Health and Fitness

Risk Of Motor Vehicle Accidents In Adolescents Increased By Sleep Problems And Sleepiness

A study in the Feb. 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine shows that sleepiness at the wheel and poor sleep quality significantly increase the risk of motor vehicle accidents in adolescents. Results indicate that adolescent drivers were twice as likely to have had a crash if they experienced sleepiness while driving (adjusted odds ratio = 2.1) or reported having bad sleep (OR = 1.9). Eighty of the 339 students had already crashed at least once, and 15 percent of them considered sleepiness to have been the main cause of the crash.

Study Identifies That Multiple Risk Factors Existed In 78 Percent Of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Cases

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) continues to be the third leading cause of infant death, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), despite a decline in SIDS that is associated with a rise in safe-sleep practices for newborns and infants. A new study by Barbara M. Ostfeld, PhD and Thomas Hegyi, MD, professors in the Department of Pediatrics at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, has identified that more than 96 percent of infants who died of SIDS were exposed to known risk factors, among them sleeping on their side or stomach, or exposure to tobacco smoke, and that 78 percent of SIDS cases contained multiple risk factors.

Frequency Of Nightmare Recall Decreased By Severe Sleep Apnea

A study in the Feb. 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine shows that patients with severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) report a significantly lower frequency of nightmares than patients with mild or no sleep apnea, indicating that OSA suppresses the cognitive experience of nightmare recall. Results show that the percent of participants with frequent nightmare recall decreased linearly as sleep apnea severity increased. Frequent nightmare recall, occurring at least weekly, was reported by 71.

Behavioral Therapy Improves Sleep And Lives Of Patients With Pain

Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia significantly improved sleep for patients with chronic neck or back pain and also reduced the extent to which pain interfered with their daily functioning, according to a study by University of Rochester Medical Center researchers. The study, published online by the journal Sleep Medicine, demonstrates that a behavioral intervention can help patients who already are taking medications for pain and might be reluctant or unable to take additional drugs to treat sleep disturbance.

Impact Of Sleep Deprivation On Brain Functioning Different Than Previously Thought

What goes on in your brain when you're sleep deprived and how does it affect your ability to process information and make decisions? A research study conducted at Washington State University into the effects of sleep deprivation on executive functioning the ability to initiate, monitor and stop actions to achieve objectives has yielded surprising results and caused a shift in the current thinking on this topic. Published in the January 2010 issue of the journal "SLEEP, " the study found that sleep deprivation affects distinct cognitive processes in different ways.

What Do Sleep, Diabetes And Red Have In Common With Heart Disease?

OSA: The Sleep Disorder that's Deadly for Your Heart If you're a loud snorer who doesn't feel rested enough during the day, you may be unwittingly putting your heart at risk. That's because you could have untreated Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), a disorder directly linked to several cardiovascular syndromes that cause premature death. OSA, in which the upper airway becomes blocked repeatedly during sleep, is a condition that affects 24% of men and 8% of women. Over the past 10 years, several studies have linked OSA to high blood pressure.

What Is Obstructive Sleep Apnea OSA ?

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a condition which causes interruptions in breathing during sleep. It is a potentially serious sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep as the throat muscles intermittently relax and block the airway. In obstructive sleep apnea, breathing is interrupted by a physical block to airflow, despite the effort to breathe. The most noticeable sign of obstructive sleep apnea is snoring. However, not everyone who has OSA snores. According to Medilexicon's medical dictionary, Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is: " a disorder, first described in 1965, characterized by recurrent interruptions of breathing during sleep due to temporary obstruction of the airway by lax, excessively bulky, or malformed pharyngeal tissues (soft palate, uvula, and sometimes tonsils), with resultant hypoxemia and chronic lethargy.

Healthy Adults May Need Less Sleep As They Age According To Study

A study in the Feb. 1 issue of the journal SLEEP suggests that healthy older adults without sleep disorders can expect to have a reduced "sleep need" and to be less sleepy during the day than healthy young adults. Results show that during a night of eight hours in bed, total sleep time decreased significantly and progressively with age. Older adults slept about 20 minutes less than middle-aged adults, who slept 23 minutes less than young adults. The number of awakenings and the amount of time spent awake after initial sleep onset increased significantly with age, and the amount of time spent in deep, slow-wave sleep decreased across age groups.

Novel Patent Targets The Most Common Sleep Complaint: Chronic Insomnia

Consolidated Research of Richmond, Inc. (CRI) announces the awarding of United States Patent 7, 654, 948 - which is a novel, drug-free system for treating people suffering from the most common sleep complaint: Chronic Insomnia. An estimated 10-20% of the industrialized world's adult population suffers from moderate to severe chronic insomnia, yet, unlike sleep apnea, there is a significant lack of technology addressing this tremendous need. Products based on Consolidated Research's patented technologies will address this market need.

Possible Pharmacological Target s Identified In Pediatric OSA

Children with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may one day be able to have an injection or use a throat spray instead of getting their tonsils removed to cure their snoring, according to a new study from the University of Chicago, which found that a specific gene product may be responsible for the proliferation of adenotonsillar tissue that can cause pediatric OSA. "We found that in the tonsil tissues of children with OSA, certain genes and gene networks were over expressed, " said David Gozal, M.


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