Menstuff® has compiled the following information on Sleep. See
also Sleepapnea
Sleep Myths: The value of 40 winks and other
shuteye scoops
How Much You Sleep Affects Your Risk of
Stroke
How Much Sleep Is Too Much
Sleep?
A Rare Gene Mutation Is Associated With
Requiring Less Sleep, Researchers Say
What do doctors mean when they say "get
plenty of sleep"? How many hours of sleep are enough for good
health?
For Women, a Drink at Bedtime Can Deepen
Sleep
Lying Awake at Night? Test Your Sleep
IQ
Quick Quiz: Is Lack of Sleep Hurting Your Job
Performance?
Related Story: The Best Cities for Good
Sleep
Sleep Makes a Huge Difference in Your
Life!
Tired All the
Time?How Much You Sleep Affects Your Risk
of Stroke
How Much Sleep Is Too Much
Sleep?
How Much You Sleep Affects Your Risk of
Stroke
Specifically, people who sleep less than 5 hours per night and more than 8 hours per night were found to have an 83 percent and 74 percent higher risk of stroke, respectively.
Most strokes are triggered by a blood clot in the brain, and
they’re relatively common: about 800,000 people each year have a
stroke in the U.S., and it’s a leading cause of disability. So
what can you do to minimize your risk?
How Much Sleep Is Too Much Sleep?
Although most people should be concerned about not sleeping enough, you may wonder: How much sleep is too much sleep?
First, it is important to determine how much you sleep you need, which can be accomplished with a simple experiment. Individual sleep needs are largely determined by genetics, but other factors may include your general health and even your age. Most adults need 7.5 to 8.5 hours of sleep per night.
When you get less than the sleep you need, you begin to experience sleep deprivation. With chronic loss of sleep you may gradually accumulate a sleep debt. You may experience excessive daytime sleepiness and you may find yourself taking frequent, prolonged naps or sleeping more on the weekends.
But, ultimately, how much sleep is too much? If you are a long-sleeper based on your genetics, you may sleep 8 to 10 or more hours a day to feel rested. Just as there are exceptional people who can get by on 4 hours of sleep per night, other people may require 12 hours, though both scenarios are rare.
If your personal sleep needs have changed dramatically, or if you suffer from symptoms of sleep disorders such as feeling too sleepy, you may wish to speak with your doctor or a sleep specialist. Certain medical conditions such as hypothyroidism or depression may leave you sleeping too much and these may require treatment.
For those who have always required a little extra sleep than average, there is no reason for feeling guilty about sleeping too much.
It’s not too much; it’s just what you need.
Source: sleepdisorders.about.com/od/sleepdisorderevaluation/a/How-Much-Sleep-Is-Too-Much-Sleep.htm?utm_source=cn_nl&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Health%20Channel%20Newsletter&utm_campaign=healthsl&utm_content=20150519
Sleep Myths: The value of 40 winks and other
shuteye scoops
Do we really need eight hours of sleep per night?
Not necessarily, but that’s the average for healthy adults. According to the National Institutes of Health, when healthy adults are given unlimited opportunity to sleep they are on the pillow eight to eight-and-a-half hours a night. Most sleep experts recommend between seven and nine hours to be at one’s optimum performance mentally and physically.
The amount of sleep needed to be at one’s best is called “basal sleep” time. Basal sleep is forever in competition with “sleep debt,” which is the total sleep we lose due to certain sleep disorders, restless partners or screaming infants (but parents cherish every waking moment … right?). We constantly need basal sleep to pay down our sleep debt.
Most people have an innate sense of whether they’re getting
enough shut-eye (for a quick evaluation of your own sleep status,
check out the Epworth
Sleepiness Scale ).
According to the Sleep In America poll, Americans in 2005 averaged
almost seven hours per night, while back in 1910 we averaged nine
hours. What would you give up for an extra two hours of sleep
tonight?
Can we catch up on sleep during the weekend? Is this healthy?
Yes, you can effectively catch up on sleep—and no, it’s not particularly healthy.
The body and brain share a remarkable ability to recover when we don’t treat them as well as we should. When you skimp on sleep, you miss more of the REM cycles that keep the brain’s memory, concentration, motor skills, and emotional controls in good working order. That’s why someone on three hours’ sleep can stay awake but is more likely to fumble the car keys or put on shoes that don’t match. Nonetheless, the brain will reset itself after a good night’s sleep.
Though the body is resilient as well, all of its major systems require the slowed pace and reduction of stimuli that come with adequate rest. As the National Sleep Foundation describes in Sleep-Wake Cycle: Its Physiology and Impact on Health, scientists believe the body repairs itself during sleep with a number of biochemical and physiological processes, and that without restorative sleep our systems become more vulnerable. A 2002 study, for example, showed that sleep helps fortify the immune system: When flu shots were administered to two groups of men, those who slept normally for 10 nights in a row had twice as many flu-fighting antibodies as those who slept just four hours per night.
Dr. Michael Twery, director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, offers additional words of warning: “Recent findings indicate that regularly sleeping less than seven hours each night is associated with potentially serious health conditions such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.”
As we age do we really require less sleep to function properly?
The blissful 12- or 14-hour snoozes we needed as infants certainly curtail over the years, and once past the teen years our sleep requirements level out. The more significant change for the elderly is not in the total hours needed—at seven to nine hours, their requirements are on a par with young adults—but in the quality of nighttime rest they’re actually able to get.
“Older people don’t need less sleep, but they often get less sleep,” Twery says. “As people age, they spend less time in the deep, restful stages of sleep and are awakened more easily. Older people are more likely to have sleep apnea, insomnia, and other medical conditions that disrupt sleep and impair daytime function.”
Many elderly people will drift off throughout the day to make up for lost sleep time. If your grandmother gets a full eight hours, some may come at night, some after lunch, and some while playing canasta.
Do naps help?
If we really believed that life’s most valuable lessons were learned in kindergarten, we’d all be eating more cookies and taking more naps. Our grown-up culture generally frowns on the notion of daytime sleeping, but 15 or 20 minutes of shut-eye can help make up for a sleepless night and provide a freshness and clarity that seldom comes in the last few hours at work. Resting too long or too late in the day, however, can defeat the benefits by leaving the catnapper groggy in the afternoon and sleepless again at night.
Workers in Latin America, as in many hot climes, are known to appreciate the value of a siesta whereas gringos seem unwilling to trade dollars for Z’s. In February 2007, a study favoring the midday nap was published by doctors from Greece, another warm and sunny climate. After studying 23,861 subjects for more than six years, the researchers found compelling evidence that napping has quantifiable health benefits for everyone, especially working men. They concluded that people who napped occasionally were 12 percent less likely to die of heart disease. Moreover, those who regularly took half-hour naps three times per week had at least 37 percent lower risk of death by heart disease.
Though you may have difficulty convincing your boss that an
afternoon nap would be great for your health and your productivity,
putting your head down for a few minutes is not a bad idea at all.
Cookies wouldn’t hurt, either.
Source: By Rich Maloof, health.msn.com/centers/sleep/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100164755
What do doctors mean when they say "get
plenty of sleep"? How many hours of sleep are enough for good
health?
The amount of sleep you need depends on many factors, especially your age. Newborns sleep between 16 and 18 hours a day and preschool children should sleep between 10 and 12 hours. Older children and teens need at least nine hours to be well rested. For most adults, seven to eight hours a night appears to the best amount of sleep. However, for some people, "enough sleep" may be as few as five hours or as many as 10 hours of sleep.
As you get older, your sleeping patterns change. Older adults tend to sleep more lightly and awaken more frequently in the night than younger adults. This can have many causes including medical conditions and medications used to treat them. But there's no evidence that older adults need less sleep than younger adults.
Getting enough sleep is important to your health because it boosts your immune system, which makes your body better able to fight disease. Sleep is necessary for your nervous system to work properly. Too little sleep makes you drowsy and unable to concentrate. It also impairs memory and physical performance.
So how many hours of sleep are enough for you? Experts say that if you feel drowsy during the day — even during boring activities — you are not getting enough sleep. Also, quality of sleep is just as important as quantity. People whose sleep is frequently interrupted or cut short are not getting quality sleep.
If you experience frequent daytime sleepiness, even after
increasing the amount of quality sleep you get, talk to your doctor.
He or she may be able to identify the cause of sleep problems and
offer advice on how to get a better night's sleep.
Source: www.mayoclinic.com/health/how-many-hours-of-sleep-are-enough/AN01487
For Women, a Drink at Bedtime Can Deepen
Sleep
Lying Awake at Night? Test Your Sleep
IQ
Sleep Makes a Huge Difference in Your
Life!
Quick Quiz: Is Lack of Sleep Hurting Your Job
Performance?
Related Story: The Best Cities for Good
Sleep
The top metro areas for good sleep:
1. Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.
2. Anaheim, Calif.
3. San Diego, Calif.
4. Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, N.C.
5. Washington, D.C.
6. Bergen-Passaic, NC
7. Chicago
8. Boston
9. Austin, Texas
10. Kansas City, Mo.
The 10 cities with most sleep problems:
1. Detroit
2. Cleveland
3. Nashville, Tenn.
4. Cincinnati
5. New Orleans
6. New York
7. Las Vegas
8. Miami
9. San Francisco
10. St. Louis
Source: my.webmd.com/content/article/95/103306.htm
A Rare Gene Mutation Is Associated
With Requiring Less Sleep, Researchers Say - August 28, 2019
Matthew Gavidia
A newly identified rare gene mutation, ADRB1, is linked with heightened wakefulness and less sleep necessity, according to a study published today in Neuron.
Researchers studied the DNA of several members from a family who function normally on 6 hours of sleep, which is significantly less than average. After conducting genetic linkage studies and whole-exome sequencing, the very rare variant ADRB1, which is a mutation of the ß1-adrenergic receptor gene, was shown to impact sleep and wakefulness regulation. By activating these ADRB1 neurons, individuals will have heightened wakefulness, which this mutation concurrently causes.
One of the 2 senior study authors, Louis Ptáček, MD, professor in the department of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Weill Institute for Neurosciences, highlighted the study’s focus on the relatively unknown influence that neurons contribute to sleep regulation.
“It’s remarkable that we know so little about sleep, given that the average person spends a third of their lives doing it,” said Ptáček. “This research is an exciting new frontier that allows us to dissect the complexity of circuits in the brain and the different types of neurons that contribute to sleep and wakefulness.”
Researchers first studied the protein of the gene variant in vitro to determine whether this mutation has functional consequences. After comparing the mutant gene with wild-type protein in cultured cells, ADRB1 was revealed as less stable due to decreased protein stability and dampened signaling in response to agonist treatment. These factors were shown through the alteration of the ß1-adrenergic receptor’s function, which hinted at its likely functional consequences in the brain.
Studies were then conducted in vivo in which researchers administered the mutation in mice to examine if it had any influence on sleep-related behaviors. Compared with regular mice, the mutated mice slept on average 55 minutes less. Additional analysis of the mutation revealed its heightened levels in the dorsal pons, which is a part of the brain stem involved in subconscious activities like respiration, eye movement, and sleep. Shorter amounts of non—rapid eye movement (REM) sleep (53 minutes less) and REM sleep (7 minutes less) in mutated mice were 2 key indicators of its chief influence compared with regular mice.
“These results indicated that the Adrb1 A187V mutation can lead to short sleep and increased mobile time, similar to what we observe in the human subjects,” said the authors. The correlation of ADRB1’s impact on mice and humans show a significant alteration in sleep necessity. “Sleep is one of the most important things we do,” said senior study author Ying-Hui Fu, PhD, professor of neurology at the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences.
Fu indicated that further research on sleep and wakefulness regulation may contribute to developing new drugs that can benefit healthcare. “Not getting enough sleep is linked to an increase in the incidence of many conditions, including cancer, autoimmune disorders, cardiovascular disease, and Alzheimer’s,” said Fu.
Researchers plan to next study other families for additional genes correlated to sleep and the function of ADRB1 protein in other parts of the brain.
Reference
Shi G, Xing L, Wu D, et al. A rare mutation of ß1-adrenergic
receptor affects sleep/wake behaviors [published online August
28, 2019]. Neuron. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2019.07.026.
Source: www.ajmc.com/view/a-rare-gene-mutation-is-associated-with-requiring-less-sleep-researchers-say
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