Sleep Studies

It has long been known that a link exists between Alzheimer’s disease, and its related cognitive declines, and poor quality and quantity of sleep. Now a team of researchers from Italy has found that Alzheimer’s patients have a corresponding increase in their levels of orexin, a component of cerebrospinal fluid that plays a role in the sleep wake cycle.

Dr. Claudio Liguori of the Sleep Medicine Centre at the University of Rome has published a study that reveals that orexin levels are linked to deterioration in the quality of sleep, and are present in greater-than-normal quantities in patients who have been diagnosed with the degenerative brain disease. Continue reading →

A new study conducted by researchers at the Penn Sleep center at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in Philadelphia has opened the door to a whole new way of reducing the number of readmissions of cardiac patients. The findings, which were published in the October 15^th issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, indicates that when hospitalized cardiac patients that test positive for sleep apnea receive and are compliant with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment, there is a dramatic reduction in the number of readmissions and emergency room visits for cardiac symptoms that occur within thirty days of their release. Continue reading →

A recent study conducted by researchers at the Camilo Jose Cela University took a close look at the impact that energy drinks have on the athletes that drink them. These drinks have become increasingly popular over the past several years, with more than fifty percent of athletes reporting taking them during practice, training and competing. The scientists analyzed the effect that the drinks had on soccer players, climbers, swimmers, rugby players, volleyball players, basketball, tennis and hockey players after they had drunk the equivalent of three cans of the drink or a placebo immediately prior to competing in their sport. Continue reading →

Scientific studies have shown that our tendencies to be either an early bird or a night owl seem to be genetically programmed, and now a new study has revealed that whether you are born with or without the early bird gene can have a great deal to do with your financial success, and even with your sex life.

Though much has been made of short-sleepers, people who possess a gene mutation that allows certain people to get by on just a few hours of sleep per night and to function perfectly well, the presence of that gene is extremely rare. But there is a common gene variant that we all seem to have, and the way that it presents itself is what determines whether you are the kind of person who wakes up early in the morning or stays up into the wee hours of the night.  Interestingly, the gene also seems to predict the time of day at which a person is most likely to die. Researchers in the laboratory of the Department of Neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center studied 1,200 people who wore actigraphs to provide a record of their activity. The group agreed to donate their brains to science after their death. Analysis of the information showed that the wake-sleep behaviors of the group were closely linked to the location of a nucleotide near a gene called Period 1, and that its location determined what time people woke up and what time they went to bed.  The discovery, which took place a few years ago, marked one of the biggest contributions of a single gene to determining the body’s circadian rhythm.  Continue reading →