Bad Sleep Tied to Cognitive Decline

Three different studies all support the concept that sleep disturbances are associated with cognitive decline among older individuals.

Common sleep problems may be a sign of impending cognitive decline or even Alzheimer’s disease, according to results of several studies reported here.

Sleeping too little or too much, abnormal breathing during sleep, and excessive daytime sleepiness all were significantly associated with cognitive impairment — years later in some cases.

The studies were presented at a “featured research session” during the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference ...

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SEP
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Sleepless Dangers

Sleep Better: How to Be a Star Sleeper

Exercise and sexual activity are just two ways to help you catch some more z’s.

Instead of bragging about how little sleep we need, what if we rewarded star sleepers for their healthy habits?

First, we’d have to identify those key qualities that make someone good at sleep. A recent survey from Consumer Reports may offer some clues.

The publication asked more than 26,000 subscribers about their sleep habits. Nearly 60 percent reported feeling tired or having trouble falling or staying asleep at ...

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AUG
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Tips and Tricks

Why Do We Sleepwalk?

Fact or fiction: Waking a sleepwalker is not a good idea? Read on.

There’s spaghetti in the bathroom sink, the laptop’s in the laundry basket, and please tell me that is not urine dripping down the refrigerator door.

Either a group of college kids took over the house for the night or there’s a sleepwalker on the loose. Sleepwalking, or somnambulism, is a disorder that happens when people do some activity besides snoozing while they’re still asleep. There are lots of potential ...

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1
AUG
0

World of Dreams

Poor Sleep Affects Immune System Much Like Physical Stress

Study findings could have implications for jobs that require rotating shift work, researchers say.

Severe sleep deprivation has the same effect on the immune system as physical stress, according to a new study.

Researchers in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom found sleep loss triggers the production of white blood cells, known as granulocytes, particularly at night.

“The granulocytes reacted immediately to the physical stress of sleep loss and directly mirrored the body’s stress response,” explained the study’s lead author, Katrin Ackermann, a ...

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15
JUL
0

Doctors Orders

Pesticide Tied to Sleep Problem

REM sleep behavior disorder, a rare condition, appears to share some risk factor associations such as occupational pesticide exposure with Parkinson’s disease.

A rare sleep disorder characterized by disturbances of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep shares some environmental risk factors with Parkinson’s disease, an international case-control study suggested.

For example, occupational pesticide exposure has been clearly linked with Parkinson’s disease, and in this study patients with REM sleep behavior disorder were twice as likely to have been exposed to pesticides as controls, ...

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1
JUL
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Other Sleep Disorders

Sleep Can Sharpen Your Memory

External stimulation during sleep can reinforce what you have already learned, study shows.

External stimulation during sleep can help strengthen memory, which, in turn, can help you learn, a new study reports.

Researchers from Northwestern University noted that such stimulation could reinforce what people have already learned, but doesn’t help them gain new skills.

“The critical difference is that our research shows that memory is strengthened for something you’ve already learned,” the study’s co-author, Paul Reber, associate professor of psychology at Northwestern, ...

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15
JUN
0

Sleep 101

Apnea Linked to Neuropathy Risk in Diabetes

Future research hopes to find link between treating apnea and treating diabetes.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) independently predicted coexistence of diabetic peripheral neuropathy, and the association remained significant after adjustment for multiple confounders, British investigators reported.

Two-thirds of a group of patients with type 2 diabetes had OSA, and 60 percent of the OSA subgroup had peripheral neuropathy. In contrast, the patients without OSA had a neuropathy prevalence of 27 percent.

The data also suggested potential mechanistic explanations involving nitrosative/oxidative stress and microvascular ...

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1
JUN
0

Sleep Apnea

Melatonin Can Help Seniors Get More Sleep

Taking melatonin resulted in small increases in total sleep time, sleep onset latency, and sleep efficiency in adults with insomnia over age 55.

Over-the-counter melatonin appears to provide a measure of sleep for older individuals who have insomnia, a meta-analysis showed.

Among individuals 55 and older, treatment with melatonin significantly improved sleep onset (by 6.36 minutes) and total sleep time (by 18.29 minutes), according to Jennifer Brault, MD, a resident in psychiatry at the University of Ottawa.

Sleep efficiency was improved by 3.54 ...

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15
MAY
0

Tips and Tricks

Sleep Apnea Therapy Might Ease Depression, Too

Positive airway pressure even helps patients who fail to use the treatment as prescribed, study finds.

Positive airway pressure, which is used to treat obstructive sleep apnea, may also help ease symptoms of depression among people with the sleep-related breathing disorder, a new study suggests.

Although depression is common among people with sleep apnea, researchers from the Cleveland Clinic Sleep Disorders Center found that patients who used positive airway pressure therapy had fewer depressive symptoms — even if they didn’t follow the ...

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1
MAY
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Sleep Apnea

Hospital Noise Fractures Sleep, Slows Healing

Study showed that when sleep was disrupted, even for a few seconds, heart rates increased.

Nighttime noise in hospitals adds up to poor sleep, which may hurt healing when patients need it most, researchers found.

In a laboratory sleep study, recorded hospital sounds of overhead paging, IV alarms, squeaky carts, and the like disrupted sleep and raised heart rates, Orfeu M. Buxton, PhD, of Harvard and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and colleagues reported.

Electronic alert sounds like ringing phones and IV ...

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APR
0

Doctors Orders

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