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Survey highlights lack of sleep: higher insulin levels; heart disease; inflammation; mental/cognitive disorders
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Mar 8, 2008
More than two thirds (68%) of people are not getting eight hours sleep a night.
A third (33%) of those questioned in a new survey manage only six hours sleep or less a night.
The over-45s are getting the least sleep, the survey found, with only 24% saying they sleep for the recommended eight hours.
Younger respondents (18-24-year-olds) have the most sleep with 46% enjoying up to eight hours or more.
Money was the main factor keeping people up at night with more than half of men (51%) and women (52%) citing worries over finances as their biggest concern.
People in the 25 to 34 age bracket were most stressed about money (68%), according to the YouGov poll for Five News.
The rising cost of electricity and gas was the biggest concern for more than a third (37%) of people in the UK.
The over-55s were particularly concerned about this area with half (50%) saying it was a major worry.
Fear of crime, however, was not a big concern with only 15% of people saying it was a main factor in keeping them awake at night. This figure fell to 7% in the 18-24 and 35-44 age brackets.
How lack of sleep may be bad for the brain
It's been linked to Alzheimer's and bipolar disease, and it's been found to affect learning and mood.
By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 24, 2008
Both night-shift work and chronic sleep deprivation are increasingly implicated in mental and cognitive problems.
* Alzheimer's risk: Abnormal insulin levels (common in shift workers and sleep-deprived people) may increase the risk for certain neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, scientists at the University of Washington have found. Normally, insulin acts on the brain to promote learning and memory. However, insulin resistance may cause inflammation in the brain, a key process in the development of Alzheimer's.
* Learning: Proper alignment between sleep times and internal circadian time is crucial for optimal cognitive performance. And numerous recent studies show learning is enhanced if it's immediately followed by restorative sleep. In other words, students who pull all-nighters studying for an exam are doing themselves more harm than good.
* Mood: Even moderate changes in sleep times can have a big effect on mood. Diane Boivin of the Centre for Study and Treatment of Circadian Rhythms at Douglas Mental Health University Institute in Montreal published research last year in the journal Sleep showing that serotonin levels -- a key substance for mood stability -- are lower in shift workers than day workers. Other studies have found that exposure to bright light in the morning can lift the moods of people with depression, and that prescribed periods of sleep deprivation can interrupt a bout of depression.
* Bipolar disorder: Flawed circadian rhythms may be to blame for bipolar disorder. In a study published last year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center identified a gene that, if disrupted, causes mice to behave as if they have bipolar disorder. Correcting the gene mutation could lead to a therapy for the illness, the scientists said.
Bad sleep may be harder on women's hearts, minds
Last Updated: 2008-03-17 13:01:26 -0400 (Reuters Health)
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Evidence continues to mount that sleep problems can affect heart health, with worse consequences for women, and a new study could help explain why.
Women who reported poor sleep quality and had difficulty falling asleep had more psychosocial distress than their peers who slept well, and also had higher blood levels of substances linked to type 2 diabetes, heart disease and other health problems, Dr. Edward C. Suarez of Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, found.
But for men, there was no link between how well they slept and their mental or physical health.
To date, most studies investigating sleep and heart disease have included people with serious sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea, the researcher points out. In the current study, Suarez had 210 healthy men and women without clinically diagnosed sleep disorders fill out a questionnaire evaluating sleep quality.
Among women, Suarez found, poor sleep quality, having difficulty falling asleep more than two nights a week and taking longer than half an hour to fall asleep were tied to higher levels of fasting insulin -- a sign of increased type 2 diabetes risk -- as well as higher levels of markers of inflammation and of fibrinogen, a clotting factor that has been tied to stroke.
Women who slept poorly also reported more symptoms of depression, hostility and anger.
"Interestingly, it appears that it's not so much the overall poor sleep quality that was associated with greater risk, but rather the length of time it takes a person to fall asleep that takes the highest toll," Suarez noted in a Duke University press release. "Women who reported taking a half an hour or more to fall asleep showed the worst risk profile."
Gender differences in the function of the brain chemical serotonin, the hormone melatonin, or the amino acid tryptophan could help explain the findings, Suarez said, given that all three chemicals are involved in both mood and cardiovascular health.
"Improvements in sleep as a means of reducing risk for cardiovascular disease may prove particularly important in women," he concludes.
SOURCE: Brain, Behavior and Immunity, published online.
From The Sunday Times
http://travel.timesonline.co.uk
March 23, 2008
Here is the snooze
Spas are waking up to the fact that sleep, not a mango wrap, is the key to holistichappiness.
Susan d'Arcy reports
Sleep has become the bottled water of the hospitality industry. It might be readily available for free, but hotels have been investing millions as they compete to provide guests with the dreamiest night's rest ever.
You can now slip between cashmere sheets costing thousands of pounds at the Principe di Savoia, in Milan; or choose from a 20-strong pillow menu at Fregate Island, in the Seychelles (including an antiageing one infused with vitamin E, and an eco-friendly version made from buckwheat spelt). It's possible to engage the services of a sleep concierge at the Benjamin, in New York, and snuggle up on a mattress costing 14,000 at Cotswold House, in Gloucestershire. You can even do a Victor Kiam: Westin sells its Heavenly Bed mattresses from 1,200; adding the linen, pillows and duvet cover with overstuffed polyester insert will cost from 2,200. A Sheraton Sweet Sleeper or a Sofitel MyBed will set you back similar sums.
iF the pillow fights have been intense up to now, sleep is about to move into a whole other league. Luxury SpaFinder magazine, recently declared sleep the new wellness frontier. And unlike some overhyped, must-try treatments, for which the only sensible course of action is to back slowly out of the room, smiling (the facial featuring nightingale droppings, the massage that slithers snakes across your back, having your toes read), this hot trend is actually sensible. Many scientific studies have linked lack of sleep to poor health, increased stress levels and obesity.
American spas were the first to identify that a good night's sleep is one sure way to a spa-goer's wallet; some of the best even employ directors of sleep. Canyon Ranch, one of the USA's most influential wellness companies, was a pioneer. The sleep-enhancement programme at its Arizona base comes with reassuring amounts of medical paraphernalia. Guests can spend the night in a sleep lab, where qualified doctors attach monitors to the guinea pig for a polysomnography test that will reveal brainwave patterns and establish possible causes for poor sleep. Based on these findings, the guest has consultations with behavioural therapists, exercise physiologists and nutritionists - surely enough to make even a committed insomniac ready for bed. The Pritikin Longevity Center and Spa, in Florida, also offers clinical diagnosis based on sophisticated monitoring, although it admits one of the main predictors of sleep apnoea, a common complaint, isn't rocket science - you're likely to suffer from it if your neck size is greater than 17_in. If you want the high-tech slumber number with five-star frills, the upmarket hotelier Four Seasons has teamed up with the California WellBeing Institute at its Westlake Village property, near Los Angeles.
Other spas take a more holistic, chimes'n'chants approach. The award-winning Red Mountain Spa, in Utah, holds regular sellout Sweet Art of Sleep Seduction workshops, which involve "fun and experiential" discussions on various ways to create the correct environment for sleep, such as prebed stretches, organic "zzzzzmersion" massages and a zMusic CD ("the gold standard of sleep music", apparently). A professor from the University of Arizona works with the Miraval Resort, in Tucson: his "body, mind, spirit" perspective covers everything from eating habits to how you decorate your bedroom. The Mayflower, in Connecticut, advocates hypnotherapy and acupuncture. And, before you knock new-age methods, bear in mind that the World Health Organisation has approved acupuncture as a treatment for insomnia.
While New York might revel in its reputation as the city that never sleeps, some of its residents really wouldn't mind a bit more shuteye. Yelo and MetroNaps both offer a refuge for a quick snooze, selling 20-to 40-minute slots in a "nod pod", where customers are tucked in with cashmere blankets, a soporific soundtrack and a side order of reflexology.
Europe's been caught napping, but things are changing. The glitzy Fortina Spa Resort, on Malta, where Brad Pitt, Russell Crowe and the health secretary, Alan Johnson, have holidayed, is an early European innovator. It has just launched the first of 47 Wellness Rejuvenation Rooms, each fitted with 4,500 worth of sleep-inducing equipment, including a magnetic mattress, pillows and duvet. "They magnetise your entire body, relieving it of all aches, pains and stress," the hotel says. "The proven benefits cover everything from encouraging deep-healing sleep to aiding the lymphatic system to release toxins." The rooms also feature far-infrared technology that "detoxifies" the body, as well as an air purifier to recreate fresh mountain air.
The dynamic new six-star Capella Hotels company, created by Horst Schulze, who is widely regarded as one of the canniest hoteliers in the world, is also in the vanguard. Schulze is convinced that sleep education will play an important role at spas in the future, so Capella's new flagship property, Schloss Velden, in Austria, will run a Sleep Health-Life Balance programme from September to March each year. Guests will be evaluated by professional trainers, nutritional coaches and medical experts, then given a customised week-long schedule, including spa treatments based on the moon's phases, lectures, yoga classes and autogenic training - a relaxation technique designed to get you snoozing. They will also use pillows and duvets filled with Swiss stone pine strands, which, according to research by the University of Graz, induce better sleep.
In the UK, we're way behind - although the Sanctuary day spa, in London, can claim a world first. Its spa director, Debi Green, spent more than a year and 90,000 developing the first low-frequency-sound-wave therapy beds for its new sleep retreat. The theory is that sound waves penetrate the muscles more gently and effectively than massage, releasing pain and tension, and lulling the user into a tranquil state. Most guests nod off quickly. One woman even reported having flashbacks to childhood memories - happy ones, fortunately. "We're always a bit slower on spa innovations than the Americans," Green says. "But sleep is so important to general health that I'm sure we'll see lots of UK spas developing sleep programmes in future."
Until then, a cup of cocoa and a DVD of Heaven's Gate is probably still your best bet for nodding off - although the latter could also cause nightmares.
The world's best zzzzs
Canyon Ranch: 00 1 520 749 9000, www.canyonranch.com; doubles from 580, full-board.
Pritikin Longevity Center: 00 1 305 935 7131, www.pritikin.com; doubles from 390, full-board.
Four Seasons Westlake Village: 00800 6488 6488, www.fourseasons.com/westlakevillage; doubles from 142, B&B.
Red Mountain Spa: 00 1 435 673 4905, www.redmountainspa.com; doubles from 300, full-board.
Miraval Resort: 00 1 800 232 3969, www.miravalresort.com; doubles from 675, full-board.
The Mayflower: 00 1 860 868 9466, www.mayflowerinn.com; doubles from 235, room-only.
Yelo: 00 1 212 245 8235, www.yelonyc.com; from 7.50 for 20 minutes.
MetroNaps: 00 1 212 239 3344, www.metronaps.com; from 7 for 20 minutes.
Schloss Velden: 00 43 4274 520000, www.schlossveldencapella.com; doubles from 350, B&B.
Fortina Spa: 0800 917 3001, www.hotelfortina.com; doubles from 232, full-board.
The Sanctuary: 0870 770 3350, www.thesanctuary.co.uk; Sleep Retreat is included in the price of spa admission (from 67).
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