The study tracked over 200 women who started taking medications around the time of the menopause, when it is common to develop sleeping difficulties.
Why it feels like exercise doesn’t improve sleep — even though it does.
Why it feels like exercise doesn’t improve sleep — even though it does.
Exercise has long been recommended as a way of improving sleep — except people often report it makes no difference.
Now, a new study reveals the reason.
Exercise does indeed improve sleep quality, but people do not notice it, researchers found.
Despite falling asleep quicker and experiencing deeper sleep, people do not seem to feel it themselves.
One reason may be that people who do not regularly exercise tend to feel more stress and muscle soreness after occasional vigorous exercise, which might counteract the perceived benefits of sleep.
In other words, exercise improves sleep, but this is counter-balanced by feeling more stressed and aching muscles.
The conclusions come from a study of nine men who did 60 minutes of vigorous activity and had their sleep quality measured.
Their brain waves were monitored, focusing on slow wave sleep or deep sleep, which is critical to feeling refreshed on waking.
The researchers used a computational method called coefficient variation of the envelope (CVE).
Professor Kaspar E. Vogt, study co-author, explained:
“CVE is a novel tool for quantifying sleep depth according to the characteristics of brain oscillations.
We wanted to use it to determine whether exercise would improve or decrease sleep quality, in addition to determining whether short bouts of exercise could exert a lasting effect on metabolic state.”
The study’s results were explained by Insung Park and Javier Díaz, study co-authors:
“The results were surprising.
We found that exercise improved the quality of sleep as measured using objective techniques, while the participants reported no change in the quality of their sleep.”
Rather than occasional vigorous activity, the better option is regular moderate activity.
Professor Vogt said:
“The results of the subjective evaluations of sleep quality indicate that regular moderate exercise may be more beneficial for perceived sleep quality than occasional vigorous exercise, which might not have a subjective effect despite objective improvements in sleep.”
The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports (Park et al., 2021).
Napping is linked to a decreased risk of Alzheimer’s.
A lack of sleep leads to memory problems, inability to make plans, poor decision-making and a general brain fog.
A lack of sleep leads to memory problems, inability to make plans, poor decision-making and a general brain fog.
Just ten minutes of mindfulness helps the mind and body recover from sleep deprivation, new research finds.
Failing to get 7-8 hours sleep per night is linked to memory problems, inability to make plans, poor decision-making and a general brain fog.
But mindfulness has a remarkable restorative effect.
Ten minutes of mindfulness during the day is enough to compensate for 44 minutes of lost sleep at night, the study of entrepreneurs found.
Here are some mindfulness exercises that are easy to fit into your day.
Dr Charles Murnieks, the study’s first author, said:
“You can’t replace sleep with mindfulness exercises, but they might help compensate and provide a degree of relief.
As little as 70 minutes a week, or 10 minutes a day, of mindfulness practice may have the same benefits as an extra 44 minutes of sleep a night.”
The study followed 105 entrepreneurs, 40% of whom were working 50 hours per week or more and sleeping less than six hours a night.
The results showed that entrepreneurs who engaged in more mindfulness were less exhausted.
A second study of a further 329 entrepreneurs also found that mindfulness could offset the damaging effects of sleep deprivation.
However, mindfulness only works in this context when people are low on sleep.
Some people are getting enough sleep, but still feel exhausted.
Dr Murnieks said:
“If you’re feeling stressed and not sleeping, you can compensate with mindfulness exercises to a point.
But when you’re not low on sleep, mindfulness doesn’t improve those feelings of exhaustion.”
Mindfulness helps to reduce stressors before they lead to exhaustion.
For entrepreneurs and others with long working hours, mindfulness can be beneficial.
Dr Murnieks said:
“There are times when you’re launching a new venture that you’re going to have to surge.
Mindfulness exercises may be one way to provide some relief during those tough stretches.”
The study was published in the Journal of Business Venturing (Murnieks et al., 2019).
Usually, sleep helps to break down the neuronal connections that might prolong unwanted memories.
Both diseases affect the hippocampus, which is part of the brain important for memory.
Stop painful memories coming back again and again.
The best natural treatment to reduce Alzheimer’s risk.
Acceptance of trauma can also help to reduce its damaging effects.
Acceptance of trauma can also help to reduce its damaging effects.
Women who have experienced trauma are more likely to suffer sleep problems, new research finds.
Childhood traumas include things like abuse, death of a relative, family member in jail, addiction and divorce.
In many cases, psychological abuse or neglect can be just as damaging as physical or sexual abuse.
Traumas during childhood are especially likely to cause sleep problems — including waking repeatedly in the night.
However, adult traumas are also likely to lead to poorer sleep.
Dr. Karen Jakubowski, the study’s first author, said:
“This study provides further support that poor sleep is common in midlife women.
In addition, it highlights the adverse sleep sequelae of trauma exposure in midlife women, demonstrating that childhood and adult trauma are related to poor objective sleep continuity and subjective sleep quality, independent of sleep risk factors and depressive symptoms.”
The study included 166 women aged 40 to 60 who were tracked over 5 years.
Over one-third had experienced childhood trauma (44 percent), while almost two-thirds had experience trauma as an adult (61 percent).
Trauma during adulthood was most strongly linked to short sleep, while childhood trauma tended to lead to wakefulness during the night.
Dr Stephanie Faubion, study co-author, said:
“Sleep quality is such an important part of a woman’s overall quality of life, affecting her health as well as her cognitive functioning.
That’s why it’s important for healthcare providers to be aware of all the factors that can affect a woman’s ability to sleep, including a history of trauma.”
Previous research has shown that positive childhood experiences play an important role in keeping people healthy — particularly among those who have experienced adversity as children.
Positive experiences can include:
All of these can help to reduce the harmful effects of childhood trauma.
Acceptance of childhood trauma can also help to reduce its damaging effects.
The study was presented at the Annual Meeting of The North American Menopause Society (Jakubowski et al., 2020).
Twenty percent of women and 12 percent of men report losing sleep because of this.
Twenty percent of women and 12 percent of men report losing sleep because of this.
People increasingly blame their phones for sleep loss, low productivity and risk-taking while driving, new research finds.
Twenty percent of women and 12 percent of men report losing sleep because of time spent on their mobile phone.
In women, these figures have increased by a multiple of 8 since 2005.
The results come from a survey of 709 Australians in 2018.
The answers were compared with those given to the same survey in 2005.
The results of the survey included:
Dr Oscar Oviedo-Trespalacios, the study’s first author, used the phrase ‘technoference’ to describe the phenomenon:
“When we talk about technoference we’re referring to the everyday intrusions and interruptions that people experience due to mobile phones and their usage.
Our survey found technoference had increased among men and women, across all ages.
For example, self-reports relating to loss of sleep and productivity showed that these negative outcomes had significantly increased during the last 13 years.
This finding suggests that mobile phones are potentially increasingly affecting aspects of daytime functioning due to lack of sleep and increasing dereliction of responsibilities.”
Australia now has one of the highest levels of smartphone usage in the world, with 88 percent of Australians owning one.
Dr. Oviedo-Trespalacios said:
“The speed and depth of smartphone take-up in Australia makes our population particularly vulnerable to some of the negative consequences of high mobile phone use.
Rapid technological innovations over the past few years have led to dramatic changes in today’s mobile phone technology—which can improve the quality of life for phone users but also result in some negative outcomes.
These include anxiety and, in some cases, engagement in unsafe behaviours with serious health and safety implications such as mobile phone distracted driving.”
The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry (Oviedo-Trespalacios et al., 2019).
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