Post-partum depression can lead to poor sleep quality, recent research shows. A study published in the Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing shows that depression symptoms worsen in PPD patients when their quality of sleep declines.
Sleep deprivation can hamper a mother’s ability to care for her infant, as judgment and concentration decline. Sleep-deprived mothers also may inadvertently compromise their infants’ sleep quality because infants often adopt their mothers’ circadian sleep rhythms.
ResMed today introduced the Mirage Activa LT nasal mask, saying it is a versatile, high-performance mask with increased ease-of-use and new comfort features, along with a quiet, lightweight design. The Activa LT is an everyday nasal mask to helps ensure user comfort, and should help drive compliance.
The Activa LT is designed to accommodate a patient’s unique needs to provide a comfortable, quiet therapy environment. The compact ActiveCell cushion automatically adjusts to varying sleep positions and pressure modes, while the floating seal reduces facial marks and eye irritation produced by headgear tension and mask-leak.
People who experience insomnia or have sleep disruptions related to periodic leg movements (PLM) can benefit from both the immediate and long-term effects of exercise, says a study published in the January 2009 issue Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. Exercise reduced PLM, often associated with restless legs syndrome (RLS), and contributed to better sleep patterns in patients who have the periodic episodes of repetitive leg movement during sleep.
The study was designed to examine both the acute (immediate) and chronic (long-term) effects of exercise as it relates to PLM/RLS. Volunteers included sedentary patients already enrolled in a sleep disorder program due to these conditions. All were analyzed after they had performed an intensive exercise session in the morning (acute) and later compared to half the group who trained for approximately six months, three days a week.
A recently published study shows after a one-hour delay of school start times, teens increased their average nightly hours of sleep and decreased their “catch-up sleep” on the weekends, and they were involved in fewer auto accidents.
When school started an hour later, students averaged from 12 minutes (grade nine) to 30 minutes (grade 12) more self-reported nightly sleep. The percentage of students who got at least eight hours of sleep per weeknight increased from 35.7 percent to 50 percent; students who got at least nine hours of sleep also increased from 6.3 percent to 10.8 percent.
Sleeping less than seven-and-a-half hours per day may be associated with future risk of heart disease, according to a report in the November 10, 2008, issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. In addition, a combination of little sleep and overnight elevated blood pressure appears to be associated with an increased risk of the disease.
“Reflecting changing lifestyles, people are sleeping less in modern societies,” according to background information in the article. Getting adequate sleep is essential to preventing health conditions such as obesity and diabetes as well as several risk factors for cardiovascular disease including sleep-disordered breathing and night-time hypertension (high blood pressure).
Individuals who experience trauma during childhood appear more likely to develop chronic fatigue syndrome as adults, according to a report in the January, 2009, issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. In addition, neuro–endocrine dysfunction — or abnormalities in the interaction between the nervous system and endocrine system — appears to be associated with childhood trauma in those with chronic fatigue syndrome, suggesting a biological pathway by which early experiences influence adult vulnerability to illness.
Chronic fatigue syndrome affects as many as 2.5 percent of U.S. adults, according to background information in the article. Little is known about the causes and development of the condition. Risk factors include female sex, genetic predisposition, certain personality traits and physical and emotional stress. “Stress in interaction with other risk factors likely triggers chronic fatigue syndrome symptoms through its effects on central nervous, neuro–endocrine and immune systems, resulting in functional changes that lead to fatigue and associated symptoms such as sleep disruption, cognitive impairment and pain,” the authors write.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) revises the reimbursement rates for all services. During the review and revision process for the coming year, there’s often at least one or two areas that bring about heated discussion in the private sector over reimbursement, generally because of a reduction or a less-than-wanted/less-than-desired increase. This year, as over the past few years, home oxygen was a hot topic.
CMS announced late last year it was reviewing issues related to sleep apnea. The reason given was because the number of Medicare claims over the past few years have shot up like rocket. Much of that is attributed to patient education, community awareness, and various outreach efforts, such as those initiated by Awake In America and other organizations.
People with even minimally symptomatic obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may be at increased risk for cardiovascular disease because of impaired endothelial function and increased arterial stiffness, according to a study in the November 2008 issue of American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Their findings suggested that minimally symptomatic OSA is a cardiovascular risk factor to a degree not previously known.
Carbon monoxide (CO) levels in a patient’s blood may determine the severity of a patient’s obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), according to a study published in the November 2008 issue of Chest.
Masayoshi Kobayashi, M.D., of the Yokohama City University Graduate School of Medicine in Yokohama, Japan, and colleagues determined CO levels in 35 patients with OSA and 17 healthy controls matched for age, both before and after polysomnography.
