Tag: sleep | The Health Culture

Daylight saving time and heart attacks

Posted by Jan on March 12, 2011 @ 6:17 pm

1.6 billion people – almost a quarter of the world’s population – observe the biannual shifts between standard and daylight saving time. Does the loss of an hour’s sleep in the spring affect their health? According to a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine, there’s a statistically significant increase in the number of heart attacks (myocardial infarctions) in the week after we shift to daylight saving time.

Researchers in Sweden extracted statistics from 20 years worth of data on heart attacks. They compared the incidence of heart attacks during each day of the week after we change the clocks (both spring and fall) with the number of heart attacks two weeks prior to and two weeks after the time change.

There are always more heart attacks on Mondays, presumably connected to the stress of going back to work. But the number of Monday heart attacks was significantly lower following an extra hour of sleep in the fall. In fact, except for Fridays, the number of heart attacks was lower for the rest of the week. Following the loss of an hour’s sleep in the spring, heart attacks were up for the entire week, and the increase was especially significant on Tuesday.

Here’s the data displayed graphically.

Monday heart attacks and sleeping in on the weekend

These findings, of course, do not mean that losing an hour’s sleep causes a heart attack, but they do suggest that individuals who are vulnerable to heart problems might want to make the transition to daylight savings time gradual rather than abrupt. Read more

Teens benefit from later school start time

Posted by Jan on August 26, 2010 @ 4:31 pm

An excellent, extended overview in the LA Times on studies that indicate a later school start time is better for teen health.

The medical reasons:

As kids approach puberty, scientists now know, there is a two-hour shift in when their bodies release melatonin, the hormone that causes sleepiness. As a result, teens and preteens find it impossible to fall asleep until about 11 p.m., even if they try to go to bed earlier. Yet teenagers still need an average of 9.25 hours of slumber each night.

On top of the shift in natural sleeping and waking times, … there is also a delay in when a severe dip in alertness occurs during the early morning hours. In adults, this low point hits between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m.; in adolescents, it falls between about 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. That means that, while their alarm clocks are telling teens to get out of bed and demanding that their brains perform, their bodies are screaming at them to keep sleeping.

The melatonin shift may happen as early as age 10 or 11.

Here are the health issues of early start times:

Overtired kids, studies suggest, struggle with depression. … In addition to the mood, behavior and learning issues, scientists are starting to uncover more subtle ways that such chronic sleep loss can hurt kids. Some studies, for example, show that sleep deprivation compromises the immune system. Others suggest that, with too little sleep, the body releases higher levels of hormones that induce hunger, possibly contributing to growing rates of obesity.

Tired teens may also be more vulnerable to falling asleep at the wheel. … To stay awake, young people often turn to coffee, soda, energy drinks and other caffeinated beverages.

Links of interest: Sleep

Posted by Jan on May 16, 2010 @ 3:26 pm

Data Underload #18 – Sleep Schedule (Flowing Data)

A picture worth a thousand words. Diagram of the hours of the day showing when we’re asleep and awake throughout the lifespan.

Sleeping (or Not) by the Wrong Clock (The New York Times)

When your sleep schedule is out of sync with the rest of the world, there’s hope from the science of chronotherapeutics. It can reset your internal circadian clock.

In American psychiatry, chronotherapeutics is a new kid on the block, viewed by some as a counter-intuitive departure from conventional medication. By contrast, in Europe, where it is already well established, it is seen as compatible with medication and a means for expediting improvement with fewer residual symptoms.

Sleeping for less than six hours may cause early death, study finds (The Guardian)

[T]hose who generally slept for less than six hours a night were 12% more likely to experience a premature death over a period of 25 years than those who consistently got six to eight hours’ sleep. … [T]hose who consistently sleep more than nine hours a night can be more likely to die early. Oversleeping itself is not seen as a risk but as a potential indicator of underlying ailments. “Whilst short sleep may represent a cause of ill health, long sleep is believed to represent more an indicator of ill health.”

Modern society has seen a gradual reduction in the average amount of sleep people take, and this pattern is more common amongst full-time workers, suggesting that it may be due to societal pressures for longer working hours and more shift-work.

Lifespan linked to sleep (NHS Behind the Headlines)

Don’t believe any health news until you’ve read an analysis by the National Health Service. Commenting on the “less than six hours may cause early death” reports:

This is interesting and informative research. However, it should not be taken to mean that people who do not follow the ‘standard’ pattern for sleep are more likely to die early. Though a causal relationship is possible, the underlying reasons for poor sleep patterns and their possible relation to physiological changes in the body also need consideration. The BBC quotes Professor Horne from the Loughborough Sleep Research Centre: “Sleep is just a litmus paper to physical and mental health. Sleep is affected by many diseases and conditions, including depression.”

In addition, different people need different amounts of sleep, and this can be influenced by age, lifestyle, diet and environment. For example, newborn babies can sleep for 16 hours a day, while school-age children need an average of 10 hours sleep. Most healthy adults sleep for an average of seven to nine hours a night. As you get older, it is normal to need less sleep. Most people over 70 need less than six hours sleep a night, and they tend to be light sleepers.

Read more

The "lie down and die" model of sleep

Posted by Jan on April 8, 2010 @ 11:26 pm

Source: Biacustica

Do we need less sleep as we age? Experts differ on this question. Some studies find that older people need 1.5 hours less sleep each night than teenagers. Other studies indicate that our need for sleep does not diminish with age.
One thing experts do agree on is that many older people have more difficulty sleeping through the night – problems with falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking too early. But it’s hard to generalize. There seems to be something highly individual about our lifetime sleeping habits.
I thought this observation on sleep, from Patricia Morrisroe in the New York Times, was both interesting and comforting.

Couples who prefer to sleep alone: Your room or mine?

Posted by Jan on September 14, 2009 @ 11:42 pm

Source: Timeless Lesons

In pursuit of a good night’s sleep, an increasing number of couples now choose to sleep alone.

Couples who share a bed suffer 50% more sleep disturbances than those who sleep apart, according to recent research by a sleep specialist in Britain. In a separate study, a British sociologist found that when one bed partner moves during their sleep, there’s a 50% chance the other partner will be disturbed.

75% of adults either snore or wake up frequently during the night, according to the National Sleep Foundation. More than half of women surveyed by the Foundation reported that they slept well only a few nights a week.
Read more

High school students should sleep in

Posted by Jan on July 7, 2009 @ 5:41 pm

There’s a physiological reason why teenagers want to stay up late and sleep as long as they can in the morning. It has to do with the production of melatonin.

The body produces melatonin, a natural hormone related to our daily (circadian) rhythm, about an hour before we’re ready to fall asleep. Before adolescence, melatonin secretion starts about 9:30 PM. In teenagers, this doesn’t happen until an hour later. So teenagers aren’t ready to fall sleep — physiologically — until 11:30 PM or later. They like to sleep later because they still need the same amount of sleep each night as children in elementary school: 9.25 hours.
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Tag Archives: sleep

Monday heart attacks and sleeping in on the weekend

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