The Insomnia Blog - Sleep Doctor Michael Breus, PhD

Later Bedtimes and Weight Gain



A message to night owls: there’s news that your bedtime—and those late-night snacks—may be preventing you from dropping those stubborn extra pounds. A recent study took on an important, and under-examined, aspect of the sleep-weight loss connection: how the timing of sleeping—and of eating—can affect weight. Researchers at Northwestern University examined the effects of sleep timing on diet and body-mass index (BMI), and found that late bedtimes and late mealtimes can lead to less healthful diets and to weight gain.

 

A group of 52 adults—25 women and 27 men—spent seven days keeping food logs and having their sleep and waking activity measured by a wrist sensor. The researchers divided participants into two categories of sleepers:

• “Normal sleepers” reached the midpoint of their night’s sleep before 5:30 a.m. These sleepers were asleep by shortly after midnight, and woke around 8 a.m. Among the study group, 56% were normal sleepers.
• “Late sleepers” reached the midpoint of their nightly sleep after 5:30 a.m. They went to sleep in the middle of the night, well after midnight, and woke in the mid-to-late morning. Among the study group, 44% were late sleepers.

 

Researchers tracked the eating habits of these two types of sleepers through the information provided to them from the participants’ food logs. Not surprisingly, “normal sleepers” and “late sleepers” were on very different schedules, in terms of when they ate throughout the day:

• Normal sleepers ate breakfast by 9 a.m., lunch at 1 p.m. and dinner at 7 p.m., on average. These sleepers reported being finished with eating for the day by 8:30 p.m.
• Late sleepers reported eating their first meal of the day at about noon. They ate again in the middle of the afternoon, and did not eat dinner until after 8 p.m. Late sleepers did not finish their eating for the day until 10 p.m., on average.

 

What were the consequences for sleeping later and eating later? Researchers found that late sleepers suffered across the board, in terms of the quality and quantity of both their daily sleep and eating:

• Late sleepers slept less overall than normal sleepers—an average of more than an hour less per night.
• Late sleepers consumed more calories at dinnertime than normal sleepers. They also consumed significantly more calories after 8 p.m.
• Late sleepers had poorer quality diets than normal sleepers—they ate more fast food, drank more sugar-laden soda, and ate fewer vegetables.

 

These habits of late sleepers—sleeping less, going to sleep later in the night, and eating more after 8 p.m.—were all found to be associated with a higher body mass index. Among these habits, eating after 8 p.m. was the strongest predictor of a higher BMI. What does this mean? It’s not just what you eat, but when you eat, that can affect your ability to lose weight. And your sleep habits can have a significant influence on the timing of your eating, as well as on how much you eat.

 

Previous studies using mice have shown results similar to these. Mice whose sleep-wake cycles were disrupted by exposure to light during their normal sleeping hours ate more and gained more weight than mice whose cycles remained intact. This new research has given us a strong start in examining this aspect of the sleep-weight relationship in humans. More investigation is needed, but these results do align with much of what we already know about sleep and weight: 

• When deprived of sleep, the body undergoes a shift in hormones, generating more of the hormones that boost appetite, and less of the hormone that signals a feeling of fullness.
• Sleeping less than 6 hours per night (or more than 8 hours per night) over an extended period of time makes weight gain more likely, according to a long-term study.
• Lack of sleep significantly reduces the body’s ability to burn calories during waking hours.

 

This is not just an issue for adults. Kids—teens especially—are particularly prone to late and erratic bedtimes, midnight snacks, and a general lack of sufficient sleep, which can lead to weight gain. We know that adolescents require more sleep than adults, but they’re too often making do with much less sleep than they need to function well, and with obesity an increasingly common health problem for children as well as adults, this new research provides yet another reason kids and teens need the structure of a sleep schedule—one that includes curbing eating at a reasonably early hour. Weight problems that develop during childhood and adolescence can have long-term consequences that affect health for a lifetime. Let’s give our kids a healthy start by helping them develop the skills they need to eat and sleep well.

 

Come to think of it, that’s advice we can all take to heart.

 

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD 
The Sleep Doctor™ 

www.thesleepdoctor.com

 

The Sleep Doctor’s Diet Plan:  Lose Weight Through Better Sleep

 

Everything you do, you do better with a good night’s sleep™ 
twitter: @thesleepdoctor 
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesleepdoctor

 

Alcohol: Not a Friend to Sleep

One of the most basic and important topics I write about, and emphasize to my patients, is the idea of sleep hygiene. Sleep hygiene means a routine of healthy, sleep-promoting habits that prepare and enable you to consistently receive a sound, full and restful night of sleep. When I talk about sleep hygiene, I’m not only encouraging good sleep habits, but encouraging making changes that don’t promote good quality sleep. One of the changes I find myself talking about most often has to do with alcohol consumption before bedtime. 

Research suggests that alcohol is the most widely used sleep aid in the world, and yet we have ample evidence that alcohol is disruptive and problematic for sleep. Sure, a drink (or two) not long before bed may make you fall asleep more quickly, but as the night wears on, you’re likely to miss out on deep sleep, to wake more frequently throughout the night, and to feel tired the next day.  The results of two recent studies provide yet more confirmation of the obstacles that alcohol can pose for sleep.

One small study in Japan examined the effects of alcohol on sleep in 10 university students. The students, all male and in good health, were divided into three groups. One group went to sleep without consuming any alcohol. The second group was given a low dose of alcohol (as measured by body weight) and the third group was given a high dose of alcohol, consumed 100 minutes before bedtime. Researchers then measured sleepers’ heart rate and heart rate variability, and monitored participants’ sleep through a polysomnogram. What did they find?

• The students who consumed alcohol fell asleep quickly, but as the night wore on their sleep was shallow and disrupted, compared to those who did not drink before bed.
• Alcohol consumption resulted in increased heart rate, and range of heart rate variability (a measure of the time intervals between individual heartbeats). The more alcohol consumed, the more heart rate increased.

Researchers concluded that the presence of alcohol acted as a stimulant (increased heart rate) and kept them from being to transition into a resting and restorative state, and getting into the deepest stages of sleep. 

This study was a small one, but its overall results align with the recently published results of a larger study that also examined the effects of alcohol on sleep among young adults. In this study, researchers were looking in particular at the effects of intoxication on sleep, and if those effects were influenced by a couple of additional factors: gender, and a family history of alcoholism. Researchers had 93 men and women in their early-to-mid twenties drink to the point of intoxication, and measured the quality, depth and duration of their sleep under the influence. They found that while intoxicated, participants

• Slept less than when sober
• Woke up more frequently throughout the night
• Felt more tired in the morning, and sleepier at the end of the next day
• Received most of their sleep during the first half of the night
• Spent less time in REM sleep

Researchers found no difference in the sleep habits of participants with a family history of alcoholism. They did find differences when it came to gender, however. Alcohol had a greater disruptive influence on women’s sleep than on men’s, particularly when it came to feeling sleep deprived the next day. This is yet another indication that women and men experience sleep very differently, and often with distinct health consequences.

These results don’t mean that none of us should ever have a glass of wine with dinner, or a beer after work. I’m not advocating, in general, for this kind of across-the board teetotaling. But there are some basic guidelines you can follow that will help prevent your alcohol consumption from interfering with your sleep:

A glass for a glass: For every alcoholic drink you consume, also drink a glass of water.

Cork the bottle early. Don’t drink alcohol within three hours of bedtime.

Break the bedtime habit. Avoid using alcohol directly as a sleep aid. Instead, look for other relaxation aids—music, meditation—that will promote healthy sleep.

By understanding how alcohol affects your body—and why its temporary lulling effects aren’t actually a path to real rest —it’s possible enjoy your favorite spirit in moderation, and still protect the quality of your sleep. Cheers to that!

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD 
The Sleep Doctor™ 
www.thesleepdoctor.com 

The Sleep Doctor’s Diet Plan:  Lose Weight Through Better Sleep 

Everything you do, you do better with a good night’s sleep™ 
twitter: @thesleepdoctor 
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesleepdoctor

Men and women: Different When it Comes to Sleep

This article in the Wall Street Journal caught my eye recently—it’s a great roundup of recent research on the differences between the way men and women sleep. Gender differences in sleep are a fascinating and important area of study. We all know that men and women have different sleep tendencies—think of all those early bird/night owl partnerships out there—but we’re now beginning to understand more about why gender matters when it comes to sleep.

 I was particularly interested in a couple of the most recent studies, which show evidence of some fundamental biological differences between men’s and women’s sleep. One suggests that there are marked differences in the circadian rhythms of men and women. In this study, researchers observed the circadian cycles of 157 men and women between the ages of 18 to 74, measuring melatonin levels and body temperature in order to track the 24-hour sleep-wake cycle. Over the course of a month-long inpatient sleep period, researchers found significant differences between men and women in both the timing of their circadian clocks—which help govern sleep times and wake times—and the duration of the circadian clock itself.  Among those differences:

• Women’s circadian clocks are set to an earlier hour than men’s, making them more inclined to fall asleep earlier and also to wake earlier. Women showed a stronger inclination for activity earlier in the day than men.
• Circadian cycles were actually shorter for women than for men, by six minutes. Even a slight difference can have significant impact on nightly sleep and on energy levels during the day. Think about a clock that runs a handful of minutes behind every day. Over time, those minutes really add up!
• Not only did women’s circadian clocks generally run earlier and shorter than men’s, but also many more women had internal clocks that ran a full cycle in under 24 hours.

 Another recent study found that women tend to perform better than men when low on sleep, and also can rebound more quickly from mild sleep deprivation when they get restorative sleep.  I was really interested in this one because it looks at the question of making up for work-week sleep deprivation with extra rest over the weekend. Women and men were asked to sleep for only six hours per night, over six consecutive nights, to approximate the typical sleep deprivation that many of us experience during a busy work week. The participants then spent two nights “catching up” on their rest with extended overnight sleep. Researchers found that women scored higher on performance tests during the period of low sleep, and that their performance improved more than men’s after two nights of extended sleep.  (Take note: Neither men nor women in the study were able to truly “catch up” on their sleep over the two nights. Both fell short, but women simply came closer than men.) We know that women spend more time than men do in deep, slow-wave sleep stages over the course of a night.  Time spent in deep sleep is restorative and memory boosting, which likely explains the advantage women have in performing under low-sleep conditions.

 Women may reap real benefits from deeper sleep, but there is also evidence that they are in other ways more vulnerable than men to sleep disorders, and to the health risks associated with lack of sleep.

•  The biological phases of a woman’s life—menstruation, pregnancy, menopause—and the hormonal shifts that accompany them make women more likely to experience disruptions to their sleep. Women in general are more susceptible than men to sleep disorders such as insomnia.  Because of their propensity for deep sleep during the first part of their lives, women may receive protective benefits early on. But particularly after the age of 40, women’s sleep often deteriorates.

 

• Research suggests women have a different relationship with sleep when it comes to illness.  One study showed that women who got less than 8 hours of sleep demonstrated an elevated risk for heart problems.  Men in the study who got the same amount of sleep also saw increased risk, but the increase was not as significant as it was for women. The results of a recent study on cancer and sleep found that women were significantly more likely than men to suffer from insomnia while undergoing cancer treatment.

 I’d like to see even more research that sets out to explore differences in the ways men and women experience sleep. The more we understand about how gender influences sleep, the better we’ll be able to develop targeted, effective remedies for sleep problems for both men and women.

 

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD 
The Sleep Doctor™ 
www.thesleepdoctor.com

 

The Sleep Doctor’s Diet Plan:  Lose Weight Through Better Sleep

 

Everything you do, you do better with a good night’s sleep™ 
twitter: @thesleepdoctor 
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesleepdoctor

 

Co-sleeping neither helps nor hurts child development

This probably won’t put differing opinions to rest on the issue of the “family bed,” but it is good news for parents who choose to co-sleep with their children: The results of a new study indicate that bed-sharing does not negatively affect cognitive or behavioral development in young children.

Researchers at the Stony Brook University School of Medicine looked at the sleep habits of 944 low-income families over a period of several years. The families they included represented a diverse sample of racial and ethnic backgrounds, as well as geographic location. In a survey, parents were asked to describe their family’s sleep habits—particularly regarding co-sleeping—when their children were ages 1, 2, and 3 years. At age 5, researchers assessed the children’s cognitive and behavioral development, including early math and literacy skills, social skills, and levels of hyperactivity. They found that co-sleeping during the toddler years does not negatively affect development by the age of 5. It’s important to note that researchers also found no developmental benefit to children from co-sleeping.

The decision to sleep together as a family is a highly personal and individual one that can be influenced by several factors, including:

• Convenience—Parents may feel it’s simply easier to sleep together, particularly when breast feeding
• Bonding—Parents may find co-sleeping a way to connect emotionally with their children, and bond as a family
• Living circumstances—Space constraints in a home and other environmental circumstances may make co-sleeping a necessity
• Cultural norms—In some cultures co-sleeping is very common

Of course, I am most interested in another factor: how does co-sleeping affect sleep for both parents and children?

The goal of any family sleep arrangement is a good night of sleep for each member of the family, reflective of their individual need for sleep. Sleep is always important, but it is perhaps never more at a premium than for families with young children. Parents of newborns and toddlers are often chronically sleep deprived. Children are in engaged in the important developmental process of actually learning how to sleep, developing sleep habits that can influence the quality and quantity of their sleep—and their health—for years to come. Meeting all of these needs—and ensuring each family member a full night of rest, from a single bed? It can be a challenge, to say the least.

That said, I do think there are circumstances when co-sleeping can help parents in the short term. If your child wakes up and needs to be put back to bed repeatedly throughout the night, or wakes extremely early in the morning, it may make sense to take him into bed with you—provided you all can then fall asleep together. Over time, you can work with your child to help them extend their stay in their own bed for the entire night. Rewards can really help here—maybe it’s a special trip to the aquarium, or an extra book from the bookstore or library, as a reward for staying in bed longer during the week. In this case, short-term co-sleeping gets everyone the immediate rest they need, but doesn’t stand in the way of your child developing his own, independent, healthy sleep habits.

If you are thinking about creating a family bed, keep these tips in mind:

• Not before one. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends against co-sleeping with children under the age of 1 because of a risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS.
• Parents on the same page. It’s important that both adult partners are fully in agreement with the decision to share your bed with their child.
• Routine matters. Creating a soothing, relaxing before-bed routine is critical to helping your child develop strong sleep habits. It’s also important for adults. A family bed shouldn’t mean a routine-less bedtime. Consistency is key to helping your children—and yourselves—get the sleep you need.
• Avoid alcohol. Alcohol consumption on your part increases the risk of injuries to your child during the night. If you’ve been drinking, you should not share a bed with your child.
• Don’t sacrifice sex. One of the risks of co-sleeping for the adults is that it can wreak havoc on your sex life. Be sure to continue to make intimacy with your mate a priority.
• Stay attentive to sleep issues. If anyone begins having difficulty sleeping—parent or child—it may be time to re-think the co-sleeping arrangement.

Every family is different, and the choice to co-sleep is a highly personal one. Just make sure your bedtime arrangements allow every member of the family to get the nightly sleep they need.

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD 
The Sleep Doctor™ 
www.thesleepdoctor.com

The Sleep Doctor’s Diet Plan:  Lose Weight Through Better Sleep

Everything you do, you do better with a good night’s sleep™ 
twitter: @thesleepdoctor 
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesleepdoctor

Is your Bedtime Making you Fat?

When was the last time someone told you to go to bed? Were you 8 years old? 10 years old? But in truth, it was probably the best thing for you. Many of my patients tell me that they have great plans to get in bed at 10, but before they know it, they look up and it is 11:15 and they say, oh well, and stay up for another hour!

Think about it. Your bedtime is one of the few things that you can control when it comes to your sleep. Typically our “wake up” times are socially determined. We have to get up for work or school, get the kids ready, you know the drill. So our wake up time is pretty constant. But the time we can get into bed can vary, and can actually be within our control.

Restricting the time that you have in bed can be causing you to suffer significant sleep deprivation.  And we all know that sleep deprivation has some significant effects on weight loss:

• Hormone imbalance-making your appetite grow, and feelings of being full less
• Losing the last hour of sleep in a full sleep cycle, which means losing REM sleep-the stage where you burn the most calories.
• Sleep deprivation causes food cravings for high fat, high carb treats

So how do you know when your bed time should be? And how much sleep do you really need, particularly if you want your body’s metabolism to work most efficiently ?

Learn your perfect bedtime solution:

1. Determine what your  typical wake up time will be
2. Count back five 90 minute cycles or  7.5 hours
   • Each sleep cycle on average is 90 minutes long and the average person has  5 of them per night
3. Set your alarm clock or cell phone to tell you when to go to bed (but remember to reset it for your morning alarm)
4. If you wake up within 10 minutes of your morning alarm after three days of going to bed at your “bed time” you found your perfect bedtime!
5. If not, and you still need your morning alarm to wake up, then move your bedtime alarm back by 15 minutes every three days until you wake up just before your morning alarm.  When you wake up before your morning alarm, you have found your perfect bedtime.

For example:

If you must wakeup at 6:30 a.m.  every morning, set your bedtime alarm for 11:00 p.m. to remind you to get in bed within the next  15 minutes (some people will set it about 8 hours before wake up time  - 10:30 p.m. - to give them enough time to get ready for bed).

By going to bed at the right time for you, you can avoid sleep deprivation, your hormones will be in balance, and your metabolism will run smoothly.

And think – how great would it feel to wake up without that alarm clock?  You really could finish all of those dreams….

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD 
The Sleep Doctor™ 
www.thesleepdoctor.com

The Sleep Doctor's Diet Plan:  Lose Through Better Sleep

Everything you do, you do better with a good night's sleep™ 
twitter: @thesleepdoctor 
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesleepdoctor

Is Your Bedroom Making you FAT? 5 Tips for a Skinny Bedroom

The quality and quantity of your sleep can affect your ability to lose weight, and stay healthy. There are a great many things that influence your sleep, but have you ever considered your bedroom?

Let me give you an example. If music is on while you are cooking in the kitchen, and you have all the right equipment, and all the right ingredients what happens? Not only do you enjoy cooking more, but the food you make likely tastes better!

Adding hours and depth to your sleep results in weight loss:  a 2009 study conducted in Sao Paulo, Brazil found that while sleeping you burn 3 times more fat then when lying in bed awake.  In another study, participants on identical diets that slept 5.5 hours lost lean muscle, as opposed to those sleeping 7+ hours lost fat.

So what is your bedroom doing to keep you awake and fat? Here are my 5 tips for a Skinny Bedroom:

1. Lose the snooze: using the snooze button in the early morning hours keeps you from the most calorie burning stage of sleep, REM sleep,-which occurs most in the final third of the night.
   • You can also use the trick of setting your alarm to tell you when to go to bed, to stick to your healthy sleep schedule of getting to bed at the same time every night.
2. Enforce an Electronic Curfew: while I would prefer electronics (phones, laptops, iPads etc) to be out of the bedroom altogether, I know it is simply not realistic. So set an electronic curfew for 1 hour before lights out. This will decrease the electronic exposure you are getting before bed (which has been reported to cause un-refreshing sleep).
   • Try setting an alarm on your mobile device, or better yet see if you can set a timer to turn it off!
   • What would you do in that last hour? Try my POWER DOWN HOUR technique, it works wonders:
     • 20 minutes of those small things that just need to get done
     • 20 minutes of bedtime hygiene
     • 20 minutes of meditation, relaxation, or massage
3.  Light the path: If you get up in the middle of the night and need to use the restroom, you probably turn on a light, and tell your brain it is morning! This also slows the production of Melatonin (the “vampire” hormone that-is produced in darkness) which is the key that starts the engine for sleep.
   • Strategically place a night light in the bathroom and in the hall on the way. Now you can avoid any excess light or stumbling into a nightstand, and get back to sleep more easily.
4. Have the right performance equipment: the right mattress and pillow make a huge difference. If you are not comfortable you will not relax enough to fall asleep. If you do not have the proper support you will not awaken feeling refreshed (and thinner).
   • Consider a new mattress when your body tells you it is time, not when the warranty is up. Never sleep on the same surface longer than 7 years.
   • Replace pillows every year, or earlier if your neck is stiff.
5. Provide soothing sounds for sleep: if it is too quiet your hearing will become more acute and everything will keep you awake. Too much noise will also prevent or disrupt sleep. Consider a noise that will drown out any environmental disturbances, without being too loud to prevent sleep.
   • Think about a sound machine
   • Consider using a fan

Don’t let your bedroom prevent you from getting the sleep you need to help you lose those extra pounds.  Look around and see what you can do create a bedroom that helps you sleep better and look better!

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD 
The Sleep Doctor™ 
www.thesleepdoctor.com

The Sleep Doctor’s Diet Plan:  Lose Through Better Sleep

Everything you do, you do better with a good night’s sleep™ 
twitter: @thesleepdoctor 
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesleepdoctor

The Sleep Doctor’s Sleep Suggestions from the Top Sleep stories of 2010 (Part II)

As you saw from my last blog, we learned so much in 2010 about our sleep and what we should and should not do. Here is Part II of my practical sleep suggestions -  based on the latest cutting edge research on sleep from the second half of 2010.

July

Sleep Suggestion: Problems Sleeping? Tart Cherry Juice may be helpful.

• In an article published in the Journal of Medicinal Foods, researchers from the University of Pensylvania had adults drink 8 ounces of tart cherry juice in the morning and evening for 2 weeks and results indicate that they had reduced insomnia severity, and a reduction in wake time after they fell asleep by 17 minutes.

Sleep Suggestion: During your child’s first 2 years get all the sleep you can!

• New parents have a huge sleep deficit. A survey in the UK showed that new parents (within the first 2 years of a child’s life) lose about 6 months of sleep! Over 60% of parents with babies aged less than 24 months get on average 3.25 hours of sleep per night.

August

Sleep Suggestion: Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day-it’s good for your cholesterol

• Your Body Clock and Triglycerides. An animal study showed that disrupting the body clock or circadian rhythm can change the normal 24 hour cycle of your triglycerides and leave them high!

September

Sleep Suggestion: Falling asleep in the afternoon? Don’t eat lunch.

• Being hungry may help you stay awake and alert. Does eating a big meal make you feel sleepy? This research suggests that being hungry will not only keep you awake but alert as well. This animal research showed that the need for food was greater than the need for sleep.

October

Sleep Suggestion: Get more sleep and you will lose fat, not muscle on your diet.

• Sleep away your fat. This study showed that people who are on a low calorie diet will lose the same amount of weight if they are sleeping 5.5 or 8.5 hours, but those sleeping 8.5 hours will lose more fat, while those with 5.5 hours will lose more muscle.

Sleep Suggestion: Talk with your doctor if you have sleep problems, they may not ask.

• Menopause and sleep problems. In a survey of over 900 menopausal women, many of whom had sleep issues, it was revealed that most of their doctors did not ask them about their sleep.

 November

Sleep Suggestion: Take the phone out of your teen’s bedroom, even texting affects sleep

• Bedtime texting and internet use affect sleep. More than half of the teens that text or surf the internet at bedtime have problems falling asleep, and have mood, cognitive, and behavior problems the next day. And the average teen sends a total of 3400 electronic messages at bedtime every month.

Sleep Suggestion: Never drive drowsy

• Drowsy driving kills. In a study by AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety it was determined that 1 in every 6 fatal crashes (16.5%) involves drowsy driving. 41% of drivers say that they have fallen asleep while driving at some time in their lives. And 10% of people admitted to falling asleep while driving in the past 12 months.

December

Sleep Suggestion: Get your beauty Sleep, it is for real.

• Want to look attractive and healthy, get your beauty sleep. There is scientific backing for the concept of beauty sleep. When people were photographed sleep deprived and non-sleep deprived they were rated less attractive and less healthy looking, with less sleep.

Sleep Suggestion: Make sure your child is not ingesting caffeine, you might be surprised!

• 75% of all children (age 5-12) consume caffeine daily. Caffeine consumption has been blamed for both bedwetting and sleep problems in kids, but this research showed that bedwetting was actually not due to caffeine consumption. More shockingly, kids between the ages of 8-12 were drinking the equivalent of 3 cans of soda per day.

So there you have it, 22 sleep suggestions, maybe even resolutions,  based on some of the most fascinating sleep research of 2010.   I know that I learned a lot last year about sleep and I hope you did as well. Looking forward to a healthy, happy and well-rested 2011.

 

Sweet Dreams,

 

Michael J. Breus, PhD

The Sleep Doctor™

www.thesleepdoctor.com

Twitter: @thesleepdoctor

Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheSleepDoctor

Teens, Sleeping and Eating

Important news for parents of teens: the latest headlines in the sleep literature say teens who sleep less eat more. And they aren’t reaching for fruits and veggies.

It’s not news to scientists who’ve found that people who sleep fewer than the hours their bodies need have a stronger craving for fatty foods and snacks. All of which can send a roaring teen metabolism on vacation and open the door to weight gain and obesity.

But this latest study went a bit further to show a relationship between sleep duration and snacking, a favorite food activity for teens:

• For each 1-hour increase in sleep duration, the odds of consuming a high amount of calories from snacks decreased by an average of 21 percent.
• A significantly greater proportion of teens who slept less than 8 hours per weeknight consumed food in the early morning between 5 AM and 7 AM.
• Specifically, the researchers found that—after adjusting for factors like age, sex, and race—teens who slept less than 8 hours on weeknights consumed 2.2 percent more calories from fats and 3.0 percent fewer calories from carbs than teens who slept 8 hours or more.

News like this doesn’t  bode well for the future of our children given the fact sleep is last on their list of things to do. What’s more, 2.2 percent more calories from fats may not seem like a lot, but when you add it all up over time it can amount to a weighty number.

The challenge: teaching our children to establish good sleep habits, knowing that this may be part of the struggle we have in teaching healthy eating habits! Unknowingly, teens may be establishing a vicious cycle where their food choices are driven by their sleep choices.

Teenagers are likely to be saddled with body-image issues. An unbalanced diet in adolescence, especially one with high fat content, has both short- and long-term health consequences. If a lack of sleep is behind these eating habits, try a conversation about sleep, diet, and health.  How much of a sacrifice would it take for them to get to bed earlier? Today's teens have many responsibilities, heavy academic loads, extracurricular activities, and the typical teen social attractions and distractions, all of which often make their list of priorities ahead of sleep Maybe you can compromise on a reasonable bedtime, try it out for a week and adjust it later.

The good news is that the importance of sleep might motivate them to make a change—much more so than insisting that they eat their broccoli and take their vitamins. If they knew that a solid start to a healthy body is just a good night’s sleep away…well, you never know. It just might be the ticket to a healthier, and maybe happier, teenager. And a healthy, happy household.
 
Sweet Dreams
Michael J. Breus, PhD
The Sleep Doctor™
www.thesleepdoctor.com

Are You G-Free and Sleep-Free?

Being gluten sensitive or intolerant has gained a lot of attention in recent years, no doubt spurred by celebs like The View’s Elisabeth Hasselbeck who has written a book about living a “G-free” life. Also called celiac disease, this condition is caused by an allergic reaction within the inner lining of the small intestine to proteins (gluten) that are present in wheat, rye, barley and, to a lesser extent, in oats. The body’s immune response causes inflammation that destroys the lining of the small intestine, which then reduces the absorption of dietary nutrients and can lead to uncomfortable symptoms and signs of nutritional, vitamin, and mineral deficiencies.

You wouldn’t think being sensitive to gluten would have any effect on sleep, but there is in fact a strong connection. A team of researchers recently found that people with this condition—even those following a gluten-free diet —  commonly suffer from sleep disorders that are related to depression, anxiety, and fatigue. It is, to put it mildly, a vicious cycle:

• When you’re tired and down, you’re not likely to sleep well, which can then play into digestive issues.
• Add to that a sensitivity to an ingredient as ubiquitous as gluten and there’s bound to be trouble.
• The reverse holds true as well: when your eating life is challenged by celiac, you run a higher risk of having physical ailments that hinder restful sleep.

Since anxiety and depression both occur at higher rates in people with celiac disease than in the general population, the researchers were curious to see how celiac disease might affect quality of sleep. In addition to finding that sleep disorders commonly affect people with celiac disease, regardless of gluten-free status, they also found that sleep disorders are less common in celiacs who score higher on quality of life scales, while those with low quality of life scores suffer at higher rates.

This may seem an expected likely observation, but it further proves the complex challenges people face when their health is not 100 percent or they suffer from a condition that can lower their quality of life. Just about any disease or illness can cut sleep short and increase one’s risk for consequences linked to sleep deprivation. Fatigue, depression, and anxiety are really just common denominators to myriad other conditions; in other words, they happen as a side-effect to enduring or living with other health problems.

Here’s some help:  if you or someone you love has celiac disease, be prepared to address sleep issues, and do everything possible to ensure a good night's rest. That means:

• Avoiding digestive irritants, especially if you’re sensitive to gluten.
• Keeping a regular bedtime routine.
• Watching your consumption of stimulants, from caffeine to CSI at night.
• Managing stress better in your life and being mindful of your mood.
• Getting the sleep your body deserves.

For celiacs, living a G-free life doesn’t mean you have to be sleep-free too. The more restful sleep you achieve, the easier it will be to manage your condition and enjoy a vibrant, well-rested life.

 

Sweet Dreams,

 

Michael J. Breus, PhD

The Sleep Doctor™

www.thesleepdoctor.com

Attention Insomniacs: A Good Night’s Sleep Could Be a Cherry Drink Away

There are lots of drinks that are marketed to do something healthy for you. Drink orange juice if you’ve got a cold. Try cranberry juice to keep your urinary tract healthy. Pomegranate juice is touted for a dose of age-defying antioxidants.  Milk with calcium to build strong bones.  And that doesn’t include the multitude of vitamin waters, drink mixes and others that you can find on the shelves.

But what about a daily drink to help you sleep? Something made from fruit? And something other than the mythological “night cap” that entail sleep-disrupting alcohol?

A new study by a team from the University of Pennsylvania, University of Rochester, and VA Center of Canandaigua have learned that tart cherry juice might be the answer.

The researchers looked at the sleep habits of 15 older adults who drank 8 ounces of tart cherry juice in the morning and evening for two weeks. Then they drank a comparable matched drink with no tart cherry juice for another two-week period. The results? A significant reduction in reported insomnia severity during the weeks when they drank the cherry juice. The adults saved about 17 minutes of wake time after going to sleep, on average, when drinking cherry juice daily compared to when they were drinking the other non-cherry beverage.

So what’s the magic in cherry juice? Cherries contain melatonin, a natural antioxidant with a well-documented history of helping to regulate the sleep-wake cycle. Produced naturally by the body in small amounts, melatonin plays a role in inducing sleepiness at night and wakefulness during the day. Though melatonin is marketed as a supplement to help people fall asleep, I’m not a big advocate of going this route without a doctor’s supervision. But getting natural melatonin from whole foods like cherries is clearly another story.  Our body is likely to use that very natural ingredient from a fruit in a much different way than it would via a pill.

After all, we seem to need solutions for better sleep:

• More than 40 million adults and another 20 million experience occasional sleep disruptions, putting their health and wellbeing at risk.
• Americans spend more than $84 million on over-the-counter sleep aids each year.

If a glass or two of tart cherry juice (assuming you enjoy the flavor) does in fact help reduce insomnia, then this study is good news for insomnia sufferers.  Drink up!

Sweet Dreams,

 

Michael J. Breus, PhD

The Sleep Doctor™

www.thesleepdoctor.com