Sleep- In the News

Omg, so remember how I said hypnotics have been linked with death and cancer? A new study published by BMJ confirms and expands this information. Check out the conclusion of this study:

"Conclusions Receiving hypnotic prescriptions was associated with greater than threefold increased hazards of death even when prescribed <18 pills/year. This association held in separate analyses for several commonly used hypnotics and for newer shorter-acting drugs. Control of selective prescription of hypnotics for patients in poor health did not explain the observed excess mortality."

6-10% of the US adult population used hypnotics in 2010. If you are on a hypnotic, you might wish to discuss with your doctor some healthier options!

Good news for CPAP users! In a new study published by the American Hearth Association, showed that moderate to severe OSA (obstructive sleep apnea)damages the left ventricular in the same way as high blood pressure and that with cpap usage that damage is significantly improved.

If you *think* your sleep could be better and if you *think* you might have a possibility of sleep apnea, get out there and get a sleep study. Call your insurance and see if you need a referral, if so get one, if not get some numbers from your insurance and get it scheduled. I was able to get in for a consultation in under 2 weeks and my study is scheduled within 2 weeks of the consultation.

This next news article is about sleep and weight loss. I knew weight loss required healthy sleep due to stress hormone regeneration (too much stress hormone in your system means weight gain). This new study provides information I hadn't even thought about.

Mayo Clinic did a study on calorie intake, activity levels, and the amount of sleep. The activity levels did not change, however when sleep dropped to 6 hours or less the participants ate 550 calories (on average) more than when they slept more. This can result in an easy 1 pound per week gain.

The moral of the study, sleep more and eat less.

p.s. I don't know why I have so many different fonts. The segments that aren't courier will not change font type to anything other than what it is. So I will leave it be. It wants to be special. :)