Vicki Cohn

  • Uncategorized

    All the best sleep products we tested in 2021

    • Comments Off on All the best sleep products we tested in 2021
    • by

    We thought to jumpstart the New Year we would share this exhaustive list of fantastic sleep aids. We stumbled across this article from CNN and found it shareworthy.

    CNN Underscored is constantly testing products — be it coffee makers or office chairs — to find the absolute best in each respective category.

    Our testing process is rigorous, consisting of hours of research (consulting experts, reading editorial reviews and perusing user ratings) to find the top products in each category. Once we settle on a testing pool, we spend weeks — if not months — testing and retesting each product multiple times in real-world settings. All this in an effort to settle on the absolute best products.

    This year, we tested dozens of sleep-related products — from bedding to alarm clocks — to find the best products you need to get the rest you need.

    Bedding

    Down comforters

    Shutterstock

    Best down comforter overall: Brooklinen Down Comforter (starting at $159; brooklinen.com)

    Have you ever wished you could sleep on the clouds? Well, the Brooklinen Down Comforter is the closest thing to that. From the moment we took it out of the packaging, we had a hunch that this would be a favorite. And we were right.

    The comforter comes in three different weight options: lightweight, all-season and ultra warm. We tested the all-season comforter, and despite it being the middle of winter with temperatures dropping indoors and out, we found it to perfectly balance snuggly warmth with breathability. Though on the heavier end of the spectrum (it boasts a 700 fill power and baffle box design), we never found the comforter to trap too much heat or cause nighttime sweating. The comforter, with its 100% cotton sateen shell, was one of the softest we tested — and the one we kept coming back to cuddle into most nights.

    Best down comforter for warmth: The Company Store Legends Hotel Alberta Down Comforter (starting at $299; thecompanystore.com)

    When it comes to warmth and coziness, the Legends Hotel Alberta Down Comforter from The Company Store is unrivaled.

    Full disclosure: This comforter is for truly frosty climates, or especially cold sleepers. Though available in three different weights — light, medium and extra, all of which sport a baffle box construction — we tested and recommend the extra warmth option (which has a 650 fill power). While our main tester, who tends to sleep hot, found this lofty comforter slightly too heavy to sleep with throughout the night, a cold-sleeping family member absolutely loved the warmth the Legends Hotel Alberta Down Comforter provided.

    Best down-alternative comforter: Buffy Cloud Comforter (starting at $109.65; buffy.co)

    The Buffy Cloud Comforter was like no other comforter we tested. This down-alternative comforter was by far the best alternative version we tested — and the only one we’d recommend, as the other down alternatives we tested lacked in both quality of construction and comfort.

    Although this was a new type of material for us — as we typically sleep with a down comforter in our nontesting days — we thought the fabric was very soft and lightweight but still heavy enough to keep us warm throughout the night. The comforter was also very quiet, emitting no crinkling sounds when shifting sleeping positions.

    • Read more from our testing of comforters here.

    Flannel sheets

    L.L.Bean

    Best overall flannel sheets: Garnet Hill Hemstitched Supima Flannel Bedding ($197 for a queen set; garnethill.com)

    Luxurious without feeling overly thick or too weighty, Garnet Hill offers a delectably comfortable flannel sheet at a mid-to-high end price point, starting at $197 for a queen set (which includes two pillowcases, a fitted sheet and a flat sheet). These flannels come in lots of varieties of color and size, and instill confidence you’re getting a quality product that’ll last for years to come.

    Best lighter-weight option: West Elm Organic Flannel Solid Sheet Set ($170 for a queen set; westelm.com)

    Very close to our overall favorite because it is both supremely cozy and the most lightweight of all the sets we tested is West Elm’s organic flannel sheet, which starts at $170 for a queen set. These sheets didn’t come out on top because they’re available in only two colors and cannot be ordered a la carte like Garnet Hill’s sheets.

    Best cold-weather sheets: L.L.Bean Ultrasoft Comfort Flannel Sheet Set ($119 for a queen set; llbean.com)

    If you’re sleeping in really cold weather and you want to feel positively bundled, L.L.Bean makes a weighty flannel sheet for you — at a competitive price point for the level of craftsmanship therein at $119 for a queen set.

    Best bargain: Pinzon Signature Cotton Heavyweight Velvet Flannel Sheet Set ($70.99 for a queen set; amazon.com)

    Also delivering an excellent and very warm night of sleep, Pinzon by Amazon turns out a substantial flannel sheet at just $70.99 for a queen set. That’s half the price of some of the other higher-end brands, but you won’t feel like you’re sacrificing quality.

    • Read more from our testing of flannel sheets here.

    Linen sheets

    iStock

    Best linen sheets overall: Parachute Linen Sheet Set (starting at $149; parachute.com)

    Making the bed with these sheets was effortless. We’ve struggled with tight-fitting cotton sheets before, wondering why bed-making must be truly laborious. The Parachute linens were roomy but not baggy. They fit the bed comfortably, like a lovingly worn-in linen button-down. On the summer night we first tested these, the sheets were soft but also firm. If this sounds uncomfortable, it was the converse: cool, light and luxurious. Our first mental note was that we felt like we were sleeping on a cloud.

    Runner-up linen sheets: Citizenry (starting at $230; the-citizenry.com)

    These are a sturdier, thicker option than some of the ones we tested, and thus feel like they’ll transition well into colder weather. Without an air conditioner unit blasting directly onto us in the heat of summer, these sheets almost felt heavy — so they wouldn’t be our first recommendation for hot sleepers. In a more temperature-controlled room, though, they felt so cozy we didn’t want to leave the bed.

    After even the first washing, these beauties softened significantly, rendering them even more snuggly.

    Softest linen sheets: Brooklinen (starting at $269; brooklinen.com)

    These sheets are the definition of soft. So comfortable. So enveloping. So melty. (They’re crafted from 100% French and Belgian linen, made in Portugal, and Oeko-Tex-certified for chemical safety.) We sort of dissolved into them in a very pleasing way. They felt like they had been washed and rewashed dozens of times, already achieving that texture, and from a sleeping experience alone, they were our favorite.

    Best affordable linen sheets: Amazon Simple&Opulence 100% Washed Linen Sheet Set (starting at $114; amazon.com)

    For less than $150, this is a very satisfying set of linens. While the sheets were slightly less luxurious-feeling and special than some of the other sets with special details or touches, these rank as high-quality, durable bedding more than worth their weight.

    • Read more from our testing of linen sheets here.

    Duvet covers

    Boll & Branch

    Best duvet cover overall: Casper Sateen Duvet Cover (starting at $99; casper.com)

    Hands down, the Casper Sateen Duvet Cover was the best duvet cover we tested. From the moment we took it out of the bag, we knew this one would be a winner. Between the zipper closure at the bottom to the hidden holes on the corners to more easily attach the cover to the duvet, the design of this duvet cover blew the others we tested out of the water — all for a middle-of-the-road price tag.

    Best duvet cover for warmth: L.L.Bean Ultrasoft Comfort Flannel Comforter Cover (starting at $64.95; llbean.com)

    For the colder months, or for those looking to outfit their cozy cabin, the L.L.Bean Ultrasoft Comfort Flannel Comforter Cover will give you the utmost softest feel while adding some warmth, as it was made from the thickest material we tested. And at less than $100 for a king-size cover, its quality and comfort surpass the price.

    Best luxury duvet cover: Boll & Branch Signature Eyelet Duvet Cover Set (starting at $358; bollandbranch.com)

    Want something a little more than plain Jane when it comes to design? If so, the Boll & Branch Signature Eyelet Duvet Cover is the perfect middle ground: It’s elegant but adds some design elements with borders. A full overlay also covers the bottom buttons, completing the design border. The quality is superb, with all stitching, ties and buttons fully secure. Note that this duvet cover isn’t cheap — in fact, it’s the most expensive of all we tested — but it’s one of the few luxury brands that also includes shams, making it easy to ensure that your bedding will match.

    Best affordable duvet cover: Mellanni Microfiber (starting at $27; amazon.com)

    If you love walking into a hotel room and getting comfy on those sleek-looking beds, you’ll love the Mellanni Microfiber Duvet Cover. With hidden button covers and matching shams and pillows, this comfortable duvet cover will lend an elegant vibe to your bedroom — at just around $30 in total for a five-piece set, an absolute steal in our book.

    • Read more from our testing of duvet covers here.

    Silk pillowcases

    Amazon

    Best silk pillowcase overall: Fishers Finery 25mm 100% Pure Mulberry Silk Pillowcase ($49.99; amazon.com)

    Fishers Finery — made from the finest silk available — felt luxuriously silky, fit our pillows perfectly, offered beautiful nights of sleep and were easy to wash and dry both by hand and in the machine.

    Best affordable silk pillowcase: MYK Silk Natural Silk Pillowcase with Cotton Underside ($23.99; amazon.com)

    The MYK Silk Natural Silk Pillowcase, featuring lovely silk on one side and white cotton on the other, offered a good fit, restful sleep and for about half the price of the Fishers Finery option — though it’s notably less luxurious-feeling.

    Best luxury silk pillowcase: Lunya Washable Silk Pillowcase ($74; lunya.co)

    We couldn’t get enough sleeps on the Lunya Washable Silk Pillowcase. Also a silk on one side, cotton on the other option, Lunya’s silk surface case was the most lavish to the touch, and design details made it feel significantly elevated.

    • Read more from our testing of silk pillowcases here.

    Alarm clocks

    Kai Burkhardt/CNN

    Best alarm clock overall: Jall Wooden Digital Alarm Clock ($25; amazon.com)

    The Jall Wooden Digital Alarm Clock looks great and has everything you need in an alarm clock. It’s simple to set, read, and use, and can wake you dependably with multiple alarms.

    Runner-up: DreamSky Compact Digital Alarm Clock ($18.99; amazon.com)

    An easy-to-use alarm clock without any bells and whistles to get in the way, the DreamSky is simple, durable, and highly readable, and will get you out of bed in the morning with a loud beep that isn’t too startling.

    Best sunrise alarm clock (and best with radio): Philips Wake-Up Light HF3520 ($99.99; amazon.com)

    Able to wake you gently with lights that gradually brighten to mimic the dawn, the Philips Wake-Up Light HF3520 is a great sunrise alarm clock and one of the best all-around alarm clocks we tested, with intuitive programming, a wide range of alarm tones and a radio.

    Best alarm clock for heavy sleepers: Sonic Bomb Dual Extra-Loud Alarm Clock With Bed Shaker ($32.07, originally $52.95; amazon.com)

    With the most intense, abrasive sound of any alarm we tested, a strobe light, and a vibrating puck that you place under your pillow, the Sonic Bomb can awaken even the heaviest sleepers

    • Read more from our testing of alarm clocks here.

    White noise machines

    Benjamin Levin/CNN

    Best sound machine overall: Sound+Sleep Mini ($65.63; amazon.com)

    The Sound+Sleep Mini contains 48 different sounds, like rain, brooks, fans, ocean sounds, white noise, and many more. The other devices we tested feature some of these soundscapes, but the Mini is one of the only one that has them all. .

    The upgrade pick: Hatch Restore ($129.99; amazon.com)

    While our overall pick is a classic sound machine, the Hatch Restore resides packs extra features like a large color-changing light on the front, a digital clock display and routines to help you wind down and fall asleep easier.

    • Read more from our testing of white noise machines here.

    Sleep mask

    Amazon

    Best sleep mask overall: Mavogel Cotton Sleep Eye Mask ($9.98; amazon.com)

    Let’s get right to our favorite thing about this mask: the adjustable nose wire. Similar to the nose wire in the masks that we have become all too familiar with in the last year, the Mavogel’s nose wire lets you get the perfect light-blocking, lock-in-place fit. Many masks had a slight crack of light around the nose bridge. This mask, though, formed the best seal around the edges, blocking out more light than any other mask we tested.

    • Read more from our testing of sleep masks here.

  • Uncategorized

    How To Wind Down for Better Sleep—Especially if You’re an Introvert

    • Comments Off on How To Wind Down for Better Sleep—Especially if You’re an Introvert
    • by

    Original Post | Erica Sloan・December 15, 2021

    Picture the pinnacle of social exhaustion: Perhaps, you’ve just spent four hours at a work holiday party, meeting the humans behind a bunch of Zoom squares IRL for the first time. Or, maybe you had a day of reconnecting with family members you haven’t seen in two, time-blurred pandemic years. It would seem that hitting the hay would be the most obvious solution—but once you get into bed, your body seems to say, Not so fast. For introverts, in particular, the draining nature of being social can leave you, paradoxically, chasing sleep.

    In general, that counterproductive scenario springs from the difference between feeling fatigued and feeling tired, says psychologist and behavioral sleep-medicine specialist Shelby Harris, PsyD, DBSM, author of The Women’s Guide to Overcoming Insomnia. While the former reflects a total drain of energy (which tends to happen for an introvert after a social event), the latter is more about physical sleepiness, which is that drowsy feeling that allows you to drift off to dreamland.

    “For introverts, socializing tends to overstimulate the brain and body, leading some to feel irritable, indecisive, or on edge.” —behavioral sleep-medicine specialist Shelby Harris, PsyD

    “For introverts, socializing tends to overstimulate the brain and body, leading some to feel irritable, indecisive, or on edge, or even to get physical symptoms, like a headache or muscle aches,” says Dr. Harris. “While all of that can be extremely exhausting, it doesn’t necessarily lead to feeling sleepy.” By contrast, a social event can actually flood the brain with uppers like dopamine, adrenaline, and cortisol, which, for an introvert, tend to be perceived negatively, says Mike Dow, PsyD, psychotherapist at Field Trip Health, a psychedelic-assisted therapy practice. In fact, these neurotransmitters can keep you reeling long after an event wraps up (cue: the introvert hangover).RELATED STORIESHow To Make Waking Up in the Dark Suck Less, According to…Not an Early Bird or Night Owl? Science Suggests There May Be…

    Trying to get to sleep in that state can require a whole lot more than simply getting into bed; after all, the process of falling asleep is nothing like an on-off switch, biologically, says Dr. Harris. For an introvert, especially, easing your mind into sleep mode is best done with a calming pre-bed ritual. Below, the experts share tips for socially exhausted introverts who want nothing more than to get a good night’s sleep.

    It’s especially hard for introverts to sleep after a highly social experience, but these 5 tips can help

    1. Create a container for your thoughts.

    “Introverts are internal processors,” says psychologist Laurie Helgoe, PhD, author of Introvert Power: Why Your Inner Life Is Your Hidden Strength. “They often take inputs from conversations and process them later, which can mean mulling over what someone said, replaying or continuing a conversation, coming up with a better comeback, and the like.”https://556d592cd02b0abe412f5bc25f63d090.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

    Journaling can help put a pause to that spiral by providing a space for you to essentially unload all of your thoughts, and, if you’d like, feel free to return to them later—ideally at a time when you’re not trying desperately to get catch precious zzz’s.

    2. Talk back to negative self-talk.

    In re-assessing a social event (as introverts are wont to do), you may find that certain percolating thoughts devolve into negative or anxious ones. For example, it’s easy to start over-evaluating and hyper-personalizing, says Dr. Dow. “Maybe you start thinking, ‘Was Cindy looking at me weird? I must have done something wrong.’ And as the night goes on, the thoughts can turn more catastrophic in nature, leading to something like, ‘If I don’t get a good night’s sleep, I’m going to botch this presentation tomorrow, and if that happens, I could get fired,’ and so on,” he says.https://556d592cd02b0abe412f5bc25f63d090.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

    In that case, he suggests employing one of the classic strategies of cognitive behavioral therapy, which is to reconsider thoughts and feelings not as facts but merely as information, which you can choose to disregard. “Access the best parts of yourself to talk back to those inner voices,” he says.

    3. Write in a gratitude journal.

    Taking time to remember all the things for which you’re grateful—whether they include highlights from the social activity of the day, or something else entirely—can also help you forgo the kind of thought-spiraling that tends to ward off sleep.https://556d592cd02b0abe412f5bc25f63d090.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

    “Because introverts are natural problem-solvers, they can get stuck in focusing on what’s not working,” says Dr. Helgoe. “But a gratitude list can help you balance that problem orientation by reminding you of what is working.” And that, in and of itself, can be incredibly soothing.

    4. Practice some non-screen-based relaxation.

    While it’s tempting to scroll through Instagram or scan emails in bed to occupy a restless mind, that level of mental stimulation, combined with the melatonin-suppressing blue light, is a recipe for wakefulness. Instead, do anything non-screen-related that feels calming and relaxing, whether that’s reading, knitting, listening to music, or even coloring or doing a simple crossword or jigsaw puzzle, says Dr. Harris. (You can also practice mindfulness meditation, but because this can be challenging to really sink into with an overactive mind, Dr. Harris says it’ll be most beneficial for someone who already has a daytime meditation practice.

    If you’re really at a loss for where to start, try connecting with each of the five senses, says Dr. Dow: “Soothe your sense of touch with a bath, your sense of smell with a lavender candle, your sense of sight with dimmed lighting, your sense of hearing with calming music or a meditation track, and your sense of taste with a nighttime tea.”

    5. And if you’re tossing and turning, get out of bed.

    Trying to make sleep happen often keeps it from, well, happening. So, instead of remaining in bed and trying to will yourself asleep, get up, walk into another room, and return to whatever wind-down exercise you were doing beforehand in dim lighting, says Dr. Harris: “Simply changing what you’re doing and where you’re doing it can often help stop an overactive mind in its tracks.”

    Oh hi! You look like someone who loves free workouts, discounts for cutting-edge wellness brands, and exclusive Well+Good content. Sign up for Well+, our online community of wellness insiders, and unlock your rewards instantly.

  • Sleep Health, Sleep Study

    For some women, a connection may exist between poor sleep and hormones

    • Comments Off on For some women, a connection may exist between poor sleep and hormones
    • by

    Original Post | Washington Post Health

    By Leigh WeingusSeptember 18, 2021 at 9:00 a.m. EDT

    I’ve struggled with sleep since I was a teenager, and have spent almost as long trying to fix it. I’ve absorbed countless books and articles on getting better sleep that instructed me to go blue-light free at least two hours before bedtime, take nightly baths to lower my body temperature, keep my phone far from my bedroom and avoid caffeine after 12 p.m.

    In between all my diligent sleep hygiene work, I couldn’t help but feel like there was a larger force at play. My sleep seemed to change throughout my menstrual cycle, for example, getting worse in the days before my period and significantly better afterward. When I was pregnant, I experienced the best sleep of my life, and when I stopped breastfeeding, I didn’t sleep for days.

    Hormones and Women Sleep

    I finally started to ask myself: When we talk about getting better sleep, why aren’t we talking more about hormones?

    According to the National Sleep Foundation, the lifetime risk of insomnia is 40 percent higher for women than it is for men. Blaming this discrepancy entirely on hormones oversimplifies it — women also tend to take on the bulk of household worrying and emotional labor, and they tend to experience higher levels of anxiety.

    But according to Mary Jane Minkin, an obstetrician-gynecologist and clinical professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at the Yale School of Medicine, anecdotal evidence and studies suggest that hormones likely play a role.

    If you look at the curve of hormonal secretion throughout the average menstrual cycle, Minkin says, you’ll see varying levels of estrogen and progesterone throughout the month, with a big drop of estrogen occurring right before menstruation.https://414a56c8c82860bb2b57ff47754d945d.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

    “Many people will tell me that a day or two before their period, their sleep is terrible,” Minkin says.

    When a woman enters perimenopause, she starts to experience more fluctuations and produces less estrogen and progesterone throughout the month, which may wreak havoc on her sleep. The true correlation between these hormone dips and fluctuations and insomnia needs to be studied more extensively, Minkin and other experts say, and understanding this connection is confused by how a lack of estrogen is associated with hot flashes, which can disrupt sleep.

    Studies of women on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and sleep strongly suggest a connection between female hormones and insomnia, Minkin and other experts say.

    HRT is often prescribed to women going through menopause (and the years after it) to help them deal with unpleasant side effects of that transition, which include sleep problems, Minkin says. Some types of HRT include only estrogen, while others have a combination of estrogen and progesterone. High levels of estrogen and progesterone occur naturally during pregnancy, which may explain why some pregnant women like me often experience blissful sleep, Minkin says.

    “During pregnancy, guess what? Your levels of estrogen and progesterone are very high,” Minkin says.

    Although postmenopausal women have very low levels of estrogen and progesterone, once the process of menopause is complete, they often begin to sleep better. “We think hormone fluctuations can be more bothersome to some women than their actual hormone levels,” Minkin says.

    She adds that if a postmenopausal woman does struggle with insomnia, low hormone levels could be the culprit, so it’s a good idea to talk with a medical professional about HRT options. A 2008 randomized, controlled study of some 2,000 postmenopausal women in the United Kingdom found “small but significant” improvements in sleep after a year of HRT vs. those taking a placebo.

    Hadine Joffe, a psychiatry professor who is executive director of the Mary Horrigan Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard, says hormonal fluctuations may be a cause of insomnia for some women. But for others, she says, sleep disruptions might be anxiety-related, or caused by noisy neighbors or a snoring bed partner.

    She says that while some women experience amazing sleep during pregnancy, many others report terrible insomnia during that time of life. Her advice? If you want to figure out whether any connection exists for you, track it.

    “Try a [sleep] app or even a conventional sleep diary,” Joffe says. “If you track your sleep for several months, you may start to notice a pattern emerge, like more waking in the middle of the night right before your period.”

    If you do notice a pattern, she says, that information may be helpful going forward.

    “If you know there are two or three days in every month when you don’t sleep well, make sure that’s a time when you practice the best possible sleep hygiene, avoid alcohol, and if you have a partner you share family responsibilities with, you can ask them to get up with the baby or toddler,” Joffe says.

    Sometimes targeted treatment for those days can help, too, she adds. For example, supplementing with a few milligrams of melatonin before bedtime — the hormone our brains naturally produce in response to darkness — can help signal to the brain that it’s time to sleep. Or if you have a prescription for a sleep aid, this could be the time to use it, she says.

    While it’s not always possible due to work or family responsibilities, Kin Yuen, a sleep medicine specialist at Stanford Medicine, suggests trying your best to honor your natural daily hormone fluctuations to help keep your sleep on track. To do this, you’ll have to try to figure out when your body naturally releases cortisol (the hormone we produce in the morning that helps us wake up) and melatonin (the hormone we produce at night to help us fall asleep).

    By figuring out when you have the most energy — are you an “early bird” who wakes up full of energy, or a “night owl” who still feels sluggish at 9 a.m.? — you can better pinpoint when your body naturally releases these hormones. If you adjust your schedule to honor these rhythms, you may experience fewer sleep disruptions even in the face of constantly fluctuating female hormones, Yuen says.

    Finally, while HRT is not prescribed for women who have not yet gone through menopause, both Minkin and Joffe say that if someone is sure that their insomnia is hormone-related — preferably by having kept a diary for a while and after having tried other techniques without success — it’s worth talking to their doctor about taking a birth control pill.

    “Hormonal birth control can smooth out the ups and downs that just aren’t good for some people’s brains,” Joffe says. “It has to be the right treatment for the right person, but it can help.”

    Of course, there are side effects to birth control. Some women report nausea, headaches and lower libido. Although rare, more serious side effects have been reported, too, such as blood clots.

    But for many women suffering from what seems to be hormonally related insomnia, the benefits may outweigh the risks.

    Minkin says that even for patients going through menopause, if they are otherwise healthy, she’ll often prescribe birth control pills. Birth control pills have higher levels of hormones than traditional HRT, and if a woman has used them in the past and hasn’t experienced negative side effects, this can be a good indication that they will work well for her.

    “The only drawback is that we have no way of knowing when a woman is done with menopause, because the pill will artificially give her a period,” Minkin says. “So in order to find out if she’s done with menopause, she has to stop the pill.”

    At this point, Minkin and other experts say more research needs to be done to truly understand how the ebbs and flows of female hormones impact sleep.

    Sleep diaries, trackers and apps can be powerful tools to help a woman understand whether a connection exists for her, and they can help her act accordingly, the experts say.

    The pandemic is ruining our sleep. Experts say ‘coronasomnia’ could imperil public health.

    It’s not just the pandemic. The moon may be messing with your sleep, too.

    Poor sleeping, no energy, low libido: Is it aging?

  • Sleep Health

    Body Clock Off-Schedule? Sleepless Nights?Prebiotics May Help

    • Comments Off on Body Clock Off-Schedule? Sleepless Nights?Prebiotics May Help
    • by

    Original Article Posted by Sleep Review Staff | Sep 16, 2021 | Jet Lag Disorder

    Whether it’s from jetting across time zones, pulling all-nighters at school or working the overnight shift, chronically disrupting our circadian rhythm—or internal biological clocks—can take a measurable toll on everything from sleep, mood and metabolism to risk of certain diseases, mounting research shows.

    But a new University of Colorado Boulder study funded by the U.S. Navy suggests simple dietary compounds known as prebiotics, which serve as food for beneficial gut bacteria, could play an important role in helping us bounce back faster.

    “This work suggests that by promoting and stabilizing the good bacteria in the gut and the metabolites they release, we may be able to make our bodies more resilient to circadian disruption,” senior author Monika Fleshner, a professor of integrative physiology, said in a statement.

    Woman Suffering from A Sleepless Night

    The animal study, published in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity, is the latest to suggest that prebiotics—not to be confused with probiotics found in fermented foods like yogurt and sauerkraut—can influence not only the gut, but also the brain and behavior.

    Naturally abundant in many fibrous foods—including leeks, artichokes and onions—and in breast milk, these indigestible carbohydrates pass through the small intestine and linger in the gut, serving as nourishment for the trillions of bacteria residing there.

    The authors’ previous studies showed that rats raised on prebiotic-infused chow slept better and were more resilient to some of the physical effects of acute stress.

    For the new study, part of a multi-university project funded by the Office of Naval Research, the researchers sought to learn if prebiotics could also promote resilience to body-clock disruptions from things like jet lag, irregular work schedules or lack of natural daytime light—a reality many military personnel live with.

    “They are traveling all over the world and frequently changing time zones. For submariners, who can be underwater for months, circadian disruption can be a real challenge,” said lead author Robert Thompson, a postdoctoral researcher in the Fleshner lab. “The goal of this project is to find ways to mitigate those effects.”

    How a healthy gut may prevent jet lag

    The researchers raised rats either on regular food or chow enriched with two prebiotics: galactooligosaccharides and polydextrose.

    They then manipulated the rats’ light-dark cycle weekly for eight weeks—the equivalent of traveling to a time zone 12 hours ahead every week for two months.

    Rats that ate prebiotics more quickly realigned their sleep-wake cycles and core body temperature (which can also be thrown off when internal clocks are off) and resisted the alterations in gut flora that often come with stress.

    “This is one of the first studies to connect consuming prebiotics to specific bacterial changes that not only affect sleep but also the body’s response to circadian rhythm disruption,” said Thompson.

    The study also takes a critical step forward in answering the question: How can simply ingesting a starch impact how we sleep and feel?

    The researchers found that those on the prebiotic diet hosted an abundance of several health-promoting microbes, including Ruminiclostridium 5 (shown in other studies to reduce fragmented sleep) and Parabacteroides distasonis.

    They also had a substantially different “metabolome,” the collection of metabolic byproducts churned out by bacteria in the gut.

    Put simply: The animals that ingested the prebiotics hosted more good bacteria, which in turn produced metabolites that protected them from something akin to jet lag.

    Are supplements worthwhile?

    Clinical trials are now underway at CU Boulder to determine if prebiotics could have similar effects on humans.

    The research could lead to customized prebiotic mixtures designed for individuals whose careers or lifestyles expose them to frequent circadian disruption.

    In the meantime, could simply loading up on legumes and other foods naturally rich in the compounds help keep your body clock running on time? It’s not impossible but unlikely, they say—noting that the rats were fed what, in human terms, would be excessive amounts of prebiotics.

    Why not just ingest the beneficial bacteria directly, via probiotic-rich foods like yogurt?

    That could also help, but prebiotics may have an advantage over probiotics in that they support the friendly bacteria one already has, rather than introducing a new species that may or may not take hold.

    What about prebiotic dietary supplements?

    “If you are happy and healthy and in balance, you do not need to go ingest a bunch of stuff with a prebiotic in it,” said Fleshner. “But if you know you are going to come into a challenge, you could take a look at some of the prebiotics that are available. Just realize that they are not customized yet, so it might work for you but it won’t work for your neighbor.”

  • Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Sleep Apnea Dentist, Sleep Health

    Sleep-disordered breathing tied to greater preeclampsia risk

    • Comments Off on Sleep-disordered breathing tied to greater preeclampsia risk
    • by

    Women with high-risk pregnancies who experience sleep-disordered breathing have an increased risk for preeclampsia, according to a study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

    The prospective observational cohort study involved women with high-risk singleton pregnancies, author Stella S. Daskalopoulou, MD, MSc, PhD, of the department of medicine’s division of internal medicine at McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, and colleagues reported in the study.

    Women with mid-gestation sleep disordered breathing have a 3.4 odds ratio for preeclampsia, and women with late-gestation sleep-disordered breathing have an 8.2 odds ratio for preeclampsia.
    Phan K, et al. Am J Obstet Gynecol. | Original Post

    High-risk factors included age of at least 35 years, BMI of at least 25 kg/m2, chronic hypertension, pre-existing diabetes or renal disease, conception via in vitro fertilization and personal or first-degree relative family history of preeclampsia.

    Of the 235 women recruited between 10 and 13 weeks of gestation at two tertiary obstetric clinics in Montreal, 181 women completed questionnaires about their sleep based on the Epworth Sleepiness Scale, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and restless legs syndrome during each trimester.

    Women identified with sleep disordered breathing (SDB), defined as three or more incidences of loud snoring or witnessed apneas each week, in the first or second trimester were diagnosed with mid-gestation SDB. Women identified with SDB in the third trimester were diagnosed with late-gestation SDB.

    The researchers also conducted arterial stiffness, wave reflection and hemodynamic assessments between 10 and 13 weeks and again six more times at approximately 4-week intervals through the rest of the pregnancy.

    Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV), which is considered the gold standard for predicting arterial stiffness and is predictive of preeclampsia, and carotid-radial PWV were calculated to determine aortic and peripheral arterial stiffness, respectively.

    According to the study, the 41 women (23%) who had SDB also had increased cfPWV across gestation independent of blood pressure and BMI (P = .042). Also, only women with SDB saw an association between excessive daytime sleepiness and increased cfPWV.

    After 20 weeks’ gestation, women who had BP of at least 140 mm Hg/90 mm Hg were diagnosed with preeclampsia.

    Women with mid-gestation SDB had an OR of 3.4 (95% CI, 0.9-12.9; P = .063) for preeclampsia, which increased to an OR of 5.7 (95% CI, 1.1-26; P = .028) for women who also experienced hypersomnolence. Women with late-gestation SDB had an OR of 8.2 (95% CI, 1.5-39.5; P = .009) for preeclampsia.

    Additionally, the researchers reported a positive association between excessive daytime sleepiness and central arterial stiffness in women with SDB but not in women who did not have SDB. Women who reported SDB and excessive daytime sleepiness appeared to have a greater risk for preeclampsia than women with SDB alone as well.

    However, women who had positive restless legs syndrome scores did not see increased odds for developing preeclampsia either in mid-gestation (OR = 1.23; 95% CI, 0.25-4.68) or late gestation (OR = 1.01; 95% CI, 0.21-3.75). The same held true for women who had positive Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index scores in mid-gestation (OR = 2.11; 95% CI, 0.58-8.66) or late gestation (OR = 2.83; 95% CI, 0.65-19.81).

    Overall, the researchers said, there was an association between SDB in the first or second trimester and greater central arterial stiffness starting at 10 to 13 weeks’ gestation for women with high-risk pregnancies.

    Further, the researchers said, their results provide supporting evidence for arterial stiffness as an important mediator and promising surrogate endpoint for vascular dysfunction in preeclampsia, as well as for the need to screen for SDB throughout pregnancy.

  • Sleep Apnea

    How Sleep Apnea Can Save Your Life

    • Comments Off on How Sleep Apnea Can Save Your Life
    • by

    Original Article | by Christian Goodman

    You’re probably aware of how life-threatening sleep apnea can be. It has been linked to anything from stroke and heart attack to some types of cancer. But according to a new study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, there is one scenario in which having sleep apnea can be tremendously beneficial.

    Sleep Apnea Study

    Sleep Apnea can actually save your life!

    These scientists picked two groups of mice and divided them by age into a group roughly corresponding to the same age as human teenagers and another group corresponding to humans age 65 and older. When comparing the two groups, they could clearly see that the intermittent lack of oxygen involved in sleep apnea sped up tumor growth in the young mice, although this did not occur in the older mice. So age seems to be a protective factor against aggressive tumor growth that is caused by intermittently low oxygen levels.

    They couldn’t elucidate why this happens, except to suggest that immune system cells inside the tumors within young and old bodies respond differently to low oxygen conditions.

    Immune system cells called macrophages are present in tumors; they are often responsible for most of the inflammation that occurs in these tumors. For a reason that remains poorly understood, these macrophages are not as aggressive in older bodies as they are in younger ones when responding to a low-oxygen environment.

    This might be why previous studies on the association between sleep apnea and cancer have been rather mixed. If age affects the relationship, then different studies will reach different conclusions.

    Another factor that might have confused researchers is that different types of cancer respond differently to the lack of oxygen. Researchers from the University of Barcelona specifically looked at lung cancer, but other cancers may not necessarily respond the same way.

    This new study might thus clear up some of this confusion with its finding that the bodies of cancer sufferers at different ages may respond differently to intermittent oxygen deprivation.

    Regardless of age or other factors, cancer is probably the least of your worries if you suffer from sleep apnea, as there are more urgent complications connected to this disease.