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Tonight marks the end of daylight saving time. The return to standard time officially occurs at 2 a.m. Sunday morning.This means you get an extra hour in your day. This is a great opportunity to catch up on your sleep!To get an extra hour of sleep, you should go to bed at your normal bedtime. Then set all your clocks back an hour just before getting into bed.
Lifestyle choices, personal obligations and occupational demands can cause you to become sleep deprived. Ongoing sleep disorders or medical conditions can also cause sleep deprivation. When you are constantly getting less sleep than you need, you develop what is known as a ‘sleep debt’.
Sleep deprivation is linked with increased risk for obesity, illness and death. It can also lead to decreased alertness and performance during the day.
According to a study presented at SLEEP 2009, watching television is currently the most influential cue people use to decide when to go to bed.
Authors of the study say that people can reduce their sleep debt by watching less TV at night and going to bed earlier. You can also eliminate your sleep debt by sleeping for longer time periods each night and improving your sleep hygiene.
Sleep experts recommend that adults sleep between seven and eight hours each night.
Learn more about sleep deprivation at Sleep Education.com.
Visit an AASM-accredited sleep disorders center if you have an ongoing sleep problem.
Today the CDC released new survey data about the sleep of people in the U.S. It examined the rate of “insufficient rest or sleep” in 2008.
The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System is the world’s largest, ongoing telephone health survey. It collects data on risk behaviors and health conditions. One question on the 2008 survey was, “During the past 30 days, for about how many days have you felt you did not get enough rest or sleep?"
Nearly 404,000 people participated; they were 18 years of age or older.
Results show that about 31 percent were sound sleepers; they reported no days of insufficient rest or sleep in the preceding 30 days.
Who were these sound sleepers? They were more likely to be male, Hispanic, 65 years of age or older, and retired.
The results also suggest that island life promotes sound sleep. The age-adjusted percentage of people who always got enough sleep was highest in: Puerto Rico (51%), Guam (46%), U.S. Virgin Islands (36%) and Hawaii (36%). Louisiana was close behind at 35 percent.
At the other end of the spectrum were the problem sleepers. About 11 percent of respondents never got enough rest or sleep during the past 30 days.
Almost 26 percent of people who reported being unable to work were problem sleepers. Sixteen percent of people who were divorced, widowed or separated also felt that they never got enough sleep.
Southern states had higher percentages of problem sleepers. The age-adjusted percentage of people who never got enough sleep was highest in: West Virginia (19%), Tennessee (15%), Kentucky (14%) and Oklahoma (14%).
Everyone else had varying degrees of insufficient sleep. About 17 percent reported insufficient sleep ranging from 14 to 29 days; about 41 percent had anywhere from one to 13 days during which they did not get enough rest or sleep.
The authors conclude that doctors should ask patients about their sleep during routine office visits. Then they can make needed interventions or referrals to sleep specialists.
You can get help for a sleep problem at one of more than 1,800 AASM-accredited sleep centers near you.
A new study examined the relationship between sleep duration and obesity in children.
The study involved 5,159 children from 13 schools in Hong Kong; they had a mean age of 9 years. Sleep times and other data were collected using questionnaires.
Results show that children with shorter sleep durations had higher body mass index scores. Children slept for more than 10 hours at night on weekends and holidays; but they slept for only a little more than nine hours on school nights.
Children who slept less than eight hours during weekdays were more than two times more likely to be overweight or obese. The risk was highest in children who did not compensate for weekday sleep loss by sleeping longer on weekends and holidays.
The Sleep Education Blog has reported on a variety of factors that contribute to sleep loss in children. These include family status, prenatal influences, inactivity and watching TV.
Other studies also have linked sleep duration to the risk of obesity. So what is a parent to do?
Don’t wait for your child to “catch up” on sleep over the weekend; help him or her get more sleep during the week to avoid building up a sleep debt.
In July the Sleep Education Blog reported that children who go to bed after 9 p.m. take longer to fall asleep; they also have a shorter total sleep time.
So make sure your child has time to wind down and get in bed before 9 p.m. each night. One way to help is to turn off the TV and the computer earlier in the evening.What helps your children get to bed early on school nights?
Surgery is one treatment option for people who have obstructive sleep apnea. Procedures tend to be “site-specific;” they will seek to eliminate the cause of the obstruction.
The challenge is finding the right site for surgery. Problem areas related to OSA include the tonsils, tongue, soft palate, throat, jaw and nose.
As a result, surgery isn’t a “one size fits all” treatment. In fact, the AASM’s clinical guidelines list more than 20 common surgical procedures for OSA.
Yesterday the Baylor College of Medicine reported that one way to address this challenge is to use an “endoscope;” this is a small flexible device with a camera on the end.
Doctors at the BCM are using it to help identify the cause of obstructions that happen during sleep apnea. They insert the endoscope into the back of the nose to view the throat while the patient is sedated and sleeps.
The camera gives them a front-row seat when an episode of OSA occurs. By finding the cause of the problem, they can develop a more precise treatment plan. This helps prevent unnecessary surgery.
The AASM reports that CPAP therapy is the treatment of choice for all severity levels of OSA. An oral appliance and surgery are alternative treatment options that may help some people with sleep apnea.
The AASM clinical guidelines report that “maxillary and mandibular advancement” is one surgical procedure that is often effective. Cuts are made into the bones of the upper and lower jaws. The jaws are pulled forward to enlarge the entire upper airway.
Most other sleep apnea surgeries will rarely cure OSA; you may need to continue with another treatment such as CPAP. But surgery may help reduce symptoms and improve quality of life.
Positive results also may not be permanent; symptoms may reappear at a later time after surgery.
A new study suggests that episodes of obstructive sleep apnea may trigger two types of “cardiac arrhythmias,” which are abnormal heart rhythms.
The study involved 2,816 people. Their sleep was evaluated during an overnight sleep study.
The sleep study results were examined for two types of abnormal heart rhythms: ventricular tachycardia and atrial fibrillation – or AF.
Results show that the overall rate of arrhythmias was low; 62 abnormal heart rhythms occurred in 57 people.
But the relative risk of an abnormal heart rhythm was much higher after a breathing disturbance; people were nearly 18 times more likely to have an arrhythmia after a breathing pause than after normal breathing.
“Do these events act as a trigger for cardiac abnormalities?" study co-author Dr. Susan Redline said to HealthDay News. “We established that there is a close temporal relationship.”
The study also found that abnormal heart rhythms occurred even when OSA was less severe.
“Most of the arrhythmias occurred in people with mild-to-moderate sleep apnea," said Redline.
AF is the most common type of serious arrhythmia; long-term AF can lead to stroke and heart failure. AF is a very fast and irregular contraction of the atria.
The atria are the two upper chambers of the heart. They collect blood as it comes into the heart.
Ventricular tachycardia is a fast, regular beating of the ventricles. These are the two lower heart chambers. They pump blood out of the heart to the lungs and other parts of the body. Ventricular arrhythmias can be very dangerous.
In June the Sleep Education Blog reported on the link between sleep apnea and abnormal heart rhythms in older men.Find out more about cardiac arrhythmias on the NHLBI Web site. Get help for sleep apnea at an AASM-accredited sleep center near you.
Tonight marks the end of daylight saving time. The return to standard time officially occurs at 2 a.m. Sunday morning.
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