Posts Tagged ‘sleep’

Most Americans dread loosing an hour of sleep when we “leap foward” each spring during the switch to daylight savings time. Now a new study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology shows that not only do we loose lose an hour of sleep, the physiological and psychological adjustment that our body goes through can pose dangerous consequences for those who work in hazardous environments. After looking at 24 years of data about mine workers, researchers noted that there were more injuries on the Mondays following the switch to daylight savings time. In addition there was a 68% increase in lost work days due to these injuries. The researchers did not find any significant changes in the number and severity of workplace injuries on the Mondays after the switch back standard time, when people gained an hour of sleep. This shows that even an hour of sleep can have drastic effects on human behavior. Also, based on this study, it’s probably a good idea to refrain from performing dangerous job duties following the daylight savings time change. [via Medical News Today]

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If you know anything about American college life you know that sleep is often a rarity. Between the activities, festivities, oh, and the education sleep is sometimes not a top priority. Thus, the findings of a new study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health should not be of any surprise – that only 30% of college age students get at least eight hours of sleep per night (the average required for young adults). Furthermore, on weeknights, 20% of students stay up all night at least once a month and 35% stay up until 3 a.m. at least once a week. Sleep deprivation can induce extra stress on the body, lead to weight gain, not to mention impair the cardiovascular and immune systems. Even more jarring, more than 60% of students have sleep-wake cycle disturbances and many take drugs and alcohol regularly to help them do one or the other. [via Medical News Today]

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Sleep is important for our mental, emotional and physical well being. Which is why mental disorders, such as depression, often have manifestations of sleep disturbance. However, the results of a University of Michigan study, to be presented at the upcoming World Psychiatric Association meeting, show that the complaint of sleep disturbance is enough to alert physicians that a patient may have a higher risk of suicide, whether or not they have a psychiatric condition. The more types of sleep disturbances people had, the more likely they were to have thoughts of killing themselves, or actually try to do so.

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A small scale British study shows that doctors and doctors-in-training made 33% fewer errors when asked to work fewer than 48 hours a week in accordance with the new European Working Time Directive (EWTD) which takes full effect in August 2009. The EWTD makes law a maximum 48 hour working week (including overtime), and a minimum of four weeks paid leave per year in order to protect workers from adverse health and safety risks. It applies to all sectors of activity, both public and private. In the study, doctors’ average sleep time increased from 6.75 to 7.26 hours per day and resulted in fewer potentially life-threatening events. Read more and share your opinion.

Michigan State University researchers are suggesting that improper dieting may result in a weakened immune system that can increase your chances of getting hit hard by the flu. When looking at mice receiving adequate nutrition versus a lower calorie diet, those on the diet were not able to produce the amount of immune cells needed to fight an infection, despite consuming adequate quantities of vitamins and minerals. Although this was a mouse study, we probably didn’t need it to tell us why the results make sense on a human scale. Our bodies need energy in order to fight infections, and although vitamins and minerals are necessary, they do not provide the majority of energy we need to fuel our bodies – that role is reserved for carbohydrates, fats and proteins. This is why I always tell my patients to eat well and sleep well during flu season. Therefore, don’t believe the old saying telling you to “starve a fever.” It simply is not true.

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Exercise is known to reduce cancer risk. Just how and why is unclear. On the contrary, decreased sleep appears to be correlated with an increased risk of cancer, according to a new study presented this week at the American Association for Cancer Research’s annual research meeting. It is unclear why this is the case, but scientists found that among the women 65 and younger who engage in exercise, those who had less than 7 hours sleep a day had higher overall cancer risk, suggesting that much of the cancer-preventive benefit that might come from exercise could be undermined by lack of adequate sleep. Sleep, after all, is critical for general bodily repair and recovery.

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After looking at 20 years of records, Swedish researchers found that the number of heart attacks decreased the Monday after daylight savings time ended, possibly due to the extra hour of sleep most people get. Typically, most heart attacks occur on Mondays due to the increased stress load and activity of the new week. The researchers also noted that the number of heart attacks increased throughout the week after “springing forward” an hour. This may be due to the persistence of sleep disturbance following the reduction of sleep time, which may add to the stress load of the work week.

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