Category: Sleep

A survey of 30,500 people in the UK across 4 years reveals dramatic mental and physical benefits.

Improving sleep quality leads to dramatic mental and physical health benefits, new research finds.

The boost from better sleep is equivalent to winning $250,000 on the lottery or taking an 8-week course in meditation.

Quality of sleep is more important than quantity, the researchers also found.

The conclusions come from a survey of 30,500 people in the UK across 4 years.

The researchers also found that lack of sleep led to greater use of sleep medications and worse emotional and physical states.

Dr Nicole Tang, the study’s first author, said:

“We are far from demonstrating a causal relationship, but the current findings suggest that a positive change in sleep is linked to better physical and mental wellbeing further down the line.

It is refreshing to see the healing potential of sleep outside of clinical trial settings, as this goes to show that the benefits of better sleep are accessible to everyone and not reserved for those with extremely bad sleep requiring intensive treatments.

An important next step is to look at the differences between those who demonstrate a positive and negative change in sleep over time, and identify what lifestyle factors and day-to-day activities are conducive to promoting sleep. Further research in this area can inform the design of public health initiatives.”

The study was published in the journal SLEEP (Tang et al., 2017).

People in the study slept better and their memory was boosted.

Special sounds during sleep can improve sleep and boost memory, new research finds.

The gentle sounds were timed to coincide with natural ‘brain waves’: the waves of electrical activity in the brain.

People in the study were able to recall 26% more words they had learned after being exposed to the sounds during sleep.

Dr Phyllis Zee, a study author, said:

“This is an innovative, simple and safe non-medication approach that may help improve brain health.

This is a potential tool for enhancing memory in older populations and attenuating normal age-related memory decline.”

Deep sleep is known to be critical for memory consolidation: the process by which memories are laid down for the long-term.

However, in older adults the amount of time spent in deep sleep typically reduces.

The study compared the acoustic simulation with sham treatments, which acted as a placebo.

Older individuals — who were targeted for the study — showed better sleep and enhanced memory only after the real acoustic stimulation.

The study’s authors explain their conclusions:

“Acoustic simulation that was phase-locked to sleep slow waves in older adults had systematic effects on sleep indices and performance on a declarative memory test.

These results provide the first demonstration that acoustic stimulation alters SWA [slow wave activity or, colloquially, deep sleep] and can enhance word pair recall in older adults.

These results converge with other findings in young adults indicating that acoustic stimulation during sleep is a promising tool for altering SWA and enhancing sleep-dependent memory consolidation.”

The sound waves in the study were timed to coincide with people’s brain waves.

Their brain waves were read in real time and the sounds timed to help synchronise activity across the neurons.

Dr Nelly Papalambros, the study’s first author, said:

“The idea is to be able to offer this for people to use at home.

We want to move this to long-term, at-home studies.”

The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience (Papalambros et al., 2017).

Sleep has important effects on memory.

Going to bed angry really does make it worse, new research finds.

Sleeping after making a fresh bad memory, can give that memory more strength.

Yunzhe Liu, the study’s first author, said:

“This study suggests that there is certain merit in this age-old advice: ‘Do not go to bed angry’.

We would suggest to first resolve (the) argument before… bed.”

In the study 73 students were purposefully given negative memories.

The results showed that it was much more difficult to suppress these negative memories after sleep.

The study may help in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder.

The study’s authors write:

“For example, sleep deprivation immediately after traumatic experiences may prevent traumatic memories from being consolidated… and thus provide the opportunity to block the formation of traumatic memories.”

The study was published in the journal Nature Communications (Liu et al., 2016).

Sleep image from Shutterstock

Smartphones and tablets can disturb sleep, but there is a quick fix.

Using smartphones and tablets during the evening is thought to disturb sleep and even damage general health.

But now researchers have found that adequate light during the day can counter the effect.

Researchers at Uppsala University in Sweden found that evening readers of an illuminated ebook device (like the iPad) slept just as well as long as they were exposed to bright light during the day.

Ms Frida Rångtell, the study’s first author, said:

“Our main finding was that following daytime bright light exposure, evening use of a self-luminous tablet for two hours did not affect sleep in young healthy students.”

It is the blue light from e-readers, tablets and smartphones that is thought to cause sleep problems.

Previous research has found that using these devices close to bedtime disturbs sleep:

“When people read the iPad [before bed] they felt less sleepy in the evening, spent less time in rejuvenating REM sleep and their bodies produced less of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin.

After eight hours sleep, the iPad readers were less alert and felt sleepier.”

The devices seem to disrupt the body’s natural circadian rhythms.

For the new research 14 people either read an iPad or paper book between 9pm and 11pm.

Dr Christian Benedict, study co-author, said:

“Our results could suggest that light exposure during the day, e.g. by means of outdoor activities or light interventions in offices, may help combat sleep disturbances associated with evening blue light stimulation.

Even if not examined in our study, it must however be kept in mind that utilizing electronic devices for the sake of checking your work e-mails or social network accounts before snoozing may lead to sleep disturbances as a result of emotional arousal.”

The other option, of course, is simply to read a real paper-and-ink book in the evening and avoid the luminous electronic devices.

The study was published in the journal Sleep Medicine (Rångtell et al., 2016).

Sleep image from Shutterstock

Study helps explain the ‘first night effect’.

It can be hard to sleep on the first night in a new place: such as on holiday or when visiting friends.

Dr Yuka Sasaki, author of a new study, said:

“In Japan they say, ‘if you change your pillow, you can’t sleep.

You don’t sleep very well in a new place.

We all know about it.”

The reason could be down to the fact that one of the brain’s hemispheres stays more awake: alert for trouble.

For the research, scientists measured people’s brain activity on the first night in the sleep lab.

They focused on the part of the sleep cycle in which deep sleep occurs — sometimes called slow-wave sleep.

The sleepers were played irregular beeping sounds while they were asleep to examine the brain’s alertness.

The study’s authors conclude:

“The present study has demonstrated that when we are in a novel environment, inter-hemispheric asymmetry occurs in regional slow-wave activity, vigilance and responsiveness, as a night watch to protect ourselves.”

The study was published in the journal Current Biology (Tamaki et al., 2016).

Image credit: Alex

Scientists followed 1,800 people’s sleep and diet over one year.

Eating a high-fat diet is linked to felling more sleepy during the day, new research finds.

The results are based on a study of 1,800 men aged 35-80.

Researchers followed what they ate and how they slept over one year.

Ms Yingting Cao, the study’s first author, said:

“After adjusting for other demographic and lifestyle factors, and chronic diseases, we found that those who consumed the highest fat intake were more likely to experience excessive daytime sleepiness.

This has significant implications for alertness and concentration, which would be of particular concern to workers.

High fat intake was also strongly associated with sleep apnea.”

The researchers found that 41% of the men had experienced daytime sleepiness.

Ms Cao said:

“Poor sleep and feeling sleepy during the day means you have less energy, but this in turn is known to increase people’s cravings for high-fat, high-carbohydrate foods, which is then associated with poor sleep outcomes.

So the poor diet-and-sleep pattern can become a vicious cycle.

The simple message is a common-sense one, but we need more people to pay attention to it: we need to eat better; a good sleep the night before is best.”

The study was published in the journal Nutrients (Cao et al., 2016).

Protein intake can affect how you sleep at night, research finds.

A high-protein diet helps people sleep better at night as well as lose weight, a new study finds.

The research compared people who were either on a high-protein diet with those eating normal levels of protein.

Professor Wayne Campbell, one of the study’s authors, said:

“Most research looks at the effects of sleep on diet and weight control, and our research flipped that question to ask what are the effects of weight loss and diet — specifically the amount of protein – on sleep.

We found that while consuming a lower calorie diet with a higher amount of protein, sleep quality improves for middle-age adults.

This sleep quality is better compared to those who lost the same amount of weight while consuming a normal amount of protein.”

Some of the high-protein foods that can be rotated into and out of the diet include:

1. low-fat dairy,
2. lean meats,
3. seafood,
4. beans,
5. soy,
6. eggs,
7. seeds,
8. beef,
9. pork,
10. soy legumes,
11. milk protein,
12. and nuts.

Professor Campbell said:

“This research adds sleep quality to the growing list of positive outcomes of higher-protein intake while losing weight, and those other outcomes include promoting body fat loss, retention of lean body mass and improvements in blood pressure.

Sleep is recognized as a very important modifier of a person’s health, and our research is the first to address the question of how a sustained dietary pattern influences sleep.

We’ve showed an improvement in subjective sleep quality after higher dietary protein intake during weight loss, which is intriguing and also emphasizes the need for more research with objective measurements of sleep to confirm our results.”

Jing Zhou, the study’s first author, said:

“Short sleep duration and compromised sleep quality frequently lead to metabolic and cardiovascular diseases and premature death.

Given the high prevalence of sleep problems it’s important to know how changes to diet and lifestyle can help improve sleep.”

The study was published in the The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Zhou et al., 2016).

Nutrients image from Shutterstock

Rule 1: Do not take the phone to bed with you!

During sleep our brains clear out waste toxic chemicals, consolidate memories, process emotional events and much more.

No one needs reminding of the importance of sleep, but many can do with a few tips to actually achieve it.

Here are a few recommendations by the National Institute of Health (with a few thrown in from me):

1. Go to bed at the same time.
2. Use the hour before bedtime as quiet time.
3. Avoid alcohol before bedtime.
4. Take a hot bath before bedtime (or any other relaxing ritual that works for you).
5. Do some exercise during the day — any physical activity is preferable to none.
6. Your sleep schedule should be the same at the weekend as it is during the week.
7. Keep the bedroom cool, quiet and dark.
8. Avoid large meals within a couple of hours of bedtime.
9. Get outside every day.
10. Avoid staring at your phone, tablet or computer screen in the hour before bedtime.

Dr Jeffrey P. Barasch, Medical Director of The Valley Hospital Center for Sleep Medicine in Ridgewood, NJ, said:

“Unfortunately, as you well know, sometimes life can prevent us from going to bed when we want to and many of us have experienced the frustration of not being able to fall asleep or stay asleep once we are in bed.

Luckily, our bodies can adjust to occasional instances when we do not get enough sleep.”

Depending on our phase of life, we require different amounts of sleep:

• Newborns — 16 to 18 hours a day
• Preschool-aged children — 11 to 12 hours a day
• School-aged children — at least 10 hours a day
• Teens — 9 to 10 hours a day
• Adults (age 20-64) — 7 to 9 hours a day
• Elderly (age 65 and over) — 7 to 8 hours a day

Image credits: iamtheo