Staying in Bed On Days Off is Essential to Health

Researchers have found that the optimal level of sleep is between 7 and 9 hours a night because of longer working hours and increased sleep. The previous optimal time line used to be between 6 and 8. Also with this news, comes information that trying to catch up on sleep deficits is crucial to health and must be done in more than one night.

Sleep Deprivation and Weekend Rest

According to the researchers, sleeping in for 10 hours on a weekend may not be enough to overcome the sleep deprivation faced by Americans across the nation. As more individuals devote more time to work, and to their kids’ activities outside of school, they often sacrifice sleep to catch a TV show they previously recorded or to read a book. Some even bring work home to do after supper, losing sleep that way. It all adds up, says researchers, and individuals need to deposit sleep back into their overdrawn sleep account if they are to maintain good health.
Inadequate sleep amounts result in inability to think clearly which leads to problems with decision making and problem-solving; these skills are vital during the work day. If a person has experienced sleep deprivation, on a continued basis, they can increase their stress as they try to cope and work through a fuzzy mindset. Increased stress can lead to more sleep loss from people thinking and worrying at night, resulting in more fuzzy thinking and loss of memory skills, perpetuating the vicious cycle.
If folks fail to catch up on that loss of sleep during the weekend, they will continue to add to the sleep debt and “may result in continuing build-up of sleep pressure and an increased likelihood of loss of alertness and increased errors,” according to the study published in the journal Sleep.
It is alright for folks to sleep in on days off and they should use both days/nights off or as many as they have to catch up on their sleep so as to decrease this sleep debt. Each person’s optimal time of sleep will vary based on their own personal health conditions, circadian rhythms, level of stress and other factors. Individuals who are experiencing sleep loss should contact their personal physician to discuss measures of gaining more sleep.

Less Sleep May Expand Kids’ Waistlines

Diets high in fat and sugar may not be the only things contributing to American children’s expanding waistlines. Research findings from the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital suggest that kids who aren’t getting enough sleep also may be at an increased risk for being overweight.
In a study exploring the relationship between sleep duration and overweight risk for third-grade and sixth-grade children, researchers found that children who got less shut-eye – fewer than 9 hours each day – were at an increased risk of being overweight, regardless of their gender, race, socioeconomic status, or quality of the home environment.
These findings reveal that sixth graders with shorter nightly sleep durations were more likely to be overweight. And third-grade students who got fewer hours of sleep, regardless of their body mass index, or BMI, were more likely to become overweight in sixth grade. Results from this study appear in the November issue of the journal Pediatrics.
“Many children aren’t getting enough sleep, and that lack of sleep may not only be making them moody or preventing them from being alert and ready to learn at school, it may also be leading to a higher risk of being overweight,” says study lead author Julie C. Lumeng, M.D., assistant research scientist at the U-M Center for Human Growth and Development.
“This study suggests that an increased risk for overweight is yet another potential consequence of short sleep duration, providing an additional reason to ensure that children are receiving adequate sleep, primarily through enforcing an age-appropriate bed time.”
Already, research has demonstrated that among adults, even modest reductions in sleep duration are associated with significant increases in obesity risk. Other studies conducted in Japan and England also offer evidence of a link between shorter sleep duration and overweight risk in children. Those studies with children, however, are limited by racial and socioeconomic homogeneity, says Lumeng, assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.
Since U.S. children’s risk for overweight varies by race and socioeconomic status, Lumeng and her colleagues wanted to examine sleep duration and overweight risk for children independent of those factors.
The researchers reviewed data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development on reported sleep problems, sleep duration and BMI for 785 elementary school children, ages 9 to 12. Among those studied, 50 percent were male, 81 percent were white, and 18 percent were overweight in sixth grade.
The researchers found that overweight sixth-grade children slept fewer hours than children who were not overweight. Boys made up the majority of overweight sixth-grade children.
Boys, too, were reported to sleep fewer hours, while girls were found to have more sleep problems. Sleep problems, however, were not associated with a child being a risk for overweight.
Most promising, these study results show that for every additional hour of sleep in sixth grade, a child was 20 percent less likely to be overweight in sixth grade; every additional hour of sleep in third grade resulted in a 40 percent decrease in the child’s risk of being overweight in sixth grade.
“Sleep may have a behavior impact on children,” says Lumeng. “In other words, children who are better rested may have more energy to get more exercise. For example, they may be more likely to go out and play, as opposed to lying on the couch watching TV. It also is possible that when children are tired, they may be more irritable or moody, and may use food to regulate their mood.”
Even more important, Lumeng says, is emerging research that shows a connection between sleep disruption and the hormones that regulate fat storage, appetite and glucose metabolism. Short sleep duration alters carbohydrate metabolism, and leads to impaired glucose tolerance, which can affect a person’s weight. Circadian rhythms, too, affect the body’s leptin, glucose and insulin levels.
“So weight gain may not be a result of sleep’s effect on behavior, but rather sleep’s effect on hormone secretion in the body, specifically, leptin and grehlin,” says Lumeng, who notes that sleep and leptin secretion in children is an important area for future research.
Bottom line: If families are struggling to get their children to go to sleep at a reasonable hour, they should seek help from their health care provider, Lumeng advises. Revising school start times may also provide a solution to increasing the amount of sleep a child gets each day.

Lack Of Deep Sleep May Increase Risk Of Diabetes

Suppression of slow-wave sleep in healthy young adults significantly decreases their ability to regulate blood-sugar levels and increases the risk of type 2 diabetes.
Deep sleep, also called "slow-wave sleep," is thought to be the most restorative sleep stage, but its significance for physical well-being has not been demonstrated. This study found that after only three nights of selective slow-wave sleep suppression, young healthy subjects became less sensitive to insulin. Although they needed more insulin to dispose of the same amount of glucose, their insulin secretion did not increase to compensate for the reduced sensitivity, resulting in reduced tolerance to glucose and increased risk for type 2 diabetes. The decrease in insulin sensitivity was comparable to that caused by gaining 20 to 30 pounds.
Previous studies have demonstrated that reduced sleep quantity can impair glucose metabolism and appetite regulation resulting in increased risk of obesity and diabetes. This current study provides the first evidence linking poor sleep quality to increased diabetes risk.
"These findings demonstrate a clear role for slow-wave sleep in maintaining normal glucose control," said the study's lead author, Esra Tasali, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago Medical Center. "A profound decrease in slow-wave sleep had an immediate and significant adverse effect on insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance."
"Since reduced amounts of deep sleep are typical of aging and of common obesity-related sleep disorders, such as obstructive sleep apnea these results suggest that strategies to improve sleep quality, as well as quantity, may help to prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes in populations at risk," said Eve Van Cauter, PhD, professor of medicine at the University of Chicago and senior author of the study.
"These findings shed light on a problem faced by many elderly, that of fragmented sleep and less time spent in restorative sleep," said Dr. Andrew Monjan, PhD, MPH, Chief of the Neurobiology of Aging Branch at the National Institute on Aging, which partially funded the research. "More research is needed into the link between insufficient sleep and common metabolic disturbances of later life, such as type 2 diabetes and obesity."
The researchers studied nine lean, healthy volunteers, five men and four women between the ages of 20 and 31. The subjects spent two consecutive nights in the sleep laboratory, where they went to bed at 11 p.m., slept undisturbed but carefully monitored, and got out of bed 8.5 hours later, at 7:30 a.m.
The same subjects were also studied for three consecutive nights during which they followed identical nighttime routines. During this session, however, when their brain waves indicated that they were drifting into slow-wave sleep they were subtly disturbed by sounds administered through speakers beside the bed.

Heavy Marijuana Users Experience Sleep Disturbance

To determine if recently abstinent, heavy marijuana (MJ) users show differences in polysomnographic (PSG) measures compared with a drug-free control group.
A group of carefully selected heavy heavy marijuana users were chosen for study inclusion and matched to a drug-free control group. Questionnaire data were collected prior to cessation of MJ use. PSG studies were conducted during 2 consecutive nights after discontinuation of heavy marijuana use in our core sleep laboratory.
The wetting of sleep disturbance and Marijuana use was Baltimore Maryland, General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) core sleep lab.
Participants were the 17 heavy MJ users discontinuing heavy marijuana use and 14 drugfree controls. Men and women were studied, 18 to 30 years. The MJ users reported no other drug use and alcohol use was negligible in both groups. Urine was positive for metabolites of cannabis only.
The results demonstrated that the MJ users showed differences in PSG measures (lower total sleep times, and less slow wave sleep than the control group) on both nights; they also showed worse sleep efficiency, longer sleep onset, and shorter REM latency than the control group on Night 2. More sleep continuity parameters were significantly worse for the MJ group than the control group on Night 2 versus Night 1, indicating that sleep in the MJ group was relatively worse on Night 2 compared to Night 1. The MJ group did not show improved sleep after an adaptation night as expected. Withdrawal symptoms, craving, and depression did not appear to influence these findings.
During discontinuation of heavy heavy marijuana use, PSG measures of sleep disturbance were detected in heavy marijuana users compared with a drugfree control group. While this preliminary study cannot identify the extent to which these group differences were present before abstinence, poor sleep quality either prior to or after MJ discontinuation could result in treatment failure for MJ users.
Further investigation is necessary to determine the association between the use and cessation of MJ and sleep disturbance.

Good Night's Sleep Is Important

To be well-rested is a feat easier said than done for approximately 40 million adults who suffer from chronic sleep disorders and an additional 30 million troubled by intermittent sleep-related conditions. As we prepare to "spring forward" to Daylight Savings Time on March 9, experts at the Sleep Disorders Center at Northwestern Memorial urge people to examine their current sleep habits and remember the importance of a good night's sleep.
The national incidence of sleep deprivation is largely due to undiagnosed sleep disorders such as insomnia, sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, and narcolepsy, many of which can be treated, however often go undiagnosed.
"Sleep problems are widespread and on the rise, yet many people dismiss the issue and don't realize the consequences that can result" said Phyllis Zee, MD, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Northwestern Memorial. "Continuous quality sleep is essential, as sleep loss over an extended period of time has been linked to serious health issues including obesity, depression, heart attack and stroke," adds Zee.
Sleep deprivation can also lead to poor performance at work and impaired driving. An estimated 47 million adults acknowledge they don't get the minimum amount of sleep needed to be alert the next day, which can lead to lower productivity for employers. Dangerous driving is also a common occurance. In fact, according to a recent poll by the National Sleep Foundation, about 60 percent of licensed drivers, about 118 million people, reported driving while drowsy, of which more than one-third said they had actually nodded off or fell asleep at the wheel. Several studies show that prolonged wakefulness can impair driving performance to that of a blood alcohol level of .05 percent to .10 percent, with .08 percent considered legally drunk. According to The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) approximately 100,000 police-reported crashes and 1,500 deaths occur in the U.S. each year because of drowsy driving.
"There is a common misconception that you can 'catch up' on sleep," Zee noted. "Unfortunately, this is not true. Adequate and consistent sleep is far more important than the general public perceives it to be. Sleep habits are an important indicator of one's overall health and continued sleep problems need to be addressed," adds Zee.
How Much is Enough?
The number of hours needed for sleep is highly individual and can vary from six to 10 hours. For many, interrupted sleep is a result of less-than-tranquil bedtime habits, not a disorder. Zee recommends first addressing the problem by following these simple tips:
* Maintain a regular bed and wake time schedule - even on weekends
* Create a sleep-conducive environment that is dark, quiet and comfortable
* Complete meals and exercise a few hours before bedtime
* Avoid caffeine close to bedtime
Warning Signs
There are many daytime consequences that can signal a poor night's sleep, some of which are more apparent than others. If you consistently experience any of the following six symptoms of inadequate sleep, be sure to inform your doctor or healthcare provider:
* Dozing off while reading, watching TV, sitting in meetings, or sitting in traffic
* Slowed thinking and reacting
* Difficulty listening to what is said or understanding directions
* Frequent errors or mistakes
* Depression or negative mood
* Impatience or being quick to anger