You'll wanna stay awake for this

Good advice.

"If I told you that I had a neurological disease which meant that for eight or more hours a day I lost control of my faculties, bade farewell to the outside world, and was subject to complex hallucinations and delusions – such as being chased by a grizzly bear at Stockport Railway Station – you would think I was in a pretty bad way. If I also claimed that the condition was infectious, you would wish me luck in coping with such a terrible disease, and bid me a hasty farewell.

"The fact that we accept without surprise the need for a prolonged black-out as part of our daily life highlights our tendency to take for granted anything about our condition that is universal. We don’t see how strange sleep is because (nearly) everyone sleeps.

"Since all animals sleep, we assume it has a biological purpose. The trouble is, we don’t know what that purpose is. There are many theories – energy conservation, growth promotion, immobilisation during hours of darkness when it might be dangerous to be out and about, consolidation of memories – but they are all open to serious objections. William Dement, one of the leading researchers of the last century and co-discoverer of Rapid Eye Movement sleep, concluded from his fifty years in the forefront of the field that 'the only reason we need to sleep that is really, really solid, is that we get sleepy.'"

-- Raymond Tallis

It's ok to sleep through this post

Will live forever.

Many baby boomers are embracing lifestyles that could lead to a long and rewarding life – with two exceptions, new research suggests.

 More than seven in 10 centenarians – 71% – say they get eight hours or more of sleep each night. By contrast, only 38% of boomers say they get the same amount of rest. And when it comes to eating right, more than eight in 10 centenarians say they regularly consume a balanced meal, compared with just over two-thirds (68%) of baby boomers.

The report begins with some startling numbers. As of late 2010, the U.S. had an estimated 72,000 centenarians, according to the Census Bureau. By the year 2050, that number – with the aging of the baby-boom generation – is expected to reach more than 600,000. Meanwhile, an estimated 10,000 boomers each and every day – for the next decade – will turn 65.

How to reach 100?

Centenarians point to social connections, exercise and spiritual activity as some of the keys to successful aging. Among surveyed centenarians, almost nine in 10 – fully 89% – say they communicate with a family member or friend every day; about two thirds (67%) pray, meditate or engage in some form of spiritual activity; and just over half (51%) say they exercise almost daily. 

In each of these areas, baby boomers, as it turns out, match up fairly well. The same percentage of boomers as centenarians – 89% – say they’re in touch with friends or family members on a regular basis. Sixty percent of surveyed baby-boomers say spiritual activity is an important part of their lives, and almost six in 10 boomers (59%) exercise regularly.

Sleep and diet are the two areas where baby boomers come up short. Not surprisingly, the one area where boomers are more active is the workplace. Three-quarters (76%) of surveyed baby boomers say they work at a job or hobby almost every day; that compares with 16% of centenarians.

Snoring kills. Good.

Snoring and other types of "sleep disordered breathing," as it is known, can deprive the body of enough oxygen for hours at a time. And scientists now believe having low blood oxygen levels can trigger the development of cancerous tumors, by promoting the growth of the vessels that feed them.

Researchers in the US looked at cancer rates in more than 1,500 people, in a study of sleep problems that has been going for 22 years. They found those with severe sleep disordered breathing (SDB) were 4.8 times more likely to develop cancer than those who had no such problems.

This is good news for two reasons. First, it's nature's way of eliminating annoying people. Second, it introduces yet another acronym for hypochondriacs to call their doctors about. SDB. Sound serious.

Are we all half awake all of the time? Violinists aren't.

This way to Carnegie Hall.

I know. One more article on getting enough sleep and you'll just doze off. Fine. I don't get enough, so this is for me.

Tony Schwartz, president and CEO of The Energy Project and author of The Way We're Working Isn't Working, made me think of this. His thoughts.

We continue to live by a remarkably durable myth: sleeping one hour less will give us one more hour of productivity. In reality, the research suggests that even small amounts of sleep deprivation take a significant toll on our health, our mood, our cognitive capacity and our productivity. Insufficient sleep, for example, wreaks havoc on our memory.

So how much sleep do you need?

When researchers put test subjects in environments without clocks or windows and ask them to sleep any time they feel tired, 95 percent sleep between seven and eight hours out of every 24. Another 2.5 percent sleep more than eight hours. That means just 2.5 percent of us require less than 7 hours of night a sleep to feel fully rested. That's 1 out of every 40 people.

And what's the deal with violinists?

Typically, they sleep significantly more than the rest of us. In Anders Ericcson's famous study of violinists, the top performers slept an average of 8 ½ hours out of every 24, including a 20 to 30 minute midafternoon nap some 2 hours a day more than the average American. The top violinists also reported that except for practice itself, sleep was second most important factor in improving as violinists.

How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

Nap, nap.

The right sleep position can ease heartburn

It matters whether you sleep on your left or right side. Several studies have found that sleeping on the right side aggravates heartburn; sleeping on the left tends to calm it, The New York Times reports.

The reason is not entirely clear. One hypothesis holds that right-side sleeping relaxes the lower esophageal sphincter, between the stomach and the esophagus. Another holds that left-side sleeping keeps the junction between stomach and esophagus above the level of gastric acid.  

Sometimes it's the little things.

To sleep, perchance to not get diabetes

Could the epidemic of diabetes be caused by our poor sleeping habits?

Biologists have found that a key protein that regulates the biological clocks of mammals also regulates glucose production in the liver and that altering the levels of this protein can improve the health of diabetic mice.

Their discovery provides an entirely new biochemical approach for scientists to develop treatments for obesity and type 2 diabetes. It also raises the interesting possibility that some of the rise in diabetes in the U.S. and other major industrialized countries could be a consequence of disturbances in sleep-wake cycles from our increasingly around-the-clock lifestyles.

Cryptochrome

The work zeroed in on a particular protein.

"We know that mice that don't have good biological clocks tend to develop diabetes and obesity," said Steve Kay, Dean of the Division of Biological Sciences at UC San Diego and one of the lead authors of the research study. "And we know that mice that have developed diabetes and obesity tend not to have very good biological clocks. This reciprocal relationship between circadian rhythm and the maintenance of a constant supply of glucose in the body had been known for some time. But what we found that's so significant is that a particular biological clock protein, cryptochrome, is actually regulating how the hormone that regulates glucose production in the liver works in a very specific way."

"We used to think that our metabolism was regulated primarily by hormones that are released from the pancreas during fasting or feeding. This work shows that the biological clock determines how well these hormones work to regulate metabolism," says Marc Montminy, a professor in the Clayton Foundation Laboratories for Peptide Biology at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. "The study may explain why shift workers, whose biological clocks are often out of kilter, also have a greater risk of developing obesity and insulin resistance."

Don't start thinking you're special. Cryptochrome also regulates the biological clocks of plants and fruit flies.

Too little sleep may lead to diabetes

People who sleep less than six hours a night may be three times more likely to develop a condition that leads to diabetes and heart disease, according to new research.

A study by a team of researchers from the University of Warwick and the University at Buffalo finds short sleep duration is associated with an elevated risk of a pre-diabetic state, known as incident-impaired fasting glycaemia (IFG). 

The condition means that your body isn’t able to regulate glucose as efficiently as it should. People with IFG have a greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes and are at an increased risk of heart disease and stroke.

“We found that short sleep—less than six hours—was associated with a significant, three-fold increased likelihood of developing IFG, compared to people who got an average of six to eight hours sleep a night,” says lead author Saverio Stranges of the Warwick Medical School.

“Previous studies have shown that short sleep duration results in a 28 percent increase in mean levels of the appetite stimulating hormone ghrelin so it can affect feeding behaviors. Other studies have also shown that a lack of sleep can decrease glucose tolerance and increases the production of cortisol, a hormone produced in response to stress."

Another reason to get your sleep

Men with a complaint of chronic insomnia and short sleep duration have an elevated risk of death, a new study shows.

Compared to men without insomnia who slept for six hours or more, men with chronic insomnia who slept for less than six hours were four times more likely to die during the 14-year follow-up period. Results were adjusted for body mass index, smoking status, alcohol use, depression and obstructive sleep apnea. Further adjustments for hypertension and diabetes had little effect on the elevated mortality risk. No significant mortality risk was found in women with insomnia and a short sleep duration of less than six hours.

The study also found an even higher risk of death when men with chronic insomnia and a short sleep duration also had hypertension or diabetes. Previous studies based on the same cohort have shown that chronic insomnia with short sleep duration is associated with deficits in neurocognitive function and increased risks of both type 2 diabetes and hypertension.

The authors cautioned that six hours of sleep is not recommended as the optimum sleep duration for the general population. They used a six-hour cut-off point only for the statistical evaluation of the severity of insomnia. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine reports that most adults need seven to eight hours of nightly sleep to feel alert and well rested during the day.