The popular novel (and now movie) “the Fault in our Stars” makes use of the phrase “Sleep fights cancer” frequently as the young heroine and her boyfriend each fight for their lives against their own form of the disease.  Now researchers out of the University of Chicago have released the results of a laboratory animal study that not only confirms what the book says, but also goes a long way towards explaining why. The scientists subjected half of a group of lab mice afflicted with cancer to sleep deprivation and let the other half sleep naturally and uninterrupted, and found that those who had the interrupted sleep had their tumors grow twice as large. Continue reading →

It has happened to each and every one of us. After a night spent staring at the clock next to our bed or tossing and turning and fluffing the pillow, the alarm goes off and it’s time to wake up. One of your big concerns as you faced your insomnia was about how you’d feel throughout the next day, and now you’re facing that reality. You’re irritated, exhausted and bleary-eyed before you even step foot out of the bed, and you know that once your day starts things aren’t going to get any better. This is the legacy of a bad night’s sleep. Continue reading →

Copenhagen will be the location of a six-day Alzheimer’s Association International Conference. One of the top subjects that the professionals in attendance will address is the role of sleep disturbance on the risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease. The conference’s goal is to evaluate the various studies and outcomes that have been conducted into keeping the brain healthy and either preventing or staving off the cognitive disorder. Experts say that with the population aging rapidly, Alzheimer’s is of increasing concern. The disease currently afflicts five million Americans, but that number is expected to rise to 16 million by the middle of the century. With that in mind, the United States and several other of the world’s developed countries have pledged to provide improved Alzheimer’s treatment by the year 2025.  Continue reading →

A series of recent studies has given sleep scientists a new source of optimism about the future of sleep, and that source is children. One of the most difficult factors to overcome in our national (and international) struggle with sleep is the fact that people simply do not give the research enough credence. They may read it with interest and even be willing to try out getting a couple of extra hours of sleep to see whether it makes them feel better or work more efficiently, but when push comes to shove, sleep is still one of the very first things that people are willing to sacrifice in the face of social opportunities, work deadlines, and even a video game or really compelling novel. Continue reading →

A new study conducted by Dr. Amit Chopra, M.D. of the Albany Medical Center in New York has revealed a possible link between suffering from sleep apnea and hearing loss. The research, which was presented at a recent conference of the American Thoracic Society, determined that out of nearly 14,000 participants from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos, at least ten percent exhibited sleep apnea, and of those nearly one third had an increased risk of high frequency hearing loss and a 90 percent increased risk of low frequency hearing loss. There was a 38 percent increased risk of combined hearing loss in people with sleep apnea. The study did control for other potential causes of hearing loss, as well as for age and gender. Continue reading →