Care For Your Sleep

A group of scientists in the US are reporting that they are on the verge of creating a new revolutionary cure for insomnia based on their new discovery of an enzyme responsible for our sleep-wake up routine. After a series of chemical tests and studies related to mechanisms of sleep regulation, the researchers found a chemical compound that is responsible for producing a restful sleep, and according to the findings, blocking this enzyme production can be associated with total suppressing of our sleep function. In other words, some certain amounts of this enzyme in the body can cause a person to wake up.

Millions of people around the world are suffering from such sleep disorder as insomnia, and in most of those people this sleep disorder turned into a chronic problem. That is why finding an effective cure for insomnia is a very topical problem nowadays. Many specialists are carrying out experiments trying to analyze chemical processes that take place in our brain while we are sleeping. It is known that sleep is regulated by numerous chemical processes, as well as other mechanisms influenced by other mental, environmental, psychological and other factors. Some of those are not properly understood yet.

Currently, there are quite a few cures for insomnia available for modern people, however, most of those have dangerous side effects and can not help in combating the problem from its roots. That is why the recent research gives great hopes to everyone who is in need of a cure for insomnia. The scientists tried to understand regulation mechanisms on cellular levels that can lead to finding causes and possible treatments for many sleep disorders. In particular, it was found our that blocking  the enzyme can cause non-REM and REM stages of sleep and improve our sleep quality.

“Current treatments for sleep disorders do not achieve the ideal behavioral outcome, and are usually accompanied by many undesirable side effects,” Dr Subimal Dutta, one of the study leaders and an author of the report commented to the mass media. “A more specific, fine-tuned approach to treating these disorders by promoting alertness and treating insomnia would greatly benefit public health,” she added. You can read more about the findings of the US scientists and opinions of the leading sleep experts on the perspectives of creating a new cure for insomnia in the latest issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

Many people are fighting against various sleep disorders like insomnia and others. They spend quite a lot of money on buying sleeping pills, visiting psychiatrists or other experts, changing the furniture in the bedroom, and other most popular tricks to combat insomnia. However, it is possible to substantially improve our sleep quality by using quite a simple and easy method. Wanna know what that is? Regular physical activities and exercise!

According to the latest findings of American specialists, only 150 minutes of physical activities a week can help us improve our sleep quality and feel more alert during the day. A group of experts at Bellarmine University carried out a survey and interviewed about 2,600 American people aged between 25 and 60. It turned out that 2,5 hours of moderate physical activities and exercise a week can be of a great help to those who suffer from insomnia and other related sleep disorders. It was estimated that by using the stated amount of physical activities can assist to provide more than 65 per cent sleep quality improvement, as well as help feel less sleepy and tired during the day.

Sufficient amounts of physical activities are very important for all of us to support our overall health and a proper function of all systems of the body. Brad Cardinal, one of the leaders of the research group and a specialist at Oregon State University said: “We were using the physical activity guidelines set forth for cardiovascular health, but it appears that those guidelines might have a spillover effect to other areas of health.” According to the expert, plenty of physical activities and exercise can play a role of a safe and unique alternative to sleeping pills known for their numerous harmful side effects like addiction, impaired memory, etc.

It is obvious that using physical activities to improve our sleep quality and combat such a common symptom as daytime sleepiness will lead to numerous improvements and other amazing benefits to our general health. In particular, during the study it became apparent that such symptoms as leg cramps or the ability to focus can be deceased: 68 per cent of the participants reported about having less leg cramps, and 45 per cent told that they have improved abilities to concentrate. Physical activities can assist in weight loss and lowering bad LDL blood cholesterol levels, lowering the risks of serious cardiovascular diseases like a heart attack, atherosclerosis, and so on. Read more about the findings of this interesting study in the latest issue of Mental Health and Physical Activity.

Adequate amounts of sleep on a regular basis are very important for all children and teenagers, and a lack of sleep in young ages can have very serious and irreversible negative effects. In particular, according to the findings of a recent study related to teenage obesity and chances to suffer from type 2 diabetes, those teenagers who do not have enough sleep day-by-day have much higher blood sugar levels. This situation can turn into a dangerous one and create a perfect environment for developing type 2 diabetes. Therefore, in order to lower the risks of this serious disease, it is necessary to sleep not less than 8-8.5 hours a day.

62 overweight teenagers from the US aged 12-16 took part in the study. Their overnight sleep patterns were analyzed and compared. At that, the scientists payed attention not only to sleep phases, but also to the glucose levels in the teenagers’ blood. It turned out that those of the teenagers who had inadequate amounts of sleep (either too much sleep or too little sleep) had quite higher levels of sugar in blood compared to the glucose levels in the blood of those teenagers who had the recommended amount of sleep.

Dr. Dorit Koren, a pediatric endocrinologist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and one of the leaders of the research, comments on the findings as the following: “Our study found to keep glucose levels stable, the optimal amount of sleep for teenagers is 7.5 to 8.5 hours per night.” This amount of sleep in teenagers is associated with the best condition and, in particular, with normal levels of blood glucose linked to lower risks of developing problems and diseases like type 2 diabetes. It was also found out that a lack of sleep in teenagers is associated with lowered insulin secretion.

The experts are planning to go on the experiments and continue studying the sleep patterns of teenagers, this time in their home setting. Financial support for further experiments and studies was received from the officials at the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Research Resources and the Pennsylvania State Tobacco Settlement Fund. Those who are interested in this issue can read more about the findings of this study in one of the September’s issues of the journal Diabetes Care.

Insomnia is a curse of modern generations, and millions of people around the globe suffer from this type of sleep disorders. In many cases, insomnia turns into a chronic condition, bringing such effects as constant restlessness, headaches,  fatigue, inability to focus and maximize our performance, and so on. Form the scientific point of view, not too much is known about the most common causes, mechanisms and effects of this sleep disorder. That is why insomnia and chemical processes that accompany this condition become a focus of numerous current researches and studies very often.

In particular, one of the studies carried out this summer and reported in September has shown that such condition as insomnia has very strong influence of heredity. This factor plays a great role, and if your mom, dad or other close relatives suffer from this health condition, you have quite high chances to suffer from it too. The group of scientists of Universite Laval’s School of Psychology, who carried out this research and worked on analyzing the data on about 3,500 participants, came up with the conclusions that those who have a history of chronic insomnia in their family can be exposed to up to 76 per cent higher risks of suffering from this sleep disorder at one or another stage of their life.

The participants were asked to answer some questions about their sleep patterns, their sleep problems and sleep problems of the close relatives like mother, father or siblings. The study included also monitoring possible changes of sleep patterns withing 12 months, with occasional interviewing the participants. It turned out that almost 40 per cent of people who had a family member suffering from insomnia displayed the signs of the same sleep disorder.  At that, 76 per cent of those participants had only one relative suffering from insomnia, and 21 per cent had two and more family members affected by the same condition.

Dr. Charles M. Morin of Universite Laval’s School of Psychology, one of the study leaders and the author of the report, commented on the findings of his colleagues as the following: “There is very probably a genetic factor behind the family aggregation we observed. However, we don’t know if the mechanism is a physiological process that interferes with sleep or a predisposition to anxiety.” He also said that there are options of early psychological and related types of treatments for those who have elevated risks of insomnia caused by such factor as heredity.

Restless sleep, frequent waking up at night and inability to fall asleep again are very common problems in many modern people. It is believed that these sleep disorders should be attributed to our unhealthy diet, smoking and other bad habits, chronic stresses at workplace or in our private life, as well as to such things as climatic changes, our health disorders or improper environment for sleeping. However, recently, a group of scientists discovered that such factor as loneliness should also be taken into account, and those people who are feeling lonely and isolated usually experience various sleep difficulties and sleep disorders like restless sleep.

It turns out that loneliness can not only make us feel unhappy and depressed, have negative effects on our physical and emotional health, but also can affect our sleep to a great extent. Scientists of the Department of Health Studies at the University of Chicago carried out a series of experiments, and found out that lonely people have very poor quality of sleep compared to those people who do not suffer from feelings of being lonely and isolated. The findings of this interesting study were recently published in the November issue of the journal Sleep.

During the experiments, the experts from the University of Chicago closely monitored sleep patterns and chemical reactions in the brain of 95 volunteers from rural South Dakota localities. It became apparent that those of the participants who were feeling lonely and abandoned had much higher levels of fragmentary sleep, in other words, they tended to wake up at night way more often than all other participants. Such restless sleep causes fatigue, inability to focus and poorer overall performance, higher risks of developing serious health problems, etc.

“What we found was that loneliness does not appear to change the total amount of sleep in individuals, but awakens them more times during the night,” Dr. Lianne Kurina, who leaded the research, writes in the report about the findings. “It’s not just a product of very lonely individuals having poor sleep. The relationship between loneliness and restless sleep appears to operate across the range of perceived connectedness,” she adds. In addition to this, the scientists found out that the connections between loneliness and poor or restless sleep are much stronger in young people than in aged people, because the psychological effects of loneliness affect young people more than they affect older people.