleep Day, March 19, by raising awareness of sleep-disordered breathing, an underdiagnosed and potentially dangerous condition if left untreated. Treatment of sleep-disordered breathing can improve symptoms and may reduce health risks related to the condition.

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The American Academy of Neurology has issued a new guideline recommending the most effective treatments to help people with Parkinson’s disease who experience sleep, constipation, and sexual problems, which are common but often underrecognized symptoms. The guideline is published in the March 16, 2010, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.