Sleep Apnea

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    Sleep-Disordered Breathing Tied to Accelerated Aging

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    Original Article Medscape Medical News | Megan Brooks, June 13, 2019

    SAN ANTONIO — Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), and the disruption in nightly sleep it causes, speeds up the aging process, according to preliminary research.

    SDB is a common disorder that results in oxidative stress and inflammation and is associated with several age-related health disorders. However, it hasn’t been well studied with respect to epigenetic aging.

    “To our knowledge, this study is the first empirical study that has linked sleep-disordered breathing with epigenetic age acceleration,” Xiaoyu Li, ScD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, told Medscape Medical News.

    The study was presented here at SLEEP 2019: 33rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.

    Elderly Looking Woman

    Women are particularly vulnerable. 

    The study included 622 adults (mean age 69 years, 53% women) from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). All participants underwent polysomnography; DNA methylation, a marker for epigenetic age acceleration, was measured in blood samples.

    Age acceleration measures were calculated as residuals from the regression of each epigenetic age on chronologic age. The association of each SDB trait with age acceleration was estimated using linear regression, controlling for sociodemographics, health behaviors, body mass index, and study site.

    Increasing SDB severity and sleep disruption were associated with epigenetic age acceleration, independent of measured confounders, Li reported.

     

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  • Sleep Apnea

    Impulsive Behavior in Children Linked to Sleep and Screen Time, Study Says

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    Original Post | Sleep Review Magazine, Published on August 22, 2019

    Children and youth who do not sleep enough and use screens more than recommended are more likely to act impulsively, recent research published in Pediatrics suggests.

    Impulsive Sleep Deprived Child Jumping on Bed

    The findings come from the Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group (HALO) at the CHEO Research Institute in Ottawa.

    “Impulsive behavior is associated with numerous mental health and addiction problems, including eating disorders, behavioral addictions and substance abuse,” Michelle Guerrero, PhD, lead author and postdoctoral fellow at the CHEO Research Institute and the University of Ottawa, says in a release.

    “This study shows the importance of especially paying attention to sleep and recreational screen time, and reinforces the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Youth. When kids follow these recommendations, they are more likely to make better decisions and act less rashly than those who do not meet the guidelines.”

    The Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Youth recommends 9-11 hours of sleep per night and no more than 2 hours of recreational screen time per day.

    The paper analyzed data for 4,524 children from the first set of data of a large longitudinal population study called the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, which will follow participants for 10 years. In addition to sleep and screen time, the ABCD study also captures data related to physical activity. Physical activity is a third pillar of the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines, which recommend at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity daily.

    The ABCD study allowed Guerrero and her team to look at the three pillars of the movement guidelines against eight measures of impulsivity, such as one’s tendency to seek out thrilling experiences, to set desired goals, to respond sensitively to rewarding or unpleasant stimuli, and to act rashly in negative and positive moods. The study results suggest that meeting all three pillars of the movement guidelines was associated with more favorable outcomes on five of the eight dimensions.

    Guerrero and her team say that studies using feedback devices to measure the movement behaviors in future research will help further our understanding of how physical activity, screen time, and sleep relate to children’s impulsivity.