Survey Says 7-8 Hours Sleep Best; More or Less Is Risky

The average adult needs between seven and eight hours of sleep each night for optimum health. Getting less than that, and getting more than that, signals health risks linked to poor lifestyle choices and excessive weight gain, according to the results of a door-to-door survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. Read more

Chronic Sleep Disruption Leads to Heart, Kidney Disease

Shift workers, flight crews, truck drivers, emergency and medical personnel, and even patients in intensive care units don’t often get a full night’s uninterrupted sleep. And for a lot of people, a full night’s sleep occurs during the day. Read more

Insomnia More Dangerous for Women

Women who’ve made peace with counting sheep instead of sleep now have something new to worry about all night long, according to sleep researchers at Duke University Medical Center. Read more

Physicians and Sleep Deprivation go Hand in Hand

Being a physician is not necessarily the glamorous depiction often portrayed on television shows. In real life, physicians suffer from sleep deprivation in much the same way as the general public does. Like the general public, physicians tend to turn to caffeine based beverages to make it through the day. Read more

Sleep? Sorry, Too Tired To Worry About It

One way to cope with chronic insomnia is to accept it and not worry too much about it but worry we should. We should also worry when a lifestyle too filled with things to do instead of sleep keeps us up at night, too. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says about 10% of the adult population of the United States just doesn’t get enough sleep. Read more

Daytime Naps Improve Memory

According to a study published in the recent issue of Sleep, brief 45 minute daytime naps improve memory performance. The study, conducted by Matthew A. Tucker, PhD, of the Center for Sleep and Cognition and the department of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, analyzed 33 participants. Read more

Sweet Sleep Staves Off Diabetes

Med Headlines - The merits of a good night’s sleep were the subject of a study led by University of Chicago’s Dr. Ersa Tasali. Of particular interest to researchers was the connection between a good night’s sleep and the body’s ability to metabolize insulin.

When in a state of deep sleep, measured by electrical impulses in the brain moving in long, slow delta waves, a sleeper’s metabolism changes. Study subjects were not allowed to maintain this sleep state during several nights. Instead, they were awakened with a loud bang whenever this sleep state had been reached. Read more

Snoring Bad For Everyone

Med Headlines - If you are sharing bed with a snoring partner, you have higher chances of being deprived of almost two years worth of sleep during your lifetime. A team of scientists from the University of Surrey made this startling revelation. The research team, led by Chris Frost from Lloyds pharmacy, added that your quality of life and health is severely affected if you are sharing bed with a partner who snores. Other than this, the suffering partner may be forced to move to another room, or experience disturbed sleep throughout his or her life. Read more

« Previous Page