Sleep apnea, nightmares, insomnia, etc.

waltky · Feb 3, 2014

Analyzing Nightmares and Bad Dreams...

New Canadian Study Analyzes Nightmares and Bad Dreams
January 31st, 2014 ~ Waking up in the morning after having a bad dream at night might not be the best way to start the day, but, a terrifying nightmare can rock you awake from a sound sleep, leaving you scared and confused.

A new study released by psychology researchers Geneviève Robert and Antonio Zadra at the University of Montreal has revealed that nightmares indeed pack a much bigger emotional punch than simply having a bad dream. Yes there is a difference between nightmares and bad dreams. Zadra sums up the difference between the two in terms of intensity.

Nightmares, according to Zadra are disturbing dreams that actually wake you up and the awakening is directly tied into what was going on in the nightmare. Having a bad dream can also be disturbing, but you continue to sleep and wake up as you normally would. You may also remember the content of the bad dream as soon as you wake up or perhaps later in the day but, “there’s no temporal relationship between the content of the (bad) dream and us waking up from it,” said Zadra.

Fear is a common emotion that drives a nightmare or bad dream

Zadra adds that nightmares end up giving rise to much more emotional distress than bad dreams do. The researchers asked their volunteer test subjects to rate the intensity of the emotions they experience within their dreams. After analyzing what the volunteers had written the researchers found that nightmares came out to be much more emotionally intense than bad dreams overall.

And, while most people tend to link fear to nightmares and bad dreams, believe it or not it isn’t always the driving factor. While fear does drive a majority of nightmares and bad dreams, Zadra says that about 35% of the nightmares and 50% of the bad dreams of the 10,000 they studied contained other primary emotions such as sadness, confusion, guilt, anger, disgust, and others. As a result, nightmares can intensify a wide range of negative emotions.

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Granny says take ya some Melatonin.

waltky · Mar 23, 2014

Granny says dat's why Uncle Ferd always nappin' - so's he don't get brain damage...

Scientists: Sleep Loss May Cause Brain Damage
March 20, 2014 ~ Those of us who sleep longer on weekends to try to make up for the time we didn't get enough sleep during the week may actually be losing some brain cells.

According to University of Pennsylvania neuroscientist Sigrid Veasey, the common idea that the 'sleep debt' can be replenished by getting extra sleep days later may be a myth.

After putting a bunch of laboratory mice on a schedule similar to one people doing shift work experience, Veasey and her team discovered that the mice brains lost up to 25 percent of the neurons associated with alertness and cognitive functioning.

Writing in the Journal of Neuroscience, she explains that when mice lose a little sleep, their brains respond by creating more of a protein called sirtuin type 3, which energizes and protects the neurons. But when the loss of sleep became habitual, release of the protein stopped and depletion of neurons accelerated.

Veasey and her group now plan to study the brains of deceased shift workers to see whether the same damage can be detected in humans.

http://www.voanews.com/content/scientists-sleep-loss-may-cause-brain-damage/1875709.html
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waltky · May 13, 2014

Yea, if Granny don't get her beauty sleep, she gets real cranky...

Lost sleep leads to loss of brain cells, study suggests
Thu, May 08, 2014 - Sleep loss may be more serious than previously thought, causing a permanent loss of brain cells, research suggests.

In mice, prolonged lack of sleep led to 25 percent of certain brain cells dying, according to a study in The Journal of Neuroscience. If the same is true in humans, it may be futile to try to catch up on missed sleep, say US scientists. They think it may one day be possible to develop a drug to protect the brain from the side-effects of lost sleep.

The study looked at lab mice that were kept awake to replicate the kind of sleep loss common in modern life, through night shifts or long hours in the office. A team at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine studied certain brain cells which are involved in keeping the brain alert.

After several days of sleep patterns similar to those followed by night workers three days of night shifts with only four to five hours sleep in 24 hours the mice lost 25 percent of the brain cells.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2014/05/08/2003589793
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waltky · May 22, 2014

Losing weight helps sleep apnea cases...

Veterans' claims for sleep apnea soar
May 21, 2014 ~ Veterans' claims for sleep apnea a common, treatable ailment often associated with obesity and aging have spiked nearly 150% since 2009, driving compensation for the disorder likely over $1 billion per year, according to government data and interviews.

Nearly nine of 10 veterans receiving compensation are considered 50% disabled by the condition, in which breathing ceases during sleep. For a single veteran without dependents, the monthly payment is $822.15 for a disability rating of 50%. About half of Americans who suffer from it are overweight, according to the National Institutes of Health. Aging is also a contributing factor. Untreated, sleep apnea can lead to serious health problems, including heart disease. Veterans Affairs officials attribute the surge in claims more than 94% of them from veterans of Gulf War I or the Afghanistan and Iraq wars to greater awareness of the condition. With that awareness comes treatment and appropriate care, they say. "Sleep apnea has become more and more known as a disease," said Bradley Flohr, senior adviser for compensation service at the Veterans Benefits Administration. "It can be quite severe. You can die from it."

A change in federal law in 2004, phased in over 10 years and fully implemented in January, also allows veterans who qualify for retirement pay to receive their pensions and disability compensation. Prior to the change in law, the disability compensation had offset pension payments. To receive both payments, a veteran must be considered at least 50% disabled. USA TODAY first reported on rising sleep apnea claims in June 2010, when only 63,118 veterans were receiving benefits for the condition. Veterans with sleep apnea are considered by the Department of Veterans affairs to be 50% disabled if they need a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machine to get a good night's sleep.

The machine and mask increase air pressure in the throat to prevent the airway from collapsing. It eliminates virtually all symptoms of sleep apnea for most people although it is not a cure, said Michael Twery, director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research at the National Institutes of Health. Many find the mask uncomfortable to wear. The underlying condition remains, and that's why veterans are still compensated at the 50% rate, said Thomas Murphy, director of compensation service for the Veterans Benefits Administration. The intent is to offset the average impact on a veteran's earning power.

By comparison, a soldier or Marine who loses a leg below the knee while serving, and receives prosthesis can be attached, they are considered 40% disabled, which qualifies them for a $577.54 monthly payment. All amputees also receive an additional $101 a month, according to the VA. "If a veteran's missing a limb, and I put a new limb on him, and he can now walk around, why am I compensating him?" Murphy said. "That's an extreme exaggeration. You have hearing loss, and I put hearing aids in, I still compensate you for that.

The VA's rating schedule makes it impossible to determine precisely how much the department spends annually on sleep apnea compensation, said Steve Westerfeld, a VA spokesman. Veterans often have multiple disabilities, and a rating table determines their compensation. A veteran's dependents also boost compensation. The rating system for all disabilities, including sleep apnea, is under review; new rules could be in place within two years, Murphy said. If the 127,713 veterans with a 50% disability rating for sleep apnea in 2013 were paid for that condition alone, assuming no dependents, the cost would have been $1.25 billion.

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Mr_Truth · May 23, 2014

I suffer from a life threatening sleep disorder that is similar to sleep apnea. There is no cure and the remarkable thing is that I am still alive after all these 60+ years. While I take several medications to alleviate the seizures that I get in my sleep, I have found that doing hatha-yoga exercises is the best treatment for this deadly condition. There are videos in youtube which teach how to practice this life saving routine. Please consider using them for life promotion.

waltky · Aug 27, 2014

When Granny drowses off, Uncle Ferd holds possum's butt under her nose...

Neuron Loss Could Cause Insomnia in Elderly
August 26, 2014 ~ Sleep becomes more difficult as people age. Until now, its been unclear why older individuals experience insomnia and sleep disruption.

Now, a new study finds that the loss of neurons in a particular region of the brain may be partially to blame. The finding could one day lead to specific treatments to treat sleep problems in older people. In an article in Brain, researchers at the University of Toronto in Canada report that inhibitory neurons are significantly diminished in Alzheimers patients and some elderly people. Researchers analyzed data from a community-based study involving about 1,000 subjects. Investigators followed the participants as healthy 65 years olds from 1997 when the study began until their deaths, when their brains were donated for research.

eople nap on the 15th tee during Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Georgia

Every two years, the subjects wore a small water-proof wristwatch device 24 hours a day for seven to 10 days that monitored all their movements. Toronto neurologist Andrew Lim says the absence of movement for five minutes or longer indicated the subjects were sleeping. The authors studied the brains of 45 deceased participants. They counted the number of neurons in the brain area associated with regulating sleep patterns, and correlated that with data from the monitoring device.

Among participants who did not have Alzheimers disease - those with the highest number of neurons slept the longest during periods of non-movement. Those with fewer brain cells had more fragmented sleep. However, the greatest sleep impairment was found among Alzheimers patients, whose brains had the fewest number of neurons.

http://www.voanews.com/content/neuron-loss-could-cause-insomnia-in-elderly/2428658.html
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waltky · Oct 16, 2014

Sleep apnea treatment may help COPD...

Can a treatment for sleep apnea help copd?
Sleep apnea occurs when you stop breathing while sleeping.

In addition to the bothersome side effects of snoring and daytime sleepiness, it can raise your risk for heart disease. If you have sleep apnea along with COPD, the risk to your heart and your health is exponentially higher. Fortunately, a machine designed to treat sleep apnea may also help your COPD. A continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device uses gentle pressure to keep your airways open. According to a new study, people with both COPD and sleep apnea who use CPAP at night run less risk of dying of their diseases.

A Dangerous Overlap

Often, a blockage or collapse in your upper airway causes sleep apnea. About 10% to 20% of people with sleep apnea have COPD, and about 1% of all Americans have both conditions. Health care providers call this the overlap syndrome. Left untreated, sleep apnea increases your risk for high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, and diabetes. Youre already at higher risk for heart disease if you have COPD. If you have the overlap syndrome, the two conditions interact and increase your risk of dying from heart disease even more.

How CPAP Helps Your Lungs

Thats where the CPAP device comes in. To use it, you put a mask over your nose and possibly your mouth, as well. A tube connects the mask to a machine that blows air with a fan. This flowing air pushes your tongue forward and opens your throat so you can breathe easier. CPAP is the most common treatment for sleep apnea, and it may also provide benefits to those with COPD. By restoring your blood oxygen levels at night, CPAP can actually slow down the inflammatory processes of COPD that damage your lungs.

Whats more, using a CPAP machine may reduce the amount of work your breathing muscles need to do on their own. It also can prevent your lungs from overinflating. This is a common occurrence in people with COPD that makes breathing more difficult. As a result of using CPAP, you might be able to walk more or otherwise be more active during the day. This makes your life easier, and it can also improve your lungs and overall health.

Ask Your Health Care Provider About CPAP
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waltky · Sep 5, 2015

Samsung comes up with new gadget for insomniacs...

Tech Companies Unveil Aids for Light Sleepers
September 04, 2015 Insomniacs, light sleepers and others who blink bleary eyes every morning could be the next target of technology companies looking to come up with ideas to improve any given aspect of consumers' lives.

Samsung Electronics Co. and Panasonic Corp. both showcased devices at the IFA, Europe's largest consumer electronics show, geared to helping people sleep better and wake up more refreshed.

Samsung's Sleep Sense can be placed underneath the mattress at night, where it can monitor heartbeat, breathing and movements. Data are transmitted to a tablet, where they will be ready for analysis over breakfast, the head of Samsung's digital products, Yoon C. Lee, said.

Samsung's Sleep Sense can be placed underneath the mattress at night, where it can monitor heartbeat, breathing and movements. Data can be analyzed later.

Sleep Sense could also be connected to air conditioning, electronic window blinds or lights, allowing for room temperature and lights to be adapted depending on the user's physical condition.

Panasonic showed similar prototypes that can measure sleep rhythm and time an alarm to gently ease the user awake during a period of light snoozing, rather than giving a sudden jolt from a deep slumber. The device can be linked to air conditioning and, if it is connected to a coffee machine, the user can be greeted with the smell of fresh coffee in the morning.

http://www.voanews.com/content/tech-companies-unveil-aids-light-sleepers/2948280.html
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waltky · Dec 25, 2015

possum gets all cranky if ya interrupt his sleep...

Why the Obsession With Getting By on Less Sleep Needs to End
12/25/2015 - A recent NPR article asked the question in its headline, "Is it Safe for Medical Residents to Work 30-Hour Shifts?"

I immediately shook my head in disbelief. No. Absolutely not. Basically, the peg of the story was to delve into how longer work hours may or may not impact first-year medical residents. A year-long study is in effect that aims to compare their current work hour standards (first-year residents are limited to working a maximum of 16 hours sans break) with a more flexible set of hours. By "flexible" (here's the kicker), it's explained that the residents will be assessed to see how working for upwards of 30 hours straight pans out.

Um, don't we already have this answer? For crying out loud, we've repeatedly learned what the outcome of working long hours is, and it's not good. It's not beneficial for anyone, but especially those who are going to do everything from give people the scoop on their ear wax situation to operate on their knees. Health recommendations coming from yawning medical professionals who view my chart through half-closed eyes? No thank you.

How lack of sleep hurts your health

Time and again, we hear about the health problems associated with not getting enough sleep. Sleep deprivation -- which affects some 40 percent of Americans who say they get less than the seven to nine hours of recommended sleep daily -- does everything from contribute to weight gain to create stomach issues. Poor memory, mood swings, diminished libido, and vision changes are also some of the health problems linked to not getting enough shut-eye. It's also been found that people who get less than five hours of sleep nightly are more likely to catch a cold as opposed to individuals who sleep for seven or more hours.

Interestingly, another finding conducted by experts from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California used a canine model to compare the effects of sleep deprivation versus a high-fat diet as it relates to insulin sensitivity. Surely, eating unhealthily would be much worse for us than not getting enough sleep, right? Wrong.

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waltky · May 2, 2016

Primordial rhythms between lizards and humans...

Lizards share sleep patterns with humans
Fri, 29 Apr 2016 - Scientists say sleep patterns previously thought exclusive to mammals and birds are also found in lizards.

Lizards share sleep patterns with humans, according to scientists. Until now, it was thought features of human sleep such as rapid eye movements were seen only in mammals and birds. Now, a study of the bearded dragon - a popular pet - suggests these distinctive sleep rhythms emerged hundreds of million of years ago in a distant ancestor. They could even have been present in dinosaurs, say scientists. Some form of sleep has been described in everything from worms to people. But the sleep phases of humans and birds are very distinctive, involving cycles of deep (slow-wave) sleep, followed by awake-like brain activity and rapid eye movement (REM).

Faster rhythm

German researchers recorded the brain activity of bearded dragons when they were sleeping. They found that similar to humans and other mammals, the reptiles showed cycles of eye movements and deep sleep. However, while humans typically go through four or five 90-minute cycles of slow-wave sleep and REMs, the lizard sleep rhythm is faster and more regular, resulting in hundreds of much shorter cycles. And in lizards the activity seems to originate from a different brain area from mammals. "Although similar to mammalian sleep, lizard slow-wave sleep and REMs resemble a stripped-down version of the richer mammalian repertoire," the scientists write in the journal Science.

Common ancestor

The fact that reptiles, birds and mammals share similar sleep patterns suggests these evolved in a common ancestor some 300 to 320 million years ago. At the time, the land was ruled by amniotes - a class of four-legged, backboned animal that laid eggs protected by amniotic membranes. "Those were probably small and lizard-like animals," said lead researcher Dr Gilles Laurent of the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, Germany. "They lived between 300 and 320 million years ago, at a time when the earth's continents formed a single land mass." It could be that the true source was even more ancient, he added. "This would require evidence of REMs and slow-wave sleep from amphibians or fish, which has so far been negative," he said. "But it may be worth checking again."

Ancient origin

Lizard sleep may be similar to the sleep patterns of our ancestors, said Dr Laurent. And lizards might even dream in a rudimentary way. Asked if dinosaurs slept, he said: "I wish I knew but it seems likely that they expressed REM and slow-wave sleep." Thanos Siapas, professor of computation and neural systems at Caltech, California, who was not involved in the research, said it shed new light into how the architecture of sleep evolved. "The data and analysis are very compelling and suggest an ancient origin of the two alternating stages of sleep, REM and slow-wave sleep," he said. "Comparing the circuit mechanisms and role of these network events across species may provide critical new insights into their function."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-36150972
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waltky · May 6, 2016

Global sleeping patterns revealed...

Global sleeping patterns revealed by app data
Fri, 06 May 2016 - The world's sleeping patterns have been revealed by scientists analysing data collected from an app.

It showed the Dutch have nearly an hour more in bed every night than people in Singapore or Japan. The study, published in Science Advances, also found women routinely get more sleep than men, with middle-aged men getting the least of all. The researchers say the findings could be used to deal with the "global sleep crisis". The team at the University of Michigan released the Entrain app in 2014 to help people overcome jetlag. But users could choose to share data on their sleeping habits with the research group. The study found people in Japan and Singapore had an average of seven hours and 24 minutes sleep while the people in the Netherlands had eight hours and 12 minutes. People in the UK averaged just under eight hours - a smidgen less than the French. And it was a country's average bedtime that had the biggest impact on the time spent between the sheets. The later a country stays up into the night, the less sleep it gets. But what time a country wakes up seems to have little effect on sleep duration.

Prof Daniel Forger, one of the researchers, said there was a conflict between our desire to stay up late and our bodies urging us to get up in the morning. He told the BBC News website: "Society is pushing us to stay up late, our [body] clocks are trying to get us up earlier and in the middle the amount of sleep is being sacrificed; that's what we think is going on in global sleep crisis. "If you look at countries that are really getting less sleep then I'd spend less time worrying about alarm clocks and more about what people are doing at night - are they having big dinners at 22:00 or expected to go back to the office?" The study also showed women had about 30 minutes more per night in bed than men, particularly between the ages of 30 and 60. And that people who spend the most time in natural sunlight tended to go to bed earlier. A strong effect of age on sleep was also detected. A wide range of sleep and wake-up times was found in young people but "that really narrows in old age," said Prof Forger.

Dr Akhilesh Reddy, from the University of Cambridge, told the BBC: "I think it's interesting; there's been a trend for these studies using data from twitter and apps and finding interesting correlations across the world we've never been able to do by putting people in sleep lab. "It highlights that although our body clocks are programming us to do certain things, we can't as we're ruled by social circumstances. "We won't know the long-term consequences of this for many years." Disrupted sleep in shift workers has been linked to a range of health problems, including type 2 diabetes. Dr Reddy said the next wave of studies would gather data from activity and sleep monitors and "that's where the future of this is".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-36226874
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waltky · Oct 14, 2016

Sleep apnea increases risk of Type II diabetes...

Sleep apnea may up risk of type 2 diabetes
October 14, 2016 - Obstructive sleep apnea is linked with an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, new research shows. The findings support recommendations from the International Diabetes Federation that patients with one condition be screened for the other, too, the research teams notes in the journal Sleep Medicine.

Sleep apnea occurs when a person's airway becomes partially or completely blocked during sleep, and as a result, breathing intermittently stops and starts. About 13 percent of men and 6 percent of women have moderate to severe undiagnozed sleep apnea, the researchers say. "Over the last two decades, evidence has been accruing that sleep apnea may be associated with insulin resistance, glucose intolerance, and type 2 diabetes," study leader Mako Nagayoshi of Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Science in Japan told Reuters Health by email. Past studies tying sleep apnea to diabetes were limited by a small number of participants and other factors, Nagayoshi and colleagues say.

For the new study, they used data from 1,453 participants with an average age of 63. All participants underwent in-home sleep studies and did not have diabetes when the research began. Based on the sleep studies, the researchers categorized the participants as being normal sleepers or having mild, moderate or severe sleep apnea. After roughly 13 years, 285 people developed type 2 diabetes. Those with severe obstructive sleep apnea at the start of the study were about 70 percent more likely to develop diabetes than those classified as normal. The increased risk remained even when the researchers only included people who were obese. About one in 10 adults have diabetes, according to the World Health Organization. Most have type 2 diabetes, which occurs when the body cant make or process enough of the hormone insulin.

Obesity increases the risk of both sleep apnea and diabetes, said Paul E. Peppard, a sleep disorder researcher at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison. The new study and past research suggest there is a direct link between obstructive sleep apnea and diabetes, but ironclad evidence that it's behind a significant portion of diabetes cases does not yet exist, said Peppard, who was not part of the new study These findings underscore the need to prevent sleep apnea and screen for sleep apnea in patients particularly at risk for developing diabetes e.g., overweight and physically inactive people, he told Reuters Health by email. Behaviors such as healthy weight maintenance and reducing time in sedentary activities would simultaneously reduce the risk (of) developing sleep apnea and diabetes.

People with diabetes should also be screened for sleep apnea, and people with sleep apnea should be screened for diabetes, said Dr. Rashmi Nisha Aurora, a sleep medicine expert at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. Healthcare providers need to be aware of the association and educate their patients and the community," Aurora told Reuters Health by email. Ongoing research is still investigating whether treating sleep apnea reduces diabetes risk, said Aurora, who was also not involved in the study.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/sleep-apnea-may-risk-type-2-diabetes-182651169.html?ref=gs
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waltky · Dec 1, 2016

Mebbe can cause nightmares too...

Do not sleep on it: going to sleep angry makes things worse
Thu, Dec 01, 2016 - A good nights sleep might reinforce negative memories in the brain, researchers said on Tuesday, lending scientific credence to the time-worn caution against going to bed angry.

Slipping into slumber while holding on to a freshly formed bad memory engraves it in the brain, making it harder to shake off later, a team from China and the US reported in the journal Nature Communications. This study suggests that there is certain merit in this age-old advice: Do not go to bed angry, said study coauthor Liu Yunzhe, who conducted the research at Beijing Normal University. We would suggest to first resolve [the] argument before [going to] bed. Liu and the research team used 73 male college students to test the impact of sleep on memory. The participants were trained over two days to associate specific images with negative memories.

Later, they were made to look at the pictures again and instructed either to recall the negative associations or to fight against it and not let the memory enter their mind. The test was done twice once after the participants had had a night of sleep and once only half an hour after a training session. All the while, scientists scanned the participants brain activity. Participants found it much harder to suppress memories after sleep, the team found, and the scans revealed the souvenirs were likely being stored in a part of the brain with longer-term memory connections.

Sleeping is known to affect how newly acquired information is stored and processed in the brain, moving from short to longer-term networks. Memories of negative or traumatic events often last longer than those of positive or neutral experiences, the research team said, but they can, to an extent, be consciously controlled. An inability to suppress bad memories has been linked to a number of psychiatric problems, including depression and post traumatic stress disorder.

Before this latest study, we did not know whether it is better or worse to suppress memories before or after sleep, Liu said. Better understanding of such processes could boost the treatment of psychiatric problems. For example, sleep deprivation immediately after traumatic experiences may prevent traumatic memories from being consolidated ... and thus provide the opportunity to block the formation of traumatic memories, the study authors wrote.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2016/12/01/2003660364
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waltky · Jun 17, 2017

She was a old booger too...

Sleep apnea among causes of Carrie Fisher’s death
Sun, Jun 18, 2017 - Actress Carrie Fisher died from sleep apnea and a combination of other factors, but investigators were not able to pinpoint an exact cause, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said on Friday.

Among the factors that contributed to Fisher’s death was buildup of fatty tissue in the walls of her arteries, the agency said in a news release. The release says that the Star Wars actress showed signs of having taken multiple drugs, but investigators could not determine whether they contributed to her death in December last year. Her manner of death would be listed as undetermined, it said. Sleep apnea is a condition in which a person’s breathing pauses during sleep. The pauses might be brief or last several minutes, according to information from the US National Institutes of Health.

Fisher’s brother, Todd Fisher, said he was not surprised by the results, and added that his family did not want a coroner’s investigation of his sister’s death. “We’re not enlightened. There’s nothing about this that is enlightening,” he said. “I would tell you, from my perspective, that there’s certainly no news that Carrie did drugs,” Todd Fisher said, adding that his sister wrote extensively about her drug use, and that many of the drugs she took were prescribed by doctors to try to treat her mental health conditions.

Fisher long battled drug addiction and mental illness. She said she smoked pot at 13, used LSD by 21 and was diagnosed as bipolar at 24. She was treated with electroshock therapy and medication. “I am not shocked that part of her health was affected by drugs,” Todd Fisher said.

He said his sister’s heart condition was probably worsened by her smoking habit, as well as the medications she took. “If you want to know what killed her, it’s all of it,” he said. Todd Fisher said it was difficult to blame doctors who treated his sister because they were trying to help her. “They were doing their best to cure a mental disorder. Can you really blame them?” Todd Fisher said. “Without her drugs, maybe she would have left long ago.”

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2017/06/18/2003672812
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waltky · Oct 28, 2017

Granny gets crabby when she don't get her beauty sleep...

10 things to know about sleep as the clocks go back
Sat, 28 Oct 2017 - The clocks are about to go back in the UK. How does sleep affect our lives?

People across the UK will wake up having gained an hour's sleep on Sunday morning, as the clocks go back heralding darker evenings and shorter days. But how much do we know about sleep and its impact on our lives, from our health and mood, to how long we'll live?

1. We're told to get our eight hours

We often hear that we should all be getting eight hours' sleep a night. Organisations from the NHS to the US National Sleep Foundation recommend it. But where does this advice come from? Studies carried out around the world, looking at how often diseases occur in different groups of people across a population, have come to the same conclusion: both short sleepers and long sleepers are more likely to have a range of diseases, and to live shorter lives. But it's hard to tell whether it is short sleep that is causing disease or whether it is a symptom of a less healthy lifestyle. Short sleepers are generally defined as those who regularly get less than six hours' sleep and long sleepers generally more than nine or 10 hours' a night.

Woman lying in bed

Pre-puberty, children are recommended to get as much as 11 hours' sleep a night, however, and up to 18 hours a day for newborn babies. Teenagers should sleep for up to 10 hours a night. Shane O'Mara, professor of experimental brain research at Trinity College Dublin, says that, while it's difficult to tell whether poor sleep is a cause or a symptom of poor health, these relationships feed off each other. For example, people who are less fit exercise less, which leads people to sleep badly, become exhausted and less likely to exercise, and so on. We do know that chronic sleep deprivation - that is, under-sleeping by an hour or two a night over a period of time - has been linked time and again by scientists to poor health outcomes: you don't have to go for days without sleep to suffer these negative effects.

2. What happens in your body when you don't sleep enough?

Poor sleep has been linked to a whole range of disorders. A review of 153 studies with a total of more than five million participants found short sleep was significantly associated with diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease and obesity. Studies have shown that depriving people of enough sleep for only a few nights in a row can be enough to put healthy adults into a pre-diabetic state. These moderate levels of sleep deprivation damaged their bodies' ability to control blood glucose levels. Vaccines are less effective when we are sleep deprived, and sleep deprivation suppresses our immune system making us more prone to infection.

One study found participants who had fewer than seven hours of sleep were almost three times more likely to develop a cold than those who slept for seven hours or more. People who don't sleep enough also appear to produce too much of the hormone ghrelin, associated with feeling hungry, and not enough of the hormone leptin, associated with feeling full, which may contribute to their risk of obesity. Prof O'Mara explains that toxic debris builds up in your brain during the course of the day and waste is drained from the body during sleep. If you don't sleep enough, you end up in a mildly concussed state, he says. The impact of sleeping too much is less understood, but we do know it is linked to poorer health including a higher risk of cognitive decline in older adults.

3. We need different types of sleep to repair ourselves
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