Many individuals face the frustrating dilemma of working towards their weight loss to no avail. Although they follow the most common methods to shed pounds like dieting and exercising, they see no difference on the scale.
If you or someone you know can attest to this experience, there's a chance that a lack of sleep may be contributing to your inability to lose weight. Many aspects of achieving a good night's rest directly affect the body's potential to slim down.
If you're getting insufficient sleep, there's a good chance you're suffering from a number of symptoms making life more challenging. In addition to feeling fatigued, you may be experiencing headaches, lack of concentration, and feeling more moody and irritable than usual. However, you might also find that your memory isn't as sharp as always. Many individuals may be shocked and surprised to learn that medical studies have proven that loss of sleep can lead directly to loss of memory.
In the life of an average woman, she will experience 7 significant hormonal shifts. These shifts occur during puberty, during adult menstrual years, during pregnancy, postpartum, twice during perimenopause, and post-menopause.
It's no surprise, then, that the National Sleep Foundation reports that women are much more likely to report sleep problems than men. Hormones may be entirely to blame for this phenomenon given that hormonal fluctuations have a direct relationship with quality of sleep.
Children, ages 0-17, need a lot more sleep than adults. The recommended amount of sleep for children varies with age. Here are some ranges that you will commonly see for nighttime sleep recommendations [NHS]:
Of course, we are all individuals and your child may need a bit more or less sleep than indicated above. Also, naptime is important for babies and toddlers in addition to the above recommendations for nighttime sleep.
If sleep is being sacrificed on a consistent basis, it's likely that individual is suffering from weariness and reduced alertness. Extreme fatigue may also lead to irritability, depression, headaches, loss of appetite, and the development of more serious health issues. However, many don't speculate that their lack of sleep may be causing low testosterone. In fact, new studies show that poor sleep may be directly linked to lowered levels of testosterone in men.
In a study by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, losing sleep can impact testosterone in as little as one week. Like with many simultaneously occurring conditions, there is a comorbidity that exists between fatigue and hormone levels. There is little doubt, however, that sacrificing sleep has the ability to cause a drop in testosterone levels.
Traveling is often a hassle, and your CPAP device takes up a lot of space. Additionally, people with CPAP devices may wonder if they even can even travel with their CPAP device. Because of this, people with sleep apnea can be a bit...neglectful in being diligent about traveling with their CPAP device. Nonetheless, it remains important to wear your CPAP every night.
So, can you travel with your CPAP device? Yes. Should you travel with your CPAP device? Most definitely. Here's some useful information to know about traveling with your CPAP device.
Sleep apnea is a condition where your breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep. There are three types of sleep apnea:
Obstructive sleep apnea is when the upper airway becomes blocked during sleep. This blockage greatly reduces or completely stops airflow, and is usually accompanied by loud snoring.
Central sleep apnea is a type of sleep apnea that happens when the brain does not send signals needed to breathe during sleep. This type of sleep apnea is not accompanied by snoring. Sometimes, a person can have both obstructive and central sleep apnea, which is called (3) complex sleep apnea syndrome.
Obstructive sleep apnea is far more common than the other types. Continue reading to learn how OSA can affect mood.
Opiate use is at an all-time high in the US. It is a serious epidemic in many cities, especially in Anchorage. Opiate dependency can have dramatic effects on someone’s psychological and physical health. Chronic use of opiate medications can considerably disrupt normal sleep cycles. Unfortunately, downstream effects of sleep problems can exacerbate many of the side effects of chronic opiate use, such as:
Let’s look at how opiate medications affect sleep in more detail.
Opiates are strange in that they have properties that both make us feel tired but also promote wakefulness [1]. The result is the frustrating feeling of wanting to sleep, being ready to sleep, but being unable to actually sleep well.
Hence, chronic use of opiates usually is accompanied by the following symptoms [3]:
For example, researchers at St. George’s Hospital Medical School found that opiate users [4] were:
It’s unclear how short-term opiate medication use may affect sleep, as well as the extent to which sleep-related side effects are a risk factor for perpetuating opiate use.
There are four stages to sleep. REM sleep (rapid eye movement), the fourth stage, is where:
The other important sleep stage is NREM (non-REM) stage three, where deep sleep occurs.
Opiates disrupt both of these stages of sleep because of their complex interaction with a chemical called adenosine – an interaction that is dose and receptor-dependent [3]. Hence, even if you take opiates and get a “full night's rest,” you may still feel physically fatigued in the morning.
Prolonged use of opiates may contribute to sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a medical condition where one breathes shallowly or experiences pauses in breathing, causing a person to wake in order to begin breathing again. This may happen many times during the night, essentially crippling one’s ability for restful sleep.
Opiates depress respiration by slowing down the breathing rate or reducing the fullness of breaths taken – resulting in decreased oxygen in the blood. For people who already have a variant of sleep apnea, or are at risk for developing it (i.e., people with obesity or diabetes), taking opiate medications can increase the risk of developing or exacerbate existing sleep apnea:
For many people, taking opiate medications is necessary. To see how opiate medications are affecting your ability to get restful sleep, we highly suggest that consult with a sleep specialist or get a sleep study. Please click the orange button below to take a free online sleep test and get in contact with one of our sleep health specialists.
[1] 6. De Andrés I, Caballero A. Chronic morphine administration in cats: Effects on sleep and EEG. Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 1989;32:519–26. [PubMed]
[2] Jason T Moore, Max B Kelz. Opiates, Sleep, and Pain: The Adenosinergic Link. Anesthesiology. 2009 Dec; 111(6): 1175-1176. [NCBI]
[3] Porkka-Heiskanen T, Strecker RE, Thakkar M, Bjorkum AA, Greene RW, McCarley RW. Adenosine: A mediator of the sleep-inducing effects of prolonged wakefulness. Science. 1997;276:1265–8. [PMC free article] [PubMed]
[4] James Elander, Sally Porter & Sally Hodson (1994) What role for general practitioners in the care of opiate Users?, Addiction Research, 1:4, 309-322, D
A shift worker is anyone whose work schedule does not follow the typical 9-5 business day. The most typical example of this are businesses that operate 24 hours per day. This is increasingly common as modern demands and competition push businesses production and customer service. Millions of Americans are working non-traditional hours (about one-fifth of the US population [1]) – are you?
The most common risk of shift work are persistent sleep problems, generally resulting in either excessive sleepiness and/or nighttime sleep interruptions [2]. Only 63% of shift workers report that their work schedule allows them to get enough sleep (compared to 89% for non-shift workers) [3]. If you are a shift worker, are you getting enough sleep?
