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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Sleepless nights after divorce are linked to raised blood pressure

A study looked into people who have long-term sleeplessness following a divorce and found they are more at risk for high blood pressure.

People who suffer long-term sleep problems after a divorce are at risk for a rise in blood pressure, a new study suggests.

Previous research has linked divorce to major health problems and even early death, but few studies have examined the reasons for this link. Sleep trouble may be one of the causes, according to the University of Arizona investigators.

Their study included 138 people who had been separated or divorced for about 16 weeks. They reported on the quality of their sleep during three lab visits over seven-and-a-half months. Their blood pressure also was checked during those visits.

The researchers did not see a link between sleep problems and blood pressure in the participants' early lab visits. However, there was a delayed effect, they said.

"We saw changes in resting blood pressure were associated with sleep problems three months earlier. Earlier sleep problems predicted increases in resting blood pressure over time," study co-author David Sbarra, an associate professor of psychology, said in a university news release.

The longer participants' sleep problems lasted, the more likely they were to have a rise in blood pressure.

"What we found was if you're having sleep problems up to about 10 weeks after your separation, they don't appear to be associated with your future increase in blood pressure," Sbarra said. "However, after 10 or so weeks -- after some sustained period of time -- there seems to be a cumulative bad effect."

The study, published recently in the journal Health Psychology, only established an association between divorce-related sleep problems and higher blood pressure, not a direct cause-and-effect relationship.

"In the initial few months after a separation, sleep problems are probably pretty normal, and this is an adjustment process that people can typically cope with well," Sbarra said.

Sleep problems that persist for an extended period might mean something different, he added. "It may mean that people are potentially becoming depressed, that they're struggling with getting their life going again, and it is these people that are particularly susceptible to health problems," he explained.

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The moon may not influence the way humans sleep

A study shows that the moon may not influence the way humans sleep.

Popular beliefs about the influence of the moon on humans widely exist. Many people report sleeplessness around the time of full moon. In contrast to earlier studies, scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich did not observe any correlation between human sleep and the lunar phases. The researchers analyzed preexisting data of a large cohort of volunteers and their sleep nights. Further identification of mostly unpublished null findings suggests that the conflicting results of previous studies might be due to a publication bias.

For centuries, people have believed that the moon cycle influences human health, behavior and physiology. Folklore mainly links the full moon with sleeplessness. But what about the scientific background?

Several studies searched in re-analyses of pre-existing datasets on human sleep for a lunar effect, although the results were quite varying and the effects on sleep have rarely been assessed with objective measures, such as a sleep EEG. In some studies women appeared more affected by the moon phase, in others men. Two analyses of datasets from 2013 and 2014, each including between 30 and 50 volunteers, agreed on shorter total sleep duration in the nights around full moon. However, both studies came to conflicting results in other variables. For example, in one analysis the beginning of the REM-sleep phase in which we mainly dream was delayed around new moon, whereas the other study observed the longest delay around full moon.

To overcome the problem of possible chance findings in small study samples, scientists now analyzed the sleep data of overall 1,265 volunteers during 2,097 nights. "Investigating this large cohort of test persons and sleep nights, we were unable to replicate previous findings," states Martin Dresler, neuroscientist at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, Germany, and the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour in Nijmegen, Netherlands. "We could not observe a statistical relevant correlation between human sleep and the lunar phases." Further, his team identified several unpublished null findings including cumulative analyses of more than 20,000 sleep nights, which suggest that the conflicting results might be an example of a publication bias (i.e. the file drawer problem).

The file drawer problem describes the phenomenon, that many studies may be conducted but never reported -- they remain in the file drawer. One much-discussed publication bias in science, medicine and pharmacy is the tendency to report experimental results that are positive or show a significant finding and to omit results that are negative or inconclusive.

Up to now, the influence of the lunar cycle on human sleep was investigated in re-analyses of earlier studies which originally followed different purposes. "To overcome the obvious limitations of retrospective data analysis, carefully controlled studies specifically designed for the test of lunar cycle effects on sleep in large samples are required for a definite answer," comments Dresler.

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Ways to treat insomnia

This article discusses insomnia and how to treat it.

Insomnia is difficulty getting to sleep or staying asleep for long enough for an individual to feel refreshed the next morning, even if one has had enough opportunity to sleep. Sleep is the natural state of unconsciousness that enables one’s body to rest. During such state, the body goes through various sleep stages in a cycle like drowsiness, light sleep, deep sleep and dreaming.  insomnia or in other word sleeplessness, is a sleep disorder which exhibits an inability to fall asleep or to stay asleep as long as desired.

Definition of normal sleep remains difficult since people differ on the basis of age, diet, environments and lifestyles – factors that play a role in determining the amount of sleep one need. Notably, insomnia is not the only sleep disorder although it is the most common sleep complaints; hence it at times becomes a symptom of another problem which differs from one person to another. insomnia can be classified as transient, acute or chronic.

Treatment of insomnia requires its cause for instance, if it is caused by an underlying medical condition or not.insomnia can be treated by the following means:

Ensuring good sleep hygiene

A general practitioner may assist you in knowing what to do in order to get sleep – also known as good sleep hygiene. Tips for good sleep hygiene include establishing set times for going to bed and waking up, making sure you relax before going to bed, ensuring a comfortable sleeping environment, avoiding a daytime nap, avoiding late night caffeine, nicotine and alcohol, avoiding exercise four hours to bedtime, avoiding eating a heavy meal late in the night, avoiding glancing at the clock all through the night and using the bedroom only when you want to sleep and sex.

If your insomnia lasts more than four weeks, your general practitioner may either recommend cognitive and behavioral treatments or short course of sleeping tablets for immediate relief.

Cognitive and behavioral treatments

This is aimed at changing unhelpful thoughts and behaviors that may be contributing to insomnia. This includes stimulus control therapy which helps remove factors that condition one’s mind to resist sleep, sleep restriction therapy – increasing the time one spends in bed by improving sleep, relaxation training to help you calm your mind and body through muscle relaxation, imagery and meditation, paradoxical intention which refers to letting go of any worry that keeps you awake and biofeedback – a method that allows the observation of biological signs like muscle tension and heart rate and shows you how to adjust them. CBT-I is at times performed by a specially trained general practitioner or a clinical psychologist.

Sleeping tablets

Sleeping tablets are drugs that promote sleep. They are usually used when you have a severe insomnia, to relieve short term insomnia and in case the above mentioned behavioral treatments prove ineffective. Doctors are mostly reluctant to administer sleeping tablets as they don’t treat the cause of insomnia and have side effects such as a feeling of hungover and daytime drowsiness. Examples of sleeping tablets are discussed below.

Benzodiazepines are tranquillizers that can lessen anxiety and encourage coolness, relaxation and sleep. This medicine should only be given to a person with severe insomnia or if it causes acute suffering as it makes that person sleepy and can also lead to dependency.

Z medicines are current kinds of medicines that work in a comparable way to benzodiazepines. Z medicines include zaleplon, zolpidem and zopiclone.

Zaleplon should be used in people with insomnia who have problem falling asleep and in lowest possible dose as it has side effects such as memory problems, painful periods in women, sleepiness, apathy, balance and coordination problems, concentration problems, changed sense of smell, dizziness and hallucinations.

Zolpidem is for unbearable insomnia causing severe stress. Its side effects are diarrhea, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, headaches, tiredness and sleep difficulty like sleep walking and stomach pains.

Zopiclone is for short-term treatment including waking up during the night, difficulty falling asleep causing severe distress. It should be used in its lowest possible dose as side effects include dry mouth, metallic taste in the mouth, sleepiness, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, drowsiness and headaches.

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Target enzyme for epilepsy drugs may also cause sleep loss

A study in fruit flies shows that an enzyme that is a target for epilepsy drugs also contributes for sleeplessness. This has many implications for treating both conditions.

A new study in a mutant fruitfly called sleepless (sss) confirmed that the enzyme GABA transaminase, which is the target of some epilepsy drugs, contributes to sleep loss. The findings, published online in Molecular Psychiatry, were led by Amita Sehgal, PhD, head of the Chronobiology Program at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine. The findings shed light on mechanisms that may be shared between sleep disruption and some neurological disorders. A better understanding of this connection could enable treatments that target both types of symptoms and perhaps provide better therapeutic efficacy.

"Epilepsy is essentially an increase-in-firing disorder of the brain and maybe a decrease in activity of the neurotransmitter GABA, too," says Sehgal, who is also a professor of Neuroscience and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). "This connects our work to drugs that inhibit GABA transaminase. Changes in GABA transaminase activity are implicated in epilepsy and some other psychiatric disorders, which may account for some of the associated sleep problems."

The team looked at the proteomics of the sss mutant brain -- a large-scale study of the structure and function of related proteins -- and found that GABA transaminase is increased in the sss brain compared to controls. This enzyme breaks down GABA, so GABA is decreased in the sss brain. Because GABA promotes sleep, there is a decrease in sleep in the sss mutant fly, as the name implies.

The relationship between the SSS protein and GABA is not fully understood. The SSS protein controls neural activity, and its absence results in increased neural firing, which likely uses up a lot of energy, says Sehgal. GABA transaminase works in the mitochondria, the energy-production organelle in the glial cells of the brain, which provide fuel for neurons. The large energy demand created by the increased neural firing in sss brains probably alters mitochondrial metabolism, including GABA transaminase function in glia.

In the sss mutant fly, there is a stream of connections that leads to its signature loss of sleep: The sss mutant has increased neuron firing caused by downregulation of a potassium channel protein called Shaker. Recently, the Sehgal lab showed that SSS also affects activity of acetylcholine receptors. Both of these actions may directly cause an inability to sleep. In addition, increased energy demands on glia, which increase GABA transaminase and decrease GABA, may further contribute to sleep loss. On the other hand, if GABA is increased, then sleep is increased, as in flies that lack GABA transaminase.

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