Astrocyte brain cells linked to healthy sleep

A March 2021 study by the University of California found that, 

"This is the first example where someone did an acute and fast manipulation of astrocytes and showed that it was able to actually affect sleep," 

"That positions astrocytes as an active player in sleep. It's really exciting."

"This could give us new insights not only into sleep but into diseases in which sleep dysregulation is a symptom," 

"Maybe some diseases are affecting astrocytes in a way we hadn't thought about before."

"Depth and duration are aspects of sleep that often get glossed over and lumped together even in neuroscience," 

"But picking apart these different aspects and how they're regulated is going to be important down the line for creating more specific sleep treatments."

"What have people been missing because they're ignoring this group of cells?”

"The questions that haven't been answered thus far in sleep neurobiology -- maybe they haven't been answered because we haven't been looking in the right places."

Sleep and sweating

Ibn Sina in his Canon said, “Sleep induces sweating. It does this by a process of overcoming the effete matter, and not by a process of continuous dispersal of attenuated matter. When a person sweats heavily during sleep, without obvious cause, nutrients accumulate in excess of the bodily requirements ; when sleep encounters matter adapted for digestion and maturation, it turns it into the nature of blood and warms it, and in consequence innate heat is engendered, and travels through and warms the whole body. “

Chronobiology, the liver, circadian rhythms and position

A new January 2021 study by the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausane in the field of chronobiology sees Western medicine finding the first steps on its way towards a concept known for many hundreds of years in the field of Chinese Medicine as to time and the organs of the body. And in Unani Tibb medicine regarding time and position of the liver.

The study found that, “many of the liver's genes seem to be both zonated and rhythmic, meaning that they are regulated by both their location in the liver and the time of the day. These dually regulated genes are mostly linked to key functions of the liver, e.g. the metabolism of lipids, carbohydrates, and amino acids,”

"The work reveals a richness of space-time gene expression dynamics of the liver, and shows how compartmentalization of liver function in both space and time is hallmark of metabolic activity in the mammalian liver,"

Diabetes and Bedtime

A September 2020 study by the University of South Australia and the University of Leicester found that,

• "There is a massive need for large-scale interventions to help people with diabetes initiate, maintain and achieve the benefits of an active lifestyle,”

• "For people who prefer to go to bed later and get up later, this is even more important, with our research showing that night owls exercise 56 per cent less than their early bird counterparts.

• "Exercise plays an important role for people with diabetes, helping maintain a healthy weight and blood pressure, as well as reducing the risk of heart disease - all significant factors for improving diabetes management.”

• "This makes understanding the factors that can mitigate a person's propensity to exercise, extremely important."

• “The links between later sleep times and physical activity is clear: go to bed late and you're less likely to be active,”

• "As sleep chronotypes are potentially modifiable, these findings provide an opportunity to change your lifestyle for the better, simply by adjusting your bedtime."

• "For someone with diabetes, this is valuable information that could help get them back on a path to good health."

Sleep and Heart Health

A March 2020 study by the American College of Cardiology suggests that 6-8 hours of sleep is optimal, for heart health. The researchers said,

• "The message, based on our findings, is 'sleep well, but not too well.' Getting too little sleep appears bad for your health but too much seems to be harmful as well."

• "Unlike other heart disease risk factors such as age or genetics, sleep habits can be adjusted, and even after taking into consideration the impact of established risk factors for atherosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases--for example age, gender, obesity, smoking, hypertension, diabetes, high blood pressure and even a history of coronary artery disease--both short and long sleeping duration may act as additional risk factors."

• "We don't fully understand the relationship between sleep and cardiovascular health. It could be that sympathetic nervous system withdrawal or a slowing [of this system] that occurs during sleep may act as a recovery phase for [usual] vascular and cardiac strain."

• "Moreover, short sleep duration may be associated with increased cardiovascular risk factors--for example, unhealthy diet, stress, being overweight or greater alcohol consumption--whereas longer sleep duration may be associated with a less active lifestyle pattern and lower physical activity."

• "It seems that this amount of sleep may act as an additive cardioprotective factor among people living in modern western societies, and there can be other health benefits to getting sufficient and quality sleep."

The Importance of Sleep: Two New Studies

It’s not just about attention

A November 2019 study by Michigan State University found that,

• “sleep deprivation doubles the odds of making placekeeping errors and triples the number of lapses in attention, which is startling,"

• "Sleep-deprived individuals need to exercise caution in absolutely everything that they do, and simply can't trust that they won't make costly errors. Oftentimes - like when behind the wheel of a car - these errors can have tragic consequences."

• "Our findings debunk a common theory that suggests that attention is the only cognitive function affected by sleep deprivation,"

• "Some sleep-deprived people might be able to hold it together under routine tasks, like a doctor taking a patient's vitals. But our results suggest that completing an activity that requires following multiple steps, such as a doctor completing a medical procedure, is much riskier under conditions of sleep deprivation."

• "There are some tasks people can do on auto-pilot that may not be affected by a lack of sleep. However, sleep deprivation causes widespread deficits across all facets of life."

Socioeconomic Status

In another November 2019 study by the University Centre of General Medicine and Public Health (unisanté), Lausanne, Switzerland, said:

• "The absence of mediation by short sleep in women could be due to the weaker relationship between occupation and sleep duration compared to men."

• "Women with low socioeconomic status often combine the physical and psychosocial strain of manual, poorly paid jobs with household responsibilities and stress, which negatively affects sleep and its health-restoring effects compared to men,"

• "Structural reforms are needed at every level of society to enable people to get more sleep. For example, attempting to reduce noise, which is an important source of sleep disturbances, with double glazed windows, limiting traffic, and not building houses next to airports or highways."

Lack of Sleep and Negative Health Outcomes

A September 2019 study of Irish Adults by Trinity College Dublin found that,

1. "While sleep duration is not recognised as a public health concern, this research highlights an important subset of Irish adults who are not meeting the recommended guidelines for sleep duration and are at increased risk of negative health outcomes.

2. “Awareness of the impact of sub-optimal sleep duration and factors potentially driving these patterns, particularly those which are modifiable, is important. Addressing the underlying causes of undesirable sleep patterns may help to facilitate improvements in the health and wellbeing of our older population."

3. "Sleep duration is an important contributor to physical and mental health. There are a number of behaviours which if changed, can improve sleep quality and duration. These apply to all age groups but particularly mature adults, almost one third of whom experience impaired sleep duration according to our recent data.

4. “Awareness of medications which change sleep quality and duration and change in 'habits before bed' can help to regulate sleep duration and overall benefit physical and brain health."

Sleep – The Menopause - Diabetes

An August 2019 study by The North American Menopause Society suggests that, “worse sleep-related symptoms in postmenopausal Asian women with type 2 diabetes compared with those without diabetes … sleep problems are common in midlife women. Sleep is an important determinant of health, and women with poor sleep should be seen and evaluated for common and treatable sleep disorders such as insomnia, obstructive sleep apnea, and restless legs syndrome.”

Insomnia – Heart Disease - Strokes

An August 2019 study of 1.3 million participants by Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm found “… significantly higher odds of coronary artery disease, heart failure and ischemic stroke - particularly large artery stroke, but not atrial fibrillation…” (Eureka Alert AASS)

Extreme Early Birds – Advanced Sleep Phase

A recent July 2019 study by the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine found that, “While most people struggle with getting out of bed at 4 or 5 a.m., people with advanced sleep phase wake up naturally at this time, rested and ready to take on the day…These extreme early birds tend to function well in the daytime but may have trouble staying awake for social commitments in the evening."

UCSF also found that, “"Generally … it's the people with delayed sleep phase -- those night owls that can't sleep until as late as 7 a.m. -- who are more likely to visit a sleep clinic. They have trouble getting up for work and frequently deal with chronic sleep deprivation,"

Quality of Sleep and Weight Loss

Rovira i Virgili University research in July 2019 found that, “individuals with highly variable sleep patterns - that's to say, who did not sleep the same number of hours every night - at the beginning of the study lost less weight after a follow-up period of 12 months. What is more, a high sleep variability and sleeping little - less than six hours - a day was associated with a lower decrease in body mass index and waist circumference.”

Sleep and Weight Loss

 A June 2019 study by Rovira i Virgili University found that, “…individuals with highly variable sleep patterns - that's to say, who did not sleep the same number of hours every night - at the beginning of the study lost less weight after a follow-up period of 12 months. What is more, a high sleep variability and sleeping little - less than six hours - a day was associated with a lower decrease in body mass index and waist circumference.”

Teenagers, Sleep problems, Screen Use

Recent research by Dr Dirk Jan Stenvers of the Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism of the Amsterdam UMC indicates that sleep problems in teenagers can be reversed in just one week by limiting screen use. Dr Stenvers said, “Adolescents increasingly spend more time on devices with screens and sleep complaints are frequent in this age group. Here we show very simply that these sleep complaints can be easily reversed by minimising evening screen use or exposure to blue light. Based on our data, it is likely that adolescent sleep complaints and delayed sleep onset are at least partly mediated by blue light from screens"

Eating Fish and Quality Sleep

In Tibb (Islamic Medicine), sleep is classified as moistening.

In a recent study by the University of Pennsylvania it was found that, “Children who eat fish at least once a week sleep better and have IQ scores that are 4 points higher, on average, than those who consume fish less frequently or not at all, according to new findings from”

Source

EurekAlert!, the online, global news service operated by AAAS, the science society.

Sleep and Food Intake

In Tibb (Islamic Medicine), sleep is classified as moistening.

In a recent study by Kings College London it was found that, ““Sleeping for longer each night is a simple lifestyle intervention that could help reduce intake of sugary foods and lead to a generally healthier diet”

“The fact that extending sleep led to a reduction in intake of free sugars, by which we mean the sugars that are added to foods by manufacturers or in cooking at home as well as sugars in honey, syrups and fruit juice, suggests that a simple change in lifestyle may really help people to consume healthier diets.”

Source

EurekAlert!, the online, global news service operated by AAAS, the science society.

Fish, Sleep and IQ

A study published in December 2017 by Pennsylvania University found that, “Children who eat fish at least once a week sleep better and have IQ scores that are 4 points higher, on average, than those who consume fish less frequently or not at all.” and discussed the link between fish, better sleep and IQ.  (Source: EurekAlert!, the online, global news service operated by AAAS, the science society.)

In Tibb (Islamic Medicine), fish is classified as having cooling and moisturizing properties: food qualities.

Waking Early

Research in 2013 concluded that, “most adverse cardiovascular events tend to happen in the morning” and a 2014 study found that, “People who had most of their daily exposure to even moderately bright light in the morning had a significantly lower body mass index (BMI) than those who had most of their light exposure later in the day.”