Sleep News and Research

Latest Sleep News and Research

Children of snorers, three times as likely to snore themselves

Children of parents who snore are three times more likely to snore themselves, according to a new study by researchers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. Furthermore, children who test positive for allergies are twice as likely to snore.

26 Apr 2006

Prenatal exposure to alcohol can change child's circadian rhythms

Altered sleeping and eating patterns, behavioral problems, attention deficits and depression in children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders may indicate that their biological rhythms, which are controlled by circadian systems, have been affected by alcohol exposure during development.

25 Apr 2006

Genetic clue found to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

According to researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in the United States, there may well be a genetic reason why some people develop Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS).

24 Apr 2006

"Malaria free Aceh" campaign launches in Indonesia

Everyone has experienced it - the buzzing sound of mosquitoes interrupting a restful night's sleep. In Indonesia's Aceh province, the hardest-hit area of the 2005 catastrophic tsunami, mosquitoes are more than just an annoyance. They carry a deadly disease - malaria.

19 Apr 2006

Scientists document an organ-specific innate immune system

In research published in the April 18 edition of the journal Immunity, scientists at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine outline the unique mechanism by which the lung shapes its defensive strategies against microbial invasion.

18 Apr 2006

The less a child sleeps, the more likely he or she is to become overweight

The risk of becoming overweight is 3.5 times higher in children who get less sleep than in those who sleep a lot, according to researchers Jean-Philippe Chaput, Marc Brunet, and Angelo Tremblay.

16 Apr 2006

How you wake up might explain near death experiences

According to a new study, people who have had near death experiences often have different arousal systems controlling the sleep-wake states than people who have never had such an experience.

12 Apr 2006

If parents snore, chances are child will also

According to researchers in the U.S. if either parent is a snorer, a child is three times more likely to be a noisy sleeper.

11 Apr 2006

REM state intrusion contributes to near death experiences

People who have had near death experiences often have different arousal systems controlling the sleep-wake states than people who have not had a near death experience, according to a new study published in the April 11, 2006, issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

11 Apr 2006

Alcohol use, comorbidity, and mortality

Older men who drink as few as two drinks twice a week and also have diseases that could be worsened by alcohol or cause problems with medications taken while drinking alcohol have higher death rates, as compared to men who either drink less or may drink more but don't have such comorbidities.

11 Apr 2006

Young children born to parents who snore have an increased risk of snoring

New research published in the April issue of CHEST, shows that infants, who had at least one parent who snored frequently, were three times more likely to snore frequently than children with no parental history of snoring.

11 Apr 2006

African sleeping sickness

Each year, over 300,000 people die of African sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis). Researchers from the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) connected to the Free University of Brussels are making strides in the battle against this disease.

10 Apr 2006

Early transition to menopause may increase risk for first onset of depression

Women with no history of depression may be at an increased risk of new onset depressive symptoms and disorders as they transition to menopause, according to two studies in the April issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.

7 Apr 2006

Staggering costs of sleep disorders and sleep deprivation on the nation

According to a new report by the Institute of Medicine ( IOM), 50 to 70 million Americans suffer from a disorder of sleep and wakefulness, which adversely affects daily functioning, health and longevity.

5 Apr 2006

Menopause linked with the onset of depression

Two new studies say women with no history of depression may be at an increased risk of depressive symptoms and disorders as they enter menopause.

5 Apr 2006

If you're middle age and sleep five or less hours a night, you may be increasing your risk of developing high blood pressure

"Sleep allows the heart to slow down and blood pressure to drop for a significant part of the day," said James E. Gangwisch, PhD, lead author of the study and post-doctoral fellow in the psychiatric epidemiology training (PET) program at the Mailman School.

4 Apr 2006

Caudal raphe or the hypoglossal nucleus or both together play roles in sleep apnea

The neural pathways between two areas of the brain that control the tongue -- and their interactions with each other -- may hold the key as to why men suffer sleep apnea much more than women.

4 Apr 2006

Offline persistence of memory-related cerebral activity during active wakefulnes

Sleeping helps to reinforce what we've learned. And brain scans have revealed that cerebral activity associated with learning new information is replayed during sleep.

4 Apr 2006

Shape and function of the heart improves with apnea treatment

Patients with obstructive sleep apnea have enlarged and thickened hearts that pump less effectively, but the heart abnormalities improve with use of a device that helps patients breathe better during sleep, according to a new study in the April 4, 2006, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

4 Apr 2006