The Insomnia Blog - Sleep Doctor Michael Breus, PhD

Is your New Year’s Resolution to look better? Beauty Sleep: Need I say More?

I have talked about this before and now there is new research to keep the discussion going; both better quantity and quality sleep is an attractive feature, in everyone. A new study from researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in the prestigious British Medical Journal showed that when given a choice, people thought individuals with more sleep looked attractive!

Researchers took pictures of 23 people on two separate occasions, the first time when they were sleep deprived (after being awake for 31 hours), and the second time after 8 hours of sleep. The pictures were taken under these conditions:

• The participants were non-smokers
• The participants had not had an alcoholic beverage in 3 days
• Taken at the same time of day
• With no make-up and similar hygiene measures
• With similar hair styles (lose or pulled back if long)
• At the same camera lens distance
• In the same well lit room
• And they were asked to have a neutral facial expression

Sixty-five “observers” were blinded to the condition (meaning that they did not know which occasion they were rating (sleep deprived vs. well rested) and asked to rate people on perceived health, attractiveness, and tiredness. And what do you think the results showed? People who were sleep deprived were rated as:

1. Less Healthy looking
2. More tired looking
3. Less Attractive

Not surprisingly a decreased rating of looking healthy appeared to be associated with ratings of tiredness and less attractiveness.

What can you do to make this New Year one of Sleep and Health?

• Make sure you are getting your needed rest-in most cases this is between 7-9 hours
• If you think that you may have a sleep disorder that could be causing poor quality sleep, make a point of speaking to your doctor about seeing a sleep specialist
• Try some sure-fire ways of increasing sleep quality:
  
  • Go decaf by 2:30pm
  • Exercise daily-with doctor’s permission
• Consider creating a tranquil sleep environment
  
  • Could it be time for a new pillow or mattress?
• When creating those holidays cards choose pictures of a well rested family
• If creating a new online profile (dating or otherwise) chose those pictures wisely

We all want to look and feel our best in 2011 and all the years to come, and remember healthy sleep is a great way to help make that happen.

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD

The Sleep Doctor™

www.thesleepdoctor.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesleepdoctor

Twitter: @thesleepdoctor

Innocent by Sleep-Deprived Insanity?

That’s what one man is saying in one of the strangest trials of the year (maybe even the decade). When I read about it, I dug a little deeper only to find that the details of the trial were even more complicated than the claim of innocence.  Here are the facts of the case (pretend you’re in the jury box):

• Woody Smith of Dayton, Kentucky strangled his wife to death in May of last year.
• Police records indicate that Smith learned about his wife’s extra-martial affair and confronted her just before attacking her.
• He was then hospitalized for an overdose of prescription pills.
• His defense attorneys claim the violence occurred due to insanity brought on by lack of sleep, as Smith was allegedly having trouble sleeping because he was worried that his wife would leave him.
• According to his lawyers, Smith was taking caffeine pills and drinking energy drinks to get him through the day.

 From my standpoint there are two questions to address here:

1. Can you really become psychotic or delusional from sleep deprivation?
2. How can caffeine or energy drinks play into one’s propensity to kill another human being?

First, sleep deprivation itself can indeed impair someone’s judgment and ability to think clearly but that doesn’t necessarily lead to committing a murder.

Second, it doesn’t surprise me to learn that perpetrators of crimes have laid blame on lots of things to justify claims of insanity. And when used in an over dosage situation caffeine can produce paranoid, delusional behavior. While I do not know all of the specifics of this case, I would find it hard to believe that the “Red Bull” made him do it.

And you might recall me blogging about the story of Kenneth Parks, who killed his mother-in-law while he was sleepwalking. He was found not guilty, but then again…it’s not the same as killing someone while wide awake.

Though for someone like Mr. Smith, he’s facing the possibility of a life sentence that no amount of restful sleep can take away. We’ll have to see what happens here.

Sweet Dreams,

 

Michael J. Breus, PhD

The Sleep Doctor™

www.thesleepdoctor.com

Coming to a Store Near You: Perky Jerky

Caffeine comes in all shapes and sizes now. And I mean all shapes and sizes:

• I just read about a guy in New York who is introducing caffeinated beef jerky to the world. So if you’re not a gum aficionado, this is another option for chewing your way to a jolt.
• Gross or enticing?
• Then again, you can find caffeine in just about anything these days, from breath mints to water. Take your pick.

It all started when Matt Keiser of the Tribeca neighborhood spilled a can of Red Bull on some beef jerky while skiing in Utah four years ago. A-ha! Soon enough, he found a partner to develop the product, which has already hit the Internet and will be sold in Sports Authority shops any day now. A single-ounce bag will deliver 60 milligrams of caffeine, which his the equivalent of a small cup of coffee or one can of Red Bull. (Of course you could always go for the two-ounce version and double your dose.)

But not everyone has raved about this new concoction. I haven’t tried it yet myself, but some say the combination isn’t so tasty. My guess is they’ll figure out a way to perfect the ingredients in the food lab to make for a better-tasting treat.

I wrote about the call for new labeling recently. The good news about something like Perky Jerky and other companies that sell caffeinated foods is that they want to capitalize on the fact their product contains caffeine. So they market their products accordingly. You can’t mistake old-fashioned beef jerky for this latest modified version when the label screams “invigorating beef jerky.” And their slogan: “Getting a Kick Out of Meat.”

But not for a kick out of sleep.

Sweet Dreams,  

Michael J. Breus, PhD
The Sleep Doctor™
www.thesleepdoctor.com
Follow me on Twitter:   http://twitter.com/thesleepdoctor

Click here to order Dr. Breus's book, Beauty Sleep, on Amazon or Kindle, or here to buy it for the Barnes & Noble Nook.

Hidden Sources of Caffeine Call for New Labeling

If one your New Year’s resolutions is to “get healthier” then read on. Surely among your newly minted list of things to do (or not do) is to watch your diet and the amount of caffeine you ingest. Right?

Watch out: caffeine is about as ubiquitous as water these days in food products and beverages. So much so that there’s been a call for labeling standards to help us all know just how much we’re getting and from where. Currently there are no guidelines, so yes you could be having sleeplessness nights thanks to that afternoon gum, candy bar snack, and sip of “water” (laced with caffeine).

In a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, a Duke University professor of medical psychiatry, Dr. James Lane, points to a number of side effects of excess caffeine:

Shift Worker Alert: Curb the Caffeine

Coffee is most everyone’s number one choice for a pick-up-me. Have to work late? Coffee. Couldn’t get a full night’s sleep? Coffee. Need a jolt of energy to stay focused and alert? Coffee.

You can count on coffee, or really anything with caffeine in it, to get you through it. But watch out if you’re among those who work at night and sleep during the day: there’s new evidence that coffee can really tie a knot in your attempts to get some sleep when you need it most.

Take a Caffeinated Shower

Looking for an extra boost in the shower to wake you up? How about a caffeinated shower?

You read that right. I had to do a double–take myself when I read about this in an airplane magazine. It’s called Shower Shock (aptly titled) and the product claims to contain approximately 12 servings (yes, that’d be 12 showers) per 4-ounce bar.

The hilarious part of the sales pitch: 200 milligrams of caffeine per serving, which is the equivalent of two mugs of coffee. According to the product label, caffeine can be absorbed through the skin and for maximum effect, “build up a good Shower Shock lather across your entire body before rinsing!”

Is this a joke? No, I don’t think so, at $6.99 per bar. But how true is it? Can you really get a jolt from caffeinated soap?

Good News for Coffee Drinkers

I frequently get asked if I think drinking coffee is like sleeping with the devil. People are surprised when I tell them no, and that coffee can be a healthy part of life—it doesn’t have to mess with your sleep. There are a multitude of benefits that accompany coffee drinking, and now we have one more reason to add to the list: it can cut the risk of stroke in women.

The new study just published shows that four or more cups of coffee a day reduced the risk of stroke by 20 percent in women. (Sorry, but men were not analyzed; this study came from a 24-year examination of nurses with no history of stroke, heart disease, diabetes, or cancer, starting in 1980. My guess is they’d find similar results in men. The risk of stroke is higher in women, however.)

The best news came for those who don’t smoke. Among those who either quit or never smoked at all, the risk was reduced by 43 percent. That’s incredibly telling. Another blow to smoking. Another reason to kick that habit. But keep drinking your coffee.

Warning: Energy Drinks Stealing Sleep and Sanity

They are no longer targeted to athletes and people looking for a mid-morning or mid-afternoon pick-me-up between meals. Energy drinks reflect a gi-normous market today, as they find their way into everyday life for many Americans, especially young adults and teens. Funny how they first emerged on the scene as “dietary supplements.” Now they seem like a revved up version of soda pop, or Coke on crack (to put it lightly).

There’s a growing movement to put warning labels on the ones that contain exorbitant amounts of caffeine (yes, more caffeine than coffee in some cases) as researchers publish a new paper on these high-octane beverages. The industry, of course, begs to differ and doesn’t want to reveal such information on its products, much less agree to warning labels.

Energy Drinks: No Limits on Caffeine

In the article online that summarized this recent brouhaha, I was surprised to learn that although the FDA limits the caffeine contents of cola-type soft drinks to 71 milligrams per 12 fluid ounces, no such limit is required on energy drinks. And between the lack of information on the label and the lack of regulation, it can be hard to know what’s in an “energy” can.

That said, at least the names of some of these drink should be a big hint: Monster, Rockstar, Tab Energy, and the ubiquitous Red Bull. My favorite, though (at least in name) has got to be either Fixx (as in Get Your Fixx) or Wired X505, which contains 505 milligrams of caffeine. That’s about twice the amount of a strong Starbucks drip. Are you shaking yet?

There Could Be Something in the Air…

Imagine getting a good buzz just off the mere whiff of coffee. Is it true? Can you really reverse the effects of sleep deprivation in the brain from just smelling the beautiful aromas of a good Joe?

A team of Japanese researchers are beginning to think so. In a study just published they found that when rats were deprived sleep (for one day), certain genes important to brain function became suppressed and then reactivated at the smell of coffee. We don’t know, however, if the same genes would be suppressed in sleep-deprived humans, and we also don’t know if we’d feel tired if those specific genes were suppressed. Humans and rats do, however, share similar genetic fingerprints.

The Smell of Coffee: Perking People Up

Does this help explain why we love the smell of coffee so much? Anecdotal evidence alone says people perk up at the drop of freshly brewed coffee. Lots of people agree that the smell is so much better than the taste, and because so many non-coffee drinkers love the smell of coffee, you got to wonder if there’s something in that coffee-infused air that does something to us biologically.

I think this is some neat research and if coffee aromatics can reactivate genes responsible for making us feel tired or awake, then this opens the door to a whole new area of study. Think about the possibilities this offers, such as manufacturing plants blasting coffee odors into factories where tired workers don’t have the luxury to stop to sip on coffee as they work machinery. No caffeine required! Just a few whiffs of strong Java may (temporarily) revive them. Granted, it probably won’t do the same job as getting a real caffeine fix, but any boost, however small, can be a plus. 

I say, this is all the more reason for businesses like Starbucks to return to the days when they’d grind coffee regularly so (if you’re a coffee aficionado) you’d experience that oh-so refreshing inhalation when you walked into a store. People need more than a good cup of coffee.

Are Moms Relying Too Much on Caffeine?

That said, I want to share something else that came through the wires last week. It was a roundup of how much people, especially moms, rely on caffeine.

None of it was too surprising, but it did reveal the extent to which so many of us depend on caffeine to get through our days. We go from traditional coffee in the morning to copious caffeinated sodas and energy drinks in the afternoon. Sales of popular beverages like Rockstar and Red Bull have skyrocketed in the last two years.

Some energy drinks have twice the amount of caffeine as regular coffee, a fact largely forgotten among many people who struggle with insomnia. I’ve even heard some overscheduled moms joke that they’d put a caffeine patch on themselves in the morning if they could!

Caffeine does deserve its place in our diets, but too much is too much. It can trigger migraines, heartburn, gastrointestinal problems, and put women at an increased risk of miscarriage. It also has an impact on your heart (the good news is none of these effects are long-term, and are reversible if you simply cut back).

Put it this way: If you need a stimulant to get through your day, the time has come to make a few small changes. Let me suggest some tried and true ways to balance your sleep and wake budget.

5 Tips to Balance the Sleep-Wake Budget

1. Have a regular “cut-off” time after which you don’t consume any caffeine. 2 p.m. is the ideal cut-off time, but if you must have caffeine after that, then go light (try teas) and avoid all caffeine after 5 p.m., including those from soft drinks.
   
   
2. Schedule exercise into your day, and if you can, do it in the late afternoon/early evening hours. Getting active 4 to 6 hours before bedtime can help you to achieve the highest-quality sleep.
   
   
3. Find quiet time for yourself twice a day—once in the morning and again in the PM. It can be just 10 minutes. Use the time to close your eyes and meditate, or read an article in your favorite magazine. You can do this at your desk, in a cozy chair, or even in your car as you await the kids to come out of school. If you have a full 20 to 30 minutes, try napping.
   
   
4. If you cannot go a day without a caffeine drip every couple of hours, then it’s time to re-evaluate your work, social, parenting, and sleep schedule. Are you getting enough sleep? Can you get to bed sooner?
   
   
5. Test out the smell-buzz yourself. When you’re feeling low on energy, open up a can of coffee, or walk through a coffee shop that actually smells like one. If you feel the urge to order something, go for green or black tea instead.
   

According The National Sleep Foundation, more than 65 percent of moms drink caffeinated beverages to get through their day. See if you can count yourself among the other 35 percent.

Warning: These Potato Chips Contain Caffeine

Bottoms up: you never know where you’ll be able to get your next caffeine fix. Forget about designer coffee and helping the flailing Starbucks chain spring back to life (just last week articles and postings for the Wall Street Journal commented on whether or not its founding father Howard Schultz could be its saving grace). Schultz has more competition today than just fellow coffee shops selling overpriced lattes. He may be banking on America’s continual need for caffeinated beverages morning, noon, and night… but now it’s not just about coffee. Nor is it about tea and dark chocolate.

It’s about potato chips, lip balm, mints, sunflower seeds, and soap.