Lack of sleep in teens increases obesity

A study shows that teens who do not get enough sleep have an increased risk of becoming obese.

Teenagers who don't get enough sleep may wake up to worse consequences than nodding off during chemistry class. According to new research, risk of being obese by age 21 was 20 percent higher among 16-year-olds who got less than six hours of sleep a night, compared with their peers who slumbered more than eight hours. (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends nine to ten hours of sleep for teenagers.)

Researchers at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University and the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Public Health are the first to examine the effect of sleeplessness on obesity in teenagers over time, providing the strongest evidence yet that lack of sleep raises risk for an elevated BMI. Results appear in Journal of Pediatrics.

Shakira F. Suglia, ScD, assistant professor of Epidemiology at the Mailman School, and colleagues analyzed health information from more than 10,000 American teens and young adults, ages 16 and 21, as part of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Information on height and weight and sleep was collected during home visits in 1995 and 2001.

Nearly one-fifth of the 16-year-olds reported getting less than six hours of sleep. This group was 20 percent more likely to be obese by age 21, compared to their peers who got more than eight hours of sleep. While lack of physical activity and time spent watching television contributed to obesity, they did not account for the relationship between sleeplessness and obesity.

"Lack of sleep in your teenage years can stack the deck against you for obesity later in life," says Suglia. "Once you're an obese adult, it is much harder to lose weight and keep it off. And the longer you are obese, the greater your risk for health problems like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer."

"The message for parents is to make sure their teenagers get more than eight hours a night," adds Suglia. "A good night's sleep does more than help them stay alert in school. It helps them grow into healthy adults."

Daytime sleepiness and fatigue are known to affect what and how people eat, by altering appetite and stimulating cravings. Energy levels may also play a role. For the sleep-deprived, ordering calorie-dense fast food is easier than preparing a nutritious meal. Information on what the teens ate was not captured in the surveys, although it could play a role. Future research may look whether, for example, soda consumption is a factor in sleeplessness and, in turn, obesity. (A 2013 study by Suglia found young children who drink soda are more likely to have behavioral problems.)

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Teenagers need more sleep

This article explains that teenagers need more sleep, and not getting enough sleep can lead to health consequences.

Health experts say if you don't snooze, you lose. They say teenagers actually do need their beauty sleep.

'Let them sleep!' said the nations largest pediatrician group, the American Academy of Pediatrics. Studies have shown that only one in five teens get nine hours of sleep on school nights, the recommended amount.

The AAP is urging schools to start high school and middle school classes at 8:30 a.m. or later. Lack of sleep in adolescents is shown to increase risk for obesity, stroke and Type 2 diabetes. There is even an increase in anxiety and depression, which can lead to risk-taking behaviors.

The AAP said naps and caffeine only temporarily counteract the lack of sleep, but it's not enough.

"Kids who, for example, take a biology class at 7:20 in the morning, if you compare that group of kids to kids that take that class at 10, 11 or 1 and then you give them all the same standardized tests, as a group the kids that take that class later in the day perform better," said Chief of Division of Pediatric Sleep Medicine Heidi Connolly.

With much controversy surrounding later start times at schools, there may be a long road ahead for teen sleep.

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All about sleep apnea

This article provides much information on sleep apnea, including signs you may have it, and what you should do to get checked if you think you might have sleep apnea.

Think you might have sleep apnea? Not sure what the symptoms are? It's a growing sleep disorder that people are more and more being affected by.

Sleep apnea affects some 18 million Americans and around 850,000 Canadians. The etymology of the word apnea translates into the suspension of breathing or the absence of respiration. Pauses can last anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes, this can occur up to 30 times per hour in some cases.

Obstructive sleep apnea can be mild, moderate or severe. The severe form of this ailment can progressively degenerate, leading in some cases to death in patients. Sleep apnea often goes undiagnosed as extreme snoring. Both sexes experience sleep apnea but it is more common in males than females. Certain racial groups are also more prone to this condition, Hispanics have higher rates of sleep apnea than Caucasians.

Common Sleep Apnea Statistics

The Sleep Disorders Guide has provided the following research information.

- 1 in every 15 Americans has sleep apnea

- University of California’s San Diego campus discovered 17 percent of the 54 African Americans had obstructive sleep apnea. The 346 Caucasians tested only had an 8 percent indicator

- 1 in 50 Americans are undiagnosed

- obstructive sleep apnea patients are at an increased rate for traffic incidents

- People driving drowsy is responsible for 100,000 car accidents, 40,000 injuries and up to 1,550 deaths per year if your bed partner has this condition you are unlikely to get any sleep

- stroke, hypertension and heart disease are all linked to sufferers of sleep apnea

A lack of proper sleep has been linked to cognitive problems in the workforce and decreases in educational achievement. Memory and complex decision making skills are also affected at an increased rate leading to occupational accidents and fatalities.

Fatalities Caused By Sleep Disorders

The impact of getting a lack of sleep can not be underestimated. Medical resident students work longer hours than most hospital staff. During the first year residency med students usually work a 24 hour shift every third night they can work up to 96 hours in some cases. Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons states that medical student hours can not exceed 80 hours per week with at least 24 consecutive hours free from duty in a week. These guidelines are often not adhered to with priority shifts and hours going to senior staff. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education found that residents who worked more than 80 hours per week were at risk for making significant medical errors that led to negatively impacting patients. Sleep related fatigue is a leading cause of medical errors facing hospitals and patients.

The Three Mile Island incident of 1979 resulted in a cooling malfunction in reactor #2, radioactive gas was released, fortunately there were no fatalities. Cooling to the reactor was eventually restored, this incident was thought to have been caused by lack of sleep of the plant employees. The occupational damage from lack of sleep ended up costing $975 million back in March 28th of 1979.

The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill was one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history. The 987 foot long oil tanker ran aground a reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska releasing 10.8 million gallons of crude oil into the Pacific ocean. The oil spill ended costing $3.8 billion to clean up. This incident again was related to the ships crew suffering from lack of sleep.

Who Is At Risk For Sleep Apnea?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that one-third of U.S. adults or 34.9 percent are obese. The medical costs for treating obese people amounted to $147 billion in 2008 U.S. dollars. The male gender and certain racial groups are more at risk for sleep apnea than other demographics. Blacks are at a 47.8% increased risk of obesity compared to 42.5% for Hispanics. Whites have a 32.6% obesity rate compared to 10.8% for Asians.

Obesity and socioeconomic status go hand in hand when it comes to obesity. Blacks and Mexican Americans are prime candidates for the battle of the bulge. Among women obesity levels rise with education levels. Women with a college degree had a 23.4% obesity rate compared to 42.1% of women without a high school diploma. Men and women with college degrees have significantly lower rates of obesity. The common denominator is the more education people have the more income they earn and the healthier food they can purchase.

Simply put people with higher incomes are able to afford organic or natural foods. GM staple crops like GM corn are modified to produce higher yields. A Norway research study fed rats GM corn for 90 days, the end result was the rats feeding on the GM corn grew obese, in contrast to the rats fed on the non-GM diet. The physiology of rats is similar to humans, if rats grow obese from a GM diet than humans eating the same type of food will also become obese. Nutrient levels in today’s crops have decreased significantly since WWII, modern day food simply does not have the nutritional density it once did. A lack of nutrient dense crops results in people eating large quantities of food, the more food a person consumes to make up for the lack of nutrients the more weight they put on. Mexican Americans and Blacks from lower economic levels live in areas with an abundance of fast food outlets and grocery stores that do not have access to the organic food market because of the higher prices, this makes this demographic prime candidates for sleep apnea.

Diagnosing Sleep Apnea

The most direct method to diagnose sleep apnea is at a sleep clinic managed by qualified sleep technicians. The clinical name for the study of sleep is called polysomnography, this test measures brain wave activity, heart rate, breathing and eye and leg movements. Patients undergoing this study check in during the evening into a private room that has a video camera, the sleep room is adjacent to the monitoring room where the sleep technician monitors the patient. Sensors are placed on the legs of the individual to monitor restlessness at night. A sensor belt is placed around the abdomen and waist to monitor breathing, additional sensors are placed near the mouth and nose to measure the respiratory rate.

The final step in polysomnography is the attachment of a Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device that attaches to the mouth of the patient. The CPAP machine supplies light air pressure through the mouth or nose, this pressure is enough to keep the airway open so the patient can breathe properly while sleeping. If the presence of obstructive sleep apnea is documented during the night the sleep technician will re-enter the room and apply a CPAP mask that is attached to a CPAP machine. The sleep technician will wait for the patient to enter a deep sleep before gradually determining the minimum airflow to keep the airway open. The technician will also monitor the patients other vitals for symptoms of sleep apnea. A definitive diagnosis can be made later by a physician sleep specialist that is dedicated to the study of sleep medicine.

CPAP is the most widely accepted and effective machine to treat sleep apnea today. If you think you may be a sufferer of sleep apnea consult your physician regarding making an appointment at a sleep clinic.

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Study: Losing sleep can hurt your memory

A study shows that losing sleep can hurt a person's memory.

Lack of sleep, already considered a public health epidemic, can also lead to errors in memory, finds a new study by researchers at Michigan State University and the University of California, Irvine.

The study, published online in the journalPsychological Science, found participants deprived of a night's sleep were more likely to flub the details of a simulated burglary they were shown in a series of images.

Distorted memory can have serious consequences in areas such as criminal justice, where eyewitness misidentifications are thought to be the leading cause of wrongful convictions in the United States.

"We found memory distortion is greater after sleep deprivation," said Kimberly Fenn, MSU associate professor of psychology and co-investigator on the study. "And people are getting less sleep each night than they ever have."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls insufficient sleep an epidemic and said it's linked to vehicle crashes, industrial disasters and chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes.

The researchers conducted experiments at MSU and UC-Irvine to gauge the effect of insufficient sleep on memory. The results: Participants who were kept awake for 24 hours -- and even those who got five or fewer hours of sleep -- were more likely to mix up event details than participants who were well rested.

"People who repeatedly get low amounts of sleep every night could be more prone in the long run to develop these forms of memory distortion," Fenn said. "It's not just a full night of sleep deprivation that puts them at risk."

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Sleep issues can lead to heart conditions

This article discusses how snoring and other sleep issues can lead to heart conditions.

Adequate amount of quality sleep is very essential to maintain good health, replenish energy, and restore the mind. It plays a vital role in maintaining a healthy balance of hormones, strengthening the immune system, sustaining proper brain function, and supporting healthy growth and development. Sleep-related disorders are one of the most commonly encountered problems today and can immensely affect your physical and mental health, cognitive capacity, productivity, quality of life, and safety.

Research shows that sleep disorders and heart disease are closely linked and one condition can lead to the other. Your heart, being only a little larger than a fist, works hard to pump almost 2,000 gallons of blood each day. Sleep provides your heart a chance to slow down, and your breathing and blood pressure drop to levels lower than what occurs while you are awake. Lack of sleep can lead to several heart-related conditions which include:

High blood pressure

Chest pain

Hardening of arteries (atherosclerosis or cholesterol-clogged arteries)

Heart attack

Stroke

Coronary heart disease

Congestive heart failure

Congenital heart defects

Studies have shown that habitual loud snorers are at a considerably higher risk of developing heart disease and stroke as compared to people who never or rarely snore. As you sleep, the soft tissue at the back of your head and neck relaxes and gradually narrows the airways, causing you to snore. Certain factors such as obesity, smoking, consumption of alcohol, allergic reactions, and muscle relaxing antidepressants and sedatives are known to increase the risk of persistent snoring. If not treated, snoring usually gets worse over time, causing the muscles to get weaker and making it harder to keep the airways open.

Patients with sleep disorders are often sleepy during the day and have reduced ability to concentrate, remember, or think, and are at a higher risk of falling asleep while driving or working. Studies have shown that proper treatment of sleep apnea greatly reduces your risk of developing heart-related conditions and, in addition, improves pre-existing cardiac disorders. Medical treatment for sleep disorders may involve the following:

• Weight loss if you are overweight.
• Avoiding drugs/habits that increase the risk of sleep apnea such as sleeping pills, sedatives, alcohol, and tobacco smoking.
• Using Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) -- a slightly pressurized mask is fit over the nose or over the nose and mouth to hold the airway open and allow the patient to sleep normally.
• Surgery on the upper airway (if your doctor thinks you are a candidate for surgery) -- enlarging the air passage by removing the uvula and some of the surrounding tissue.
• Wearing a dental device or mouth guard that is designed to move the lower jaw slightly down and outwards helps keep the airway open during sleep.
• Getting a polysomnogram -- a sleep study that is usually done overnight in a sleep center. It electronically transmits and records your brain waves, heart rate, breathing patterns, oxygen levels in the blood, your eye and limb movements, and muscle tension as you sleep. A sleep specialist analyzes the quality of your sleep and determines whether or not you have a sleep order.

Sleep disorders are very common and are often ignored by patients. You should talk to your doctor about your risk of having a sleep disorder and get regular medical check-ups. A timely diagnosis and early medical treatment can help you recover from your sleep disorder and reduce the risk of other serious health issues. It is important to remember that good quality sleep is more of a necessity than a luxury for better cardiovascular and overall health.

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Study: Losing sleep hurts obese teen's health

A study shows that lack of sleep can hurt the health of obese teens and may increase their risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Obese teens who get too little sleep are at increased risk for heart disease and diabetes, a small study suggests.

Researchers assessed the health, physical activity levels and sleeping habits of 37 obese American youngsters, aged 11 to 17.

Among the study participants, only one-third met the minimum recommendations of being physically active at least one hour per day. Most slept about seven hours a night, typically waking up at least once. Only five got the minimum recommended 8.5 hours of sleep each night.

Too little sleep was associated with an increased risk of heart disease and diabetes, independent of other risk factors, such as lack of physical activity and high levels of body fat, according to the University of Michigan Health System and Baylor University researchers.

The findings, published March 6 in The Journal of Pediatrics, suggest that sleep assessments may be useful in spotting teens at risk for heart disease and diabetes.

Further studies are needed to find out if getting more sleep would help reduce teens' risk for these health problems, lead author Heidi IglayReger, supervisor of the Physical Activity Laboratory at the Michigan Metabolomics and Obesity Center, and colleagues noted in the news release.

Previous research has shown that obesity and lack of sleep are linked with increased risk of heart disease and diabetes in adults and young children, but that association has not been clear in teens, the study authors pointed out.

While the study showed an association between lack of sleep and a raised risk for heart disease and diabetes in teens, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

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Sleep deprivation epidemic in teenagers, study claims

A study claims that there is currently an epidemic of sleep deprivation among teenagers and discusses how this is harmful to their health.

Caffeine, late nights and lack of sleep are just a few ways to describe the life of a typical teenager. Fortunately, a recent teen sleep study conducted at the Golden Bear Sleep and Mood Research Clinic at UC Berkeley aims to help address this problem. Allison Harvey, a psychology professor and the main investigator of the study recognizes the growth in the number of sleep-deprived adolescents and the need to do something about it.

This study has been going on for four years. Participants in the study must be between the ages of 10 and 18 and experience at least one problem relating to emotional health, social aptitude, behavioral irregularity or academic achievement. They also must report having problems sleeping at night. If all criteria are met, they are then invited to a sleepover at the UC Berkeley sleep lab for observation.

Researchers of the study used many methods for improving sleep among the teenage participants. For instance, common methods included motivation interventions and chronothereapy — a type of therapy that involves controlling sleep cycle times as well as the amount of light present — in order to adjust the participants’ circadian rhythm, the internal clock that regulates our biological functions every 24 hours.

The aim of the study was to try to shift the bedtimes of the teenagers. To do so, researchers manipulated melatonin — a hormone which aids in sleep and wake cycles. Once the participants arrived at the campus for the sleepover, they were expected to complete a six-week intervention. The intervention included sessions with a sleeping coach, interviews, saliva samples as well as monitoring activity levels through a special watch known as the Actiwatch.

The study wouldn’t have been possible without the undergraduate student research assistants, whose help includes everything from helping with recording, monitoring Actiwatch, being a morning or night buddy for the participants and having an active role in the biomeasures and outreach group.

Grace Wang, an undergraduate student majoring in psychology, molecular biology and nutritional science, has been an active member of the research assistant team for the study.

“More and more people realize how important sleep is and how important it is to set a regular sleep cycle. Perhaps it would be harder for the teenaged generation to understand, acknowledge and actually implement this into their schedules as they have a lot of things on their plates: clubs, activities, homework, etc.,” Wang said, who is no stranger to unhealthy sleeping cycles herself, in an email interview.

However, sleep-deprived teenagers are not only exclusive to the UC Berkeley campus. Ariel Sim, a third-year UC Davis statistics major and economics minor, has the tendency to calculate the number of hours of sleep she will be getting, though sadly it’s not nearly enough. Just like many students found over all sorts of campuses, Ariel is involved in not only her academics, but other activities as well.

“I am a student leader at a Christian fellowship on campus. I also have to work as much as I can without sacrificing schoolwork to cover rent, tuition, bills, insurance, groceries and any other living expenses. While I have a lot of responsibilities that take up my time, I also suffer from mild insomnia. Perhaps, that’s why I don’t get an ‘ideal’ amount of sleep or ever feel fully rested,” Sim said in an email interview.

Dr. Irwin Feinberg and Dr. Ian Campbell, both from the UC Davis Sleep Research Lab and the Department of Psychiatry and Behavior Sciences are also interested in studying sleep deprivation among teenagers. Both are involved in a sleep need study in adolescents and how the need changes from the ages of 10 to 18 years old.

“There is a decreased need of sleep across adolescence from 12 to 16.5 years, and right now the recommended hours of sleep for teenagers is nine to 10 hours a night,” Dr. Campbell said.

Feinberg and Campbell’s findings lead the researchers to believe that adolescents need less recuperation during the night if they achieve it through naps during the day. Because these findings are not yet conclusive, they are working on teasing out the details.

So if you have brothers or siblings at that age or care for kids yourself, and if they are falling asleep during the day, then most likely they are sleep-deprived. According to both Dr. Feinberg and Dr. Campbell, it is equally important that teenagers develop a regular sleeping schedule regardless of the weekday or weekend.

As a rule of thumb, it is important to try to ensure that teenagers are well-rested in order to have a healthy lifestyle, but in the process of ensuring their sleep, don’t forget to catch some shut eye yourself.

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Lack of sleep is a health issue for adults

This article discusses how lack of sleep is a huge issue for adults, and what those who aren't getting enough sleep should to do fix it.

America is full of sleepy people.

Adults should get between seven and nine hours of sleep each night, but most average between five and six, according to Shari Newman, clinical manager of sleep services at Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System

“We are sleepier today than we have ever been before,” Newman said. “Sleepy is an epidemic.”

When we are sleepy, we don't exercise as we should. We eat too much thinking it will give us energy to get through the day and we drink coffee and other caffeine-heavy drinks because we need that added boost, which only causes us to have trouble sleeping at night. The problems reoccur the next day.

“Sleepiness is adding to the obesity problem,” said Newman, seated in a room at North Grove Medical Center in Spartanburg. The room resembles a small hotel room instead of a typical doctor's office exam room. A tidy bed with white sheets sits against one wall. A TV sits in one corner. A bathroom, complete with a shower, is connected.

Newman said as many as 3,000 people stay in one of these 12 rooms each year. They come in around 8:30 p.m., go to sleep and leave the next morning around 6:30 a.m. While they sleep, doctors analyze their sleep patterns, studying brain waves and any breathing irregularities. There are 88 types of sleep disorders, Newman said.

The average adult spends a third of his life sleeping, according to the National Sleep Foundation. If you're 75 years old, that means you have slept for 25 years. How we sleep and how often we sleep affects the other two-thirds of our life, studies say.

Not only can sleepiness lead to obesity, studies have found other relationships between the quantity and quality of one's sleep and health problems. Blood pressure usually falls during the sleep cycle, however, interrupted sleep can adversely affect this normal decline, leading to hypertension and cardiovascular problems. Research has also shown that insufficient sleep impairs the body's ability to use insulin, which can lead to the onset of diabetes, according to the National Sleep Foundation. If you're sleepy, you can have a negative mood and behavior, decreased productivity, and safety issues in the home, on the job and on the road. A recent study by the American Academy of Pediatrics found that children who do not adhere to a regular bedtime are more likely to exhibit behavior problems during the day.

“We know sleepy folks really are at risk,” Newman said. “You have to plan for good sleep and make sleep the priority it needs to be.”

She adds that you should be able to lie down and go to sleep within 10 minutes and wake up without needing an alarm clock.

“If that's not happening, why? What is going on with your sleep?”

If you have trouble falling asleep at night, consider these tips provided by Spartanburg Regional Sleep Services:

* Lie down when you feel sleepy. If you don't fall asleep within 30 minutes, don't keep looking at the clock. Get up and go to another area where it's nice and quiet and relaxing. When you feel sleepy again, go back to bed. If you keep tossing and turning, you get anxious and frustrated and it's not going to happen.

* Go to sleep and get up at the same time everyday, even on weekends. “A lot of us try to catch up on sleep over the weekends. But sleep is not money, you can't save it up or put it in a bank. You have got to do it everyday.”

* Do not have caffeine within six hours of bedtime. Caffeine is a drug and it takes longer to clear from your system than a lot of people realize.

* Add exercise to your daily schedule. Exercise can deepen your sleep

• Insulate your room against sound and light
• Keep your room temperature moderate. Exceedingly warm or cold temperatures can disturb sleep. Generally, we sleep better when it's cooler.
• Consider eating a light, caffeine-free snack before bedtime. Both hunger and excessive fullness can disturb sleep.
• Avoid excessive liquids in the evening so you don't have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
• Don't smoke tobacco.
• Avoid alcohol, especially in the evening. Alcohol may help you fall asleep more easily, your sleep will be disturbed later by the alcohol.
• Keep work materials such as computers and television out of the bedroom.

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Study claims insufficient sleep is more likely in African Americans

A study shows that African Americans are more likely than whites to get insufficient sleep.

Black Americans are more likely than whites to get too little sleep and this disparity is greatest among people in professional occupations, a new study shows.

Lack of sleep has been linked with increased risk of health problems, such as obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and even death.

For the study, researchers analyzed data collected from nearly 137,000 American adults between 2004 and 2011, and found that 30 percent of them were short sleepers (getting less than seven hours of sleep a night), 31 percent were optimal sleepers (getting about seven hours of sleep a night), and 39 percent were long sleepers (getting more than seven hours of sleep a night).

Further analysis revealed that 37 percent of black participants were short sleepers, compared with 28 percent of white participants. Among people in professional or management positions, blacks were much more likely than whites to be short sleepers (42 percent versus 26 percent), according to the Harvard School of Public Health researchers.

Blacks working in support services or as laborers were also more likely than whites to be short sleepers, 37 percent versus 26 percent and 35 percent versus 32 percent, respectively. The only job sectors in which blacks and whites had similar rates of short sleep were the retail and food industries.

The findings were published online Sept. 9 in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

"With increasing numbers of blacks entering professional and management roles in numerous industries, it is important to investigate and address the social factors contributing to the short sleep disparities in blacks compared with whites in general, and particularly in professional settings," study author Chandra Jackson, a postdoctoral research fellow in the department of nutrition, said in a Harvard news release.

Possible sleep-disrupting factors that affect blacks more than whites include: job stress; workplace discrimination or harassment that can increase job stress; limited control over job demands or prestige; long work hours; stress at home; and limited access to professional and social networks that provide emotional or financial support.

In addition, blacks are more likely than whites to do shift work and are also more likely to live in city neighborhoods with high noise levels at night, the researchers noted.

And, the study authors pointed out, it's also possible that a high work ethic among blacks -- a strong desire to succeed against all odds -- could lead to stress, disrupted sleep and harmful health effects.

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Brain cell production increases during sleep

A study shows that brain cell production is boosted during sleep which may help research on how brain repair occurs during sleep.

Sleep increases the reproduction of the cells that go on to form the insulating material on nerve cell projections in the brain and spinal cord known as myelin, according to an animal study published in the September 4 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. The findings could one day lead scientists to new insights about sleep's role in brain repair and growth.

Scientists have known for years that many genes are turned on during sleep and off during periods of wakefulness. However, it was unclear how sleep affects specific cells types, such as oligodendrocytes, which make myelin in the healthy brain and in response to injury. Much like the insulation around an electrical wire, myelin allows electrical impulses to move rapidly from one cell to the next.

In the current study, Chiara Cirelli, MD, PhD, and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, measured gene activity in oligodendrocytes from mice that slept or were forced to stay awake. The group found that genes promoting myelin formation were turned on during sleep. In contrast, the genes implicated in cell death and the cellular stress response were turned on when the animals stayed awake.

"These findings hint at how sleep or lack of sleep might repair or damage the brain," said Mehdi Tafti, PhD, who studies sleep at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland and was not involved with this study.

Additional analysis revealed that the reproduction of oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) -- cells that become oligodendrocytes -- doubles during sleep, particularly during rapid eye movement (REM), which is associated with dreaming.

"For a long time, sleep researchers focused on how the activity of nerve cells differs when animals are awake versus when they are asleep," Cirelli said. "Now it is clear that the way other supporting cells in the nervous system operate also changes significantly depending on whether the animal is asleep or awake."

Additionally, Cirelli speculated the findings suggest that extreme and/or chronic sleep loss could possibly aggravate some symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS), a disease that damages myelin. Cirelli noted that future experiments may examine whether or not an association between sleep patterns and severity of MS symptoms exists.

This research was funded by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Psychiatry.

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Can people "catch up" on lost sleep?

This article claims that the idea of "catch up" on lost sleep is a myth.

Has "catching up" on sleep as a means to get your body and mind back to normal after going for days without been scientifically proven ineffective?

TRUE: You may feel better, but your body and mind won’t be as sharp as if you regularly got enough

Many people try to "catch up" on an extra couple hours of rest following a busy, sleepless week. But a sleep specialist told MSN News that those extra hours of slumber aren't as effective as you think.

Kevin Taylor, director of the Sleep Disorder Center at Cullman Regional Medical Center in Alabama, said the physical and mental toll of missing out on sustained lack of sleep won't just go away after getting one full night's worth.

"You can smoke for 30 years and quit today. Will you prolong your life? Yes. Has the damage already been done? Yes. Same thing with sleep," he said. "You miss a night's sleep, the damage to your body is still done."

The Huffington Post reported on a recent study, published in the American Journal of Physiology — Endocrinology and Metabolism, that found sleeping in for three nights after six nights of deprivation won’t improve the sharpness of brain performance, which can affect reaction time during activities like driving or playing sports.

The study is one of several that have explored "sleep debt" — the mental and physical toll that occurs when you don’t get enough rest. Scientific American wrote: "A 2005 survey by the National Sleep Foundation reports that, on average, Americans sleep 6.9 hours per night — 6.8 hours during the week and 7.4 hours on the weekends. Generally, experts recommend eight hours of sleep per night … that means on average, we're losing one hour of sleep each night — more than two full weeks of slumber every year."

Taylor said that getting proper sleep means eliminating certain practices, including keeping the television on during bedtime and consuming caffeine late.

"You don't just want the hours, you want quality of sleep," he said. "You need to train your body that when you get in the bedroom, it's time to sleep."

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Link Between Lack of Sleep and Junk Food Binging

Lack of sleep can result in a person eating greater quantities of high-calorie junk food resulting in weight gain over time

Lack of sleep can lead you to eat larger portions of high-calorie foods and increase your long-term risk of weight gain, according to a small new study.

Swedish researchers asked 16 normal-weight males to choose their ideal portions of high-calorie meals and snacks. They did this when they had a normal night of about eight hours sleep and again when they went a night without sleep.

The participants chose larger portion sizes after the night with no sleep. They did this both before and after a breakfast, which suggests that sleep deprivation increases food intake regardless of whether a person feels full, said study author Pleunie Hogenkamp, of Uppsala University.

"Bearing in mind that insufficient sleep is a growing problem in modern society, our results may explain why poor sleep habits can affect people's risk to gain weight in the long run," Hogenkamp said in a university news release.

The study was published online Feb. 18 in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology.

In a previous study, the same team of researchers found that young, normal-weight men who went a single night without sleep had increased activation of a brain region involved in the desire to eat.

Although the study found an association between lack of sleep and increased appetite for high-calorie foods, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

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