Prescription Sleep Aids a Common Choice for American Insomnia

More than 8.5 million adults reported using them, CDC researchers found

About 4 percent of American adults — more than 8.5 million people — have used a prescription sleep aid in the past month, and the use increases with age, U.S. health officials reported Thursday.

In addition, more women (5 percent) than men (3.1 percent) over the age of 20 take these drugs, and those with higher education levels are more likely to use them, the researchers from the U.S. Centers for ...

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Poor Sleep in Old Age Linked to Forgetfulness

Researchers at UC Berkeley found deep ‘slow wave’ sleep could restore memory as we age.

Improving sleep quality could provide a memory boost in older people who may have difficulty remembering things like people’s names, according to neuroscientists at the University of California, Berkeley.

For their study, the researchers tested memory in 18 healthy adults mostly in their twenties, and 15 healthy adults in their seventies after a full night’s sleep. Before going to sleep, participants learned and were tested on 120 ...

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Poor Nutrition Can Bite Into Your Sleep

People with most varied diets are also best-rested, study finds.

What you eat can affect how well you sleep, according to a new study.

Researchers found that certain nutrients may play a role in sleep duration. And they also concluded that people who eat a wide variety of foods (an indicator of an overall healthy diet) had the healthiest sleep patterns.

“Although many of us inherently recognize that there is a relationship between what we eat and how we sleep, there have been ...

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Partner’s Chronic Pain Can Interfere With Your Sleep

Study looked at couples in which one member had knee osteoarthritis.

If your partner suffers chronic pain from knee osteoarthritis, your sleep and mood may suffer as well, according to a new study.

The study included 145 couples in which one partner had knee osteoarthritis that caused moderate to intense pain. The participants recorded their levels of pain, sleep quality and levels of feeling rested or refreshed in the morning over 22 consecutive nights.

When patients reported higher levels of knee pain at ...

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Parents Need Advice at Night About Kids’ Sleep Problems

New app shows the need for professional advice when sleep issues happen, typically not during office hours.

The most common questions parents have about their children’s sleep problems are posed after office hours at night, according to a phone app developed by Johnson & Johnson, the baby products company.

Over three months, 365 users submitted a question to the “Ask the Expert” feature on the app for iPhone. Jodi Mindell, PhD and her team answer questions submitted to the app and respond ...

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One Exercise Session Won’t Bring a Good Night’s Sleep

Study found there is no quick fix for insomnia when it comes to working out

If you decide to hit the gym in hopes that a quick dose of exercise will cure your insomnia, a new study suggests that will not be enough.

While adopting an exercise program did ultimately help some insomniacs sleep better, the scientists found the impact was far from immediate.

“Where the idea to explore this came from is that my patients were coming in and saying that they ...

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Obesity Crisis May Be Fueling Big Jump in Sleep Apnea Cases

Researcher calls troubled sleep an ‘uncalculated cost’ of America’s weight epidemic.

The widening American waistline may be feeding an epidemic of sleep apnea, potentially robbing millions of people of a good night’s rest, a new study suggests.

The research didn’t definitively link the rise in obesity to sleep apnea, and it only looked at 1,520 people, almost all white, in Wisconsin. But study author Paul Peppard believes the findings show a big spike in sleep apnea cases over the past two decades ...

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Novel Drug Helps Insomniacs Sleep Better

Drug improves time to fall asleep and duration of sleep.

A drug that blocks the brain mechanisms that keep people awake appears to help those with primary insomnia fall asleep and stay asleep longer than placebo, researchers reported here at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.

In one study of long-term effects of a year’s use of suvorexant, insomnia patients taking the drug were able to sleep about an hour longer while patients on placebo were able to sleep ...

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Nighttime Urination May Worsen Insomnia, Study Finds

Waking up in the middle of the night to urinate was associated with worsening of sleep problems in older adults with insomnia, according to a Stanford University study.

Insomnia may not be the only reason that you’re tired in the morning — your bladder could be part of the problem too. Older people who have to get up and go in the middle of the night face heightened insomnia symptoms, according to a Stanford University study published in the Journal of ...

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New Sleeping Pill: A Different Way to Treat Insomnia

The drug, called suvorexant, blocks the chemical messengers in the brain that regulate wakefulness.

A new drug called suvorexant could bring help for some with insomnia, according to a study published in the online issue of Neurology.

Suvorexant is different from other drugs on the market to treat insomnia because it blocks chemical messengers in the brain that regulate wakefulness rather than directly affecting brain receptors, according to a release from the American Academy of Neurology.

The study involved 254 people ages 18 ...

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