Therapist Unlimited Blog

Those persons who are computer addicts or those that play computer games more than seven hours a week usually lack sleep during weekdays and experience greater sleepiness than casual or non-gamers.
This was the result to a recent research conducted by the University of Arkansas in Little Rock, AR who also discovered that excessive gamers have significantly poorer sleep hygiene and sleep less on weekdays than other gamers; a significant positive correlation was found between the hours of game play and sleepiness.
Based on the study, the researchers also discovered that gamers who reported that their gaming interfered with sleep slept for 1.6 hours less than other gamers, while those who claimed to be addicted to  gaming slept one hour less on weekdays.
According to lead researcher Amanda Woolems the result of their survey has clearly shown the world that excessive gamers spend less time in bed and have longer sleep latency.

Lack of sleep is common among those persons who are computer addicts.

To get the data, Woolems explained they examined data from 137 students recruited from the university who were enrolled in introductory psychology courses.
Woolems revealed participants’ mean age was 22 years and a majority of the sample was women (86).
She said gamers were classified as casual or excessive (those who spend more than seven hours a week using the internet and playing computer games), based on a demographic questionnaire and sleepiness was assessed subjectively through questionnaires.
The lead researcher said of the total sample, 10.81 percent reported that gaming interfered with their sleep and 12.6 identified themselves as being addicted to gaming.
Woolems hoped that through their study, those who are addicted to computer games will now strive hard to have ample time of sleep ideally eight to nine hours a day for them to be healthy and away from sickness.
She and her group hoped that through the result of their study adult would strive hard to achieve eight hours of sleep per night and that adolescents get nine hours of sleep in a regular basis.

Women around the world should strive hard to achieve ample time of sleep ideally eight hours a day to avoid chances of suffering from heart related medical problems.
According to the research conducted by the University of Warwick and University College London it was discovered that women who get less than the recommended eight hours sleep a night are at higher risk of heart disease and heart-related problems than men with the same sleeping patterns.
The researchers have found out that levels of inflammatory markers vary significantly with sleep duration in women, but not men.
The researchers revealed they found Interleukin-6 (IL-6), a marker related to coronary heart disease, were significantly lower in women who reported sleeping eight hours as compared with seven hours.
Lead author of the study, Associate Professor of Biochemical Medicine at Warwick Medical School Michelle Miller said short-term sleep deprivation studies have shown that inflammatory markers are elevated in sleep-deprived individuals, suggesting that inflammatory mechanisms may play a role in the cardiovascular risk associated with sleep deprivation.
The lead researcher said their study could provide some insight into a potential mechanism for the observation in previous studies, which indicates an increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease in individuals who have less than five hours sleep per night, and increased risk of non-cardiovascular death in long sleepers.

Women need to have adequate sleep to avoid suffering from heart related diseases.

She said this is the first large-scale study to describe the associations between measures of inflammation and sleep duration in both men and women.
To get the data, Miller said they carefully evaluated 4,600 white participants from the University College London-based Whitehall II cohort study; 73% were men.
She said participants between the ages of 35 and 55 years were recruited between 1985 and 1988 from 20 London-based civil service departments.
Data for this study is from the phase 3 follow-up (1991-1993). Sleep duration was determined by subjective questionnaires, and general health was assessed during a screening examination.
Furthermore, Miller said the findings add to the growing body of evidence, which suggests that there is a non-linear relationship between cardiovascular risk factors and duration of sleep. She said her team fully support the idea that short sleep is associated with an increase in cardiovascular risk and that the association between sleep duration and cardiovascular risk factors is markedly different in men and women.

 

Old men who have breathing problems in sleep more likely to suffer from irregular heartbeats.
This was the findings of a latest research conducted by medical experts who discovered that increasingly severe sleep-related breathing disorders in older men appear to be associated with a greater risk of abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmias).
It is said that sleep-disordered breathing is a common condition that causes a number of physiologic events that could be stressful to the cardiovascular system, including inadequate blood oxygen levels at night and activation of the sympathetic nervous system (associated with the body’s fight-or-flight response).
Reena Mehra, M.D., M.S., of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, and colleagues studied 2,911 men who underwent sleep testing by polysomnography between 2003 and 2005.
The number of times they experienced apnea (brief pauses in breathing) or hypopnea (shallow breathing) during sleep was recorded, as were any periods of time in which the oxygen level of blood in their arteries dipped below 90 percent (hypoxia).
The researchers said having more episodes of paused or shallow breathing was associated with increased odds of two types of arrhythmias-one involving the heart’s upper chambers (atria) and one involving the heart’s lower chambers (ventricles).
The team revealed obstructive sleep apnea-the most common type, involving a partial or complete blockage of the airways-was associated with irregular heartbeats caused by a problem with the lower chambers or ventricles.

Old men who have breathing problems in sleep need to go to the doctor fast to determine if they are also suffering from irregular heartbeats.

The researchers also discovered that lower blood oxygen levels also appeared to be associated with this type of arrhythmia.
However, central sleep apnea, involving a malfunction in brain signals controlling breathing muscles, was more strongly associated with arrhythmias in the atria or upper chambers.
Furthermore, the researchers explained more severe cases of sleep-disordered breathing were associated with higher odds of arrhythmia.
The researchers added there also seems to be a threshold effect such that moderate-to-severe sleep-disordered breathing confers the greatest increased odds of clinically significant arrhythmias independent of self-reported heart failure and cardiovascular disease.
The team concluded that the line of investigation also identified hypoxia as the possible culprit pathophysiologic characteristic of sleep-disordered breathing that may serve as the trigger of ventricular cardiac arrhythmia development in older men.
With this, they said the strong associations between central sleep apnea and atrial fibrillation [arrhythmia originating in the heart's upper chambers] suggest that central sleep apnea may be a sensitive marker of underlying abnormalities in autonomic or cardiac dysfunction associated with atrial fibrillation.
 

To experience pleasant sleep married women should forge great relationship with their hubby.
 

Women who are in a stable marriage have better sleep than those women who are unmarried or having some problems with their husbands.
This was the findings of a research made by University of Pittsburgh on 360 middle-aged Chinese, Caucasian and African-American women over eight years.
Based on the research, it was discovered that women who were in a stable marriage had the highest quality sleep measured objectively and subjectively, and these results persisted even after controlling for  other known risk factors for sleep, including age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and depressive symptoms.
The researchers said the result of the study showed that having smooth relationships with their spouse offers great way to sleep for married women around the world.
The group of professionals made the study earlier to assess the effects of marital stability and relationship changes on sleep.
This finding certainly bring joy to married women who have stable marriages around the world since it just showed that forging smooth relationship with their partners could offer rewards to the female population.

A recent study has shown that those persons who do not have enough sleep are also of risk of suffering from high blood pressure.
The research was conducted by the University of Chicago who monitored over 500 middle-aged people for five years.
The lead author of the study Dr. Kristen L. Knutson explained the study was part of a larger investigation called Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA), which took blood pressure measurements in 2000, 2001, 2005 and 2006.
According to the researchers, high blood pressure accounts for 7 million deaths worldwide and affects about one third of Americans.
Knutson revealed for this study, the participants were 578 African Americans and whites aged from 33 to 45 years at the start.
She said sleep was also measured using a sensor worn on the wrist that measures movement patterns characteristic of sleep and wakefulness (actigraphy).
The sensor was worn on three consecutive days between 2003 and 2005 and gave measures of sleep duration and sleep maintenance (a measure of sleep quality).

Those persons who lack sleep need to be extra careful since they are at risk of suffering from high blood pressure.

Furthermore, Knutson said the results showed that on average, participants slept for about 6 hours a night and only 1 per cent averaged eight or more hours a night.
Knutson and her team revealed identifying the new lifestyle risk factor for high blood pressure could help develop new ways to prevent or reduce it.
Speculating on what the underlying mechanism might be, they suggested that insufficient sleep affects the way the body responds to stress and this might lead to raised blood pressure.
This story should serve as eye opener to those who lack sleep to be more careful so that they would not end up having high blood pressure.

According to a latest research, those children who suffer from Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are more likely to have current and lifetime sleep problems and disorders, regardless of the severity of current ADHD symptoms.
Based on the data gathered from the research, it was learned that adolescents with a childhood diagnosis of ADHD, regardless of persistent ADHD were more likely to have current sleep problems and sleep disorders such as insomnia, sleep terrors, nightmares, bruxism and snoring.
The data gathered in the study showed that 17 percent of children with ADHD were currently suffering from primary insomnia, versus 7 percent of controls; lifetime primary insomnia occurred in 20 percent of children with ADHD, compared to 10 percent of controls.
It was also shown in the information gathered by the researchers that nightmare disorder affected 11 percent of children with ADHD and lifetime nightmare disorder affected 23 percent, versus 5 and 16 percent of controls.
The researchers also observed that the presence of at least one psychiatric comorbid condition increases the risks for insomnia and nightmares.
Dr. Susan Shur-Fen Gau, MD, PhD, associate professor at the College of Medicine and Public Health, National Taiwan University who conducted the study, explained symptoms and consequences of
ADHD and sleep problems in children often overlap.

Those people suffering from ADHD while still young need to be careful since they are at risk of suffering from a sleep disorder in adult life.

Gau revealed some primary sleep disorders are found to be associated with inattention, hyperactivity, behavioural problems and impaired academic performance, which are often mistaken for symptoms of ADHD.
She said the data were collected from 281 consecutive patients (86.2 percent male) between the ages of 10 to 17 years who had been diagnosed with ADHD according to DSM-IV criteria at a mean age of 6.7 years, and 185 controls that did not have ADHD as a child or teen.
She added diagnosis of ADHD was made based on information obtained from parent and child interviews, observation of the child’s behaviours, and rating scales reported by parents and teachers.
Moreover, Gau said the findings of the study indicated that the rates of nightmare and lifetime nightmare disorder were more prevalent in girls and snoring was more prevalent in boys.
The medical expert explained snoring might be more prevalent in boys due to an increased rate of sleep-disordered breathing in boys.
Gau said the research has shown that mothers were found to be more aware of symptoms related to ADHD in the presence of primary insomnia, sleep terror disorder or sleepwalking disorder, whereas teachers may be more sensitive to ADHD symptoms in the presence of primary hypersomnia and nightmare disorder.