Insomnia: A Surprising Remedy Could Prevent 80% Of Chronic Problems (M)

Between 20 and 50 percent of Americans suffer from acute insomnia.

Between 20 and 50 percent of Americans suffer from acute insomnia.


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Sleep: The Ideal Amount For Optimal Mental Health (M)

Disruption of deep sleep, which occurs more during the first part of the night, is linked to memory problems and the build-up of proteins in the brain that are linked to dementia.

Disruption of deep sleep, which occurs more during the first part of the night, is linked to memory problems and the build-up of proteins in the brain that are linked to dementia.


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The Best Nap Time To Boost Brain Health

The best nap time could keep your brain five years younger.

The best nap time could keep your brain five years younger.

Taking a nap of around an hour after lunch is linked to the biggest long-term boost in mental health, research suggests.

Almost 3,000 Chinese people over the age of 65 were included in the study of napping.

Around 60 percent reported taking a nap after lunch.

The researchers found that those taking an hour-long nap did the best on measures of memory and cognition.

The study’s authors explain their results:

“…a moderate-duration nap taken during the post-lunch dip is associated with better overall cognition.

Older adults who did not nap or napped longer than 90 minutes (extended nappers) were significantly more likely than those who napped for 30 to 90 minutes after lunch (moderate nappers) to have lower overall cognition scores…”

In comparison, those who took shorter naps, longer naps or no naps were cognitively older.

It worked out that people who did not nap for around an hour were cognitively five years older:

“In the final analysis, no napping, short napping, and extended napping were associated with worse overall cognition than moderate napping.

The difference in overall cognition associated with these napping groups was similar to or greater than the decline in cognition associated with a 5-year increase in age.”

Best nap time

The study is one of the first to look at the benefits of longer afternoon naps.

The benefits of short naps are already well-known, the study’s authors write:

“…the short-term benefits of brief naps (e.g., 10 minutes) are well documented in previous studies and include greater alertness and accuracy and speed when performing a number of cognitive tasks, including psychomotor performance and short-term memory…”

The study was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (Li et al., 2016).

The Common Sleep Pattern That Kills Attention And Creativity

Sleep pattern linked to better ideas, focus and planning.

Sleep pattern linked to better ideas, focus and planning.

For a boost to your attention and creativity, keep your sleep regular, research suggests.

Regular sleep patterns are linked to higher focus, better ideas and stronger forward planning.

People who skimp on sleep, then ‘catch-up’ with more sleep later suffer cognitive problems.

The study was carried out on students studying interior design.

Dr Michael Scullin, a study author, explained:

“When completing term projects, students restrict sleep, then rebound on sleep, then repeat.

Major projects which call for numerous tasks and deadlines — more so than for tests — seem to contribute to sleep variability.”

Dr Scullin explained that the detrimental effects of irregular sleep were clear in their cognition:

“The more variability they showed in their night-to-night sleep, the worse their cognition declined across the week.

[…]

Most students think they’re getting about four more hours of sleep each week than they actually are.”

Staying up late to complete projects is ingrained in the culture of interior design, as it is in other industries.

Dr Elise King, the study’s first author, said:

“Since the general public still doesn’t understand the profession of interior design, and mistakenly thinks we’re the same as decorators, there is a sense that you want to work harder and prove them wrong.

But recently, we’ve seen the consequences of that type of thinking: anxiety, depression and other mental health issues — and also the dangers of driving while sleep deprived.”

The study found students who kept more regular hours and habits had better ideas, focus and forward planning.

The pressures these students are under mirror the pressures in many different industries.

Dr King said:

“Projects are often lengthy, with final due dates looming weeks or months in the future.

The stress of juggling several projects, each with multiple deadlines, is likely to contribute to students’ tendency to cycle between several days of poor sleep leading up to a project due date, followed by a catch-up day with 10 or more sleep hours.”

The study was published in the Journal of Interior Design (King et al., 2017).

Poor Sleep Triples The Risk Of Heart Disease

One of the ways that poor sleep may be linked to heart disease is through arterial stiffness.

One of the ways that poor sleep may be linked to heart disease is through arterial stiffness.

Poor sleep can triple the risk of heart disease, a large study finds.

Whether it was lower satisfaction with sleep, feeling sleepy during the day, lower quality sleep or less sleep overall, the worse people slept the higher their risk of heart disease.

The research included almost 7,000 adults who were asked about their sleep patterns and heart disease history.

Some also wore a device that measured their sleep activity.

Dr Soomi Lee, the study’s first author, said:

“This is one of the first studies showing that, among well-functioning adults in midlife, having more sleep health problems may increase the risk of heart disease.

The higher estimated risk in those who provided both self-report and actigraphy sleep data suggests that measuring sleep health accurately and comprehensively is important to increase the prediction of heart disease.”

Arterial stiffness

One of the ways that poor sleep may be linked to heart disease is through arterial stiffness.

Less than seven, or more than eight, hours of sleep can cause arterial stiffness leading to heart disease or stroke, a previous study has found.

Participants who had more than eight hours a night were at a 39 percent higher risk of plaque build-up inside the arteries and for those who slept less than six hours the odds increased to 54 percent.

Consequently, people who sleep more than eight hours or less than seven hours are at higher risk of heart disease or stroke.

Duration of sleep may be as important as exercise and diet for cardiovascular health.

How much sleep?

How much sleep we need is related to factors such as age.

The guidelines for adults are mostly seven to nine hours sleep a night, however, one in three American adults gets less than six hours sleep.

Studies have shown that people who sleep poorly are at greater risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, mental health problem, and early death.

The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports (Lee et al., 2022).

The Best Sleep Position For Clearing The Brain of Waste (M)

On your side, face-up or face-down? The position which best clears metabolic waste from your brain at night.

On your side, face-up or face-down? The position which best clears metabolic waste from your brain at night.

Sleeping on your side removes waste from the brain most efficiently, a study finds.

As a result, sleeping in a lateral position may help reduce the chance of developing Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases.

Professor Maiken Nedergaard, one of the study’s authors, said:

“It is interesting that the lateral sleep position is already the most popular in human and most animals — even in the wild — and it appears that we have adapted the lateral sleep position to most efficiently clear our brain of the metabolic waste products that built up while we are awake.

The study therefore adds further support to the concept that sleep subserves a distinct biological function of sleep and that is to ‘clean up’ the mess that accumulates while we are awake.

Many types of dementia are linked to sleep disturbances, including difficulties in falling asleep.

It is increasing acknowledged that these sleep disturbances may accelerate memory loss in Alzheimer’s disease.

Our finding brings new insight into this topic by showing it is also important what position you sleep in.”

The study of mice tested the brain’s ‘clean-up’ mechanism in three different sleeping positions:

  • On the side,
  • face-down,
  • and face-up.

Scientists monitored the filtering of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) through the brain as it exchanged with interstitial fluid.

This pathway — called the glymphatic pathway — clears waste from the brain most efficiently at night.

Professor Helene Benveniste, another of the study’s authors, said:

“The analysis showed us consistently that glymphatic transport was most efficient in the lateral position when compared to the supine or prone positions.

Because of this finding, we propose that the body posture and sleep quality should be considered when standardizing future diagnostic imaging procedures to assess CSF-ISF transport in humans and therefore the assessment of the clearance of damaging brain proteins that may contribute to or cause brain diseases.”

The next step will be to test the finding in humans.

The research was published in the Journal of Neuroscience (Lee et al., 2015).