Sleep affects a person’s waking hours more than a person realizes. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, about 60 million Americans suffer from insomnia or other sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea, restless limb syndrome, narcolepsy, delayed or advanced sleep phase syndrome and parasomnias. 

The Alert, Well and Keeping Energy (AWAKE) sleep support group is part of the Piedmont Newnan Sleep Center’s efforts to help patients get the rest they need to lead normal, productive lives.

“People don’t realize the affect and power a good night’s sleep has on people,” says Jennifer Morrow, the Piedmont Newnan Hospital Sleep Center and AWAKE support group coordinator.

Some common symptoms of not getting enough rest include excessive sleepiness during daytime hours, loud snoring, pauses during breathing while asleep, morning headaches, restless legs during sleep and exhaustion despite having enough sleep hours. Read the rest of this entry

Children are busy these days with texting, talking on the phone, and video games and this could leave them heavily sleep deprived. Apart from all these gadgets and other activities there is another monster that’s robbing them of a good night’s rest.

Getting your kid to sleep like a baby is harder than ever these days. If you have a teen, you know exactly what is this all about.

Edward Grandi with the American Sleep Apnea Association says, “They go to bed and immediately they’re texting their friends, or they’re looking at movies.”

Or they’re on Facebook or Twitter or checking their email, it’s endless. Read the rest of this entry

(Reuters Health) – New research shows high rates of sleep disorders among veterans of America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or head injuries.

The study conducted at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC, found that among some 300 soldiers with PTSD, head injuries or both, more than half had sleep apnea — a serious interruption of breathing during sleep — and nearly half had insomnia.

“Sleep complaints were universal,” wrote Dr. Jacob Collen and his colleagues in their research summary. Collen’s team presented their findings this week at the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians in Honolulu.

The researchers studied 135 soldiers with PTSD, 116 with traumatic brain injury and 66 with both conditions.

Sleep testing performed on most of the patients found obstructive sleep apnea in 56 percent of them and insomnia in 49 percent. Read the rest of this entry

Clayton Sleep Institute (CSI), in partnership with Sleep Review magazine hosts the 9th Annual Updates in Sleep Medicine 2011. The conference takes place in St. Louis, Mo. at the Four Seasons Hotel beginning on Friday, November 4 and continuing until 12:30 CST on November 5. The annual meeting offers premiere medical and scientific presentations by leaders in sleep medicine on the current trends and latest developments.

Each year, the event attracts sleep specialists, primary care physicians, specialty physicians, nurses, respiratory care practitioners and residents in training from across the United States. The following topics will be covered at this year’s conference:

Managing Circadian Rhythms: Diagnosis and Treatment: this presentation will be given by Mark J. Muehlbach, Ph.D. Dr. Muehlbach is the Clinical Director of the The Clinics at Clayton Sleep Institute. The presentation will help audience members both become familiar with circadian rhythms and identify factors contributing to disruptions in circadian rhythms. Read the rest of this entry

Snoring is among the common sleep problems in adults, especially in middle-aged men. And children and kids are equally prone to this most uncomfortable sleep disorder.The effects of snoring upon the overall health of children is established to be detrimental up to great extent.

Association of snoring and obstructive sleep apnea, or OSA among kids and children has now become a more common occurrence. Across the globe occurrence of persistent snoring on most nights has been reported in 8-12 percent of children.

The incidence of OSA (with significant upper airway obstruction leading to   oxygen desaturation and/or sleep fragmentation) is 2-3 percent in children under the age of 10. Read the rest of this entry

Insomnia, one of the most dreaded – yet highly common – is affecting more than 30% of the world’s population. Not surprisingly, people today have been found to experience 20% less of the good night’s sleep that people from 100 years ago tremendously enjoyed. Often caused by stress and anxiety or involving genetics, insomnia is prompting roughly 10 million Americans to pop prescription medicine to help them fall into a deep slumber.

As the number of “insomniacs” around the world soars, so does the need for trusted, relevant data on how alleviate the condition.

Established in 2005, Help-Me-To-Sleep.com aims to provide a wealth of facts and advice on a range of sleep disorders including insomnia, sleep apnea, narcolepsy, restless leg syndrome and shift work sleep disorder. The website contains insomnia definition to help visitors understand the condition, while tackling in detail what causes insomnia and how to treat it. Read the rest of this entry

Gaming and Internet activity are more likely to have a negative  impact on self-reported teen sleep duration than watching television,  according to a study presented at the American Psychiatric  Association Annual Meeting.

Researchers analyzed data about media usage and physical activity  from the 2009 Youth Risk Behavioral Survey maintained by the Centers for  Disease Control and Prevention. The researchers found different types  of media exposure have different impact on self-reported teen sleep  patterns. Gaming and Internet usage negatively impacted reported sleep  time, while television had no impact, and physical activity improved  sleep time.

Sleeping disorders reported by troops returning from the war zone may be a normal result of time in combat rather than a symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury, according to a study to be published this summer in the peer-reviewed journal Military Medicine.

“Sleep Disruption Among Returning Combat Veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan,” presented during last month’s American Psychiatric Association annual meeting, examines the sleep patterns of 69 servicemembers who returned from Iraq and Afghanistan between 2006 and 2008.

According to an Army news release, 8 percent of soldiers in Afghanistan were taking mental health-related medications to treat sleep problems in 2008, while soldiers in Iraq averaged 5.6 hours of sleep per night, significantly less than the 6.4 hours individuals indicated they required to feel rested. Previous studies have shown that troops returning from war are likely to sleep poorly in the months after they come home.[ Read Complete Post By Seth Robson At Stars and Stripes ... ]

A 2007 Sleep in America poll showed that 60% of women are tired during the day. Sleepiness can be divided into three problem areas: not getting enough sleep (quantity); not getting enough good sleep (quality); and shift-work disruptions in sleep (circadian rhythm abnormalities).

“Women are sleepy because we work very hard, and we work a lot,” Fadness explained. Women work an average of 41.7 hours per week (compared with 48.8 hours for men), but when you add in the work they do around the home the total comes to 65 to 85 hours per week.

Lifestyle causes

“We are getting so much less sleep than we were 100 years ago,” said Fadness. This can be attributed to snoring spouses, children, job stress and domesticated animals. Read the rest of this entry

Between 1960 and 2010, the average night’s sleep for adults in the United States dropped to six and a half hours from more than eight. Age can have a detrimental effect on sleep. In a 2005 national telephone survey of 1,003 adults ages 50 and older, the Gallup Organization found that a mere third of older adults got a good night’s sleep every day, fewer than half slept more than seven hours, and one-fifth slept less than six hours a night.

With advancing age, natural changes in sleep quality occur. Habits that ruin sleep often accompany aging: less physical activity, less time spent outdoors ,poorer attention to diet, taking medications that can disrupt sleep, caring for a chronically ill spouse, having a snoring partner who snores. Add to this list a host of sleep-robbing health issues, like painful arthritis, diabetes, depression, anxiety, sleep apnea, hot flashes in women and prostate enlargement in men. [  Read Complete Post By JANE E. BRODY At NewYork Times ...   ]

Older adults need about 7-9 hours of uninterrupted sleep, but for many reasons they may often be sleep deprived.  Sleep deprivation may be caused by day time napping, anxiety, sleep apnea, or movement disorders such as restless leg syndrome, medications, or dementia.

Risks of sleep deprivation include: a decreased ability to fight infection, heart disease (48% greater chance of developing or dying from heart disease), high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, an increase incidence of accidents, impairment of attention, judgment, and problem solving.  Lack of sleep contributes to depression, aging of the skin, anxiety, and weight gain. Sleep maybe the fountain of youth but unlike that elusive natural wonder, sleep can be found and embraced.

There are many ways to get better nights sleep.  Most important is to minimize sleep during the day. A short daytime nap may be beneficial but multiple naps or extended daytime sleeping affects the quality and quantity of the primary sleep period.  Developing habits around bedtime, the waking hour, regular exercise, and a relaxing bedtime routine, help to maximize sleep.  Caffeine, alcohol, nicotine and  large quantities of liquids and food should also be avoided close

Safe sleep is just as important and good sleep.  When getting up in the middle of the night from a sound sleep, disorientation, low blood pressure or generalized weakness may develop. Stay safe at night by keeping a phone with emergency phone numbers close to the bed, having a nightlight in the bathroom, removing area rugs and getting up slowly to make sure strength and balance are present before walking.  Falls are the leading cause of injury related visits to the emergency room, most of them happening at night.

Sleep disturbances occur with increased frequency in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) compared with the general population. These encompass sleep apnea syndromes, post-traumatic hypersomnia, insomnia, and related conditions. Poor sleep can have adverse impacts on cognition, attention, and judgment. In those with TBI, disrupted sleep has been shown to impair rehabilitation efforts and progression, and is associated with diminished quality of life measures. The current military conflicts in the Middle East have focused renewed attention on this topic, because many military veterans are affected by TBI. Given the youth of this demographic, management of TBI will be an ongoing challenge for the healthcare community for years to come. Read the rest of this entry

A study presented today at the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting suggests that sleep disturbances like obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), excessive awakening and insomnia, may be a normal result of combat experience, rather than a symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), major depression or other psychiatric conditions.

The retrospective study, which will be published this summer as “Sleep Disruption Among Returning Combat Veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan” in the peer-reviewed journal Military Medicine, examined the electronic medical records of recently redeployed soldiers complaining of sleep disturbances. The purpose of the study was to uncover the relationship between common combat-related conditions among active duty military personnel and the frequency of a diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA ) and other sleep problems. Read the rest of this entry

People are affected by all kinds of sleep disorders – some genetically based and some because of our jobs — and those disorders can affect not only your health, but also safety.

Several studies in recent years have linked a lack of sleep to depression, intestinal disorders and heart disease. While there is no proof that getting more sleep prevents these diseases, it is clear that a lack of sleep, and shift work, affect how some people do their jobs.

A recent string of high-profile stories involving air traffic controllers missing planes while asleep on the job highlighted the issue and served as a wake-up call for the airline industry.

In one case, an air ambulance trying to land in Nevada had to wait after getting no response from the dozing controller. The air ambulance eventually landed on its own.

One US Airways pilot who spoke to Wiggin — but asked not to be identified — said it happens more often than some people might realize. Read the rest of this entry

Sleep apnea is one of the worst kinds of disease that affects many people in US. If you have a sleep apnea this does not mean that you are denied from getting a proper health insurance. As per the surveys conducted in U.S alone approximately 20 million people have this disease this number is aggressively increases on a daily basis all over the world. The main symptoms of this disease include high blood pressure, insomnia, morning headaches etc.

This is not a simple health condition that you can avoid and live at ease. If you are not giving much of attention to this disease it will slowly get worst over time. So it is required that you get proper medication on time and you must get the right sleep apnea insurance to cure this disease. Read the rest of this entry