In this Issue:
- Message from the President
- A Doctor’s Duty
- Caffeine, Exercise and Heart Disease
- Sleep Apnea Screening Saves Money and Reduces Accidents
- Monday Morning Blues
- Parents Unaware of Sleep Problems in Children
Message from the President
Our final newsletter for this year presents a variety of articles relating to sleep. Sleep or the lack thereof touches so many areas of our lives, and the following studies demonstrate its impact and importance.
Sincerely,
Mary O’Sullivan
President
A Doctor’s Duty?
How well are you sleeping? That’s a question doctors should ask patients routinely, but many don’t. Yet sleep quality is a key indicator of health status, researchers from Northwestern University wrote in the Sept. 18, Archives
of Internal Medicine. A raft of studies link sleep disturbances to heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, weight gain, depression and other conditions.
Northwestern professor Phyllis Zee found in her own study that doctors identified sleeplessness in only about one in five older patients who reported having several sleep-related symptoms.
One other problem: It’s not clear yet how to treat certain sleep disturbances. “We’ve
[only] gotten to the talking-about-it stage,” says Neal Kohatsu, M.D.,
president of the American College of Preventive Medicine. Meanwhile, he says,
patients need to volunteer concerns about sleep patterns to their doctor.
Adapted from AARP Bulletin, November 2006
Caffeine, Exercise and Heart Disease
Should people with heart disease avoid caffeine before exercise? A recent study found that when healthy people exercised after ingesting 200 milligrams (mg) of caffeine - about two coffee cups’ worth - the flow of blood to their heart decreased by 22 percent and (39 percent when breathing oxygen-deprived air that simulated high altitude or the degenerative effects of heart disease).
But the study didn’t determine how long the blood-flow constricting effects would last. The study’s lead researcher says people with heart disease who consume 220mg of caffeine or more probably should not exercise for at least five hours, the time it takes for about half the caffeine to leave the bloodstream.*
Adapted from Consumer Reports, “On Health,”
November, 2006
*Quanta Dynamics Note: Caffeine can remain in your system up to 6 hours or longer and is one of the key lifestyle factors affecting sleep quality.
Sleep Apnea Screening Saves Money & Reduces Accidents
A major national trucking company, Schneider National Inc., has recently published a white paper that reveals its sleep apnea screening and treatment program has generated a strong return on investment in the form of savings on medical costs, accident reduction, reduced turnover and increased productivity.
For example, among the 348 drivers who were diagnosed with Sleep Disordered Breathing (SDB) and then treated, monthly medical costs were slashed in half. There was also a 73% reduction in preventable driving accidents among a group of 225 SDB-diagnosed drivers treated with Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) devices.
Adapted from The Trucker News Services,
“Schneider Says Sleep Apnea Screening,
Treatment Program Saves Costs, Cuts Accidents”
The Trucker, October 15, 2006.
Monday Morning Blues
A new study found that sleeping-in on Saturday and Sunday can disturb your body clock, leaving you fatigued at the start of the week. According to the study, many people try to pay off the “sleep debt” they accumulate during the work week, over the weekend. While sleeping in can help you pay off this debt, it also comes at a cost: Monday morning fatigue.
When researchers examined the hormones of people who sleep in on the weekend, they found their body clocks had been delayed by 45 minutes creating an effect similar to jet lag.
APP “Weekend Sleep-ins Cause Fatigue,”
Sydney Morning Herald, October, 6, 2006
Parents Unaware of Sleep Problems in Children
The National Sleep Foundation (NSF) in Washington D.C. conducted a Sleep in America Poll 2004 that focused on children’s sleep. It revealed that American kids are not getting the sleep they need; in fact, two-thirds of children aged 10 and under have sleep problems at least a few nights a week.
In a newly published study, researchers attempted to determine the prevalence of sleep problems among British children by asking 300 pairs of 8-year old twins and their parents about sleep problems. They found that while 45% of children reported problems sleeping, only 17% of parents reported that their child has sleep problems.
An awareness gap between kids and their parents was also found in the National Sleep Foundation’s Sleep in America Poll 2006 on adolescents’ sleep. It found that while the majority of adolescents report not getting the sleep they need, 90% of parents report that their child gets enough sleep at least a few nights a week.
The researchers in the twin study also found that children who resisted going to bed were more likely to have sleep problems, a finding that highlights the need for healthy bedtime routines for kids. For example, positive parenting practices such as bedtime reading, were associated with improved sleep among children in NSF’s 2004 poll. It found that children who read or are read to as part of their bedtime routine are likely to sleep more.
Adapted from NSF Alert, November 21, 2006
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