The Insomnia Blog by Sleep Doctor Michael Breus, Ph.D.

Better Marriage, Better Sleep

Does that really surprise anyone? A new study out of the University of Pittsburgh says that women who have stable marriages sleep better than women who are unmarried or who have lost a partner. The study also pointed out the fact women who start dating a new partner also sleep better as compared to their single—partner-less—counterparts.

Surely you and I can list several factors contributing to this result. (And I’d bet that if a study were performed on men, they’d find similar results.)

Let’s be honest: a good relationship, married or not, often leads to:

Women Watch Out: Poor Sleep Could Be Worse for You

No more excuses, please. Seriously. A new study that just came out, which I read about in an online article from an industry magazine, is bad news for women who don’t sleep well. I think it’s bad news for all of us.

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have discovered that poor sleep is linked to greater psychological distress (no surprise there) and higher levels of biomarkers that increase your risk for heart disease and type 2 diabetes. No surprise there, either, because it’s long been reported that sleep deprivation can have tremendous health consequences.

But here’s the surprising part about the study. These associations are discriminating—they are much stronger in women than in men. So it’s riskier to be a sleepless woman than a sleep-deprived man.

When Life Gets “Crazy-busy,” Even a Little SLEEP Goes a Long Way

Everyone loves a good confession. They are typically much more fun to listen to than someone’s boring, unrealistic New Year’s resolution. Catherine Lloyd Burns’s had an entertaining write-up for Self magazine last week, available here. Her piece is titled “Confessions of a Lapsed Exerciser,” with the subtitle, “When life gets crazy-busy, even a little exercise goes a long way.”

Burns, an avid exerciser in years past, chronicles how life gets in the way of her ability to take regular time to exercise, and how she struggled to get back on track by joining a local gym. She writes, “My life, it seems, is a balancing act perpetually on the verge of tipping over. Exercise is one of the items on the scale, along with work, chores, eating and making contact with other humans; all of these things threaten to throw everything off kilter. What’s changed is that now I accept this idea. My foray back to the gym has made me more flexible, physically and mentally.”

Sound familiar?

Body After Baby: Get Your Zs!

Did you catch that? It’s not news to me, but Reuters is reporting (and reminding many of us already in the know) that new moms should pay more attention to their sleep habits if they are to watch those extra pounds slip away. Harvard Medical School has presented research showing that women who sleep five hours or less a day when their babies are six months old are three times more likely than more rested mothers to have kept the extra weight on at the one-year mark.

Full disclosure: I’m not a woman and can’t imagine what it’s like to 1) be pregnant, and 2) lose that baby fat. But I am keenly aware of the frustrations that many women go through as they juggle motherhood and post-natal weight issues.

Women’s Wake Up Call: Little Sleep, Bigger Blood Pressure

You exercise regularly and maintain an ideal weight. You eat well and would call yourself a health nut. You have never smoked. Now you learn that you have high blood pressure and there’s no apparent reason. What gives?

If you were to ask me, I’d question your sleep habits. How much are you getting? Be honest.

Reuters reported on a new study last weekend about women who get fewer than seven hours a night on a normal basis. It’s news that should remind us all the value of sleep and getting enough as a vital sign of health.

Pop Quiz: Who Sleeps Better, the Man or the Woman in a Couple?

I was amused last week when the media summarized new findings about how well men and women sleep when they share the same bed. If you’re a woman, let me guess: you’d say your partner sleeps better. You have to contend with his snoring and abrupt shifting around, which awakens you easily. Now there’s proof in the pudding. Men are indeed more likely to sleep better than you in the same bed. And here’s the kicker: they also are more likely to be snoozing soundly because of your nearby warmth.

There were two items in the particular to read in between the lines from the study and that every woman should heed:

Ask the Sleep Doctor: Insomnia, Birth Control Pills, and Stress

This week's "Ask the Sleep Doctor" question is a little different from the usual Q&A I post on Fridays. It comes from Liz, who answered her own sleep question by looking closely at the issues in her life that might be causing her insomnia. I'm posting it here as a great example of how individuals can isolate the issues in their busy lives that may be disrupting their sleep.

Here's Liz's original letter:

Hello,

I ran across your excellent blog in an effort to fix my insomnia without serious drugs. I can generally get to sleep by using various herbs and melatonin (sometimes Tylenol PM too), but some nights, it just doesn't work. I've noticed that those are usually the nights after I go to work (I'm a waitress part-time, and naturally, a dinner shift lasts until 9 or 10 at night), so I blamed work stress. However, I realized this morning that those nights are also the nights when I don't take my birth control pills at the scheduled time (it's just too busy at 8 p.m., which is when I'm supposed to take them). I know from Internet research that female hormones can mess with your sleep --  including pregnancy hormones, which is what birth control basically is.

Insomnia isn't listed as a common side effect of birth control, but people on the internet do report it occasionally. Do you think that could be the case here? If it helps, I'm 28 and reasonably healthy in other ways. With permission from my doc, I'm going to try shifting the BCP back a few hours, maybe even to noon or 2 p.m. and see if that helps, but this struck me as a topic for your blog. Feel free to use this letter without my name.

Cheerio,
Liz

Unfortunately, Liz wrote to me during a busy time, and I wasn't able to answer her until a few weeks had passed.  This turned out not to be a problem, as she'd solved her own sleep problem in the interim:

Hi-

As it happens, I decided to just do this (after asking my doctor), and it had an effect, but what cured my insomnia was quitting my stressful waitress job. (Not a good cure for everyone!) Your site helped me through this insomnia, and I have recommended it to others.  Thank you very much!

Liz

Could You Have Sleep Apnea? Watch This Video.

Unsure?  Watch my YouTube clip with Rosie O'Donnell, which has been viewed over 10,000 times, to learn more about sleep apnea and whether you might have some of the symptoms:

Pregnant Women with Sleep Apnea at Higher Risk for Gestational Diabetes and Hypertension

In a new study presented at The American Thoracic Society’s National meeting, a relationship was discovered that even when obesity was controlled for, mothers that had sleep apnea showed an increased risk of Diabetes or Hypertension developing during pregnancy.

These amazing results showed that:

When the women’s weight was taken into account, sleep apnea was associated with a doubling of the incidence of gestational diabetes and a fourfold increase in the risk of pregnancy-induced hypertension, which includes eclampsia and preeclampsia. According to the Preeclampsia Foundation, eclampsia and preeclampsia are responsible for several hundred women’s deaths and more than a thousand fetal deaths annually in the United States.

The mechanisms are still not well understood.  It has been hypothesized that since sleep apnea causes these women to stop breathing, a fight or flight mechanism raises the blood pressure enough to get them to wake up. Also during these periods of apnea we see that the body can produce more stress hormones, and the body then produces more glucose and you can see a decrease in insulin sensitivity, which could lead to diabetes.

This could be very stressful on both the mothers and the fetus. Obviously more research is needed to confirm these findings and determine what causes this relationship to occur. 

New Sleep Doctor on Boomerful.com

I've taken on another project, serving as the sleep expert for the over-50 lifestyle website, Boomerful.com.

You can learn more about me and the other experts by clicking here.  I'll be answering sleep-related questions from Boomerful's readers, and the answers will be posted on their site.

The first questions and answers can be found by clicking on the links below:

• I've heard that Magnesium Gycinate 500mg is helpful for sleep. Is this true?
• I fall asleep very soundly when I first go to bed, then wake throughout the night.  What can I do about this?