Category: Sleep

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).

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.”

Dealing with 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:

• Good friends and neighbours,
• opportunities to have fun,
• feeling safe with caregiver,
• predictable home routines,
• regular mealtimes,
• and caring teachers.

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.

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:

• Around 13 percent of people said their phone affected their productivity.
• Around 10 percent try to hide their high phone usage from others.
• About 20 percent said they would rather use their phone than deal with pressing issues.

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).

Some of the myths about sleep are dangerous to health.

The top myth about sleep is that it is possible to get by on just five hours a night, research reveals.

This myth is not just wrong, it is also dangerous to people’s health.

There are serious health risks from prolonged sleep deficits like this.

The second most common myth is that alcohol can help help you sleep.

In fact, alcohol impairs the brain’s ability to enter the vital phase of deep sleep.

It may feel like you are dropping off quicker, but the subsequent sleep is lighter and less refreshing.

The third myth is that snoring is harmless.

In fact, although it may be harmless, it may also be a sign of sleep apnea.

Sleep apnea is where breathing stops for brief periods during the night.

Dr Rebecca Robbins, the study’s first author, said:

“Sleep is a vital part of life that affects our productivity, mood, and general health and well-being.

Dispelling myths about sleep promotes healthier sleep habits which, in turn, promote overall better health.”

For the study, the researchers looked at over 8,000 websites to find the 20 most common assumptions about sleep.

Each one was rated by the scientists on whether it was supported by evidence, or was a myth.

Other myths about sleep that they correct included:

• TV in bed: TV can be stressful and is best avoided in the bedroom.
• Insomnia: When awake for more than 15 minutes or so, it is better to get out of bed. Don’t stay there and struggle or you will begin to associate it with insomnia.
• Naps: Even if you have difficulty sleeping at night, daytime naps should be avoided. Stick to regular bedtimes and get into a good routine.
• The snooze button: Forget about the snooze button, the extra few minutes won’t do you any good. It’s low quality sleep. Better to get up and out into the daylight.

Professor Girardin Jean Louis, study co-author, said:

“Sleep is important to health, and there needs to be greater effort to inform the public regarding this important public health issue.

For example, by discussing sleep habits with their patients, doctors can help prevent sleep myths from increasing risks for heart disease, obesity, and diabetes.”

The study was published in the journal Sleep Health (Robbins et al., 2019).

People feeling this emotion awakened more in the night.

Feeling lonely is linked to worse sleep, although people do not realise it, research finds.

People who feel lonely tend to wake more in the night, leading to less refreshing sleep.

To sleep well, people need to feel secure in their social environment.

Loneliness, unfortunately, makes people feel less safe, as we are a social species who rely on each other.

Dr  Lianne Kurina, the study’s first author, said:

“It’s not just a product of very lonely individuals having poor sleep.

The relationship between loneliness and restless sleep appears to operate across the range of perceived connectedness.”

The study included 95 people living in a small community in South Dakota.

None of the people in the study were socially isolated, although they felt differing levels of loneliness.

The results showed that people who were more lonely slept the same length of time, but had more fragmented sleep.

However, people did not realise they were sleeping worse themselves.

Objective measures of their movements during the night, though, revealed that people who felt more lonely were more restless.

Dr Kurina said:

“Loneliness has been associated with adverse effects on health.

We wanted to explore one potential pathway for this, the theory that sleep — a key behavior to staying healthy — could be compromised by feelings of loneliness.

What we found was that loneliness does not appear to change the total amount of sleep in individuals, but awakens them more times during the night.”

A previous study on college student found the same link between loneliness and worse sleep.

Dr Kurina said:

“Whether you’re a young student at a major university or an older adult living in a rural community, we may all be dependent on feeling secure in our social environment in order to sleep soundly.

The results from these studies could further our understanding of how social and psychological factors ‘get under the skin’ and affect health.”

The study was published in the journal Sleep (Kurina et al., 2011).