Waking up to music could make you more alert

Your choice of alarm sound could have an impact on your level of alertness after waking, reports an Australian study published at the end of January.

If you are not an early bird, hopping out of bed at dawn can be something of an ordeal. And the choice of the alarm that you use may be more important than you think. Researchers at the Royal Melbourne institute of Technology (RMIT, Australia), who recently published a study in the journal Plos One, have studied the impact of different types of alarm sounds and how they help dispel feelings of grogginess on waking.



The phenomenon of “sleep inertia,” as it is called, is a state of incomplete transition to wakefulness that can result in a groggy feeling that can last for up to four hours after getting out of bed. The goal of the new study was to understand how the decision to use a sound or music as an alarm can reduce the persistence of this state.

“If you don’t wake properly, your work performance can be degraded for periods up to four hours, and that has been linked to major accidents,” points out Stuart McFarlane, who led the study.

The study involved 50 adults who participated in an experiment that was specially designed for them to conduct at home. The principle consisted of recording the type of sound they used to wake up, and then assessing their level of alertness by answering specific questions related to sleep inertia.

Opt for a melody rather than a startling ‘beeping’ noise


The results showed that people who used music as an alarm had higher levels of alertness than those who opted for a strident “beep” sound. “You would assume that a startling ‘beep beep beep’ alarm would improve alertness, but our data revealed that melodic alarms may be the key element. This was unexpected,” remarks Stuart McFarlane.

“We think that a harsh ‘beep beep beep’ might work to disrupt or confuse our brain activity when waking, while a more melodic sound like the Beach Boys ‘Good Vibrations’ or The Cure’s ‘Close to Me’ may help us transition to a waking state in a more effective way,” adds Adrian Dyer, a co-author of the study.

While further research on a larger sample may be needed to support this theory, the findings of this study highlight the potential benefits of waking up to music in the fight against sleep inertia.

“This is particularly important for people who might work in dangerous situations shortly after waking, like firefighters or pilots, but also for anyone who has to be rapidly alert, such as someone driving to hospital in an emergency,” points out Stuart McFarlane. JB

AFP Relaxnews

World Diabetes Day 2018: Lifestyle changes that may help reduce the risk of diabetes

November 14 marks World Diabetes Day 2018, part of Diabetes Awareness Month, which aims to raise awareness of the condition and encourage those who may be at risk to be tested.

With many studies focusing on the lifestyle factors that are associated with diabetes, here we round up some of the recent research which suggests changes we can make to lower our risk of the disease.


Try to take time for yourself

Canadian research which followed 7,065 workers between the ages of 35 and 74 for a period of 12 years found that women who work 45 or more hours a week have a 63 percent higher risk of developing diabetes than women who work between 35 and 40 hours, although no association was found between working hours and diabetes in men. The researchers suggested that women might work longer hours in part due to household chores and family responsibilities, which could prompt a chronic stress response in the body, increasing the risk of hormonal abnormalities and insulin resistance, and that reducing the amount of working hours might help curb the risk of the disease.

Get the optimal amount of sleep

Korean researchers have found that sleeping too much or too little are both linked with an increased risk of developing metabolic syndrome, a group of conditions including elevated waist circumference, high triglyceride levels, low levels of good cholesterol, high blood pressure and high fasting blood sugar. The large-scale study looked at 133,608 participants aged 40 to 69 years, finding that compared to those who slept six to seven hours per day, men who slept less than six hours and men and women who slept more than 10 hours were more likely to develop metabolic syndrome, which can increase the risk of diabetes.

Get some exercise

A European study found that even in children, physical exercise can reduce the accumulation of risk factors of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, possibly lowering the risk of young people developing the conditions later in life. However, children who increased their sedentary behavior showed an increase in the accumulation of risk factors. In addition, United States researchers found earlier this year that women who had a high level of fitness pre-pregnancy had a 21 percent lower risk of developing gestational diabetes than women with a lower level of fitness.

Quit smoking

A large-scale study which looked at 512,891 Chinese adults aged 30 to 79 years found that regular smokers have a 15 to 30 percent higher risk of developing diabetes compared with those who have never smoked. Smoking more cigarettes each day, starting smoking at a younger age, and smoking and being obese were also linked to an even greater risk of developing the condition.

Give your social life a boost


According to Dutch researchers, a good social life could help lower the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes. Social isolation is already known to be associated with type 2 diabetes, with the new study also finding that a lack of participation in clubs or other social groups increased the risk of pre-diabetes in women and the risk of type 2 diabetes in both men and women, while having more friends, and more friends who lived close by, helped reduce the risk of the condition. JB

source: lifestyle.inquirer.net

How the New iPhone Update Can Help You Get Better Sleep

I am one of those people who got to sleep with my phone in my hand. I know I am not alone. It’s just addicting to stay hooked about every other news that pops up, whether it’s Tom Hiddleston giving you weather updates or this new mash-up for Rihanna’s “Work.”

 Either way, staying up because of your phone isn’t just how intriguing the latest news is, it also has something to do with how the light on your phone can suppress the melatonin (the hormone responsible for making you sleepy) in your body.

The smart people over at iPhone then developed Night Shift. A new update along with the iOS 9.3, Night Shift adjusts your phone’s light and screen colors so you won’t mess up your melatonin even if you’re updating yourself with everyone’s else Snapchat story at 10 p.m. In the morning, Night Shift will shut off to allow your phone to adjust back to your regular settings.

Watch this Instagram video to know how to activate Night Shift on your phone.


Sweet dreams, everyone!
[Allure]


Photo courtesy of Petra Collins’ Instagram account

source: preen.inquirer.net

Sleep-deprived kids are more tempted by food

Children who don’t get enough sleep might be more tempted by food, a new study suggests.

Five-year-olds who slept less than 11 hours a night were more eager to eat at the sight or reminder of a favorite snack, compared to those who slept longer, researchers reported in the International Journal of Obesity.

The children who slept less than 11 hours at night also had a higher body mass index – a measure of weight in relation to height – than those who slept 11 hours or more. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends 11 to 12 hours of sleep for pre-school children.


“There is now accumulating evidence in both children and adults to suggest that short or insufficient sleep increases reward-driven ('hedonic') eating,” said Laura McDonald, the study’s lead author and a researcher at University College London, in email to Reuters Health.

“This is, of course, a concern,” she added, “given that we live in a modern ‘obesogenic’ environment” where tasty, high-calorie foods “are widely available and cheap to consume.”

Previous studies have shown that too little sleep significantly increases the chances that a child will be overweight or obese, McDonald and her team point out. But less was known about how sleep affects daily calorie intake.

“Some studies using brain imaging in adults have shown that sleep restriction increases responsiveness in reward centers of the brain in response to images of palatable food . . . however, no studies in children have examined whether sleep changes food responsiveness,” noted McDonald.

The new study involved 1,008 five-year-olds born in 2007 in England and Wales. The researchers had mothers answer a questionnaire about their youngsters’ responsiveness to food cues and their behavior toward food when they were presumably full, soon after eating.

The average sleep duration for the children in the study was 11.48 hours.

Among kids who slept less than 11 hours a night, food responsiveness was 2.53 on a scale of 1 to 5, compared to 2.36 for those who slept 11 to 12 hours, and 2.35 for those who got at least 12 hours of sleep a night.

“In children who do not get enough sleep at night, limiting exposure to palatable food cues in the home might be helpful at preventing overconsumption,” McDonald said.

The study found no link between sleep duration and whether kids were still willing to eat when they were full.

While the study can’t prove that less sleep causes more eating, McDonald said another possibility is that the reverse might be true. “It is definitely a possibility that food responsiveness might impact sleep behavior,” she said. “For example, it could be that children who are more food responsive are also more difficult to settle at night (when adults or older children might be eating).”

Emerson Wickwire, director of the Insomnia Program at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, told Reuters Health by email that the study adds a new twist to research showing sleep is a risk factor for obesity.

“The current study suggests a new potential explanation (hedonic eating) for weight gain among children who sleep less . . . in other words, kids in the study who slept less were more susceptible to unhealthy food cues in the environment,” said Wickwire, who was not involved in the study.

Wickwire said the study also showed the importance of sleep for children.

“We know that parents have a huge influence on the sleep patterns of five-year-olds. So really, it’s incumbent on parents to make sure their kids are getting enough sleep,” said Wickwire, a board-certified sleep specialist. —Reuters

Evening workouts don’t disturb sleep

NEW YORK - Couch potatoes looking for a reason to forgo working out in the evening may no longer be able to use difficulty sleeping afterward as an excuse, according to a recent study.

Researchers found that people who exercised in the evening reported sleeping just as well as those who weren't active in the hours before bed. People who worked out in the morning reported getting the best sleep, on average.

"Sleep recommendations suggest avoiding exercise prior to bed," said Matthew Buman, lead author of the study from Arizona State University in Phoenix. "We found evidence to the contrary suggesting that individuals need not avoid exercise at night."

He and his colleagues analyzed responses collected from 1,000 adults participating in the 2013 National Sleep Foundation Sleep in America Poll. The telephone- and web-based questionnaire asked participants how well they felt they slept, how long they slept each night, how much time it took them to fall asleep, and whether they felt refreshed after waking up in the morning.

The poll also asked participants about their exercise habits, such as whether they worked out regularly and, if so, whether they were active in the morning, afternoon or evening. Evening was considered to be within four hours of going to sleep.

Based on the types of physical activity participants performed regularly, like tai chi, running or yard work, workouts were categorized by intensity as light, moderate or vigorous.

People who exercised vigorously in the morning were 88 percent more likely to report good sleep quality than non-exercisers and 44 percent less likely to say they woke up feeling unrefreshed.

Moderate-intensity morning exercisers were 53 percent more likely to say they slept well overall, compared to people who didn't exercise.

There was no difference in any of the sleep measures between moderate or vigorous evening exercisers and non-exercisers, according to findings published in the journal Sleep Medicine.

Experts said the study's poll-based methods may not necessarily be the most accurate gauge of sleep quality, however.

"As strange as it may seem, self-reported sleep—whether good or bad—is not a very reliable indicator of what's actually happening by objective measures with a person's sleep," Dr. Matt Bianchi said. He directs the sleep laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and was not involved in the new study.

"For example, only half of people with sleep apnea will feel sleepy or non-refreshed about their sleep—and sleep apnea is a fairly dramatic kind of sleep problem. I take with a grain of salt any ‘survey'-based studies such as this one," Bianchi said.

Although the National Sleep Foundation's sleep hygiene recommendations don't preclude pre-bedtime workouts, they do advise sticking to relaxing exercises, such as yoga, in the evening hours.

Researchers said the online or printed resources to which some doctors direct patients advise against evening workouts.

"Generally, physicians do have patients get a sleep hygiene resource, and often not exercising close to bedtime will be on there," said Dr. James Mojica, director of the Spaulding Sleep Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mojica, who is also a sleep specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital, was not involved in the study.

Representatives from the National Sleep Foundation were not available for comment.

It's important to remember that sleep is different for each person; what helps one person's slumber may lead to insomnia in someone else, researchers said.

"Sleep hygiene recommendations are just that—things that might work in general. They are not written in stone," Bianchi told Reuters Health. He recommends people who are having trouble sleeping be "thoughtful and introspective about finding patterns in their own lives."

"Each patient may find by trial and error the best combination of things to do or to avoid," he said. —Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com

Too little sleep linked to heart disease risk

NEW YORK - In a large US study, people who tended to get less than six hours of sleep nightly were more likely to have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and to be obese.

The research is the first to look at differences in risk between racial and ethnic groups, and also finds the strongest effect among Black and Hispanic Americans.

"This is important, since racial minorities are generally at increased risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity," Michael A. Grandner said. "And if they also tend to have more sleep difficulties, that could be making things worse."

Grandner led the study at the Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Using nationwide survey data from 2008, researchers divided results from more than 5,000 respondents representing the US population into three groups. Very short sleepers got less than five hours per night, short sleepers got between five and six hours and long sleepers got more than nine hours.

Very short and short sleep were both linked to poor health, Grandner's team reports in the journal Sleep Medicine.

Very short sleepers were twice as likely to have high blood pressure and high cholesterol, compared to people who slept around seven to eight hours. Very short sleepers were also 75 percent more likely to have diabetes and 50 percent more likely to be obese.

Short sleepers were about 20 percent more likely than normal sleepers to report high blood pressure and obesity.

Blacks were most likely to report sleeping less than five hours and very short sleep was most strongly linked to obesity among Blacks.

Short sleep was strongly linked to high blood pressure among Blacks, Whites and non-Mexican Hispanics, while people of Asian descent had the strongest link between short sleep and high cholesterol.

Long sleepers did not appear to experience any negative health effects once researchers adjusted for other factors.

There is no consensus on what the ideal minimum amount of sleep should be for good health, Kristen L. Knutson said.

Knutson studies sleep and heart health in different populations at the University of Chicago Department of Medicine. She was not involved in the new study.

There's no set number for sleep, in part "because there is likely to be some variability in how much sleep different people need," Knutson said. "Still, the majority of large studies have found that people who say they sleep between seven and eight hours are the healthiest."

Recommendations vary by age, with younger people generally needing more sleep than older people.

"Like most aspects of health, too little is bad for you and too much is also likely bad for you," Grandner said.

"It is hard to say that short sleep is worse than long—it's just that we currently have a better idea of why short sleep is detrimental to health," he said.

Quantity of sleep isn't the only important factor though, Grandner said. Insomnia, sleep apnea and waking frequently during the night may be related to heart disease, diabetes and obesity, he said.

"These data do suggest that short sleep, whatever the cause, is associated with important negative health outcomes," Knutson said.

Sleep and health are likely linked in a two-way relationship, Grandner said. Less sleep may negatively impact health, and certain health conditions like obesity might make sleep more difficult.

"Lack of sleep limits your body's ability to keep itself healthy, increasing risk for disease, which puts stress on the body, making sleep harder," he said. "It is likely a cycle like this." — Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com