Poor Sleep

  • Sleep, Sleep Health

    Sleep Chaos Fuels Type 2 Diabetes Risk

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    Original Article | Sleep Review Magazine

    Middle-aged to older adults with inconsistent sleep duration had a heightened risk of developing diabetes compared to those with more consistent sleep patterns.

    Summary: A study conducted by Brigham and Women’s Hospital found that middle-aged to older adults with inconsistent sleep durations had a significantly higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared to those with more consistent sleep patterns. The research, analyzing data from over 84,000 participants, revealed that irregular sleep patterns increased diabetes risk by 34%. Researchers say the study underscores the importance of maintaining regular sleep patterns as a modifiable lifestyle factor to prevent type 2 diabetes.

    Woman with Diabetes

    Key Takeaways:

    • Increased Diabetes Risk with Irregular Sleep: The study found that individuals with the most irregular sleep patterns had a 34% higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared to those with consistent sleep durations.
    • Importance of Regular Sleep for Diabetes Prevention: Researchers highlighted the importance of regular sleep patterns as a modifiable lifestyle factor that can help reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. The findings suggest that promoting consistent sleep could be a key strategy in diabetes prevention efforts.
    • Need for Diverse and Long-term Studies: The study had limitations, including a predominantly older, white, and healthy participant group, and short-term sleep data collection. Future research aims to include younger and more diverse populations to better understand the biological mechanisms and confirm these findings across different demographics.

    Getting consistent sleep could help stave off type 2 diabetes, new research suggests. 

    A study led by investigators at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, analyzed sleep patterns over seven nights and then followed participants for more than seven years. 

    The researchers discovered that irregular sleep durations were associated with an increased risk of diabetes, with individuals with the greatest irregular patterns having a 34% higher diabetes risk than their counterparts. 

    Importance of Regular Sleep Patterns

    Researchers say the findings, published in Diabetes Care, suggest the importance of regular sleep for diabetes prevention.

    “Our study identified a modifiable lifestyle factor that can help lower the risk of developing type 2 diabetes,” says lead author Sina Kianersi, PhD, a research fellow in the Channing Division of Network Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in a release. “Our findings underscore the importance of consistent sleep patterns as a strategy to reduce type 2 diabetes.”

    Type 2 diabetes affects close to half a billion people worldwide and is one of the top 10 leading causes of death and disability. The number of people with type 2 diabetes is expected to more than double to 1.3 billion by 2050. Researchers say this situation highlights the need for innovative strategies for diabetes prevention.

    Study Details and Findings

    The new study analyzed accelerometry data from more than 84,000 participants in the UK Biobank Study to investigate any possible association between sleep and type 2 diabetes. 

    Participants were an average age of 62 years (57% female, 97% white) and were initially free of diabetes. They wore accelerometers—devices like watches that monitor movement—for seven nights. The participants were followed for approximately 7.5 years, tracking diabetes development mostly through medical records.

    The study set out to investigate two key questions: First, whether irregular sleep durations may promote diabetes development through circadian disruption and sleep disturbance and, second, whether this association varies across genetic predispositions to diabetes.

    Risk Factors and Analysis

    The investigators found that more irregular sleep duration was associated with higher diabetes risk after adjusting for a wide range of risk factors. This association was more pronounced in individuals with longer sleep duration and lower polygenic risk score for diabetes.

    The data revealed that compared to participants with regular sleep patterns, those with irregular sleep (where day-to-day sleep duration varied by more than 60 minutes on average) had a 34% higher risk of developing diabetes. The risk decreased, yet persisted, even after accounting for lifestyle, co-morbidities, family history of diabetes, and obesity indicators.

    There were some study limitations. Certain lifestyle information used in the research was collected up to five years before the accelerometer study began. This might have affected the accuracy of the results. Also, the assessment of sleep duration based on seven days may not capture long-term sleep patterns. Lastly, study participants were mainly healthy, older, and white, and may not represent outcomes for more diverse populations.

    Future Research Directions

    The researchers plan to study participants from younger age groups and with diverse racial backgrounds. They are also interested in exploring the biological reasons why sleep irregularity increases the risk of diabetes.

    “Our findings have the potential to improve diabetes prevention on multiple levels,” says Kianersi in a release. “Clinically, they might inform better patient care and treatment plans. Public health guidelines could promote regular sleep patterns. However, more research is needed to fully understand the mechanism and confirm the results in other populations.”

    Photo 91507451 © Piotr Adamowicz | Dreamstime.com

  • Sleep, Sleep Health

    Why sleep soothes distress: Neurobiology explained

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    Original Post | Caroline Pierce, Medical Express

    A study published in Nature Reviews Neuroscience by an international team including the Woolcock’s Dr. Rick Wassing examined research into sleep disorders over more than two decades to prove a good night’s sleep is the perfect remedy for emotional distress.

    Nothing we haven’t known forever, some would argue, but Dr. Wassing who has spent the past two years on the project says there’s much more to it than that.

    “What we have done with this study is explain why. We looked at studies in neurobiology, neurochemistry and clinical psychology to get a real understanding of the mechanisms underlying how sleep helps us to deal with our emotional memories.”

    What the team of researchers believe after aggregating more than 20 years’ of scientific knowledge is that the way certain neurochemicals (for example, serotonin and noradrenaline) are regulated during sleep is crucial for the processing of emotional memories and our long-term mental health.

    Chemistry and circuitry

    Serotonin is involved in many, if not almost all, aspects of learning emotional experiences. It helps us assess and understand the world around us. Noradrenaline is all about “fight or flight”—it allows us to assess and respond to danger. Both are turned off during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and that creates this “really beautiful opportunity for the brain to engage in processes that are otherwise not doable when we are awake,” explains Dr. Wassing.

    There are two main ways we process emotional memory during sleep, he says, and they involve the brain’s hippocampus and amygdala.

    Our brains store what we learn each day. This learning is governed by the hippocampus aggregating and cataloging this new information into the “novelty” memory store as we process it. At the same time, if that new experience is emotional, the amygdala is very active and coupled with the autonomic nervous system—think racing heart, knots in your stomach, skin crawling.

    During REM sleep, our brains reactivate these new memories. It is as if the brain replays a summary of what had happened when we experienced the memory. But during REM sleep, when the noradrenergic and serotonergic systems are turned off, these memories can be moved into the “familiar” storage without experiencing the physical “fight or flight” response. That can’t happen while we’re awake or—as is the case for people with sleep disorders—when we don’t get consistent blocks of REM sleep.

    Shining a light on the brain

    Much of what we now know about the way information is processed by the brain comes from the relatively new field of optogenetics which is used to activate or inhibit very specific cell types in a neuronal network. This has allowed researchers to see what cell types and brain regions are involved in encoding emotional memories.

    According to Dr. Wassing, it has meant real breakthroughs in terms of our understanding of brain circuitry and neurobiology.

    It’s all well and good, he says, to look at neurons and receptors and circuits, but the researchers also assessed clinical psychology studies and found that their findings, especially relating to disconnecting amygdala reactivity and shutting down the autonomic nervous system, were corroborated.

    “All three levels of neuroscience align to produce the same conclusion, that the way the brain functions during REM sleep is important for processing emotional memories.”

    Making ‘good sleepers’

    So, where to now? “We know that with insomnia or other sleep disorders where people wake up from sleep a lot, we see an increased risk of developing mental health problems. Our hypothesis would be that that these awakenings from sleep lead to the fact that the noradrenergic system is not shut down for long periods of time (in fact, they might actually show enhanced activity) and that’s why these people might not be able to regulate emotional memories.”

    “The solution is to try to get a good night’s sleep, yes, but the problem is how then do we do that? We know that two out of three people with insomnia benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBTI) but that is mostly based on subjective ratings. There’s less evidence on objective sleep measures. The insomnia patient after CBTI is not necessarily a good sleeping individual, they still have some sleep disturbances but CBTI is enabling them to better deal with them.”

    “We need to critically think more about the mechanisms that regulate sleep. It’s very hard to target one system because sleep is very dynamic—the noradrenergic system shuts down during REM sleep, but it actually needs to be active during non-REM sleep so you can’t just turn it off for the entire sleep cycle.”

    “We need really creative ideas about how to design an intervention or a drug that can target these dynamics that happen during sleep and enable those systems to renormalize. We need to be targeting objective sleep and making people with insomnia good sleepers again.”

  • Uncategorized

    Energy Drinks Linked to Poor Sleep Quality, Insomnia Among College Students

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    Original Article | Chelsie Derman

    Male college students were found to consume more energy drinks than female college students, and they had a greater risk for a short sleep duration due to energy drink consumption.

    College students may consume energy drinks to stay alert, but the beverage may make people sleepier—a new study found energy drinks are linked to poor sleep quality and insomnia among college students.1,2

    “Even small amounts of [energy drinks] had an impact on sleep where daily [energy drinks] consumption increased the risk of sleep problems across all parameters for both sexes,” wrote the investigators.

    A study, led by Siri Kaldenbach, from the Innlandet Hospital Trust, in Lillehammer, Norway and the department of clinical medicine at the University of Oslo in Oslo, Norway, sought to investigate the frequency of energy drink consumption and the association between energy drink consumption and sleep characteristics in Norwegian college and university students. They also evaluated whether males or females consumed more energy drinks and how energy drinks affected their quality of sleep.

    The investigators conducted a cross-sectional study and obtained data from the Students’ Health and Wellbeing Study 2022 (SHOT2022), a national survey. The survey, comprised of mental health and lifestyle questions, was distributed electronically between February 8 – April 19, 2022, to full-time Norwegian students. The study included 53,266 students enrolled in higher education in Norway, aged 18 – 35 years (mean age: 24 years) with 66.4% women.

    The survey evaluated energy drink consumption, with the option of daily, 4-6 times a week, 2-3 times a week, 1 time per week, 1-3 times per month, and seldom/never. The survey also assessed sleep-related questions, and students reported usual bedtime and bed-rise time. The investigators evaluated sleep onset latency and wake after sleep onset.

    Of the participants, 4.7% of men and 3.3% of women reported consuming energy drinks daily. Moreover, men were associated with consuming more energy drinks than women. Women (49.6%) were more likely than men (39.6%) to never or seldom consumed energy drinks.

    Additionally, 5.5% of women reported consuming energy drinks 4 -6 times a week and 3.3% consumed them daily. In contrast, 7.8% of men consumed energy drinks 4-6 times a week with 4.7% consuming the drinks daily.

    Kaldenbach and colleagues observed a larger frequency of energy drink consumption was linked to sleep pattern issues such as sleep onset latency and wake-after-sleep onset. The strongest association was observed between daily energy drink consumption and short sleep duration, with men (risk ratio [RR], 2.07; 95% CI 1.77 – 2.42) exhibiting a greater risk of short sleep duration than women (RR, 1.87; 95% CI 1.64 – 2.14).

    Investigators called attention to an association between energy drink consumption and insomnia. Among women, insomnia was present among 51% reporting energy drink consumption compared to 33% among those who never or seldom consumed energy drinks. Among men, insomnia was present among 37% reporting energy drink consumption compared to 22% among those who never or seldom consumed energy drinks.

    “Most of the associations between [energy drinks] and sleep were similar for male and female students but with a few notable exceptions,” investigators wrote. “For bedtime and risetime, we observed a significantly stronger effect for men compared with women.”

    Because of the observational design, the investigators stated they could not infer causality. Moreover, the team said did not know what time the energy drink was consumed or the specific amount of the beverage—they only had access to the frequency of energy drink consumption—so that could have affected results. Another limitation, as pointed out by the team, was the “modest response rate” of 35.1% and limited information about the participants who did not complete the survey other than their age and sex.

    “The results from the current study show that there is a robust association between the frequency of [energy drinks] consumption and the different sleep parameters,” investigators wrote. “Identifying modifiable risk factors for sleep problems among college and university students is vital and our results suggest that the frequency of [energy drinks] consumption could be a possible target for interventions.”

    References

    1. Kaldenbach S, Hysing M, Strand TA, et al. Energy drink consumption and sleep parameters in college and university students: a national cross-sectional study. BMJ Open 2024;14:e072951. doi:10.1136/ bmjopen-2023-072951
    2. Energy Drinks Linked to Poor Sleep Quality And Insomnia Among College Students. EurekAlert! 2024. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1031709?. Accessed January 22, 2024.
  • Sleep Apnea, Sleep Health

    Sleep apnea associated with 50% higher risk of memory problems.

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    Original Article | Medical News Today

    • A new study analyzes the impact of sleep apnea symptoms on memory and thinking.
    • Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder that sometimes causes people to stop breathing.
    • The study subjects participated in a survey where they reported any symptoms of sleep apnea and difficulty with remembering things.
    • The study shows an association between sleep apnea symptoms and a higher rate of memory and thinking problems.

    Getting a good night’s sleep is important for many reasons, from having the energy to go about one’s daily tasks to optimal brain performance.

    Sleep apnea can interfere with this, and according to the National Council on Aging, it may impact around 39 million adults in the United States.

    While experts know sleep apnea can impact quality of life and even contribute to mood disordersTrusted Source, there is still more to learn.

    A researcher based in Boston recently conducted a cross-sectional study to determine whether a correlation between sleep apnea and thinking and memory problems exists.

    The findings showed that having sleep apnea symptoms correlated with a 50% increase in memory and thinking problems.

    The researcher will present the findings at the American Academy of Neurology’s Annual Meeting in April 2024. The research hasn’t yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

    Sleep apnea linked to thinking and memory issues

    Most people with sleep apnea have obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), but some experts have said that OSA is underdiagnosed.

    For instance, researchersTrusted Source note, “it is believed that more than 85% of patients with clinically significant OSA have never been diagnosed.”

    With the notion that sleep apnea could be underdiagnosed in mind, researcher Dr. Dominique Low wanted to learn more about a possible connection between sleep apnea and cognition. Dr. Low works at Boston Medical Center in Massachusetts and is a member of the American Academy of Neurology.

    Dr. Low pulled data from a government-funded survey called the 2017–18 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) to establish a potential link between sleep apnea and thinking and memory.

    The study participants included 4,257 adults ages 20 and older. Of the questionnaires they completed for the NHANES, they answered questions about sleep quality, memory, and thinking.

    Dr. Low used the data from these questionnaires to determine how people who reported sleep apnea symptoms compared to people without these symptoms.

    The participants also answered questions on their memory quality, whether they had any periods of confusion, and if the participants thought they had trouble making decisions.

    A total of 1,079 participants reported sleep apnea symptoms, including snoring and gasping for breath while asleep.

    Of people who indicated they had sleep apnea symptoms, 33% also reported symptoms of memory and thinking problems. This is significantly higher than the number of people without sleep apnea symptoms who reported such problems, which was only 20% of that group.

    After adjusting for other factors like age, race, and gender, Dr. Low observed that people with sleep apnea symptoms had a 50% higher chance of having thinking and memory issues compared to participants who didn’t report sleep apnea symptoms.

    “Our study found participants who had sleep apnea symptoms had greater odds of having memory or thinking problems,” Dr. Low said in a news release. “These findings highlight the importance of early screening for sleep apnea.”

    Despite the implications of these findings, it’s important to note that a correlation does not indicate causation. Scientists must conduct further research that does not rely solely on self-reported symptoms to establish the effects of sleep apnea symptoms on memory and thinking.

    Reducing the risk of cognitive decline

    Dr. Joey R. Gee, a neurologist at Providence Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, California, spoke with Medical News Today about how sleep apnea may impact memory. Dr. Gee was not involved with the study.

    “Apnea may have an impact due to poor oxygenation through the night or also impairing appropriate sleep cycles with frequent arousals,” Dr. Gee noted. “Impaired executive functions, such as working memory and attention through the day, are greatly impacted.”

    Dr. Gee said that while untreated sleep apnea may impact cognitive function, the risk could be reduced with appropriate treatment.

    “Just as untreated sleep apnea increases the risk of impairment in executive function and attention, treatment can substantially reduce the risk of progressing cognitive decline,” Dr. Gee said.

    Dr. Thomas Kilkenny, the director of the Institute of Sleep Medicine at Staten Island University Hospital in New York, not involved in the study, emphasized the importance of treating sleep apnea as soon as it is detected.

    “If the patient can be treated early in OSA, these brain damages will not occur,” Dr. Kilkenny told MNT. “There will be a decrease in the amount of cognitive decline in OSA patients.”

    Dr. David Merrill, a geriatric psychiatrist and director of the Pacific Neuroscience Institute’s Pacific Brain Health Center at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California, not involved with the study, shared his thoughts on the findings with MNT:

    “With high quality, restorative sleep, the brain’s function is enhanced and protected as we age,” explained Dr. Merrill. “If sleep is chronically disrupted, this can lead to a number of health issues, including headaches, fatigue, and memory loss that worsens over time. The disrupted, poor-quality sleep seen in sleep disorders leads to both acute and chronically worsening changes in the brain. Normally, a good night’s sleep literally allows for repair and restoration of brain function to the levels seen at the beginning of the prior day.”

    Dr. Merrill also spoke about the importance of treating sleep apnea and noted that it is a risk factor for developing dementia. While that may sound scary, he said that using a CPAP machine can help reduce risk.

    “Research studiesTrusted Source have shown that even 4 hours per night using a CPAP device results in significantly less worsening of cognitive decline over time,” said Dr. Merrill.

    What to know about sleep apnea

    Sleep apnea, including obstructive sleep apnea and central sleep apnea, can affect people of all ages but, as the National Council on Aging notes (link above), it is most prevalent in middle-aged and older adults.

    Some symptomsTrusted Source of sleep apnea a person may detect on their own include:

    • sleepiness during the day
    • headaches
    • difficulty focusing

    A person’s partner may notice additional symptoms such as snoring or gasping for breath while asleep.

    “Signs of obstructive sleep apnea are usually readily apparent,” Dr. Kilkenny said.

    “Loud snoring, restlessness, and daytime fatigue are the hallmarks of OSA,” he noted. “If someone snores even to a minor degree, they should bring this to the attention of their physician so they can get tested for OSA before damage occurs.”

    People with sleep apnea can treat it using a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine.

    They may also try to improve symptoms by making lifestyle changes such as losing weight. They may also have surgery or use an oral appliance.

  • Uncategorized

    A Neuroscientist Explains Exactly How Alcohol Ruins Your Sleep

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    KARA JILLIAN BROWN January 20, 2021, 4:39 PM | Original Article

    A glass of wine serves to help you wind down after a long day at work, but it’s not doing you any favors in the bedroom. When you stop drinking alcohol, not only does your mood improve and your skin clear up, but your sleep quality may also get better. Although many people rely on a glass of wine to relax and fall asleep, even just one drink greatly diminishes the quality of that sleep, says neuroscientist Kristen Willeumier, PhD.

    Even a few ounces of alcohol changes the basic structure of normal sleep. Having a drink to help you fall asleep is an ineffective sleep strategy that can lead to a multitude of sleep disturbances, including insomnia, excessive daytime sleepiness, and alterations in sleep architecture, says Dr. Willeumier. “The most prevalent changes in sleep architecture occur early in the evening when blood alcohol levels are high,” she says. “While alcohol is initially sedating, once it is metabolized it can lead to disrupted, poor quality of sleep later in the night.”

    Dr. Willeumier, who wrote Biohack Your Brain: How to Boost Cognitive Health, Performance & Power, explains that while the sedative properties of alcohol increase deep sleep during the non-rapid eye movement phase (NREM), it also reduces the time spent in the rapid-eye-movement (REM) phase. “REM sleep is critical to healthy brain function as it is essential in emotional regulation and the consolidation and retention of memories,” says Dr. Willeumier.

    Getting a good night’s sleep can do much more than prevent you from feeling tired the next day.

    “Sleep is essential for the preservation of brain energy, facilitation of learning and memory, support of cognitive capacity, emotional regulation, and clearance of toxic waste,” says Dr. Willeumier. “Alcohol consumption disrupts restorative sleep and can result in impaired immune, cardiovascular, and cognitive health. Furthermore, insomnia increases your risk for mood disorders and substance abuse.”

    AdChoices

    If you really want to maintain healthy sleep, Dr. Willeumier says to limit your alcohol intake to one drink per week. “Alcohol should not be consumed on a regular basis if your intention is to live a brain-healthy lifestyle,” she says. But if that’s not something that interests you, you can undo the impact of alcohol on your sleep when you take a break.

    “The good news is that your sleep architecture can be fully restored after a period of abstinence,” she says. “Given that sleep architecture and efficiency decline with age, it is important to keep in mind that alcohol will further exacerbate these issues.”

    When you are drinking, Dr. Willeumier says to refrain from consuming alcohol prior to bed.

    “Given that alcohol is a central nervous system depressant and has a half-life of anywhere from six hours or longer depending on type of alcohol and volume consumed, you want to drink it at least six hours prior to bed if you do not want it to interfere with your sleep cycles,” she says.

  • Uncategorized

    Workaholism Linked to Lower Sleep Quality

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    Posted by Sree Roy | Jan 13, 2021 | Sleep Review Magazine

    Workaholic Burning the Candle at Both Ends

    Workaholism or work addiction risk can lead to negative mental and physical health outcomes such as depression, anxiety, from lower sleep quality. Perception of work (job demands and job control) may become a major cause of employees’ work addiction.

    An international group of researchers including a Higher School of Economics (HSE) University scientist explored the link between work addiction risk and health-related outcomes using the framework of Job Demand Control Model. The results are published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

    Workaholics were defined as people who usually work 7 and more hours more than others per week. There are potential reasons for that: financial problems, poor marriage, or pressure by their organization or supervisor are a few. What can differentiate a workaholic behavior from similar behavior like work engagement? Workaholism is also known as a behavioral disorder, which means the excessive involvement of the individual in work when an employer doesn’t require or expect it.

    The scientists aimed to demonstrate the extent to which the work addiction risk is associated with the perception of work (job demands and job control), and mental health in four job categories suggested by Karasek’s model or Job Demand-Control-Support model (JDCS). The JDCS model assumes four various work environments (four quadrants) in which workers may experience a different level of job demands and job control: passive, low-strain, active, and tense/job-strain. Job control is the extent to which an employee feels control over doing work.

    [RELATED: A Conversation with Arianna Huffington, Author of The Sleep Revolution]

    Low Strain Jobs

    “Passive” jobs (low job control, low job demands) might be satisfying to a worker as long as the workers reach the set goal. “Low strain” jobs have high job control and low job demands. Individuals in this category are not particularly at risk of mental health problems, and it corresponds typically to creative jobs such as architects. “Active” workers have high job demands and high job control. They are highly skilled professionals with responsibilities, such as heads or directors of companies. Those highly skilled workers have very demanding tasks but they have high levels of decision latitude to solve problems. Finally, workers at risk of stress-related disorders are those within the “job strain” group (high demand and low control). For example, healthcare workers from emergency departments are typically in job strain because they cannot control the huge workload.

    The study was conducted in France because it is one of the industrial countries with growing numbers of occupations. The authors of the research collected data from 187 out of 1580 (11.8%) French workers who agreed to participate in a cross-sectional study using the WittyFit software online platform. The self-administered questionnaires were the Job Content Questionnaire by Karasek, the Work Addiction Risk Test, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale, and socio-demographics. The authors of this study divided all the participants based on their occupational groups and investigated the link between work addiction risk and mental and physical health outcomes.

    Vulnerable Occupations for Workaholism

    “One of the novelties of this research was to introduce vulnerable occupational groups to organizations or job holders. For example, if we find that work addiction risk can be found more in some occupations and may result in negative outcomes for the health situation then we can give this information to decision makers in this organization or, for example, to the ministry of health. And they could intervene to prevent this problem,” says Morteza Charkhabi, associate professor at the Institute of Education at the HSE University, in a release.

    The results show that high job demands at work are strongly associated with work addiction risk but the job control level does not play the same role. The prevalence of work addiction risk is higher for active and high-strain workers than for passive and low-strain workers. These two groups of workers appeared to be more vulnerable and therefore can suffer more from the negative outcomes of work addiction risk, in terms of depression, sleep disorder, stress, and other health issues.

    “We found that job demands could be the most important factor that can develop work addiction risk. So this factor should be controlled or should be investigated by the organization’s manager, for example, HR staff, psychologists. Also another conclusion could be the job climate like job demands of each job category can influence the rate of work addiction risk. Thus in this study we actually focused on external factors like job demands not internal factors like the personal characteristics,” says Charkhabi.

    The researchers found that people with higher work addiction risk compared to people with low work addiction risk have twice the risk of developing depression. Sleep quality was lower to workers with high risk of work addiction compared to workers with low risk of work addiction. Also women had almost twice the work addiction risk than men.