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| Sacred Sleep Eucalyptus sheets are packaged in a custom-designed yoga bag |
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| Erica and Kelly, Pinto Barn's design team, created these bags to enclose the eucalyptus sheets |
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| Dave, Doug, and Lee at the Pinto Barn headquarters |
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| Sacred Sleep's line of soft and absorbent Bamboo Towels |
In this short talk, Arianna Huffington shares a small idea that can awaken much bigger ones: the power of a good night's sleep. Instead of bragging about our sleep deficits, she urges us to shut our eyes and see the big picture: We can sleep our way to increased productivity and happiness -- and smarter decision-making.
The far-reaching, free exchange of ideas known as TED takes on sleep and circadian rhythms in the latest streaming TEDtalk.
In the video, environmental journalist Jessa Gamble shares some things she picked up while living in the 24-hour darkness of northern Canada in the wintertime.
Gamble praises the benefits of setting an early bedtime, and waking for a couple hours in the middle of the night, before sleeping until sunrise.
The speaker's approach to sleep isn't all that different from the split sleep schedules used by astronauts and shift workers. The concept is called biphasic sleep, and research shows it can be just as effective as normal nighttime sleep.
Sleep experts tell us adults need seven to nine hours a day. But one-third of all Americans are getting LESS than that. And scientists see a dangerous downside. Unless you happen to be among the lucky few who seem perfectly cast for our frantic email/cell phone/iPad/instant messaging sleep-deprived world.
"Althought the authors have not been able to prove that sleeping pills cause premature death, their analyses have ruled out a ride range of other possible causative factors. So these findings raise important concerns and questions about the safety of sedatives and sleeping pills."
There are several recent studies that link the use of sleeping pills to higher risk of death.
This first study is based on observational data, (and not a clinical trial), and author Dr. Lawrence E. Kline, medical director of the Viterbi Family Sleep Center says "it's still possible that other factors explain the associations".
Kline said he also says further studies are necessary, nevertheless there is enough evidence for doctors to consider alternatives to sleeping pills when they treat their patients.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/242211.php
Sleeping Pills Tied To Higher Risk Of Death
29 Feb 2012
Compared to never using sleeping pills, even using no more than 18 a year is tied to a more than threefold increased risk of death, according to researchers in the US who saw this result after controlling for every possible factor they could think of that might influence it. They also found a more than fourfold higher risk of death and a significant increase in cancer cases among regular pill users.
The findings are stark news for the growing number of people who rely on sleeping pills to get a good night's rest, especially as the results showed the link was the same for the newer, more popular sleeping pills such as zolpidem (Ambien) and temazepam (Restoril).
First author Dr Daniel F. Kripke, of the Viterbi Family Sleep Center at Scripps Health in San Diego, California, told the media:
"What our study shows is that sleeping pills are hazardous to your health and might cause death by contributing to the occurrence of cancer, heart disease and other ailments."
Kripke and colleagues write about their investigation in a paper published in the open-access online journal BMJ Open on 27 February.
Their work expands on previously published research linking higher mortality with use of sleeping pills.
However, Kripke said it is the first to show that eight of the most commonly used sleeping pills or hypnotic drugs, are linked to increased risk of death and cancer, including the popularly prescribed zolpidem (known as the brand Ambien) and temazepam (Restoril). These newer drugs were thought to be safer because their action is not as long-lasting as that of the older hypnotics.
Between 6 and 10% of adult Americans took a hypnotic drug for poor sleep in 2010.
This sector of the US pharmaceutical industry grew by 23% between 2006 and 2010, to an annual sales level of about $2 billion.
"We tried every practical strategy to make these associations go away, thinking that they could be due to use by people with more health problems, but no matter what we did the associations with higher mortality held."
But third author, Dr Lawrence E. Kline, medical director of the Viterbi Family Sleep Center, said even though they tried to take as much into account as they could, we should note that the study is based on observational data (and not a clinical trial, for example), so "it's still possible that other factors explain the associations".
"We hope our work will spur additional research in this area using information from other populations," he urged.
Kline said he also hopes the study will nevertheless prompt doctors to consider alterantives to sleeping pills when they treat their patients.
He said at the Viterbi Family Sleep Center the clinicians use cognitive therapy to help patients understand more about sleep. For example, insomnia sufferers may not need the commonly recommended eight hours sleep every night.
Teaching good sleep habits and relaxation is another possible alternative, as is taking advantage of the body's natural rhythms, which follow the rising and setting of the sun.
"Understanding how to use the circadian rhythm is a very powerful tool that doesn't require a prescription," said Kline.
Sometimes sleep disorder stems from depression and emotional problems. Kripke said in such cases, doctors should treat those underlying causes and avoid prescribing sleeping pills that could make things worse.
Insomnia - Early Diagnosis Plus Treatment Helps Prevent Complications
23 Jan 2012
In light of the findings, the National Institutes of Health in the USA declared that only two treatment options, i.e. cognitive behavioral therapy [CBT] and approved hypnotic drugs have shown sufficient evidence to support their use for treating insomnia.
CBT, a therapy using psychological and behavioral methods, such as relaxation techniques, sleep restriction, stimulus control, and education about sleep hygiene like diet, exercise, and the bedroom environment, has proven highly effective at treating insomnia. It has no risks of adverse side effects and provides long-lasting benefits, a clear advantage compared with drug treatment, however, at the moment there is a shortage of health-care professionals trained in CBT.
"Although CBT is not readily available in most clinical settings, access and delivery can be made easier through the use of innovative methods such as telephone consultations, group therapy, and self-help approaches via the internet. There is an urgent need for more public education about sleep and broader dissemination of evidence-based therapies for insomnia, and education and training to prepare health-practitioners to attend and treat insomnia complaints according to clinical guidelines."
Key Points:
Even though insomnia is the most common sleep disorder, it is often left unrecognized and untreated, despite advances in diagnosis and management. The risk of developing other illnesses, such as diabetes, depression, hypertension, and possibly even death in older adults increases if insomnia is left untreated. A review published Online First in The Lancet concludes that to ensure that patients are treated according to clinical guidelines, rather than being administered with off-label drugs that show little evidence in terms of effectiveness, more needs to be done to diagnose and treat insomnia early.
Authors of the Seminar, Charles Morin from the Université Laval in Québec City, Canada and Ruth Benca from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, USA, declare:"In view of the high prevalence and substantial morbidities of insomnia, patients should routinely be asked about sleep problems by health-care providers."
It is estimated that about a quarter of the adult population suffer from sleeping problems, with an estimated 6 to 10% suffering from insomnia, which is characterized by experiencing difficulty in falling or staying asleep, lacking restorative sleep and daytime symptoms, such as having trouble to concentrate, being fatigued and suffering from mood swings.
Most insomnia sufferers are prone to recurrent episodes and according to longitudinal research, almost 70% of insomnia sufferers continue to experience symptoms a year later, whilst half still experience insomnia up to 3 years later.
Individuals with insomnia suffer from various increased health risks, such as being over five times more likely to experience anxiety and depression, they have a more than double the risk of developing congestive heart failure and diabetes, and have an elevated risk of death. According to one study, those suffering from insomnia have a seven times higher risk of alcohol or drug abuse over the next three and a half years, than those without the condition.
The authors found that insomnia also creates a significant economic and societal burden due to poor productivity, absence from work, and high health-care costs. They note that long term use of over-the-counter and prescription drugs remains insufficiently researched despite its widespread use and that there is little evidence of which drugs work best and for whom.
Furthermore, they point out that some of the most commonly prescribed drugs, such as antidepressants and antihistamines, have not yet been approved for the treatment of insomnia and declare that more research is urgently required to evaluate the efficacy of individual drugs for treating insomnia.
In light of the findings, the National Institutes of Health in the USA declared that only two treatment options, i.e. cognitive behavioral therapy [CBT] and approved hypnotic drugs have shown sufficient evidence to support their use for treating insomnia.
"Disrupted sleep appears to be associated with the build-up of amyloid plaques, a hallmark marker of Alzheimer's disease, in the brains of people without memory problems. Further research is needed to determine why this is happening and whether sleep changes may predict cognitive decline."
"The association between disrupted sleep and amyloid plaques is intriguing, but the information from this study can't determine a cause-effect relationship or the direction of this relationship. We need longer-term studies, following individuals' sleep over years, to determine whether disrupted sleep leads to amyloid plaques, or whether brain changes in early Alzheimer's disease lead to changes in sleep.
Our study lays the groundwork for investigating whether manipulating sleep is a possible strategy in the prevention or slowing of Alzheimer's disease"
Calorie Consumption Likely To Increase With Insufficient Sleep
If you don't get enough sleep, you may also eat too much - and thus be more likely to become obese.
That is the findings of researchers who presented their study at the American Heart Association's Epidemiology and Prevention/Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism 2012 Scientific Sessions.
"We tested whether lack of sleep altered the levels of the hormones leptin and ghrelin, increased the amount of food people ate, and affected energy burned through activity," said Virend Somers, M.D., Ph.D., study author and professor of medicine and cardiovascular disease at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.. Leptin and ghrelin are associated with appetite.
Researchers found:
- The sleep deprived group, who slept one hour and 20 minutes less than the control group each day consumed an average 549 additional calories each day.
- The amount of energy used for activity didn't significantly change between groups, suggesting that those who slept less didn't burn additional calories.
- Lack of sleep was associated with increased leptin levels and decreasing ghrelin - changes that were more likely a consequence, rather than a cause, of over-eating.
"Sleep deprivation is a growing problem, with 28 percent of adults now reporting that they get six or fewer hours of sleep per night," said Andrew D. Calvin, M.D., M.P.H., co-investigator, cardiology fellow and assistant professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic.
The researchers noted that while this study suggests sleep deprivation may be an important part and one preventable cause of weight gain and obesity, it was a small study conducted in a hospital's clinical research unit.
"Larger studies of people in their home environments would help confirm our findings," Calvin said.
