Loss of sleep, even for a few short hours during the night, can prompt one’s immune system to turn against healthy tissue and organs.
A new article in the September 15, 2008 issue of Biological Psychiatry, by the UCLA Cousins Center research team, reports that losing sleep for even part of one night can trigger the key cellular pathway that produces tissue-damaging inflammation. The findings suggest a good night’s sleep can ease the risk of both heart disease and autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis.
Mattress manufacturer Sealy is running an advertising campaign that seemingly suggests less sleep is acceptable for Americans. In that campaign, Sealy notes most Americans no longer get eight hours of sleep each night, but rather closer to six hours. The ads, promoting Sealy’s mattresses, could also have been used to help push the message that Americans need to get a full night’s rest, not just six hours.
“It’s truly a sad day for consumers when a corporation such as Sealy, focused intently on the sleep habits of consumers so it continues making profits, promotes poor sleep habits while seemingly implying “a better six” hours of sleep is healthy,” said Awake In America’s President Michele Narcavage.
Our body’s production of urine follows a circadian rhythm. During the day, we experience greater urinary frequency; at night, urine production declines, enabling us to get uninterrupted sleep. The regulation of urine excretion during nighttime hours is influenced by many factors, including hormones, blood flow (hemodynamics), and sleep-related factors. The mechanism behind the day/night changes is not yet clear.
Danish researchers have examined the urinary patterns of sleep-deprived volunteers and have found that a lack of sleep leads to increased urinary output and more salt in urine. The findings were found to be more prevalent in males than females.
Neuroscience researchers at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, located in Singapore, have shown for the first time what happens to the visual perceptions of healthy but sleep-deprived volunteers who fight to stay awake, like people who try to drive through the night.
This study has implications for a whole range of people who have to struggle through night work, from truckers to on-call doctors.
Epidemiologic surveys suggest that mean sleep duration among U.S. adults has decreased during the past two decades (CDC, unpublished data, 2007). An estimated 50–70 million persons in the United States have chronic sleep and wakefulness disorder.
Sleeping at work can be a hazardous thing. This video, hopefully one made as humor, shows one of many pitfalls.
Chialvo hypothesized the subsequent changes in wiring “may make it harder for you to make a decision or be in a good mood to get up in the morning. It could be that pain produces depression and the other reported abnormalities because it disturbs the balance of the brain as a whole.”
Self-reported sleep complaints among the elderly serve as a risk factor for completed suicide
